(urth) The Executioner's Art

Tony Ellis tonyellis69 at btopenworld.com
Mon Oct 15 15:27:14 PDT 2012


Jeff Wilson wrote:

> it seems that this eyewitness account bears
> out the subtle manipulation of the condemned and unhesitating resolve of
> the headman as depicted in the BOTNS.

There's some historical evidence too. Poised to make the killing
stroke, Anne Boleyn's executioner is supposed to have said "Boy, fetch
my sword" to misdirect her at the crucial moment.

He was a skilled French headsman, brought in especially for the job.
Judging by the accounts of the last moments of Thomas Cromwell and
Mary Queen of Scots, our own British executioners of the time would
have given Master Palaemon a coronary.



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