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BEHEADING

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 656 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BEHEADING , a mode of executing See also:

capital See also:punishment (q.v.). It was in use among the Greeks and See also:Romans, and the former, as See also:Xenophon says at the end of the second See also:book of the See also:Anabasis, regarded it as a most See also:honourable See also:form of See also:death. So did the Romans, by whom it was known as decolla.tio or capitis ampnlatio. The See also:head was laid on a See also:block placed in a See also:pit dug for the purpose, —in the See also:case of a military offender, outside the intrenchments, in See also:civil cases outside the See also:city walls, near the Aorta decumana. Before See also:execution the criminal was tied to a stake and whipped with rods. In earlier years an See also:axe was used; afterwards a See also:sword, which was considered a more honourable See also:instrument of death, and was used in the case of citizens (Dig. 48, 19, 28). It was with a sword that See also:Cicero's head was struck off by a See also:common soldier. The beheading of See also:John the Baptist proves that the See also:tetrarch See also:Herod had adopted from his suzerain the See also:Roman mode of execution. Suetonius (Calig. c. 32) states that Caligula kept a soldier, an artist in beheading, who in his presence decapitated prisoners fetched indiscriminately for that purpose from the gaols. Beheading is said to have been introduced into See also:England from See also:Normandy by See also:William the Conqueror.

The first See also:

person to suffer was See also:Waltheof, See also:earl of See also:Northumberland, in 1076. An See also:ancient MS. See also:relating to the earls of See also:Chester states that the serjeants or bailiffs of the earls had See also:power to behead any malefactor or thief, and gives an See also:account of the presenting of several beads of felons at the See also:castle of Chester by the earl's See also:serjeant. It appears that the See also:custom also attached to the See also:barony of Malpas. In a See also:roll of 3 See also:Edward II., beheading is called the " custom of See also:Cheshire " (Lysons' Cheshire, p. 299, from Harl. MS. 2009 fol. 34b). The See also:liberty of Hardwick, in See also:Yorkshire, was granted the See also:privilege of beheading thieves. (See See also:GUILLOTINE.) But with the exceptions above stated beheading was usually reserved as the ,mode of executing offenders of high See also:rank. From the 15th See also:century onward the victims of the axe include some of the highest personages in the See also:kingdom: See also:Archbishop See also:Scrope (1405); See also:duke of See also:Buckingham (1483); See also:Catherine See also:Howard (1542); earl of See also:Surrey (1547); duke of See also:Somerset (1552); duke of Northumberland (1553) ; See also:Lady Jane See also:Grey (1554) ; See also:Lord See also:Guildford See also:Dudley (1554); See also:Mary See also:queen of Scots (1587); earl of See also:Essex (16o1); See also:Sir See also:Walter See also:Raleigh (1618); earl of See also:Strafford (1641); See also:Charles I. (1649); Lord William See also:Russell (1683); duke of See also:Monmouth (168s); earl of See also:Derwentwater (1716); earl of See also:Kenmure (1716); earl of See also:Kilmarnock and Lord See also:Balmerino (1746); and the See also:list closes with See also:Simon, Lord See also:Lovat, who (9th of See also:April 1747) was the last person beheaded in England.

The execution of See also:

