I visited the Tower of London..... Nice place......but knowing what happened there made it.....slightly creepy. But a beheading was a merciful death compared to being drawn and quartered alive!
Yeah sure.. Unless the axeswinger was hung over and chopped part of your face off and you had to wait for another blow . Then a third. And often a fourth. Executioners were the scum of the earth, untouchables , nasty hard drinkers and gamblers , rough men with poor judgement. Good luck with that choice 👍
Yes they were also given money by the poor sod they were about to behead, it was hoped that the executioner would do a good job, clearly many who paid still got ripped off! 😒
Henry VIII let a very skilled and experienced executioner from Calais come for Anne Boleyn's beheading. He only needed one sword cut to get his job done.
Hi Cousin! A relative of mine tracked the family back to the Bishop of Evereux in Normandy (1060), then to Charlemagne and Rollo, a famous Viking leader. So that's 12-1300 years of history! It's really amazing to think that dozens of generations can be traced thanks to church records and the like!
Great video. They sure went to a lot of trouble to carry out their executions. Sooo much preparation. Surely that must have added to the angst of the person who was to die? Scary stuff! Thanks for presenting!
@@steven2212 well!! I'll have you know i went to a school next street to Essex .Gate and Essex street in Dublin City centre called after your lamented earl of Essex/put that in your pipe and smoke it steve
It was an ordinary woods mans axe and not designed for purpose. It was often inefficient. That's why Henry Vlll allowed Anne Boleyn to be executed by sword, which was much quicker and took only one strike.
Regarding the carpenter modeling Essex on the scaffold at the end, my querie is that there isn't sufficient space for the headsman to provide a overhead swing that would connect with the neck on the block. If the dimensions are true, then little wonder it took three goes to sperate the poor mans head.
But also imagine the hardness of heart of Elizabeth to murder her ex-favourite. Or how Henry 8th murdered his favourite wife after such a short while. I can't fathom it
nocount1 They build a platform so everyone can see the execution. They also built it to prevent interference. It's always easier to defend high ground. As a working place and a defence structure it must be solid, hence the material choosen.
@@nocount1 Within the walls of the Tower, the scaffold had not to be defended. It could be different if the execution took place in the public, e.g. on an open market place. Supporters or relatives of the convicted might have tried to free him (or her).
Very interesting! I'm a descendent of the Earl and have seen the Tower of London site of his execution, plus one of the towers is named after him, as is a nice Pub in London.
Doesn't seem like much room to move around, esp. with all the other persons who likely were up there to assist and officiate! Is that replica scaffold still on display at the Tower?
As someone who has spent a lot of hours chopping fire wood, I would want the victim's neck raised about 18" (at least for me, at 6'2") Any lower and the axe would strike at too much of a downward angle. To me, having the victim's neck on a raised chopping block would make pefect sense ??
I think as experienced wood choppers we, for the benefit of the uninitiated, should be sure to emphasize the need for a level, firm surface upon which to place the chopping block. This along with a properly sized block will allow for the most efficient application of force.
@@michaelpielorz9283 Because weather it is a piece of wood or (heaven forbid) someones neck you want to hit it as efficiently as possible. I have cut a lot of wood over the years, I don't pick up a log and place it on a raised block just for fun!
Lots of comments about family trees here. Consider: every generation back doubles the number of ancestors to be considered. You have 4 grandparents, 8 great GPs, and so on. 10 generations back, 1,024 ancestors; 20 back (to about the times in the video) more than a million. By the 1100s, a billion, which is way more than the whole Earth's population at the time. The only answer is, of course, incest. When I was a kid the next door neighbor came out with a piece of paper he claimed showed that Charlemagne (circa 800 CE) was a direct ancestor of his. Realizing what I know about that today, the miracle would be finding a European who was not.
@@MrRecrute: Here goes. 1 generation every 30 years, 1 generation, 2 ancestors. 2 gens 4 ancestors. In general, n gens back, 2^n ancestors. 10 gens back, 1024 ancestors, 20 gens back, 1,048,576 ancestors. 30 gens back, 1,073,741,824. That's more than a billion. 30 * 30 = 900 years, 900 years ago is 1120 AD. Go ahead look it up: 2^30 = 1,073,741,824. Use a scientific calculator, or enter a 1 and then "x 2 =" 30 times. Having proven that to yourself, go back and reread what I wrote about that being more then there were people alive in 1100AD.
