The Executioner’s Sword
In days of yore only knights and other nobles were allowed to carry a sword. The sword in the middle ages was symbolic of the Christian crusades, such as the Teutonic Knights and Livonian Brothers of the Sword. It is often supposed to represent truth and justice and other such noble sentiments.
However, there was a darker side. Any reigning king or queen was likely to have opposing rebel forces within their own kingdom. After any such uprising or battle to win the throne, the leaders of the losing side would find themselves condemned to death as traitors. Commoners could expect to be beheaded by an axe, laying their head down on a block, whereas knights and nobles could expect a higher class type of execution. They would kneel before the executioner and they would be decapitated by a single swipe of a sword.
This particular C16 executioner’s sword dating from late 1500’s is interesting because, whilst normally the trade of executioner would reasonably provide a comfortable livelihood, nonetheless it was by no means seen as a respectable profession. The executioners were often ex-murderers themselves. They were shunned by polite society and led isolated lives away from the rest of the community. This sword was wielded by Duke Charles of Sweden himself to despatch the 22-year-old son of his arch enemy, Klaus Fleming, who led a fierce civil war against Charles’ ambition of accession to the Swedish throne, over the heir apparent, Sigismund (his brother, King John III’s son). King John III had died in 1592.
(at Swedish State Museum)
Admiral Klaus Fleming died of natural causes in the immediate aftermath of the uprising – which left over 5,000 dead, mostly Finnish peasants backing Charles in the Cudgel War, so-named because they were armed with farming implements, such as hoes and pikes and whatever they could find or steal as weapons, against Fleming’s heavily artillery-armed, armoured and mounted army, with Duke Charles’ army the victor. The price paid by the losers - who were the Catholics, versus the new order Protestants as led by Duke Charles determined to keep Sigismund’s Polish Catholic* throne out – resulted in the blood bath of Linkoping, with five nobles of high birth executed in the town square, as traitors.
Duke Charles himself, unable to exact direct retribution against Klaus Fleming (dec’d), personally executed Fleming’s son, Johan, instead, in the simultaneous blood bath of Turku (1599).
• Weight: 1,950 g (68.78 oz)
• width: 54 mm (2.12 in) (blade)
• length: 825 mm (32.48 in) (blade)
• width: 101 mm (3.97 in)
• length: 1,025 mm (40.35 in)
Charles was elected King by the Riksdag 1604. Johan Fleming’s mother was Ebba Stenbock, who was the sister of Gustav Vasa I’s second wife and Charles' aunt. In effect, Charles IX executed his own great-nephew by his own hand. A high born member of the Swedish Royal Family from Sweden’s most powerful noble families, who acted like a low-class common executioner, who would normally be paid a tradesman’s fee, so enormously great was Charles' anger and fright that Fleming very nearly succeeded.
*Swedish King John III’s wife, Katerina Jagellonica, was from the Polish royal family, hence their son's claim to the Swedish throne.
In days of yore only knights and other nobles were allowed to carry a sword. The sword in the middle ages was symbolic of the Christian crusades, such as the Teutonic Knights and Livonian Brothers of the Sword. It is often supposed to represent truth and justice and other such noble sentiments.
However, there was a darker side. Any reigning king or queen was likely to have opposing rebel forces within their own kingdom. After any such uprising or battle to win the throne, the leaders of the losing side would find themselves condemned to death as traitors. Commoners could expect to be beheaded by an axe, laying their head down on a block, whereas knights and nobles could expect a higher class type of execution. They would kneel before the executioner and they would be decapitated by a single swipe of a sword.
This particular C16 executioner’s sword dating from late 1500’s is interesting because, whilst normally the trade of executioner would reasonably provide a comfortable livelihood, nonetheless it was by no means seen as a respectable profession. The executioners were often ex-murderers themselves. They were shunned by polite society and led isolated lives away from the rest of the community. This sword was wielded by Duke Charles of Sweden himself to despatch the 22-year-old son of his arch enemy, Klaus Fleming, who led a fierce civil war against Charles’ ambition of accession to the Swedish throne, over the heir apparent, Sigismund (his brother, King John III’s son). King John III had died in 1592.
(at Swedish State Museum)
Admiral Klaus Fleming died of natural causes in the immediate aftermath of the uprising – which left over 5,000 dead, mostly Finnish peasants backing Charles in the Cudgel War, so-named because they were armed with farming implements, such as hoes and pikes and whatever they could find or steal as weapons, against Fleming’s heavily artillery-armed, armoured and mounted army, with Duke Charles’ army the victor. The price paid by the losers - who were the Catholics, versus the new order Protestants as led by Duke Charles determined to keep Sigismund’s Polish Catholic* throne out – resulted in the blood bath of Linkoping, with five nobles of high birth executed in the town square, as traitors.
Duke Charles himself, unable to exact direct retribution against Klaus Fleming (dec’d), personally executed Fleming’s son, Johan, instead, in the simultaneous blood bath of Turku (1599).
• Weight: 1,950 g (68.78 oz)
• width: 54 mm (2.12 in) (blade)
• length: 825 mm (32.48 in) (blade)
• width: 101 mm (3.97 in)
• length: 1,025 mm (40.35 in)
Charles was elected King by the Riksdag 1604. Johan Fleming’s mother was Ebba Stenbock, who was the sister of Gustav Vasa I’s second wife and Charles' aunt. In effect, Charles IX executed his own great-nephew by his own hand. A high born member of the Swedish Royal Family from Sweden’s most powerful noble families, who acted like a low-class common executioner, who would normally be paid a tradesman’s fee, so enormously great was Charles' anger and fright that Fleming very nearly succeeded.
*Swedish King John III’s wife, Katerina Jagellonica, was from the Polish royal family, hence their son's claim to the Swedish throne.
via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/9mBUOjC
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