Editing Decapitation (section)

== History ==
[[File:Oden vid Mims lik.jpg|thumb|[[Odin]] finding [[Mímir]]'s beheaded body – an episode of [[Norse mythology]]]]
[[File:Beheading Fac simile of a Miniature on Wood in the Cosmographie Universelle of Munster in folio Basle 1552.png|thumb|Beheading – [[facsimile]] of a miniature on [[woodcut|wood]] in the ''[[Cosmographia (Sebastian Münster)|Cosmographia]]'' of [[Sebastian Münster]] (1488–1552), [[Basel]], [[Switzerland]], 1552]]
[[File:Giulio Quaglio the Younger - Obglavljenje sv. Barbare.jpg|thumb|upright|"The beheading of [[Saint Barbara|St. Barbara]]" by [[Giulio Quaglio the Younger]] (1721–1723)]]
[[File:Thetriumphofdeath - detail.jpg|thumb|right|Depiction of a public execution in Brueghel's ''[[The Triumph of Death]]'', 1562–1563]] 
[[File:Hinrichtung.jpg|thumb|right|Depiction of the public execution of [[Piracy|pirates]] (namely [[Klein Henszlein]] and his crew) in [[Hamburg]], Germany, 10 September 1573]]

Humans have practiced [[capital punishment]] by beheading for millennia. The [[Narmer Palette]] (c. 3000 BCE) shows the first known depiction of decapitated corpses. The terms "capital offence", "capital crime", "capital punishment", derive from the Latin {{Lang|la|caput}}, "head", referring to the punishment for serious offences involving the forfeiture of the head; i.e. death by beheading.<ref>Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, edited by Noah Porter, published by G & C. Merriam Co., 1913</ref>

Some cultures, such as ancient Rome and Greece, regarded decapitation as the most honorable form of death.<ref name="roberson">{{cite book |first1=Cliff |last1=Roberson |first2=Dilip K. |last2=Das |title=An Introduction to Comparative Legal Models of Criminal Justice |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pQLLBQAAQBAJ |page=172 |publisher=[[CRC Press]] |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-4200-6593-0 |access-date=2 August 2020 |archive-date=8 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240608031109/https://books.google.com/books?id=pQLLBQAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> In the Middle Ages, many European nations continued to reserve the method only for nobles and royalty.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Giovénal |first1=Carine |last2=Corbellari |first2=Alain |title=42 {{!}} 2020 Le chief tranché |url=http://journals.openedition.org/babel/11036 |access-date=11 March 2021 |journal=Babel |year=2020 |issue=42 |doi=10.4000/babel.11036 |language=fr |doi-access=free |archive-date=26 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210526131101/https://journals.openedition.org/babel/11036 |url-status=live }}</ref> In France, the [[French Revolution]] made it the only legal method of execution for all criminals regardless of class, one of the period's many symbolic changes.<ref name="roberson" />

Others have regarded beheading as dishonorable and contemptuous, such as the Japanese troops who beheaded prisoners during World War II.<ref name="roberson" /> In recent times, it has become associated with terrorism.<ref name="roberson" />

If a headsman's [[axe]] or [[executioner's sword|sword]] is sharp and his aim is precise, decapitation is quick and thought to be a relatively painless form of [[death]]. If the instrument is blunt or the executioner is clumsy, repeated strokes might be required to sever the head, resulting in a prolonged and more painful death. [[Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Smollett |first=T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T-M_AAAAYAAJ&q=robert+devereux+three+strokes&pg=PA488 |title=A Complete History of England, from the Descent of Julius Caesar |volume=4 |location=London |year=1758 |page=488 |access-date=16 October 2020 |archive-date=8 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240608031050/https://books.google.com/books?id=T-M_AAAAYAAJ&q=robert+devereux+three+strokes&pg=PA488#v=onepage&q=robert%20devereux%20three%20strokes&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[Mary, Queen of Scots]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Cheetham |first=J.K. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w6ogOYZvE2wC&pg=PA161 |title=On the Trail of Mary Queen of Scots |location=Glasgow |date=2000 |page=161 |isbn=978-0-946487-50-9 |access-date=23 March 2016 |archive-date=8 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240608031120/https://books.google.com/books?id=w6ogOYZvE2wC&pg=PA161#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> required three strikes at their respective executions. The same could be said for the execution of [[Johann Friedrich Struensee]], favorite of the Danish queen [[Caroline Matilda of Great Britain]]. [[Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury]], is said to have required up to 10 strokes before decapitation was achieved.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Complete Peerage |volume= XII part II |page=393 |title-link=The Complete Peerage}}</ref> This particular story may, however, be apocryphal, as highly divergent accounts exist. Historian and philosopher [[David Hume]], for example, relates the following about her death:<ref>{{cite book |last=Hume |first=David |author-link=David Hume |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nl0TAAAAQAAJ&q=execution+countess+of+salisbury&pg=PT7 |title=The history of the reign of Henry the eighth |location=London |date=1792 |page=151 |access-date=16 October 2020 |archive-date=8 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240608031047/https://books.google.com/books?id=nl0TAAAAQAAJ&q=execution+countess+of+salisbury&pg=PT7#v=snippet&q=execution%20countess%20of%20salisbury&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>{{blockquote|She refused to lay her head on the block, or submit to a sentence where she had received no trial. She told the executioner, that if he would have her head, he must win it the best way he could: and thus, shaking her venerable grey locks, she ran about the scaffold; and the executioner followed her with his axe, aiming many fruitless blows at her neck before he was able to give the fatal stroke.}}[[File:CosmasDamianfraangelico.jpg|thumb|''The Beheading of [[Cosmas and Damian]]'', by [[Fra Angelico]]]]

To ensure that the blow would be fatal, [[Executioner's sword|executioners' swords]] usually were blade-heavy two-handed swords. Likewise, if an axe was used, it almost invariably was wielded with both hands.