GuillotineEssay Preview: GuillotineReport this essayThe guillotine (English pronunciation: /ˈɡɪlətiːn/ or /ˈɡiː.ətiːn/; French: [ɡijɔtin]) is a device used for carrying out executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which a blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the head from the body. The device is noted for long being the main method of execution in France (where it was invented) and, more particularly, for its use during the French Revolution, when it “became a part of popular culture, celebrated as the peoples avenger by supporters of the Revolution and vilified as the pre-eminent symbol of the Reign of Terror by opponents.”[1] Nevertheless, the guillotine continued to be used long after the French Revolution in several countries, including France, where it was the sole method of execution until the abolition of capital punishment in 1981.
Contents1 French Revolution1.1 Reign of Terror1.2 Retirement2 Elsewhere3 Living heads4 See also5 References5.1 Footnotes6 Further reading7 External links[edit] French RevolutionPortrait of Dr. GuillotinThe execution of RobespierreOn 10 October 1789, Doctor Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, a French physician, stood before the National Assembly and proposed the following six articles in favour of the reformation of capital punishment:
Article 1: All offenses of the same kind will be punished by the same type of punishment irrespective of the rank of status of the guilty party.Article 2: Whenever the Law imposes the death penalty, irrespective of the nature of the offense, the punishment shall be the same: decapitation, effected by means of a simple mechanism.
Article 3: The punishment of the guilty party shall not bring discredit upon or discrimination against his family.Article 4: No one shall reproach a citizen with any punishment imposed on one of his relatives. Such offenders shall be publicly reprimanded by a judge.
Article 5: The condemned persons property shall not be confiscated.Article 6: At the request of the family, the corpse of the condemned man shall be returned to them for burial and no reference to the nature of death shall be registered.[2]
Sensing the growing discontent, Louis XVI banned the use of the breaking wheel.[3] In 1791, as the French Revolution progressed, the National Assembly researched a new method to be used on all condemned people regardless of class. Their concerns contributed to the idea that capital punishments purpose was simply the ending of life instead of the infliction of pain.[3]
A committee was formed under Antoine Louis, physician to the King and Secretary to the Academy of Surgery.[3] Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, was also on the committee. The group was influenced by the Italian Mannaia (or Mannaja), the Scottish Maiden and the Halifax Gibbet. While these prior instruments usually crushed the neck or used blunt force to take off a head, devices also usually used a crescent blade and a lunette (a hinged two part yoke to immobilize the victims neck).[3]
Laquiante, an officer of the Strasbourg criminal court,[4] made a design for a beheading machine and employed Tobias Schmidt, a German engineer and harpsichord maker, to construct a prototype.[5] Antoine Louis is also credited with the design of the prototype. An apocryphal story claims that King Louis XVI (an amateur locksmith) recommended a triangular blade with a beveled edge be used instead of a crescent blade,[3] but it was Schmidt who suggested placing the blade at an oblique 45-degree angle and changing it from the curved blade.[6] The first execution by guillotine was performed on highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier[7] on 25 April 1792.[8][9][10]
The basis for the machines success was the belief that it was a humane form of execution, contrasting with the methods used in pre-revolutionary, Ancien Régime France. In France, before the guillotine, members of the nobility were beheaded with a sword or axe (which typically took at least two blows before killing the condemned), while commoners were usually hanged, a form of death that could take minutes or longer. Other more gruesome methods of executions were also used, such as the wheel or burning at the stake. In the case of decapitation, it also sometimes took repeated blows to sever the head completely, and it was also very likely for the condemned to slowly bleed to death before the head could be fully severed. The condemned or the family of the condemned would sometimes pay the executioner to ensure that the blade was sharp in order to provide for a quick and relatively painless death.
The guillotine was thus perceived to deliver an immediate death without risk of suffocation. Furthermore, having only one method of execution was seen as an expression of equality among citizens. The guillotine was then the only legal execution method in France until the abolition of the death penalty in 1981,[11] apart from certain crimes against the security of the state, or for the death sentences passed by military courts,[12] which entailed execution by firing squad.[13]
[edit] Reign of TerrorFrancisco de Goya – The French Penalty.The period from June 1793 to July 1794 in France is known as the Reign of Terror or simply “the Terror”. The upheaval following the overthrow of the monarchy, invasion by foreign monarchist powers and the Revolt in the Vendée combined to throw the nation into chaos and the government into frenzied paranoia. Most of the democratic reforms of the revolution were suspended and large-scale executions by guillotine began. The first political prisoner to be executed was Collenot dAngremont of the National Guard, followed soon after by the Kings trusted collaborator in his ill-fated attempt to moderate the Revolution, Arnaud de Laporte, both in 1792. Former King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette were executed in 1793. Maximilien
[edit] The Reign of TerrorJean-Thomas and Jacques d’Orsay.Jean-Claude de Balutat, one the most famous French thinkers of the age, was executed at Paris in the reign of Francois X, and later again at Paris in the reign of François IV. Jean-Luc Picard was also executed at Le Bourget. [9]
[edit] Return from The Abyss
The final French version of The Abyss, by Bernard Reimer, contains much of what is known as the French Prisoner’s Declaration of September 23, 1777. [11]
[edit] Death by Terrorism in France
This section is not included as it should be considered non-canon, but as a compilation of information that may be considered at this time. The Terror of Terrorist attacks are not included, but we want them to be included nonetheless. [11]
Reign of TerrorBy: Francis de Guignin, Nicolas Guzmán, Pierre Desmarais, David S. Brown, Eric D. Zander[citation needed]. [citation needed].
