Executioner's sword: Difference between revisions

[[Image:Beheading Fac simile of a Miniature on Wood in the Cosmographie Universelle of Munster in folio Basle 1552.png|thumb|A decapitation scene as shown in the ''Cosmographie[[Cosmographia Universelleuniversalis]]'' of Munster[[Sebastian Münster]] (1552).]]

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-|–|90 |cm|in|abbr=on}}). The [[Crossguard|quillionsquillons]] were quite short, and mainly straight, and the pommel was often pear-shaped or faceted.

In the [[Middle Ages]], decapitations were executedperformed with regular swords,. and theThe earliest known example of a specifically designed executioner's sword dates to ca. 1540.

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 areknown stillas 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 as a cermonialceremonial [[sword of justice]], a symbol of [[judicial power]].

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 the eternal life as gift."

*[[Terminus Est]], a fictional Swordexecutioner's of Justicesword wielded by the executioner protagonist of ''[[Book of the New Sun|The Book of the New Sun]]''

{{commonscatCommons category|Executioner's swords}}