Usace
...Guillotine
Storming of the Tuileries (Aug 1792): revolutionary event during which the king's Swiss Guards were massacred by the Paris mob, forcing Louis XVI to seek refuge with the National Assembly, which took him prisoner
Philippe Egalite: adopted name of the Duke of Orleans, who was a cousin of Louis XVI & who voted for the king's execution
sans-culottes: "without breeches"the Paris mob who wore long trousers, not knee breeches like the aristocrats
Reign of Terror: period of extreme violence during the French Revolution implemented by Robespierre & his followers to protect the Revolution & establish the Republic of Virtue
Republic of Virtue: ideal state envisioned by Robespierre where all citizens would possess high moral standards & be dedicated patriots
guillotine: a supposedly humane mode of capital punishment, it was a modernized mechanism used to decapitate over 20,000 people during the Reign of Terror
Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin: Paris deputy & professor of anatomy who proposed a single humane mode of capital punishment involving decapitation by a simple mechanism
Dr. Antoine Louis: secretary of the Academy of Surgery who designed the guillotine
the Planke: beheading device used before 1400 in Germany & Flanders
mandara: aka mannaiabeheading device used in Renaissance Italy during the 15th century
Scottish Maiden: only surviving example of a pre-guillotine used until 1710
Tobias Schmidt: German harpsichord maker who actually built the first guillotine
Jacques Nicolas Pelletier: thief & assassin who was the first live prisoner publicly executed with the guillotine
the "red mass": fanatical phrase used in reference to the executions by guillotine during the Reign of Terror
"patriotic tour": euphemistic phrase used in reference to the transporting of guillotines to rural areas of France during the...
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