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Post by 7thWoman on Dec 3, 2004 13:42:34 GMT -5
For any history buff, it's a fairly general question, not a backbreaker at all. Or anyone who watches AMC or TCM on veterans and memorial day. Wonderful war movies. The Bastille (not sure on the spelling) was the tower in Paris (might have been near Paris) where they kept prisoners just before the French Revolution, well one of the French Revolutions. It was in Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities." They tortured their prisoners in all sorts of creative ways, and took the ones they really didn't like to the guillotine in the public square every week. The VIP's in Paris had season seats to the beheadings in the front row. |
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Post by Island on Dec 4, 2004 5:25:59 GMT -5
You are correct 7th Woman. However, the guillotine was not used for executions in front of the Bastille until 1792-the death of Jacques Nicolas Pelletier. The French Revolution was in full swing by that time. In fact, Dr. Joseph Guillotine(not the inventor, he's an advocate) submitted proposals for the guillotine the year the Bastille is stormed by the people of Paris(1789), the even that many point to as the beginning of the French Revolution(or the one everyone talks about anyway). So yeah, they did not guillotine people before the revolution. In fact, they didn't behead everyone until Guillotine got his proposals approved.
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Post by 7thWoman on Dec 8, 2004 23:29:13 GMT -5
Hmm...I did a report on that stuff in the 9th grade when we had to read A Tale of Two Cities. That was 12 years ago, and some of what I remember from that report has probably been corrupted by several hollywood movies, including the A Tale of Two Cities movie we saw in class after reading it. I do remember reading about some very interesting methods of torture they used that really aren't appropriate for this board, but I must have picked up the bit about the head-chopper-off-er from the movies. Funny how fiction and fact seem to converge over time.
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Post by Island on Dec 9, 2004 18:52:53 GMT -5
They did behead people but before the guillotine, there were other options for the royals to dispatch their quarry: hanging, drawing and quartering(this fell out of favor), executioner's axe, etc... Also, the belief is that the French Revolution facilitated the need for the guillotine. That is not true as my post shows. As for FR techniques, they're a bunch of eye-openers. Carrier used to sink a ship full of people into the river Nantes and then artificially raise so that it could be reused. The guillotine man would have gotten rotator cuff if he had to do it all himself!!! Hmm...I did a report on that stuff in the 9th grade when we had to read A Tale of Two Cities. That was 12 years ago, and some of what I remember from that report has probably been corrupted by several hollywood movies, including the A Tale of Two Cities movie we saw in class after reading it. I do remember reading about some very interesting methods of torture they used that really aren't appropriate for this board, but I must have picked up the bit about the head-chopper-off-er from the movies. Funny how fiction and fact seem to converge over time. |
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