London, the bloody city where thousands of executions predominate in his memory

“The year 1196 is our starting point because that is where we found the first documented evidence of a public execution at Tyburn, and we felt it was very important to examine the documents and evidence, not to guess or guess,” said the commissioner. Beverly, said EFE Cook, who compiled documents from the same museum collection and the National Archives.

This first execution fell on William Fitz Osbert, “lawyer for the poor.” After leading a popular uprising, he was taken to the gallows in the rural village of Tyburn, just outside the then capital. now tourists visit Marble Arch, where the busy shopping area of ​​Oxford Street begins.

Tyburn performed numerous executions in front of 50,000 spectators and became a symbol of these practices with the famous triangular gallows copied in the exhibit. Tyburn treewhich in the 18th century alone took the lives of 1,100 men and nearly a hundred women.

“It was completely normal. Men, women, children, anyone living in London would know that,” Cook said, noting that seeing the taunts of the convicts “went to executions without even going there openly.” the road to the gallows.

London, then known as the “Gallows City”, fully integrated public executions into its imagery, landscape and popular culture, eventually tainting the entertainment economy, even for the child audience, with puppet shows with a noose around the neck.

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“18. More people were sentenced to death in London in the 19th century than anywhere else in Europe. And that was a direct result of the Bloody Law,” Cook said, referring to the Penal Code’s list of more than 200 capital punishment-related crimes, leading these crimes to be labeled the Bloody Law by the right and left.

According to the historian, the context of high commercial activity in England made the protection of private property extraordinary, with a state “becoming much more capitalist than other European countries” and harshly punishing anyone who threatened the socio-economic order.

Open until mid-April, you can also see the original iron gate of one of Newgate’s most notorious prisons, which was destroyed in 1902, through which many prisoners passed in their final hours. accidentally appointed by the judge of the Old Bailey Criminal Court, just yards away.

Beheading for the nobility

Press clippings, cartoons and original sentences allude to the course of the judicial process, with the monarch or the Ministry of the Interior making a last-ditch effort with letters of pardon.

Holding on to this power of grace did little for King Carlos I. Far from saving his own skin, he was publicly guillotined for treason on 30 January 1649 amidst clashes between parliamentarians and monarchists.

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As it was a winter morning with low temperatures, Carlos, I wore gloves and a thick robe to prevent the public from seeing a king tremble at all costs. These dresses are now in one of the display cases, with some fine stains that have faded over time, allegedly caused by blood spilled on their fabrics.

If France made history by overthrowing the crown with its guillotine, England also has a history of beheading aristocrats with an ax or sword – VIII, who had his two wives beheaded. Henry’s cruelty is well known.

And this sharp and sudden blow was reserved for the nobles – yes, but still executed with privilege – while the rest awaited the long agony of dying, being boiled, burned in flames, or often dying in the shadows. “City of Gallows” drowned.