Geoffrey Abbott (1923–2016)

In some ways this reads more like a reference book than a traditional narrative. Arranged alphabetically, the work contains vignettes of the various women who have faced execution by a variety of means generally spanning the 16th through early 20th century.

The book also contains appendices which list the various methods of execution/torture as well as the tools used to accomplish as much.

While an easy read, the book is best enjoyed in small doses- otherwise the various accounts tend to run together. I also found it useful as a springboard for further research into particularly compelling cases.… (mais)

Geoffrey Abbott was a Yeoman Warder (“beefeater”) at the Tower of London, and wrote numerous books on the history of the Tower, its famous prisoners, and its ghosts. In this book he discusses beheadings, with cheerful little anecdotes about Anne Boleyn, Charles I, Lady Jane Grey, Guy Fawkes, Mary Queen of Scots, Sir Thomas More, Thomas Seymour, Sir Thomas Wyatt, and miscellaneous other nobles and commoners sent off with the axe. Abbott notes that the traditional beheading axe was awkward to use, with too much weight at the rear to be easy to swing without twisting; this led to a number of executions which required multiple strokes or a finish with a knife or cleaver. I was interested to find that the last execution by beheading in England was that of Simon, Lord Lovat in 1747 (for involvement in the 1745 Stuart uprising); however the last judicial beheading was William Davidson, one of the Cato Street conspirators, in 1820. He and his four fellows were originally sentenced to the traditional treason punishment – hanging, drawing, and quartering – but the sentence was commuted to hanging and beheading. The men were left hanging for an hour; then their bodies were brought one at a time to a block where a masked man – not the executioner - removed the heads with a surgical knife. Spectators had paid as much as 3 guineas (somewhere around $210 in modern value) for a view.

An easy read, given the subject matter; contemporary illustrations (none too gruesome), a bibliography, and both a general index and one of all the beheadees.… (mais)