It was a sophisticated ritual, full of steps. The guillotine already existed in simpler versions, but became famous in the French Revolution (1789). One of the motivations of the French was to end the privileges of the nobles – including the death penalty. Until then, convicted commoners faced torture, hanging or quartering, while members of the elite could choose how they would be executed (and she was always more lenient).
To put an end to this, physician and politician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin proposed equal penalties for equal crimes. After two years of debate, the proposal was accepted, and another doctor, Antoine Louis, developed the weapon. That is, the guillotine should be called luisette, but a newspaper came forward and attributed the invention to Guillotin, who ended up giving his name to it. Guided by humanitarian principles, Guillotin wanted to make a just death possible. But the guillotine became the symbol of revolutionary repression.
What was death by guillotine like?
Death by the guillotine was a sight to see and be seen.
Route
The executioner crossed the city to take the condemned to the square. These parades, which lasted about two hours, were the slowest part of the ritual.
(dis)assembly line
In Paris, the Place de Grève was the scene of executions for common crimes and the Place du Carroussel served for political criminals. About 50 guillotines were installed in various cities, and they were active for up to six hours a day. To keep up with this fast-food rhythm, the execution was brief, direct and mechanical – not everyone had time to say the last words.
– (Bruno Rosal/)
– (Bruno Rosal/)
Death machine
The executioner released the rope after securing the condemned man with a wooden bar. The metallic plate would fall and, in 0.68 seconds, decapitate the subject. The force that the razor-sharp blade exerted on the neck left no chance for tissue or vertebrae.
- Guillotine height: 4.5 m
- Distance traveled until execution: 2.3 m
- Final fall speed: 24 km/h
- Block: 30 kg
- Spheres: 1 kg each
- Blade: 7kg
- Blade Width: 40cm
Zombies?
According to reports, when they slapped the head of a decapitated noblewoman, she turned red with anger. There is no scientific proof, but spasms are possible: a severed head may raise eyebrows or blink. Dutch neuroscientists tested rats and concluded that they retained brain activity for four seconds after having their heads cut off. Even so, there is no consensus whether it is possible for a severed human head to have instants of consciousness.
The terror, the terror
An estimated 40,000 heads rolled between 1792 and 1799. The most sinister period of that era, from 1792 to 1794, became known as the Terror. In that time, the revolutionary government suspended civil guarantees and around 15,000 people died on the guillotine. At the end of the Terror, a coup overthrew and guillotined Robespierre, the very leader of the government.
Illustrious guillotined
Louis 16
It doesn’t hurt to remember, the French Revolution was the revolution because they killed the king himself! Louis was cornered, arrested, tried and convicted of high treason.
Marie Antoinette
Nine months after the execution of Louis XVI in what is now Place de la Concorde, it was the queen’s turn to lose her mind
Lavoisier
Father of modern chemistry, Antoine Lavoisier was convicted of getting involved with the owners of a company that was an enemy of the revolutionaries
Danton
One of the leaders of the early Revolution, he ended up opposing Robespierre, who declared him an enemy of the republic. He was executed alongside journalist Camille Desmoulins, a former best friend of Robespierre. What a nice guy!
beta versions
Meet the precursors of the guillotine
Maiden (Scotland, 1564)
Square piece of iron, whose sharp blade served mainly for the purpose of beheading the nobility
Halifax Gibbet (England, 1541)
It had an ax head mounted on a heavy block of wood that sloped down towards a stone base.
Other curiosities
- Assassin and thief Nicolas Pelletier debuted the guillotine in 1792. The blow was accurate: his head jumped and fell into a basket, to the delight of the crowd.
- Eugen Weidmann was the last person publicly executed in France, in 1939. But beheadings continued privately until 1977! The death penalty was only abolished in the country in 1981.
CONSULTANCY Alfredo Salun, historian, author of Revolutionaries and Tyrants: Themes of Contemporary HistoryDulcidio Braz Jr., physicist and author of the Physics in the Vein project, and Tania Machado Morin, historian and author of Virtuous and Dangerous: Women in the French Revolution
SOURCES Books The Guillotine and the Imaginary of Terrorby Daniel Arasse The French Revolution – 1789-1799, by Michel Vovelle; The Guillotine Headquarters website