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The Guillotine: The National Razor

Chris Hatfield

What's a Guillotine?

This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop,

severing the victim's head

Creation of the Guillotine

On 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 person's 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.

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 punishment's purpose was simply the ending of life instead of the infliction of pain

A committee was formed under Antoine Louis, physician to the King and Secretary to the Academy of Surgery. 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 victim's neck).

Use during the Reign of Terror

The first political prisoner to be executed was Collenot d'Angremont of the National Guard, followed soon after by the King's 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.

The Revolutionary Tribunal sentenced around 40,000 French citizens to the guillotine during the Terror.

Nobility and commoners, intellectuals, politicians and prostitutes, all were liable to be executed on little or no grounds; suspicion of "crimes against liberty" was enough to earn one an appointment with "Madame Guillotine" or "The National Razor". Estimates of the death toll range between 16,000 and 40,000.

Halifax Gibbet

Scottish Maiden

Execution of Robespierre

It was a device used to carry out executions in 19th century

France

It consisted of a tall, upright frame from which an angled

blade is suspended

This device is noted for being the main method of executions in France and, more particularly, for its use during the French Revolution.

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