Editing Hanging (section)

==Inverted hanging, the "Jewish" punishment==
[[File:Picture of inverted hanging.png|thumb|Woodcut by [[Johann Stumpf (writer)|Johann Stumpf]], who witnessed this type of execution in 1553]]
A completely different principle of hanging is to hang the convicted person from their legs, rather than from their neck, either as a form of torture, or as an execution method. In late medieval Germany, this came to be primarily associated with Jews accused of being thieves, called the {{lang|de|Judenstrafe}} ({{literal translation|Jewish punishment}}). The jurist Ulrich Tengler, in his {{lang|de|Layenspiegel}} from 1509, describes the procedure as follows, in the section {{lang|de|italic=no|"Von Juden straff"}} ("On the punishment of Jews"):<ref>Tengler, U. [https://books.google.com/books?id=4DZLAAAAcAAJ&q=juden "Layenspiegel"]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513023935/https://books.google.com/books?id=4DZLAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:layenspiegel&hl=no&sa=X&ei=Y8wDUeb_CtKO4gSb0YGoDw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=juden&f=false |date=13 May 2016 }}. p.119</ref>

{{blockquote|To drag the Jew to the ordinary execution place between two angry or biting dogs. After dragging, to hang him from his feet by rope or chain at a designated gallows between the dogs, so that he is directed from life to death<ref>Original German text: {{lang|de|Den Juden zwischen zweyen wütenden oder beissenden hunde zu der gewonlichen gerichtstatt zu ziehen. vel schlieffen, mit dem strang oder ketten bey seinen füssen an eynen besondern galgen zwischen die hund nach verkerter mass hencken damit er also von leben zom tod gericht wird}}</ref>}}

{{ill|Guido Kisch|de}} showed that originally, this type of inverted hanging between two dogs was not a punishment specifically for Jews. Esther Cohen writes:<ref>Cohen, Esther (1993). [https://books.google.com/books?id=5lclnUXYB4sC&pg=PA92 ''The Crossroads of Justice: Law and Culture in Late Medieval France'']. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513114622/https://books.google.com/books?id=5lclnUXYB4sC&pg=PA92&lpg=PA92 |date=13 May 2016 }}. Brill. p.92–93</ref>

{{blockquote|
The inverted hanging with the accompaniment of two dogs, originally reserved for traitors, was identified from the fourteenth century as the "Jewish execution", being practised in the later Middle Ages in both northern and Mediterranean Europe. The Jewish execution in Germany has been thoroughly studied by G. Kisch, who has argued convincingly that neither the inverted hanging nor the stringing up of dogs or wolves beside the victim were particularly Jewish punishments during the High Middle Ages. They first appeared as Jewish punishments in Germany only towards the end of the thirteenth century, never being recognized as exclusively Jewish penalties.

In France the inverted, animal-associated hanging came to be connected with Jews by the later Middle Ages. The inverted hanging of Jews is specifically mentioned in the old customs of Burgundy in the context of animal hanging. The custom, dogs and all, was still in force in Paris shortly before the final expulsion of the Jews in 1394.}}