@@puncheex2 I understand the maths, but society doesn’t conform with maths. In pre-industrial times society was congregated in villages and towns, people paired off by selecting a mate (or more likely the parents selected the mate) from another village or town. After a couple of generations the off spring were reasonably removed to mate with someone from the same village or town who had a common ancestor. And thus it proceeded.
@@MrRecrute Indeed it did. The point of the video is that it happened that way; in fact, quite often that mate from the next town may have had eight kids, some with the subject and some with another, and these kids may find their way into you family tree in multiple place - in effect, inbreeding; genealogists call it pedigree collapse. I've looked back into mine pretty extensively, and there are two dozen cousin marriage, and lots of couples who appear in parts of my and my wife's trees. We're eight cousins even though our families were completely separate. Eastern Virginia. was a hotbed for this activity.
The new year in those days began in April, not January. Essex was executed in what we now call February 1601, but back then was February 1600. For the same reason, contemporary documents have King Charles I being executed in January 1648, which we now designate as January 1649.
How could any exectioner have the courage to slice off a pretty woman's thin little neck? I suppose if he didn't he would find himself on the "block" instead.
Yes, I'm sure it paid well. And for the executioner, it wasn't personal. The job that really had to suck was when someone had to be drawn and quartered.
Three strokes to sever the head??? Someones forgot to sharp the axe ...or the executioner was previously instructed to do it so..to inflict more suffering to his victim...
Hi Sarah-Jade. This is an out-take of a longer documentary, also on UA-cam. Have a look at 'The Bloody Tower of London', uploaded by The Brar's on 31 October 2013. Regards, Brian
Essex was her 1st cousin twice removed. His great grandmother was Mary Boleyn, her mother's sister. His mother was a favorite lady in waiting and confidante of the Queen, at least until Lettice went out and secretly married Robert Dudley, who is said to have been the one man the Queen truly loved.
Necks are friggin' hard to cut through. They're full of bone, ligament and tough tissues that make up the esophagus and trachea. The sharpness of the instument is important, but it is still difficult. I've done turkeys and ducks with a hand axe; and they are not as easy as they look.
That's a lot of ifs there. Another thing I'll add - that axe has the balance of a water balloon. It would take a strtrong man just to make it come down straight.
He was her 2nd son to the late Robert Dudley. Elizabeth had arranged a last minute plan to stop the execution but a lady close to her presence inhibited this. She was utterly devastated and tormeneted at learning her son, younger brother to Francis Bacon (aka Shakespeare, the Author, not the actor.) That's what set Elizabeth into her immediate decline. Absymal.
Robert Devereux was a Dickless wonder who was stupid enough to believe that he could usurp the Rule of Elizabeth I, and that the people would go along with his irrational Bull Chit!
I like to think it was upcycled into some chic boutique hotel furniture with a distressed look to it most likely catering to rich jet set of the time 😁
@aboctok The "time of conservation" being referred to is the present day - BRUTALTRUTH believes they should have used recycled wood to make this replica scaffold, amirite? But even in Elizabeth I's day, wood of all kinds was running short, simply because so much of it was needed for almost every purpose, and the population was steadily rising.
this whole thing is very very odd re-creating horror ? the only value in it is reminding all of the ongoing cruelty & evil that man is capable of. & of course practising blacksmithing & woodwork methods.
Damn few people with English blood are not related to the Henrys. Counting backwards from today you have about 21 generations, which means more than two million direct ancestors to you at that time. That none of them were royalty, who were gifted with profligacy in these things, would seem to be perverse.
I cannot disagree with you more - execute mass-murderers, terrorists and child-abusers; these creatures are not entitled to human rights, as they did not extend those courtesies to their victims.
I visited the Tower of London.....
Nice place......but knowing what happened there made it.....slightly creepy.
But a beheading was a merciful death compared to being drawn and quartered alive!
Yeah sure..
Unless the axeswinger was hung over and chopped part of your face off and you had to wait for another blow . Then a third. And often a fourth.
Executioners were the scum of the earth, untouchables , nasty hard drinkers and gamblers , rough men with poor judgement.
