Archive for June, 2009
Marie Antoinette The Execution
June 10th, 2009
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Question: Summarize the execution of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.?
Answer: Well, first, someone came to their prison cell and cut their hair short, so it wouldn't dull the guillotine blade any more than necessary. Then they put them in an open cart and then they rode through the streets from the Conciergerie to La Place de la Concord, and people spat at them, urinated on them, and threw garbage, dung and other things at them.
When they got to the scaffold, a large built up platform (so people can better see them die) they walked up about 8-12 steps. They waited in a line, and when it was their turn they were walked up to the guillotine. Louis XVI tried to speak to the crowd and protest his innocence. I have no record of Marie Antoinette saying anything.
The plank that they would lay on was propped up vertically, and it was adjusted so that their chin was placed just over the edge. They were tied to the plank. Next thing they were dropped into place, and the lunette (the sliding board in the guillotine that fits around the neck) was slid into place by one of Sanson's (the executioner's) assistants, probably his son or a relative. The next second, the blade came down and the head dropped into the basket.
Blood spurt out of the body forward about 6 feet. The assistant reached under the blood and grabbed the head and held it up saying, "Behold the head of a traitor."
Usually, from the time the condemned person got to the plank to death was about 5-10 seconds. It was so fast that the head was still alive, and often ( noted by many after Charlotte Corday was guillotined) the head was still alive and the eyes looked around the crowd and the lips moved, as if to speak. That lasted about five seconds and the eyes closed.
Marie Antoinette
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Marie Antoinette Costume Uk
June 10th, 2009
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