In Spain 1449, during a mob attack against the [[Marranos]] (Jews nominally converted to Christianity), the Jews resisted, but lost and several of them were hanged up by the feet.<ref>{{cite book|last=Archuleta|first=Roy A.|page=46|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UPE8yotFAT4C&pg=PA46|title=Where We Come From|year=2006|publisher=Where We Come From, collect. |isbn=978-1-4243-0472-1|access-date=14 March 2016|archive-date=13 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513012644/https://books.google.com/books?id=UPE8yotFAT4C&pg=PA46|url-status=live}}</ref> The first attested German case for a Jew being hanged by the feet is from 1296, in present-day [[Soultzmatt]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Müller|first=Jörg R.|pages=81, footnote 31|title=Beziehungsnetze aschkenasischer Juden während des Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit|language=de|trans-title=Relationship networks of Ashkenazi Jews during the Middle Ages and Early Modern period |year=2008|publisher=Hahnsche Buchhandlung|isbn=978-3-7752-5629-2}}</ref> Some other historical examples of this type of hanging within the German context are one Jew in [[County of Hainaut|Hennegau]] 1326, two Jews hanged in [[Frankfurt am Main|Frankfurt]] in 1444,<ref name="Deutsches bürgerthum im mittelalter">Kriegk, G. L. (1868). [https://books.google.com/books?id=QtQMAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA243 ''Deutsches Bürgerthum im Mittelalter'']. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513114626/https://books.google.com/books?id=QtQMAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA243 |date=13 May 2016 }}. Frankfurt am Main, p.243</ref> one in [[Halle (region)|Halle]] in 1462,<ref>Limmer, K. A. (1831). [https://books.google.com/books?id=N3UAAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA721 ''Bibliothek der sächsischen Geschichte'']. Vol. 2. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513024316/https://books.google.com/books?id=N3UAAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA721 |date=13 May 2016 }}. Ronneburg. p.721</ref> one in [[Dortmund]] in 1486,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=soAoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA90 {{lang|de|Monatsschrift für Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums|nocat=yes}}]. Vol. 9 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513114438/https://books.google.com/books?id=soAoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA90 |date=13 May 2016 }}. Leipzig 1860, p.90</ref> one in [[Hanau]] in 1499,<ref name="Deutsches bürgerthum im mittelalter"/> one in [[Breslau]] in 1505,<ref>Henne am Rhyn, O. (1870). [https://books.google.com/books?id=ph1BAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA566 {{lang|de|Kulturgeschichte des Zeitalters der neuern Zeit: vom Wiederaufleben der Wissenschaften bis auf die Gegenwart|nocat=yes}}]. Vol. 1. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160512225019/https://books.google.com/books?id=ph1BAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA566 |date=12 May 2016 }}. Leipzig: Otto Wigand. p.566</ref> one in [[Württemberg]] in 1553,<ref>Battenberg, F. (2002). [https://books.google.com/books?id=EuhCKcHBYJwC&pg=PA86 ''Von Enoch bis Kafka: Festschrift für Karl E. Grözinger zum 60. Geburtstag'']. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160512232903/https://books.google.com/books?id=EuhCKcHBYJwC&pg=PA86 |date=12 May 2016 }}. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. p.86</ref> one in [[Bergen, Lower Saxony|Bergen]] in 1588,<ref name="Deutsches bürgerthum im mittelalter"/> one in [[Öttingen]] in 1611,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11806-ottingen|title=Öttingen|website=Jewish Encyclopedia|access-date=8 October 2017|archive-date=14 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170814020306/http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11806-ottingen|url-status=live}}</ref> one in Frankfurt in 1615 and again in 1661,<ref name="Deutsches bürgerthum im mittelalter"/> and one condemned to this punishment in [[Prussia]] in 1637.<ref>Haym, R. (1861). [https://books.google.com/books?id=lME21-6A8kgC&pg=PA123 ''Preussische Jahrbücher'']. Vol. 8. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160512230501/https://books.google.com/books?id=lME21-6A8kgC&pg=PA123 |date=12 May 2016 }}. Berlin: Georg Reimer. p.122–23</ref>

The details of the cases vary widely: In the 1444 Frankfurt cases and the 1499 Hanau case, the dogs were dead prior to being hanged, and in the late 1615 and 1661 cases in Frankfurt, the Jews (and dogs) were merely kept in this manner for half an hour, before being [[Garrote|garroted]] from below. In the 1588 Bergen case, all three victims were left hanging till they were dead, ranging from 6 to 8 days after being hanged. In the Dortmund 1486 case, the dogs bit the Jew to death while hanging. In the 1611 Öttingen case, the Jew "Jacob the Tall" thought to blow up the {{lang|de|italic=no|Deutsche Ordenhaus}} with gunpowder after having burgled it. He was strung up between two dogs, and a large fire was made close by, and he expired after half an hour under this torture. In the 1553 Württemberg case, the Jew chose to convert to Christianity after hanging like this for 24 hours; he was then given the mercy to be hanged in the usual manner, from the neck, and without the dogs beside him. In the 1462 Halle case, the Jew Abraham also converted after 24 hours hanging upside down, and a priest ascended a ladder to baptise him. For two more days, Abraham was left hanging, while the priest argued with the city council that a true Christian should not be punished in this way. On the third day, Abraham was granted a reprieve, taken down, but died 20 days later in the local hospital having meanwhile suffered in extreme pain. In the 1637 case, where the Jew had murdered a Christian jeweller, the appeal to the [[Maria Anna of Spain|empress]] was successful, and out of mercy, the Jew was condemned to be merely pinched with glowing pincers, have hot lead dripped into his wounds, and then be [[Breaking wheel|broken alive on the wheel]].