Good luck with that choice 👍
Yes they were also given money by the poor sod they were about to behead, it was hoped that the executioner would do a good job, clearly many who paid still got ripped off! 😒
the nobility got beheaded for treason..
Henry VIII let a very skilled and experienced executioner from Calais come for Anne Boleyn's beheading. He only needed one sword cut to get his job done.
If you pay the executioner to make a good job and he bodges it with three strokes, how do you put in for the refund?
Squeak E Mouse Hahahaha
No refunds payable ... it was all there in the small print.
Haunt him for the rest of his life...Boo!
Give him a bad feedback on ebay.
The Executioner's terms and conditions were in the basket for the prisoner to read later. 😁
You would have to be careful you could get a nasty splinter off that scaffold.
Elizabeth was definately her fathers daughter . She didnt mess around when she wanted something done .
Elizabeth never executed anywhere near the number of people her father did .
She hesitated with the execution of Mary Stuart and claimed in the afterward she hadn't ordered it.
@@Aaron50001 Probably had more people tortured though.
A lot of bloodshed with the Tudors. Many many died from burning as heretics on the opposite side of how the monarchs religion was. Just terrible.
Video ends abruptly. Doesn't feel finished
Because it is just a small part of a longer documentary.
I'm sure Essex felt similarly...
@@godfreydaniel6278 hahaha
He was a handsome dude something like the Russel Brand of his day but without the hypocrisy
What do you know about Russell Brand?
@@claudermiller That he's a hypocrite, I'm guessing.
And without the tiresome self expectation that everything he says is “absolutely hilarious”.....
I likes me me socialism
@@claudermiller enough, judging from his comment!
Can't we let this guy loose in the houses of parliament for a couple of hours maybe?
Hi Cousin! A relative of mine tracked the family back to the Bishop of Evereux in Normandy (1060), then to Charlemagne and Rollo, a famous Viking leader. So that's 12-1300 years of history!
It's really amazing to think that dozens of generations can be traced thanks to church records and the like!
Me too! Are we related? de Bohun Devereux?
Only if the records were accurate! How many men today find out they are not the father?
Are you kidding us?
Great video. They sure went to a lot of trouble to carry out their executions. Sooo much preparation. Surely that must have added to the angst of the person who was to die? Scary stuff! Thanks for presenting!
@H P I suppose you want 'severance' pay, too? rofl!
Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex was my 11th great-uncle.
I'm sorry for your loss.
We were all pretty broken up...and so young!
There was talk...Very awkward at family functions.
@@steven2212 I was miserable:then I read this and almost burst my bellybutton.You rogue you🤣
@@steven2212 well!! I'll have you know i went to a school next street to Essex .Gate and Essex street in Dublin City centre called after your lamented earl of Essex/put that in your pipe and smoke it steve
Three blows with a heavy axe, was the executioner drunk or just weak?
Usually the executioner was drunk as a skunk....
It was an ordinary woods mans axe and not designed for purpose. It was often inefficient. That's why Henry Vlll allowed Anne Boleyn to be executed by sword, which was much quicker and took only one strike.
Usually the executioner was drunk. He need to drink to put himself together to strengthen his heart reminding he will kill someone that morning
Would there have been enough room for the executioner to stand and swing if the earl was centered on the platform?
I thought the same thing. That's probably why it took three strokes to remove Essex's head.
Regarding the carpenter modeling Essex on the scaffold at the end, my querie is that there isn't sufficient space for the headsman to provide a overhead swing that would connect with the neck on the block. If the dimensions are true, then little wonder it took three goes to sperate the poor mans head.
That might explain why it took three sloppy blows.
So I concluded that people couldn't draw 500 years ago?
A woodcut is not a drawing. It is a carving made out of wood and them inked and printed on paper.
naw.... people actually were that ugly and warped looking :)
@@birgittabirgersdatter8082 Presumably someone drew the scene on a pice of wood before it was cut out.
What about Mary Queen of Scott's who was also beheaded in Elizabeth's time as Queen . ? Essex wasn't the only one .
But not in the Tower. Fotheringhay castle, 72 miles away.
Blueberry River the only one within the walls of the tower....
People who misspell, or misuse punctuation, should be behedded!
I'll stick my oar in and add Mary's execution was a total balls up and a horror
to witness let's just say hacking at the end was involved as well.
