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ABOUT & INTRODUCTION

 

This web site was developed in Spring 2013 by the team members listed below.  The project was created under the direction of Professor Caroline Boswell for a University of Wisconsin-Green Bay class titled, Crimes and Mentalities in Early Modern Europe. This web site answers the question; what was the historic significance and underlying symbolism of beheadings of royalty, nobility and those of high office in England during the years from 1400 through 1700. 

Beheadings have been a form of capital punishment for thousands of years. However, who was beheaded, why they were beheaded, and how they were beheaded varies vastly between countries, time periods, and social standings. Historian Regina Janes suggests that there are five different types of beheadings. There is the ancestral head, removed after death and not taken by violence; the trophy head, taken in warfare or raid; the sacrificial head, taken from a living person by decapitation in the performance of a religious rite; the presentation head, taken in a political struggle to remove a contender or rival; the public execution, proceeding from a legal decision. Each of these specific types of beheadings represents completely different aspects of a culture. This website will be focusing on two of the five types of beheadings -- the “presentation head” and the “public execution head” -- as these two types of beheadings were prevalent in England during the time frame under investigation. The following histories and discussions suggest that the beheadings were prompted as a result of political, religious and social changes that were occurring in England. These changes caused tension between classes that led to civil war, division between noble families that resulted in war and challenges to the Catholic Church, which brought about the formation of a new church. The outcome of these social upheavals was a victor representing the state and enforcing capital punishment on the vanquished in the form of beheading. 

Each of the nobles and royals selected for this site provides an interesting study of state authority, social mores and implementation of capital punishment regardless of the underlying charge. Regina Janes takes this point further when she says beheadings were used to eliminate “dynastic contenders, rival claimants, religious disputants, ambitious men skeptical of female rule, and common criminals disruptive of the sovereign’s peace”. In addition, this site explores the specific details of each case.  The execution was symbolic as each aspect was carefully thought out by both those representing the state and the condemned as well. Again referring to Regina Janes who likens the execution scaffold to a stage. Everything from the location, the scaffold, the ax, the executioner, the speeches, the clothes, the blood, and the deceased is taken into consideration.

 

Team Members:

Maria Castillo

Megan Herbner

Alyssa Janicsek

Suzanne Schultz

Ashley Smar

Regina Janes, Losing Our Heads: Beheadings in Literature and Culture (New York: New York University Press, 2005)