Some of the reported cases may be myths, or wandering stories. The 1326 Hennegau case, for example, deviates from the others in that the Jew was not a thief, but was suspected (though he was a convert to Christianity) of having struck a [[fresco]] of the [[Virgin Mary]], so that [[Weeping statue|blood seeped]] down the wall from the painting. Even under all degrees of judicial torture, the Jew denied performing this sacrilegious act, and was therefore exonerated. Then a brawny smith demanded from him a [[trial by combat]], claiming he dreamt the Virgin herself had urged him to do so. The court accepted the smith's challenge, and he easily won the combat against the Jew, who was duly hanged up by the feet between two dogs. To add to the injury, one let him be slowly roasted as well as hanged.<ref>{{cite book|last=von Heister|first=Carl|page=38|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YjZDAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA38|title=Geschichtliche Untersuchungen über Israel: Die Juden: aufgebürdete Verbrechen. Erlittene Verfolgung. Angethane Schmach|volume=3|publisher=Tauerschmidt|year=1863|location=Naumburg|access-date=14 March 2016|archive-date=13 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513013515/https://books.google.com/books?id=YjZDAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA38|url-status=live}}</ref> This is a very similar story to one told in France, in which a young Jew threw a lance at the head of a statue of the Virgin, so that blood spurted out of it. There was inadequate evidence for a normal trial, but a frail old man asked for trial by combat, and bested the young Jew. The Jew confessed his crime, and was hanged by his feet between two mastiffs.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/caudatusanglicus00neiliala#page/10/mode/2up|at=p. 11, footnote 2|last=Neilson|first=George|year=1896|title=Caudatus Anglicus|location=Edinburgh|publisher=George p. Johnston}}</ref>

The features of the earliest attested case, that of a Jewish thief hanged by the feet in Soultzmatt in 1296 are also rather divergent from the rest. The Jew managed somehow, after he had been left to die, to twitch his body in such a manner that he could hoist himself up on the gallows and free himself. At that time, his feet were so damaged that he was unable to escape, and when he was discovered 8 days after he had been hanged, he was strangled to death by the townspeople.<ref>{{cite book|last=Tschamser|first=P. F. Malachiam|year=1864|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NME8AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA250|page=250|title=Annales oder Jahrs-Geschichten der Saarfüseren oder Minderen Brüdern S. Franc. ord., insgemein Conventualen genannt, zu Thann |orig-date=1724|volume=1|publisher=K. A. Hoffmann|location=Colmar|access-date=14 March 2016|archive-date=13 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513015127/https://books.google.com/books?id=NME8AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA250|url-status=live}}</ref>

As late as in 1699 in [[Celle]], the courts were sufficiently horrified at how the Jewish leader of a robber gang (condemned to be hanged in the normal manner) declared [[Blasphemy|blasphemies]] against Christianity, that they made a ruling on the ''post mortem'' treatment of Jonas Meyer. After three days, his corpse was cut down, his tongue cut out, and his body was hanged up again, but this time from its feet.<ref>The author regards this as probably the last case in which a Jew (although in this case dead) was hanged up by the feet in Germany. {{cite book|last1=Schnitzler|first1=Norbert|page=292|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WntiDRp3hdsC&pg=PA292|editor-last1=Schlosser|editor-first1=Hans |editor-last2=Sprandel|editor-first2=Rolf |editor-last3=Willoweit|editor-first3=Daniel |title=Herrschaftliches Strafen seit dem Hochmittelalter: Formen und Entwicklungsstufen|chapter=Juden vor Gericht: Soziale Ausgrenzung durch Sanktionen |language=de |publisher=Böhlau |location=Cologne, Weimar |year=2002 |isbn=978-3-412-08601-5}}</ref>

