Why does the hangman wear a mask

The regional margrave Albrecht II — , pointed to Heinrich among the spectators and ordered him to come up and hang the three doomed men. Heinrich thus became a professional executioner, and his son Franz followed in his footsteps at the age of Leonardt Russ of Ceyern, a thief.

Executed with the rope at the city of Steinach. Was my first execution. On 21 June , the people of Prague gathered in its famous Old Town Square to witness a grim spectacle - the execution of 27 Bohemian rebel leaders. Nobles, knights, and scholars, the Habsburg rulers wanted to make an example of these men. Some were strung up, while others were decapitated with a sword. One unfortunate chap had his tongue cut out prior to beheading, while others had their hands lopped off before their heads.

According to legend, as a young medical student he fell in love, but his wife was condemned to death. He then became an executioner to gain access to his love, but he could not save her. After that he donned his famous red hood and devoted himself to ending life rather than saving it. But after he carried out the executions of the Bohemian rebels he was seen as a traitor and was shunned once more.

That takes guts: 7 gory execution methods from Tudor England by James Brigden. One such bloody performance was the beheading of politician William Russell , which was so shockingly barbaric that Ketch published a pamphlet apologising for it!

Perhaps the most famous head that he took was that of James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth , leader of the failed Monmouth Rebellion, executed in London on 15 July It is said that before laying his head on the block Monmouth asked him to do it in one blow, aware of his reputation as a bodger.

Some say it was eight blows, other sources say five and seven. Monmouth at one point was even said to have risen from the block, half cut to pieces, drawing gasps from the crowd. On Monday, 21 January , arguably one of the most significant public executions in history took place — King Louis XVI of France was beheaded by guillotine in the centre of Paris, ending with the drop of the blade over a thousand years of monarchy in France.

To me, it seems more likely that it was suggested by common anthropological concerns believed to be at work both in Samurai culture and the early modern executioner. Seppuku was also administered as a form of capital punishment executed in front of an audience, not unlike the spectacle of the scaffold. The object may thus have invited comparison with European history. Even so, the identification of the mask remains wrong, but it is not random.

Two embossed half masks with staring eyes and arching eyebrows in the Museo della Tortura in San Gimignano strongly resemble masks worn by the Harlequin in the Commedia dell Arte , both a fool and devilish trickster. However, seen from a different perspective, they do share a common sense of defamation invested in the office of the executioner.

Unlike argued by Kinney, these objects did not so much distort the historical past but updated collective memory. Rather than camouflaging the executioner, they characterize him, using the same derisive vocabulary sanctioned by early modern legal culture. An executioner is said to have worn this mask before delivering the final blow, with either an axe or sword. It cuts a gruesome figure and is deliberately macabre and menacing to further terrify the prisoner.

Executioners often wore masks to hide their identity and avoid any retribution. They were often booed and jeered, especially if the person to be executed was a popular or sympathetic figure.