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Miss Moore Goes To The Abbey, 1861...

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thehangingtree said:
You would think an execution by beheading would be a swift event but the British never seem to rush anything. As if on schedule low grey clouds blanket sun mush as they have done since I arrived on the island. The air is warm and moist, almost pregnant with rain. I look about the courtyard to see perhaps hundreds of invited guests surrounding the platform and more peering at me from every balcony. I spot Siss looking from one of the balconies accompanied by Sister Messaline. By the look of their disheveled hair and naked bodies they had a better morning than I. Siss blows a kiss to me but I am unsure if it her last of affection or a mocking gesture of goodbye.

A good damn thing I dressed up to lose my head. The first thing they do when I get to the platform is remove my gloves and unfasten the corset to the lewd catcalls of the crowd. The skirt of the dress is torn open from the hem to my navel revealing my loins used seduce the bishop. I kneel down at the block before me. The whole sterile image is purged from my mind. The block is painted with the blood of those executed before me. The air is tinged with fresh blood and defecation. I look over at the sword the headsman will decapitate me with and hear and see two flies seemingly fucking on the hilt’s guard. They are making the eggs of the larvae that will soon devour my body. I think if this is the Excalibur of the legendary King Arthur these Brits do not protect their treasures very well.

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I am supposed to behave with the utmost decorum but it is to be my neck on the block. I tear the black dress with the white silk foundation open, point to my ample breasts, and taunt the headsman saying “The guards took my ass and pussy and you my mouth. Are you man enough to give me a good tit-fuck before this crowd and God herself?”

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“Do not press your good fortune, Miss Moore, as it is not too late to anger me” he replies. He turns to the guards and orders my wrists bound behind my back. They do so with efficient speed and brutality as the rough cord painfully tears at the flesh of my wrists.

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They bend me forward and press my neck into the roughly hewn notch in the block. I have seen and smelled the blood on the block but now it stick to my neck and bare shoulders. I look at the basket that will receive my head. The straw is as stained as the block is and reeks of vomit from one of the women that preceded me with flies darting about. The bastards couldn’t even bother to toss a layer of fresh straw over it. It take all my effort not to lets what little is in my stomach. purge.

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The headsman hovers next to me and asks “Can you hold still or should we bind your shoulders to the block?”

“I will hold still. Just get this over with!” I whimper. He tells me to lower my head to accommodate a clean blow. Reluctantly I do until my face is inches from the foul straw and my chin is against the sticky face of the block. I hear the flies buzz away as the sword races toward the back of neck!

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There is blinding pain and I feel the filthy straw against the side of my cheek. I look down and find my body missing.

-Miss Barbara Moore

Barb’s body reflexively recoils from the swords assault first kneeling upright before keeling over backwards with two guards catching it before it careens down the platform’s steps. Her heart’s last few beats spews fountains of blood from her severed arteries while a clergyman mutters some meaningless invocation.

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The headsman fishes her head from the basket and to a roar of approval from the crowd mounts it on a spike while the last of her clothing is torn from her body. As they bend her torso one last stream of blood sprays from her neck.

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I look about at find Siss again. Why is she applauding? I don’t feel so well… -Miss

Barbara Moore
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Damn I wish that was me....
 
At the risk of offending Tree and Barb, the latest entry hit one of my pet peeves:
Beheading with the sword is NOT done with the block. The sword would hit the block before hitting the neck. The block is only used with the axe. With the sword, the condemned kneels or is seated.

While the sword was the most common method in Europe, in England the axe and block were the norm. Anne Boleyn was an exception. King Henry had an expert sword executioner brought over from France so that she would have "cleaner" death. Apparently, Henry didn't have such tender feelings for Catherine Howard...she got the axe. So did Jane Grey. And, Mary, Queen of Scots really had a bad time of it. It took 3 blows to take off her head.

