
What was it like to be an executioner in the Middle Ages? - simulate
https://www.livescience.com/medieval-executioner-life.html
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steelframe
Upon hearing the sad news of Gene Wolfe's passing in April of this year, I
took the occasion to reread his Book of the New Sun series. The protagonist is
Severian, a banished member of a Torturers guild, who earns some money during
his travels by performing professional executions. It's a little unsettling to
immerse yourself in a story written in the first-person narrative of this sort
of character.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severian)

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shpongled
The Book of the New Sun is a masterpiece. Although I recommend having a
dictionary on hand... preferably one with old English/arcane words.

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umeshunni
Here's an article about what it's like to be an executioner in the modern era
(Saudi Arabia, 2003):
[https://web.archive.org/web/20090911101207/http://www.arabne...](https://web.archive.org/web/20090911101207/http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=27038&d=5&m=6&y=2003)

~~~
mirimir
Compared to TFA, it seems sensible.

In particular:

> Before an execution, nonetheless, he will go to the victim’s family to
> obtain forgiveness for the criminal. “I always have that hope, until the
> very last minute, and I pray to God to give the criminal a new lease of
> life. I always keep that hope alive.”

That's a very different perspective. If the victim's family forgives the
criminal, I gather that they go free.

But on the other hand, losing a hand for stealing is horrible.

~~~
umeshunni
I believe forgiveness in this context refers to the Islamic concept of Diya
([https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diya_(Islam)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diya_\(Islam\)))

~~~
mirimir
As I understand it, it's not always about money.

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mattmanser
Kingdom Come: Deliverance, a medieval RPG, did this quite well. The
protagonist Henry does a few jobs for the executioner and they make it clear
the isolation and ostracization the executioner suffers, and he lives well out
of town.

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merrywhether
The Hangman’s Daughter book series gives a pretty great look into this same
topic, dramatic flair aside. They’re written by a modern descendent of a
Bavarian executioner family who dug into his family’s past and then loosely
tied some actual historical events into clever stories (basically the
definition of historical fiction, I suppose). They were fun beach reads for me
that also taught me a lot about 1600s German life.

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digitalengineer
Not in the article, but in the book it self: there is also the function of
combating superstition! Lots of people believed incredibly dangerous things.
Such as cutting of the (arm or) hand of a new born (and carrying it when you
attempt to burglar a house) can make you invisible. This believe was obviously
quite dangerous for new borns. Thieves and burglars would sometimes “try their
luck”. When they got caught it was the executioners job to also demonstrate/
educate the people.

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viach
1573 mentioned in article is not Middle Ages, just saying.

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pfortuny
It’s not unimportant. The mistake is (in time) like “what it was to be a
computer scientist in WWI”. Like... what?

~~~
tlb
Bamberg was not exactly on the cutting edge of the Renaissance, so executions
in 1573 might have been about the same as in the middle ages. Bamberg was
burning witches into the 1600s.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamberg_witch_trials](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamberg_witch_trials)

~~~
1123581321
Witch trials were a post-medieval phenomenon.

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rurban
It should be added that criminal law that time also meant that executed
convicts had to be studied by the general public to inspect any inner
deformations or sick organs which could have caused those crimes. So the
executioner was also a pathologist who prepared a public autopsy in a special
room after the execution. Or there was another special doctor who did that.
Many executioners did the autopsy by themselves which raised their profile.

An excellent novel about he executioners business is Pavel Kohout's Katyne.

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ryanmarsh
Curious, how many executions per year could there possibly be in Bamberg,
Bavaria?

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scandox
The only figures I could see casually were that there were approximately 2,000
per year in England during the reign of Henry VIII...so I guess it's not
insane to imagine a mid-size town in Germany having 10 or 15 a year? Which
would surely be enough to justify professional help?

~~~
trhway
Beside actual executions, there were torture as a part of crime investigation
(in particular to extract confession as the religion insisted that criminal
must confess to make sure that no innocent gets punished), plus non-capital
punishments:

"During this time, he executed 394 individuals by various methods, and also
flogged, disfigured, or tortured many hundreds more."

So, it was pretty busy.

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gberger
This site is toxic on mobile. There ads on top of the text.

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martin-adams
Yep, same here. Gave up reading because it was impossible to read.

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gargarplex
Prepend to the url:

    
    
        outline.com/
    

So:

    
    
        https://outline.com/https://www.livescience.com/medieval-executioner-life.html
    

[https://outline.com/https://www.livescience.com/medieval-
exe...](https://outline.com/https://www.livescience.com/medieval-executioner-
life.html)

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redis_mlc
I went to the torture device museum show when I was in San Diego about a
decade ago.

Seeing how cruelty was inflicted stays with you, so I don't recommend it
unless you're studying that area.

The closest analogy is that once you see the goatsie picture, you can't unsee
it.

At a higher level, learning how government abused punishment in the past does
make you question whether they're any more qualified today.

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madengr
The article only mentions the clean executions (other than burning at the
stake). There were plenty that were gruesome; essentially tortured to death.

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bostik
_The Count of Monte-Cristo_ carries a depiction of a public execution that is
rather ... vivid. The convicted is clubbed to death. And not too cleanly.

Quick research doesn't say whether this fashion was used in reality or not.
The wikipedia article on Italian capital punishment doesn't go into style
details.

