Editing Breaking wheel (section)

===Sweden===
[[File:Breaking Wheel.jpg|thumb|The execution of [[Peter Stumpp]], involving the breaking wheel in use in Cologne in the early modern period]]

[[Johann Patkul]] was a [[Livonian people|Livonian]] gentleman who was condemned on charges of treason by Swedish king [[Charles XII of Sweden|Charles XII]] in 1707. The priest Lorentz Hagen was a friend of Patkul's and described the horrors his friend had to endure when Patkul was condemned to be broken on the wheel:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hagen |first=Lorentz |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27NbAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA45 |title=Anecdotes Concerning the Famous John Reinhold Patkul: Or, an Authentic Relation of what Passed Betwixt Him and His Confessor, the Night Before and at His Execution. Translated from the Original Manuscript, Never Yet Printed |publisher=A. Millar |year=1761 |location=London |pages=45–46}}</ref>

{{quote|Here the executioner gave him the first stroke. His cries were terrible. "O Jesus! Jesus, have mercy upon me!" This cruel scene was much lengthened out, and of the utmost horror; for as the headsman had no skill in his business, the wretch under his hands received upwards of fifteen blows, with each of which were intermixed the most piteous groans, and invocations of the name of God. At length, after two strokes given on the breast, his strength and voice failed him. In a faltering dying tone, he was just heard to say, "Cut off my head!" and the executioner still lingering, he himself placed his head on the scaffold: in a word, after four strokes with a hatchet, the head was separated from the body, and the body quartered. Such was the end of the renowned Patkul: and may God have mercy on his soul!}}