I'm sure there were executioners who loved their jobs, and gave psychopaths the perfect career. Most no doubt at least got used to it, or got over it. Like butchers. It's a Romantic idea that they were emotionally distraught and conflicted as depicted here. Today's prison executioners justify it by thinking the person deserves it, and they are helping the world. That way they can sleep at night. I'm sure it was the same then, but its a nice idea, and SHOULD have been thus. Just not realistically human.
@@jefolson6989 Read the diaries of some executioners from the time and you’ll find that you’re exactly right, especially those from the HRE and modern day Germany.
He did not wipe royal arse for power and privilege thoug:) Edit: "who needs friends, when you got enemas." Ill do my damdest to use that in a casual conversation:) Edit2: sorry necro.
He should have just stayed with Catherine of Aragon, she was a loyal loving wife. Of course that would have changed time and events as we know it perhaps dramatically.
Woluf178, I think the executioner handled and guided Tony through his emotions, from having good fun, to understanding why it's not funny and taking a moment to sonder about the people attached to the necks on the block.
toby semler How was he creepy? He spoke about the job's details and how it affected everyone involved, from the victim to the executioner himself. He made many valid points in a pure, simple, yet deep way.
I read just that decades ago, that that was one of the ways of the time for women to show how ladylike and feminine they were: to take small steps so that they appeared to float, with only their toes sometimes peeping out from under their skirts.
Tony Robinson is a great host, he gets right in and does the jobs, very hands on, and he’s friendly, very knowledgeable and I like watching anything he’s on. Great series!
In defense of the beetles in the rouge makeup, cochineal beetles are much better for you than the synthetic dyes that were invented in the 1800s. In fact, the best food colouring and makeup are still made from cochineal beetles!
One of the most dangerous jobs was washerwoman. Falling into the river and being dragged under by their woolen dresses and petticoats was a common hazard. Historian Lucy Worsley tried it out and scared the daylights out of herself even though there was a production crew ready to rescue her.
That is true also the reason why their clothes got so heavy is because wool absorbs 80x it's weight in liquid. So basically you have to lift the weight of the dress times 80 while your knee deep in moving water. Another thing they'll have a horrible time standing up because of the force pushing on they'rer legs, in fact 3 ft of water moving 5 mph is enough to lift and move a car.
Groom of the stool isn't that exotic. Home health aides, home care assistants, carers, CNAs, or whatever other name they go by in your region do the same thing, plus a lot of other physically and emotionally demanding tasks they don't get paid near enough for. Since royalty is not involved, they are usually taken for granted, unfortunately. =(
And most are recent immigrants, at least here in Australia (I'm disabled). Care jobs have long been looked down on and underpayed. Since people with disabilities are looked down on too (in comparison to kids or the elderly) carers working with us are treated even worse than carers in childcare etc
Egyptians had it for a while, Tudor period was just dumb aristocrats thinking they didn't need maintenance....smh what a time. These were a people who didn't bathe due to it not being holy. Even the Slavs weren't that dirty. Egyptians being the cleanliest, as they used soap as a moisturizer and bathed frequently. The Victorian era was just a bunch of fomo kings and queen shitting in corners of rooms.
I wish they had given credit to the experts here. The woad man was the same one who was the purple dyer in the show on worst royal jobs but in that one they named him (John Edmond or Edmonds).
Of course the male actor in female drag is struggling to breathe! In the Tudor period the corsets, they should be called 'stays', didn't have metal eyelets (the holes where the stays were laced up). Instead they were holes in the fabric reinforced with thread, so a historically accurate outfit couldn't have been physically tightened as tightly as he is in the video because lacing tightly through fabric holes would cause the fabric to stretch and rip. - The ghost of Bernadette and Meme mom.
And they weren't tight-laced! No one was tight-lacing corsets even when they were invented (much later than this, as you correctly pointed out), because newsflash: women were actually expected to DO stuff. Women had work to do, they couldn't be struggling to breathe, in actual physical pain from their corsets/stays. They were basically bras; they were just supposed to be tight enough to stop your boobs from bouncing around. I feel like no one understands corsets/stays.
@@LordofFullmetal Tight-lacing was practiced in the 19th century by fashionable noblewomen aspiring to the 'waspish waist' look. Those types of corset models are re-inforced with rigid bone inserts and clearly were intended for extreme compression. The cliché of Victorian young aristocratic ladies constantly fainting at the drop of a hat came about because they couldn't breathe properly. There is mention in several contemporary magazines, often criticising the practice, but also adverts claiming that such-and-such a corset could reduce your waist from 27 to 18 inches.
Makes me appreciate modern times and conveniences although there are millions in the world in these modern times who do jobs similar to this every day.
the ducking stool was even worse than it appears. typically, they wouldn't dunk you up and down quickly--they'd hold you underwater for a time, then lift you up so the crowd could hear you screaming and wailing and begging for your life. they'd be holding you under almost to the point of drowning--and because you were tied to the chair, you'd feel the helpless panic and terror of both drowning and suffocating, plus the freezing cold if it were spring, autumn, or winter. it's easy to see how mobs of people (especially men) could get nuts and, probably quite enjoying the temporary power they had over someone, drown the poor woman by being overzealous. not a great idea for law and order, letting people carry out vigilante justice like that.
The woad story was ultra interesting when you think of the multiple steps necessary from picking the leaves to actually dying the wool. I mean WHO would have worked out all those steps to achieve that final result
This wasn't just pulled from nowhere. Their behaviour, and the crowds around these industries, and the effects of these people upon society are what inspired their judgment. It wasn't made up out of nothing but snobbery.
FUN FACT... or at least I think it may be, Executioners were so troubled and depressed, that they often chewed the root of catnip, it was said to have a tendancy to calm.
at the woolen textile mill where my father worked (1970s)the old timer dyers also would taste the vat to gauge pH. as a result they lost a lot of teeth
Hearing Tony saying being in a dress is the worst makes me think of the one episode of The Blackadder, as baldrick, he had to be a brides maid for blackadder's wife😂 25:16
@@warnegoodman "The Middle English verb scolden, the source of Modern English scold, is derived from the Middle English noun scold, which meant primarily "a person of ribald and abusive speech" and "a shrewish, chiding woman."..." I think you missed the point of my comment.
Fuck I love Tony's enthusiasm. Old gramps is busy explaning how it's a life and how the head rolls away and the body jerks back spraying blood everywhere and Tony is like, hold that thought a minute while I get something more realistic lol!
So did "privy council" and "being privy to", etc. COME from the bathroom term privy, or was it the other way around? It does seem like the term must derive from "private" - or is "private" derived from "privy"? My God.
I can't help but let my morbid curiosity wonder what's it like today in the states that have the death penalty, the people that are putting the needle in the convicts arm, they have to know they are the ones responsible for the persons death.How do you go home and say,yup just another day at work.
And Japan, that's another country that has capital punishment. And you're right, honestly, psychological harm to the executioner is very likely still a thing.
In a way I'd hope the executioner did suffer psychologically or they'd be inhuman. I'm expressing that badly but a decent human being couldn't possibly just go home n say, just another day. Maybe they should make some of the people waiting on death row operate the death equipment
I believe another problem that would cause OLD HENRY to be increasingly crotchety was because of his mainly meat diet he developed piles so the poor old groom could really cop it.
Need I say that the head stays alive and conscious for a few seconds after being severed from the body? Tests have been done with number of blinks, mouth movements, etc. So the person wouldn't just go "dark" but would SEE itself flying through the air, hitting the basket and maybe even being impaled on a stick for all to mock and jeer. What a way to go!