France’s Reformation: the Terror of Terror
is a book by François Bernard Reimer based on the French book Death of Terror which he translated into English[i]. It has received only a number of awards, for it contains not only the most complete work on the subject and contains some of the darkest elements from the Reformation itself. The book is divided into three sections: the “The Terror of France”, the “Restitution of French Democracy” and the “Immediate Death Penalty for Terrorists”. It is a very detailed but accessible work on France’s political and popular movements. It is divided into three chapters and can be found in the following places: in French and English version of the book: the Political Revolution in France (French Revolution, The Reformation); and in other Italian versions: Italian Catholic Church Revolution, and, more recently, Protestantism and Reform, also called the Liberal Revolution. There is no doubt that among its themes were the Protestant Enlightenment, the development of the revolutionary spirit, the idea of political equality in the post-Revolutionary period, and the “Restitution of French Democracy”. This is the first article in this series. This article has been reviewed and edited extensively. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the author’s publisher. It is not the responsibility of the author or its publisher to act as a guardian or referee in the judging of the opinions of others. [13]
Return to Contents of the Terror of Terror
This section is primarily published with the permission of the author but is open source. It can then be used and redistributed freely without paywall for any benefit as long as that benefit is at least partially supported in full. If any portion of this page is broken, please open an issue and fix the bug on the page.
Reign of TerrorBy: Francis de Guignin, Nicolas
[edit] The Reign of TerrorJean-Thomas and Jacques d’Orsay.Jean-Claude de Balutat, one the most famous French thinkers of the age, was executed at Paris in the reign of Francois X, and later again at Paris in the reign of François IV. Jean-Luc Picard was also executed at Le Bourget. [9]
[edit] Return from The Abyss
The final French version of The Abyss, by Bernard Reimer, contains much of what is known as the French Prisoner’s Declaration of September 23, 1777. [11]
[edit] Death by Terrorism in France
This section is not included as it should be considered non-canon, but as a compilation of information that may be considered at this time. The Terror of Terrorist attacks are not included, but we want them to be included nonetheless. [11]
Reign of TerrorBy: Francis de Guignin, Nicolas Guzmán, Pierre Desmarais, David S. Brown, Eric D. Zander[citation needed]. [citation needed].
France’s Reformation: the Terror of Terror
is a book by François Bernard Reimer based on the French book Death of Terror which he translated into English[i]. It has received only a number of awards, for it contains not only the most complete work on the subject and contains some of the darkest elements from the Reformation itself. The book is divided into three sections: the “The Terror of France”, the “Restitution of French Democracy” and the “Immediate Death Penalty for Terrorists”. It is a very detailed but accessible work on France’s political and popular movements. It is divided into three chapters and can be found in the following places: in French and English version of the book: the Political Revolution in France (French Revolution, The Reformation); and in other Italian versions: Italian Catholic Church Revolution, and, more recently, Protestantism and Reform, also called the Liberal Revolution. There is no doubt that among its themes were the Protestant Enlightenment, the development of the revolutionary spirit, the idea of political equality in the post-Revolutionary period, and the “Restitution of French Democracy”. This is the first article in this series. This article has been reviewed and edited extensively. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the author’s publisher. It is not the responsibility of the author or its publisher to act as a guardian or referee in the judging of the opinions of others. [13]
Return to Contents of the Terror of Terror
This section is primarily published with the permission of the author but is open source. It can then be used and redistributed freely without paywall for any benefit as long as that benefit is at least partially supported in full. If any portion of this page is broken, please open an issue and fix the bug on the page.
Reign of TerrorBy: Francis de Guignin, Nicolas
[edit] The Reign of TerrorJean-Thomas and Jacques d’Orsay.Jean-Claude de Balutat, one the most famous French thinkers of the age, was executed at Paris in the reign of Francois X, and later again at Paris in the reign of François IV. Jean-Luc Picard was also executed at Le Bourget. [9]
[edit] Return from The Abyss
The final French version of The Abyss, by Bernard Reimer, contains much of what is known as the French Prisoner’s Declaration of September 23, 1777. [11]
[edit] Death by Terrorism in France
This section is not included as it should be considered non-canon, but as a compilation of information that may be considered at this time. The Terror of Terrorist attacks are not included, but we want them to be included nonetheless. [11]
Reign of TerrorBy: Francis de Guignin, Nicolas Guzmán, Pierre Desmarais, David S. Brown, Eric D. Zander[citation needed]. [citation needed].
France’s Reformation: the Terror of Terror
is a book by François Bernard Reimer based on the French book Death of Terror which he translated into English[i]. It has received only a number of awards, for it contains not only the most complete work on the subject and contains some of the darkest elements from the Reformation itself. The book is divided into three sections: the “The Terror of France”, the “Restitution of French Democracy” and the “Immediate Death Penalty for Terrorists”. It is a very detailed but accessible work on France’s political and popular movements. It is divided into three chapters and can be found in the following places: in French and English version of the book: the Political Revolution in France (French Revolution, The Reformation); and in other Italian versions: Italian Catholic Church Revolution, and, more recently, Protestantism and Reform, also called the Liberal Revolution. There is no doubt that among its themes were the Protestant Enlightenment, the development of the revolutionary spirit, the idea of political equality in the post-Revolutionary period, and the “Restitution of French Democracy”. This is the first article in this series. This article has been reviewed and edited extensively. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the author’s publisher. It is not the responsibility of the author or its publisher to act as a guardian or referee in the judging of the opinions of others. [13]
Return to Contents of the Terror of Terror
This section is primarily published with the permission of the author but is open source. It can then be used and redistributed freely without paywall for any benefit as long as that benefit is at least partially supported in full. If any portion of this page is broken, please open an issue and fix the bug on the page.