Beheading Quotes
The import of this quotation is to see how matter of fact, atrocities by our standards, were committed in the earlier times. “Beys” was an Ottoman term for a class of nobles.
The king was found guilty and was decapitated, but not wearing a crown.
In 1938 when Hitler started his military operatiomn to overrun Europe, he abolished beheading with the axe a traditional and barbarous form of capital punishment. The two legal methods of execution in Germany after this decree were hanging and a version of the guillotine.
1000 Spanish prisoners of war were over a 4 day period beheaded. This infamous order has been a black mark on his general democratic and humane public life. Some apologists for his war crimes point out that the Spaniards were making an all-out assault on his revolutionary troops who were very badly outnumbered. It took many revolutionary solders to guard the prisoners and if Bolivar lost the upcoming battle, it would have been the end of his revolution and Spain might still be in control of much of South America. With the additional soldiers freed up from guard duty, Bolivar barely survived the battle and the Revolution was not crushed.
The Christian Crusaders had captured Jerusalem and slaughtered the Muslim civilian inhabitants. In the 21st century, some Islamic terrorists justified the beheading of captured Christian prisoners as revenge for this massive Christian beheading of Muslims almost 1,000 years earlier.
The association with a bag involves the hunting customs of the time. When small animals were killed or captured they would be put into a bag for transporting back. Hence the expression of someone “bagging” game. Politics was not a gentle activity amongst the “gentlemen” who then practiced it in England.
