Posted by Allan_Lang on June 16, 2002 at -1:41:08 from 202.61.171.25 user Allan_Lang.
In Reply to: Re: Not Much Chop ! posted by Andrew Knights on June 11, 2002 at 11:48:27:
No you're right Andrew. (or partly so)
Probably introduced during the reign on Edward III 1312-77, Halifax England used the Halifax Gibbet until 1650.
Holinshead also records the execution at Merton Ireland of Murcod Ballagh in 1307.
Woodcuts of both this and the Halifax Gibbet show (apart from using a horizontal blade) a "classic Guillotine".
The decription of the Italian mannaia "headsmans axe", in use from 1486, is also that of a guillotine.
However, it is a myth that Dr Guillotin was executed, he died of natural causes in 1814.
However, James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, Regent of Scotland 1572-1580, took a model of the Gibbet when passed through Halifax. He subsequently introduced this into Scotland as the Maiden.
In 1580 he was found guilty of the murder of Lord Darnley, and executed by the Maiden in 1581.