This brings up something Tree said earlier: While it may be true that sometimes the guillotine may not have operated properly due to poor maintenance, especially during the Terror, when it was in heavy use; it still cut more cleanly than the axe. This is because of the angled blade, an innovation of German engineer Tobias Schmidt. While a straight blade, like the axe, smashes through the neck, the angled blade slices, just like the sword. The human neck is not a piece of wood. A better comparison would be a stalk of celery. Bring the knife down at an angle is much more effective than bringing it straight down.
beheading-execution-boleyn.jpg beheading-midevil.jpg da-milano-catherine.jpg Jacquerie_Navarre.jpg 956ea5f73f5f880eec89fef8c8644914.jpg Europe 024_opt.jpg
 
Naraku said:
At the risk of offending Tree and Barb, the latest entry hit one of my pet peeves:
Beheading with the sword is NOT done with the block. The sword would hit the block before hitting the neck. The block is only used with the axe. With the sword, the condemned kneels or is seated.

While the sword was the most common method in Europe, in England the axe and block were the norm. Anne Boleyn was an exception. King Henry had an expert sword executioner brought over from France so that she would have "cleaner" death. Apparently, Henry didn't have such tender feelings for Catherine Howard...she got the axe. So did Jane Grey. And, Mary, Queen of Scots really had a bad time of it. It took 3 blows to take off her head.

This brings up something Tree said earlier: While it may be true that sometimes the guillotine may not have operated properly due to poor maintenance, especially during the Terror, when it was in heavy use; it still cut more cleanly than the axe. This is because of the angled blade, an innovation of German engineer Tobias Schmidt. While a straight blade, like the axe, smashes through the neck, the angled blade slices, just like the sword. The human neck is not a piece of wood. A better comparison would be a stalk of celery. Bring the knife down at an angle is much more effective than bringing it straight down.
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Beheading turns me on like nothing else....
 
Naraku said:
At the risk of offending Tree and Barb, the latest entry hit one of my pet peeves:
Beheading with the sword is NOT done with the block. The sword would hit the block before hitting the neck. The block is only used with the axe. With the sword, the condemned kneels or is seated.

While the sword was the most common method in Europe, in England the axe and block were the norm. Anne Boleyn was an exception. King Henry had an expert sword executioner brought over from France so that she would have "cleaner" death. Apparently, Henry didn't have such tender feelings for Catherine Howard...she got the axe. So did Jane Grey. And, Mary, Queen of Scots really had a bad time of it. It took 3 blows to take off her head.

This brings up something Tree said earlier: While it may be true that sometimes the guillotine may not have operated properly due to poor maintenance, especially during the Terror, when it was in heavy use; it still cut more cleanly than the axe. This is because of the angled blade, an innovation of German engineer Tobias Schmidt. While a straight blade, like the axe, smashes through the neck, the angled blade slices, just like the sword. The human neck is not a piece of wood. A better comparison would be a stalk of celery. Bring the knife down at an angle is much more effective than bringing it straight down.
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Actually the block could be used to steady the condemned( please don't say 'victim').

In this picture her neck cannot move with the force of blow as the sword passes through to the right of your point of view missing the block.

A living human neck is more akin to a celery stalk between room temperature and refrigerated a swordsman would have to most fortunate not to hit vertebrae mid-bone.

As with splitting wood I will take an axe over a sword any day...

Did you like the story at all Naraku? I put a bit of effort into it...

Tree
 

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thehangingtree said:
Actually the block could be used to steady the condemned( please don't say 'victim').

In this picture her neck cannot move with the force of blow as the sword passes through to the right of your point of view missing the block.

A living human neck is more akin to a celery stalk between room temperature and refrigerated a swordsman would have to most fortunate not to hit vertebrae mid-bone.
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My own research suggests that sword beheadings were done mainly with the condemned kneeling in an upright posture. Given a heavy enough two handed heavy broadsword, which would have likely been the popular choice, sharpened to a fine edge, and with a swordsman who knew what he was about (good technique, etc.), the sword would likely have cut/sliced cleanly enough. My understanding is that sword executions also relied on some form of deception/surprise, so the stroke may have come before the condemned was expecting it.

At Anne Boleyn's execution, the swordsman was to use the assistant to distract her while he got the sword. He was to say "Boy, fetch my sword," at the moment he himself picked up the sword and made the stroke. This would have Anne looking toward the assistant in some alarm, with the swordsman behind her, giving the swordsman a clean stroke at her neck. Instead, she heard the scrape of the sword as the swordsman pulled it out from under the straw, and the assistant had to startle her to get her to turn her head away again so the swordsman could swing. Apparently he took her head off with one stroke, for which he was paid quite handsomely.