Anne See also:Boleyn was carried out not with the axe, but with a sword, and by a See also:French headsman specially brought over from See also:Calais. In 1644 Archbishop See also:Laud was condemned to be hanged, and the only favour granted him, and that reluctantly, was that his See also:sentence should be changed to beheading. In the case of the 4th Earl See also:Ferrers (1760) his See also:petition to be beheaded was refused and he was hanged. Executions by beheading usually took See also:place on See also:Tower See also:Hill, See also:London, where the See also:scaffold stood permanently during the 15th and 16th centuries. In the case of certain See also:state prisoners, e.g. Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Grey, the sentence was carried out within the Tower on the See also:green by St See also:Peter's See also:chapel. Beheading was only a See also:part of the common-See also:law method of punishing male traitors, which was ferocious in the extreme. According to Walcot's case (1696), , Eng. See also:Rep. 89, the proper sentence was "quod . . . ibidem super bigarn (herdillum) ponatur et abinde usque ad furcas de [See also:Tyburn] trahatur, et ibidem per collum suspendatur et vivus ad terram prosternatur et quod secreta membra ejus amputentur, et interiora sua See also:intra ventrem suum capiantur et in ignem ponantur et ibidem ipso vivente comburantur, et quod caput ejus amputetur, quodque corpus ejus in quatuor partes dividatur et illo ponantur ubi See also:dominus rex eas assignare voluit." There is a tradition that See also:Harrison the See also:regicide after being disembowelled See also:rose and boxed the ears of the executioner. In See also:Townley's case (18 See also:Howell, State Trials, 350, 351) there is a ghastly account of the mode of executing the sentence; and in that case the executioner cut the traitor's See also:throat.

In the case of the See also:

Cato See also:Street See also:conspiracy(182o, 33 Howell, State Trials, 1566), after the traitors had been hanged as directed by the See also:act of 1814, their heads were cut off by a See also:man in a See also:mask whose dexterity led to the belief that he was a surgeon. See also:Female traitors were until 1790 liable to be See also:drawn to execution and burnt alive. In that See also:year See also:hanging was substituted for burning. In 1814 so much of the sentence as related to disembowelling and burning the bowels was abolished and the See also:king was empowered by royal See also:warrant to substitute decapitation for hanging, which was made by that act the See also:ordinary mode of executing traitors. But it was not till 187o that the portions of the sentence as to See also:drawing and quartering were abolished (See also:Forfeiture Act 1870). The more barbarous features of the execution were remitted in the case of traitors of high rank, and the offender was simply decapitated. The block usually employed is believed to have been a See also:low one such as would be used for beheading a See also:corpse. C. H. See also:Firth and S. R. See also:Gardiner incline to the view that such a block was the one used at Charles I.'s execution.

The more See also:

general custom, however, seems to have been to have a high block over which the victim knelt. Such is the form of that preserved in the armoury of the Tower of London. This is undoubtedly the block upon which Lord Lovat suffered, but, in spite of severalaxe-cuts on it, probably not one in See also:early use. The axe which stands beside it was used to behead him and the other Jacobite lords, but no certainty exists as to its having been previously employed. On the ground See also:floor of the King's See also:House, at the Tower, is preserved the processional axe which figured in the journeys of state prisoners to and from their trials, the edge turned from them as they went, but almost invariably turned towards them as they returned to the Tower. The axe's head is See also:peculiar in form, r ft. 8 in. high by ro in. wide, and is fastened into a wooden handle 5 ft. 4 in, See also:long. The handle is ornamented by four rows of burnished See also:brass nails. In See also:Scotland they did not behead with the axe, nor with the sword, as under the Roman law, and formerly in See also:Holland and See also:France, but with the See also:maiden (q.v.). Capital punishment is executed by beheading in France, and in See also:Belgium by means of the guillotine. In See also:Germany the instrument used varies in different states: in the old provinces of See also:Prussia the axe, in See also:Saxony and Rhenish Prussia the guillotine.

Until 1851 executions were public. They now take place within a See also:

prison in the presence of certain specified officials. Beheading is also the mode of executing capital punishment in See also:Denmark and See also:Sweden. The axe is used. In Sweden the execution takes place on the See also:order of the king within a prison in the presence of certain specified officials and, if desired, of twelve representatives of the See also:commune within which the prison is situate (See also:Code 1864, s. 2, Royal See also:Ordinance 1877). In the See also:Chinese See also:empire decapitation is the usual mode of execution. By an imperial See also:edict (24th of April 1905) certain attendant barbarities have been suppressed: viz. slicing, cutting up the See also:body, and exhibiting the head to public view (32 Clunet, 1175).

End of Article: BEHEADING

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