@@dr.leftfield9566 completely conscious throughout.
Can you imagine if having a family, coming home afterwards sharing to the family how your day was
It would would be worse if you had to bring work home with you !
@@chrisbrown8640 😁
But also imagine the hardness of heart of Elizabeth to murder her ex-favourite. Or how Henry 8th murdered his favourite wife after such a short while. I can't fathom it
Today a fool and his money are soon parted. In Elizabethan Britain, a fool and his head were often parted.
They should leave the replica in place permanently. Be interesting for visitors
And a warning
Why would they build with high-quality wood for a such a very temporary structure?
nocount1
They build a platform so everyone can see the execution. They also built it to prevent interference.
It's always easier to defend high ground.
As a working place and a defence structure it must be solid, hence the material choosen.
Ahh...Never thought of the scaffold as having to be defensible.
nocount1
You are welcome.
filmtajm35 I know his execution was done « privately », but maybe they built a platform for all to see the execution?
@@nocount1 Within the walls of the Tower, the scaffold had not to be defended. It could be different if the execution took place in the public, e.g. on an open market place. Supporters or relatives of the convicted might have tried to free him (or her).
Very interesting! I'm a descendent of the Earl and have seen the Tower of London site of his execution, plus one of the towers is named after him, as is a nice Pub in London.
dvrx I'm a descendant also!
dvrx i'm his dad
I'm sister of Robert Devereux and aunt of Napoleon Bonaparte
A cracking piece of History, cheers
electric grinder to sharpen the axe, i don't think so!!!
I thought that too
Just to put the bevels on, final sharpening completed with oil or water stones.
Doesn't seem like much room to move around, esp. with all the other persons who likely were up there to assist and officiate! Is that replica scaffold still on display at the Tower?
What did he do to fall out of favor?
who knows, but if he was really the queen's "lover" it was probably just a matter of time
@@cx2900 in 1601 he led a failed coup d’état against Queen Elizabeth, and was executed for treason.
That's one way to get ahead in court.
Yes, but one should not lose their head over such things.
PickelJars ForHillary detroit
I see what you did there. :)
Tails you win ...heads you lose !
As someone who has spent a lot of hours chopping fire wood, I would want the victim's neck raised about 18" (at least for me, at 6'2") Any lower and the axe would strike at too much of a downward angle. To me, having the victim's neck on a raised chopping block would make pefect sense ??
I think as experienced wood choppers we, for the benefit of the uninitiated, should be sure to emphasize the need for a level, firm surface upon which to place the chopping block.
This along with a properly sized block will allow for the most efficient application of force.
OMG,how come you know those precise details ??
@@michaelpielorz9283 Because weather it is a piece of wood or (heaven forbid) someones neck you want to hit it as efficiently as possible. I have cut a lot of wood over the years, I don't pick up a log and place it on a raised block just for fun!
@@tjm3900 It was just a joke . I wouldn`t ask "I hope your wife is doing fine?".
The Vikings used to consider Beheading's as an honorable death. In that period i suppose we thought the same.
The stairs on that scaffold look too modern in design.
Narrated by Sean Pertwee?
Lots of comments about family trees here. Consider: every generation back doubles the number of ancestors to be considered. You have 4 grandparents, 8 great GPs, and so on. 10 generations back, 1,024 ancestors; 20 back (to about the times in the video) more than a million. By the 1100s, a billion, which is way more than the whole Earth's population at the time. The only answer is, of course, incest.
When I was a kid the next door neighbor came out with a piece of paper he claimed showed that Charlemagne (circa 800 CE) was a direct ancestor of his. Realizing what I know about that today, the miracle would be finding a European who was not.
Don’t know how you get a billion by your calculations, which you don’t show. The earth’s population has been estimated at one billion at about 1800.
@@MrRecrute: Here goes. 1 generation every 30 years, 1 generation, 2 ancestors. 2 gens 4 ancestors. In general, n gens back, 2^n ancestors.
10 gens back, 1024 ancestors, 20 gens back, 1,048,576 ancestors. 30 gens back, 1,073,741,824. That's more than a billion. 30 * 30 = 900 years, 900 years ago is 1120 AD. Go ahead look it up: 2^30 = 1,073,741,824. Use a scientific calculator, or enter a 1 and then "x 2 =" 30 times. Having proven that to yourself, go back and reread what I wrote about that being more then there were people alive in 1100AD.
