Handed Medieval Sword
Handed Medieval Sword
Noblewoman in England beheaded – any info?
This is an actual historical question. Someone with ACTUAL medieval historical knowledge please respond.
Was there a woman who was beheaded in England, in public for heresy, who did not have her hands bound behind her back but clasped of her own accord in front of her? Executed by axe, not a sword. Was it mandatory for people to witness a public execution,or did they to watch because they wanted to? Were there always drummers – or was there ever a silent execution?
She wore no bonnet or hair covering, just her hair swept up in a twist or bun and a plain black dress.
If you know of criteria that matches this; who was she?
I’ve thought it may be Lady Jane Grey, but I’ve gotten contradicting info that she was beheaded in public and/or in a private tower. Also this woman did not fumble blindly for the block, but put her own head onto it with confident prideful attitude and pissed off purpose.
I’m afraid I can’t find a specific reference for you. Here is some information on women who were beheaded; most went to their deaths bravely. (Perhaps it’s more than you need, but it might be of help.)
Only noblewomen were beheaded; otherwise heretics like Anne Askew (burned at Smithfield) were tortured to make them recant, then burned if they did not:
http://chi.gospelcom.net/DAILYF/2002/06/daily-06-18-2002.shtml
People were not forced to watch executions, but obviously they did! Several of the women asked their ladies to cut off their hair at the back to make death quicker.
I can find no record of drumming; in the Tower, only a few people would be present – on Tower Hill where the men were generally executed (like the so-called conspirators condemned along with Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard) there would be a bloodthirsty audience, as it was public. When felons were being hanged at Tyburn (Marble Arch) there would have been crowds to watch, baying for death. I do not think there were drums – it seems to have been a general free-for-all.
Here is a detailed site for beheadings actually in the Tower of London, a royal castle. As it says, this form of execution was reserved for nobles:
http://www.castles.me.uk/executions-beheading-tower-of-london.htm
Anne Boleyn was executed by a Frenchman especially called in from Calais. He used a sword. Read accounts here:
http://tudorhistory.org/boleyn/
Catherine Howard’s account is here; she was the “Rose without a Thorn” who ran screaming through the gallery at Hampton Court in a vain attempt to reach the King who was in the Chapel, and whose ghost is said to pass there still:
http://englishhistory.net/tudor/monarchs/howard.html
It is said she died swiftly, and with more poise than she had shown in her short life. Jane, Viscountess Rochford followed just minutes later.
The Countess of Salisbury was 68 years old: she was a feisty woman and suffered a terrible death:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Pole,_8th_Countess_of_Salisbury
“Lady Jane Grey was one of the five women executed in the Tower of London but, like her predecessors, she was executed in the open air, in the semi-private grounds outside St Peter ad Vincula Chapel in the Tower’s grounds. Important figures were executed here to give them some privacy and less publicity, but there would have been more than four people present at the good Lady’s execution.” She groped for the block until a kind bystander guided her hands to it, and she died bravely and with a lot of blood. Just before her execution, she had seen from her window the headless body of her young husband, Guilford Dudley, brought back from Tower Hill, where most beheadings took place – outside the Tower.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A478118
This is a very poignant account of the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, who went bravely to her death at Fotheringhay Castle:
http://tudorhistory.org/primary/exmary.html
Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.
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