Content deleted Content added
No edit summary |
Removing from Category:European weapons Diffusing per WP:DIFFUSE and/or WP:ALLINCLUDED using Cat-a-lot |
||
| (79 intermediate revisions by 61 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{Short description|Sword used for decapitation of criminals}}
[[Image:Beheading Fac simile of a Miniature on Wood in the Cosmographie Universelle of Munster in folio Basle 1552.png|thumb|220px|A decapitation scene as shown in the ''Cosmographie Universelle'' of Munster (1552).]]▼
{{One source|date=October 2023}}
An '''executioner's sword''' is a [[sword]] designed specifically for [[decapitation]] of condemned criminals (as opposed to [[swordsmanship|combat]]). These swords were intended for two-handed use, but were lacking a point, so that their overall length was typically that of a single-handed sword (ca. 80-90 cm). The quillions were quite short, and mainly straight, the pommel was often pear-shaped or faceted.▼
[[File:Epée de justice IMG 3471.jpg|thumb|Executioner's sword (16th century)]]
▲[[Image:Beheading Fac simile of a Miniature on Wood in the Cosmographie Universelle of Munster in folio Basle 1552.png|thumb
▲An '''executioner's sword''' is a [[sword]] designed specifically for [[decapitation]] of condemned criminals (as opposed to [[swordsmanship|combat]]). These swords were intended for two-handed use, but were lacking a point, so that their overall blade length was typically that of a single-handed sword (ca. {{convert|80
In the [[Middle Ages]], decapitations were
They were in wide use in 17th-century Europe, but fell out of use quite suddenly in the early 18th century. The last executions by sword in Europe were carried out in Switzerland in 1867 and 1868, when Niklaus Emmenegger in [[Lucerne]] and Héli Freymond in [[Moudon]] were beheaded for murder. Swords known as a ''sulthan'' are used to carry out executions in [[Saudi Arabia]] (''see [[Capital punishment in Saudi Arabia]]'').
The blades of executioner's swords were often decorated with symbolic designs, showing instruments of execution or torture, or the [[Crucifixion of Christ]], combined with moralistic inscriptions. When no longer used for executions, an executioner's sword sometimes continued to be used in processions as a symbol of [[Blutgericht|judicial power]].▼
▲The blades of executioner's swords were often decorated with symbolic designs
<gallery>
Image:Scharfrichterschwert-ffm002.jpg| 15th century, "Heimatmuseum" at [[Frankfurt-Bergen-Enkheim]]
Image:Scharfrichterschwert-ffm001.jpg| [[Early Modern German]] inscription on the blade: ''Wan Ich Das Schwert thue Auffheben - So Wünsche Ich Dem Sünder Das Ewige Leben'' "When this sword I do lift, - I wish the sinner eternal life as gift."
</gallery>
==See also==
*[[Guillotine]]
*[[Muhammad Saad al-Beshi]], Saudi Arabian executioner
*Terminus Est, a fictional executioner's sword wielded by the executioner protagonist of ''[[The Book of the New Sun]]''
== External links ==
{{Commons category|Executioner's swords}}
*[http://www.artfund.org/artwork/1324/executioners-sword German executioner's sword dated to 1674] at the [[Royal Armouries]].
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Decapitation]]
[[Category:Early Modern European swords]]
[[Category:European swords]]
[[Category:Execution equipment]]
[[Category:Renaissance-era swords]]
[[Category:Renaissance-era weapons]]
{{Sword-stub}}
{{Crime-stub}}
| |||