@@puncheex2 I understand the maths, but society doesn’t conform with maths. In pre-industrial times society was congregated in villages and towns, people paired off by selecting a mate (or more likely the parents selected the mate) from another village or town. After a couple of generations the off spring were reasonably removed to mate with someone from the same village or town who had a common ancestor. And thus it proceeded.
@@MrRecrute Indeed it did. The point of the video is that it happened that way; in fact, quite often that mate from the next town may have had eight kids, some with the subject and some with another, and these kids may find their way into you family tree in multiple place - in effect, inbreeding; genealogists call it pedigree collapse. I've looked back into mine pretty extensively, and there are two dozen cousin marriage, and lots of couples who appear in parts of my and my wife's trees. We're eight cousins even though our families were completely separate. Eastern Virginia. was a hotbed for this activity.
@@puncheex2 well often it’s all that was available.
Handsome Monmouth was beheaded for treason .... took around 7 or more chops of the axe though....
Why don't they watch the 1939 movie with Davis and Flynn?...The WB prop dept was one of the BEST in Hollywood...
Can anyone else see that it reads 1600 on the document which was being read at 5:14? Why did the reader not read out 1600? Wikipedia reads 1601
It's because the calendar in Essex's time was different. The Tudors used the Julian calendar. We use the Gregorian calendar.
The new year in those days began in April, not January. Essex was executed in what we now call February 1601, but back then was February 1600. For the same reason, contemporary documents have King Charles I being executed in January 1648, which we now designate as January 1649.
How could any exectioner have the courage to slice off a pretty woman's thin little neck? I suppose if he didn't he would find himself on the "block" instead.
It was a job
Yes, I'm sure it paid well. And for the executioner, it wasn't personal. The job that really had to suck was when someone had to be drawn and quartered.
Brainwashed, fear, religion, someone needed to do it
Never mess with a royal bit of stuff!
The macabre.... how hideous and awful it is... we can't resist.
a samurai sword could easily do it in one!
A real** samurai katana.
True. That's what happened to Anne Bollyn.
Katana is in a diff league compared to these barbaric weapons.
@@kysike666 *teleports behind you*
heh, nothing personnel kid
How interesting!
Thanks for posting.
Three strokes to sever the head??? Someones forgot to sharp the axe ...or the executioner was previously instructed to do it so..to inflict more suffering to his victim...
Exactly my thoughts
3:38 looks like the wood above that peg is splitting. Doh!
What documentary is this clip from?
Hi Sarah-Jade. This is an out-take of a longer documentary, also on UA-cam. Have a look at 'The Bloody Tower of London', uploaded by The Brar's on 31 October 2013. Regards, Brian
@@brianhill3062 thank you so much ☺
I would love to show the woman historian my scroll 😉
Elizabeth did not have a lover & certainly not the son of her aunt’s grandchild.
Is this Sean Pertwee?
If they know that the marked spot for the executions in the Tower is wrong, why the fuck don’t they move it to the right place?
Wasn't he connected to Queen Elizabeth?
DelightfulTorment In the end he wasn't even connected to his head
Essex was her 1st cousin twice removed. His great grandmother was Mary Boleyn, her mother's sister. His mother was a favorite lady in waiting and confidante of the Queen, at least until Lettice went out and secretly married Robert Dudley, who is said to have been the one man the Queen truly loved.
Literally so, if the rumours spoke true.
Did he scream - You Are Filthy Bastards - when the the axe was dropped ?
I heard they cut off his head and threw it in his face.
And inserted into his nose.
Did he scream 'You Are Filthy Bastards' when the axe fell??
What about Thomas Percy, Sir Christopher Blount, Sir Charles Danvers? All beheaded furing the raign of Elizabeth.
At the Tower of London?
Waste of a lot of good oak wood. A drawing would suffice.
Same thing I was thinking.
Three blows what was the axe head made of rubber
Ever try to behead a turkey? If you have then you know something about the problem.
puncheex2 tell us what the problem is!!!!