However, as you say, the axe was preferable in England, likely because of the weight and the more stable "target". Even so, a number of headsmen botched the job. While Lady Jane Grey was executed with a single stroke, Mary (Queen of Scots) Stuart took 3 blows (she apparently swore after the first blow), and the skin had to be severed by slicing with the axe blade even after the third stroke, before they could lift the head. There was one execution that was such a hack job, that after 3 or 4 strokes the condemned was still alive and conscious and one of the other officials pushed aside the headsman and finished the job.

Executioners, in England at least, had a habit of becoming condemned themselves after a while.:eek:

It was an excellent story, Tree, and all this is just side conversation and discussion, in my view. In your story, the swordsman positions her at the block, and makes the stroke beside/behind the block. This is clearly how it happened, and there are the pictures to prove it. I don't think anything anyone says about common sword execution techniques of the 15th century can detract from that. :cool:
 
Oh, yes, I almost forgot, tree, it's good to see that you managed to squeeze in another Dorothy Brown hanging before you finished the story.
 
thehangingtree said:
Yet as much as the butler’s words sends chills though me I am not a naïve little girl from the 30th state. I can handle anything!
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Talk of the 30th state and the Civil War:

The 2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry were part of the “Iron Brigade” in the Army of the Potomac.

At the Battle of South Mountain, as the Brigade advanced, forcing the Confederate line all the way back to the gap, McClellan asked, "What troops are those fighting in the Pike?" Hearing they were General Gibbon's brigade of Western men. McClellan stated, "They must be made of iron." The name stuck!

As the First Brigade of the First Division of the First Corps at Gettysburg, they fought gallantly under personal direction of Corps Commander Reynolds until he was killed. They captured or killed almost the entire Confederate Brigade of James Archer, included capturing Archer.

61% were casualties in the first day Battle; 2nd Wisconsin suffered 77%

Men of Iron, indeed!
 
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As the First Brigade of the First Division of the First Corps they fought under direction of Reynolds until he was killed. They captured or killed almost the entire Confederate brigade of James Archer included capturing Archer.

This all happened at Gettysburg.
 
Jollyrei said:
At Anne Boleyn's execution, the swordsman was to use the assistant to distract her while he got the sword. He was to say "Boy, fetch my sword," at the moment he himself picked up the sword and made the stroke. This would have Anne looking toward the assistant in some alarm, with the swordsman behind her, giving the swordsman a clean stroke at her neck. Instead, she heard the scrape of the sword as the swordsman pulled it out from under the straw, and the assistant had to startle her to get her to turn her head away again so the swordsman could swing. Apparently he took her head off with one stroke, for which he was paid quite handsomely.
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From stackexchange:

Anne Boleyn was executed on May 19, 1536.
Displaying an act of "mercy", King Henry VIII dispatched a skilled executioner to perform the execution by sword rather than by axe or being burned at the stake.
The swordsman was dispatched from Calais, English occupied France at the time. Obviously, the swordsman would have to have been skilled with a flawless reputation to have been summoned by the King of England.
According to author and historian Dr. Eric Ives, the swordsman was very skilled.
"her beheading by a first-class executioner — an expert in the use of the heavy continental executioner’s sword which could cut the head off a prisoner who was kneeling upright, in place of the clumsier English axe needing the prisoner’s chin on the block.”

Anne Boleyn herself even mentioned the skill of the swordsman.
An excerpt from a letter to Thomas Cromwell from William Kingston on informing Anne Boleyn on the postponement of her execution:
And then she said "I heard say the executioner was very good, and I have a little neck," and put her hand about it laughing heartily.
 
pontiopilato said:
As the First Brigade of the First Division of the First Corps they fought under direction of Reynolds until he was killed. They captured or killed almost the entire Confederate brigade of James Archer included capturing Archer.

This all happened at Gettysburg.
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Correct and been corrected. Thanks
 
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