Paris from fresh perspectives: EXECUTIONERS, INDISPENSABLE PARIAHS

"MY NEPHEWS ARE GOING FROM BAD TO WORSE; I EXPECT

THE NEXT WILL MARRY THE HANGMAN'S DAUGHTER"

-- A noblewoman cited in the Mémoires

of "La Grande Mademoiselle, la duchesse de Montpensier" toward 1650

A caste paid to torture and kill defenseless people appears in Europe alone.

-- The Executioner's Occupation by Jacques Delarue, 1971 and

Executioners from Father to Son, YouTube documentary, 2023

are the main sources used here (both in French).

The Crucifixion and Episodes from the life of Saint Denis by Henri Bellechose,1416 / zoom

In other societies killings are collective

They take place by clan revenge, lapidation, throwing to wild animals, human sacrifice, firing squads or by groups like the Roman soldiers playing dice at the foot of the Cross. Head Executioners change, or at least do not pass on the role to their sons.

In the United States efforts are made to lesson the individual responsibility of officials in charge of executions, but the frequency of PSTD among them is an argument for ending the death penalty.

-- The Trauma of the American Death Penalty, "The Atlantic," 2022

# # #

In this record of 1378 only the condemned and his enemies appear,

though later images include the hangman: The despised institution takes shape slowly.

Text in red says "How Pierre du Brosse was Captured and Killed," after 1380 / zoom

The need for professionals

Resistance to the job was such that criminals who accepted were offered amnesty from their own executions. But they did not know how: When in 1626 friends of the Count of Chalais tried to retard his beheading by bribing the executioner to leave, his replacement struck the victim 31 times.

Magistrates condemned, devised tortures and meticulously recorded them, but only executioners applied them:

The Magistrate Jean de Mille Presides over Torture [rough translation of the Latin title] by François de Rohan, 1541 / zoom

They were not sanguinary

Strictly professionnel, executioners refused to take part in spontaneous massacres. They followed government commands, and even victims' families did not blame them. Sanson, the executioner of Louis XVI, prayed for the condemned before executing them.

He had met the king and liked him. He had a mass said for him after the execution.

-- Insert, Marie Antoinette Will Die by André Castelot, Le Journal de France, n° 7 1969 (in French)

His description of Louis's execution so praises his firmness that royalists thought him one of them.

-- Appendix 1, The Guillotine and the Symbolism of the Terror by Daniel Arasse, 1987

# # #

"Don't serve bread upside down, that's how executioners' bread is served."

-- Said in Marseilles until the 1940's

(capital punishment lasted in France until 1981).

Shunned and excluded, they...

Were obliged to live far from the center, which meant in disreputable places. In the 17th-century that meant beyond the Saint-Denis gate, even farther from the center than alchemists or other practitioners of dangerous products, poisons included.

Used a special spoon to obtain free produce on market stalls, because whatever they touched could not be sold.

Assumed the most disgusting tasks, such as skinning dead animals and disposing of sewage.

Married among themselves, which led to dynasties like that of the Sansons, Parisian executioners from 1688 to 1847. Hangmen were all cousins, who stayed with family when they travelled.*

* Until the Industrial Revolution, however, almost all sons to took up their father's profession and girls married in the family milieux. The main difference for executioners' offspring was that they might not evade their condition by joining the Church.

Children attended executions from age six, and boys participated in them when 15 or 16.

That early training made the occupation prosaic and led to competence: A necessity, because crowds could lynch practitioners who botched executions.

A sign that French executioners were particularly adept: Queen Anne Boleyn's execution was delayed for the arrival of the executioner of Calais, to decapitate her with a sword, which was lighter than an ax.

# # #

Executioners were usually shown as fierce or ugly...

Execution of Saint John, "Joiners' Guild Alterpiece" by Quentin Matsys, toward 1511, zoom

Notice the king and the white horse.

...wearing green for evil...

Execution of Olivier IV de Clisson by Liedet Lovset, toward 1470, zoom

...yellow for malice...

The Execution de Robert Tresilian by Jean Froissart / zoom

...red for blood...

The Death of Robespierre by Giacomo Aliprandi and Giacomo Beys, toward 1799 / zoom

...or stripes (notice the kings):

* The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine, both by Lucas Cranach the Elder, end 16th century

Zoom

Here too, the king's horse is white.

Zoom

# # #

Executioners and kings...

Were symbols of Good and Evil.

Occupied the extremes of the social ladder.

Inhabited worlds that were isolated and unique, into which they were obliged to marry.

Had ritualistic first names, "Louis" for Bourbon kings, "Charles" for four generations of the Sanson executions, nicknamed "Charlie" (Charlot )

Were often shown together, as in the paintings above and this one:

Internet, no title or source

Close to God and Death they were thought to have magical power, kings officially, executioners in popular belief:

The royal touch was believed to cure scrofula. At Easter, after taking communion the king would touch a crowd of sufferers

Charles of Lorraine Touches for the King's Evil, "Henri II's Book of Hours," 16th century / zoom

Executioners had access to substances linked to death, which were thought magical: a piece of rope used for a hanging as an amulet, mandrake grown under the gibet used as an aphrodisiac, the fat of a cadaver applied for a massage done by the executioner himself, visited secretly at night.

# # #

Not all was hocus pocus.

At a time when the Church forbade dissecting corpses,

executioners' practice of torture gave them a unique grasp of anatomy.

Until at least the 1970's their descendants were often healers.

-- Delarue, study published in 1979