Necks are friggin' hard to cut through. They're full of bone, ligament and tough tissues that make up the esophagus and trachea. The sharpness of the instument is important, but it is still difficult. I've done turkeys and ducks with a hand axe; and they are not as easy as they look.
puncheex2 large heavy axe thats razor sharp and someone thats competent but of course it was meant to be a spectacle
That's a lot of ifs there. Another thing I'll add - that axe has the balance of a water balloon. It would take a strtrong man just to make it come down straight.
We now know the executioner of charles 1st. Thomas Pride's son (Prides Purge)
google
Joseph Pride Executioner of Charles 1st
Should have been longer.
Thanks for posting. I like vids like this.
:-D
He was her 2nd son to the late Robert Dudley. Elizabeth had arranged a last minute plan to stop the execution but a lady close to her presence inhibited this. She was utterly devastated and tormeneted at learning her son, younger brother to Francis Bacon (aka Shakespeare, the Author, not the actor.) That's what set Elizabeth into her immediate decline. Absymal.
Ah yes! Ye Olde grinder!
did he died?
Of course. You would too with no head.
back in time to the horror that was. how pathetic we can be.
Touched that axe. It wasn't very sharp.
That was a rather uneventful let down.
Sean Pertwee ?
Robert Devereux was a brave hero!!
Robert Devereux was a Dickless wonder who was stupid enough to believe that he could usurp the Rule of Elizabeth I, and that the people would go along with his irrational Bull Chit!
Balls!
See Joe Stalin et Al re confessions! Plus ca change!
Who gives a shit? At lizzie's behest went he in quest of the murder of the Gael!
What a waste of oak wood. In a time of conservation was this use of raw materials really necessary?. Still, this is a fascinating programme.
BRUTUALTRUTH ....they no doubt did some serious recycling of everything back then. The oak would have ended up as a porch or a door
I like to think it was upcycled into some chic boutique hotel furniture with a distressed look to it most likely catering to rich jet set of the time 😁
@aboctok The "time of conservation" being referred to is the present day - BRUTALTRUTH believes they should have used recycled wood to make this replica scaffold, amirite? But even in Elizabeth I's day, wood of all kinds was running short, simply because so much of it was needed for almost every purpose, and the population was steadily rising.
I agree fully.
Sad😢it took 3 whacks! It should have been done with one.😮
These people that were beheaded were very brave smh.. Some Evil shit
this whole thing is very very odd
re-creating horror ?
the only value in it is reminding all
of the ongoing cruelty & evil
that man is capable of.
& of course practising
blacksmithing & woodwork methods.
Guess Hate, killing, and evil will always exist for power, money,or greed.
Devereux could not have been Queen Elizabeth's lover 'cos she was the "Virgin Queene" ............
The Mme Guillotine was better and more effektiv ☝️😎
I am related to the Tudors my grandma's sisters name was tudor lol
Damn few people with English blood are not related to the Henrys. Counting backwards from today you have about 21 generations, which means more than two million direct ancestors to you at that time. That none of them were royalty, who were gifted with profligacy in these things, would seem to be perverse.
USS Eddard you and half of England
has it really changed ?
guantanamo ? irak? palestine ? etc ...
nothing nex under the Sun
Where do they find oak on Cuba? And it's "Iraq" and "new"..
well arabs aren't really people. so i'd say its changed quite a bit.
Irishfella, if you are Irish it's because you have a stolen passport.
Lost a foot the day he died.
Headjob, Well Hung and nowadays a Little Prick. Something Freudian about capital punishment.
Surely he was Black?
¿wonder if "Scaffold" by Sir Elton John was inspired by history?
I though they want to chop edward of essex lol
That would be Wessex, not Essex.
😢😢😢😢⚰⚰⚰⚰
@legionofgodmin Execution must remain illegal. ABOLISH DEATH WORLDWIDE.
Could not agree more
Idiot
Evan Friend Thanks buddy :)
Lt. Command Olly Jackson If you don't want to be called an idiot, don't make idiotic comments.
Evan Friend I Couldn't give a monkey's what you or anyone else calls me, so its it's kind of a moot point
I cannot disagree with you more - execute mass-murderers, terrorists and child-abusers; these creatures are not entitled to human rights, as they did not extend those courtesies to their victims.
@bulked LMAO
should do this to covid rule flouters
should do it to those who mindlessly comply with the marxist agenda ....tho the vaxx will get them ...
what? A power tool to sharpen the axe? garbage!