===Punishment for traitors===
Guido Kisch writes that the first instance he knows where a person in Germany was hanged up by his feet between two dogs until he died occurred about 1048, some 250 years earlier than the first attested Jewish case. This was a knight called Arnold, who had murdered his lord; the story is contained in [[Adam of Bremen]]'s ''History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen''.<ref>On Kisch's assessment, see for example: {{cite book|last=Kisch|first=Guido|year=1943|title=Historia Judaica: A Journal of Studies in Jewish History, Especially in Legal and Economic History of the Jews|volume=5–6|page=119|publisher=Historia Judaica}} On locus in Adam of Bremen's text, see {{cite book|author=Adam of Bremen|translator-last=Tschan|translator-first=Francis J. |translator-last2=Reuter|translator-first2=Timothy|page=120|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4cDtkTUF95IC&pg=PA120|title=History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=2013|isbn=978-0-231-50085-2|location=New York|access-date=14 March 2016|archive-date=13 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513010628/https://books.google.com/books?id=4cDtkTUF95IC&pg=PA120|url-status=live}}</ref> Another example of a non-Jew who suffered this punishment as a torture, in 1196 [[Richard, Count of Acerra]], was one of those executed by [[Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor|Henry VI]] in the suppression of the rebelling Sicilians:<ref>[http://www.leeds.ac.uk/history/weblearning/MedievalHistoryTextCentre/ricsgermano.doc ''Ryccardi di Sancto Germano Notarii Chronicon''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040312011115/http://www.leeds.ac.uk/history/weblearning/MedievalHistoryTextCentre/ricsgermano.doc |date=12 March 2004 }} trans. G. A. Loud</ref>

{{blockquote|He [Henry VI] held a general court in Capua, at which he ordered that the count first be drawn behind a horse through the squares of Capua, and then hanged alive head downwards. The latter was still alive after two days when a certain German jester called Leather-Bag [Follis], hoping to please the emperor, tied a large stone to his neck and shamefully put him to death}}

A couple of centuries earlier, in France in 991, a certain viscount Walter nominally owing his allegiance to the French King [[Hugh Capet]] chose, on instigation of his wife, to join the rebellion under [[Odo I, Count of Blois]]. When Odo found out he had to abandon [[Melun]] after all, Walter was duly hanged before the gates, whereas his wife, the fomentor of treason, was hanged by her feet, causing much merriment and jeers from Hugh's soldiers as her clothes fell downwards revealing her naked body, although it is not wholly clear if she died in that manner.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bradbury|first=Jim|year=2007|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mAgDwx4pS0QC&pg=PA78|pages=78–79|title=The Capetians: Kings of France 987–1328|publisher=Conitunuum Books|location=London|isbn=978-0-8264-3514-9|access-date=14 March 2016|archive-date=12 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160512214932/https://books.google.com/books?id=mAgDwx4pS0QC&pg=PA78|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Elizabethan maritime law===
During Queen [[Elizabeth I]]'s reign, the following was written concerning those who stole a ship from the [[Royal Navy]]:<ref>{{cite book |last=Hurton |first=William |year=1862 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ULBWAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA84 |page=84 |title=Hearts of Oak, or Naval Yarns |publisher=Richard Bentley |location=London}}</ref>

{{blockquote|If anye one practysed to steale awaye anye of her Majesty's shippes, the captaine was to cause him to be hanged by the heels {{Not a typo|unt|ill}} his braines were beaten out against the shippe's sides, and then to be cutt down and lett fall intoe the sea. }}Translation into modern English: ''If anyone practised to steal away any of Her Majesty's ships, the captain was to cause him [the thief] to be hanged by the heels until his brains were beaten out against the ship's sides, and then to be cut down and let fall into the sea.''