The breaking at the wheel) was a form of punishment used during the english civil war..A captured spy from either Charles the 1st army or Oliver Cromwells army,would be disrobed,tied like a crab..hand and feet behind there back to a cart wheel..And starting with there feet then there shin bones and moving up, in front of a public gallery have every bone in there body broken untill dead..Treason was not a popular crime in that time in england..

Description

Depiction of the breaking wheel in use in The Netherlands in the early middle ages (The trial of Peter Stumpp)

The college shield of St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, prominently depicting a breaking wheel.

Breaking on the wheel was a form of torturous execution formerly in use, especially in ancient Greece (where it was originated), France, Germany, Sweden, and Russia. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (995x551, 138 KB) This wood cut shows the breaking wheel as it was used in Holland in the Middle Ages. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (995x551, 138 KB) This wood cut shows the breaking wheel as it was used in Holland in the Middle Ages. ... This article or section contains information that has not been verified and thus might not be reliable. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Full name Collegium sive aula D. Catharinæ in Universitate Cantabrigiensi Motto   For the wheel! (unofficial) Named after St Catharine of Alexandria Previous names Katharine Hall (1473-1860) Established 1473 Sister College(s) Worcester College Master (From 1st January, 2007) Prof. ...

The wheel itself was similar to a large wooden wagon wheel, with many radial spokes, but a wheel was not always used. For other uses, see Wheel (disambiguation). ...

In France the condemned was placed on a cart-wheel and his or her limbs stretched out along the spokes, one by one over two sturdy wooden beams. The wheel was made to slowly revolve, and a large hammer or an iron bar was then applied to the limb over the gap between the beams, breaking the bones. This process was repeated several times per limb. Sometimes it was 'mercifully' ordered that the executioner should strike the criminal on chest and stomach, blows known as coups de grâce, which caused lethal injuries, leading to the end of the torture by death; without those, the broken man could take hours, even days, before shock and dehydration caused death. In France, a special grace, called the retentum, could be granted, by which the condemned was strangled after the second or third blow, or in special cases, even before the breaking began. A claw hammer For other uses, see Hammer (disambiguation). ... This article is about the skeletal organs. ... Look up coup de grâce in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Afterwards, the condemned's shattered limbs were woven ('braiden') through the spokes of the wheel which was then hoisted onto a tall pole, so that birds could eat the sometimes still-living individual.

Legend has it that Saint Catherine of Alexandria was to be executed on one of these devices, which thereafter became known as the Catherine wheel, also used as an iconographic attribute. Saint Catherine of Alexandria, also known as Saint Catherine of the Wheel and The Great Martyr Saint Catherine (Greek ) is a Christian saint and martyr claimed to have been a noted scholar in the early 4th century. ...

Metaphorical uses of the term

The breaking wheel was a cruel torment as well as a great dishonor, rather like crucifixion in Antiquity. Crucifixion is an ancient method of execution, where the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead. ...

It is referred to in the Dutch expression opgroeien voor galg en rad ('to grow up into gallows and wheel', i.e. to come to no good at all, especially: ripe for a life of crime). It's also known the Spanish expression morir en la rueda ('to die by the wheel', i.e. to keep silence about something). It is also referred to in the Dutch expression ik ben geradbraakt (literally: 'I have been broken on the wheel', i.e. I am broken / tired / exhausted. The word roué 'dissipated debauchee' is French, and its original meaning was broken on the wheel. As execution by breaking on the wheel was reserved in France, and some other countries, for crimes of peculiar atrocity, roué came by a natural process to be understood to mean a man morally worse than a pendard or gallows-bird, who only deserved hanging for common crimes. He was also a leader in wickedness, since the chief of a gang of brigands (for instance) would be broken on the wheel, while his obscure followers were merely hanged. Philip, duke of Orleans, who was regent of France from 1715 to 1723, gave the term the sense of impious and callous debauchee, which it has borne since his time, by habitually applying it to the very bad male company who amused his privacy and his leisure. The locus classicus for the origin of this use of the epithet is in the Memoirs of Saint-Simon. Philippe of Orléans Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, Philippe Charles (August 2, 1674 – December 2, 1723) called Duke of Chartres (1674–1701), and then Duke of Orléans (1701–1723) was Regent of France from 1715 to 1723. ... Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon (January 16, 1675 - March 2, 1755), French soldier, diplomatist and writer of memoirs, was born at Versailles. ...

The Finnish word for the breaking wheel is teiliratas and the verb for execution on the wheel is teilata; in Modern Finnish the word teilata refers to forceful and violent critique or rejection of performance, ideas or innovations.

Alexander Pope, in his 1735 "Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot", famously asked, "Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?" For other uses, see Alexander Pope (disambiguation). ... The Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot is a poem written by Alexander Pope and completed in the summer of 1734. ... Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel? is a quotation – sometimes misquoted with on in place of upon – from Alexander Popes Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot of January 1735. ...

See also

• Fustuarium

The fustuarium (an abstraction from the Latin fustis, a branch or rod) was a Roman military form of execution by cudgeling, which was copied by later armies. ...

Sources and references

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913. notably Religious toleration
• Probertenencyclopaedia - illustrated
• Breaking on the Wheel (rotten.com, with illustration)

• Rulers and Their Times: Peter the Great and Tsarist Russia, by Miriam Greenblatt, ©2000 Marshall Cavendish Corporation, Published by Benchmark Books, ISBN 0-7614-0914-9