Gibbet is a term applied to several different devices used in the capital punishment of criminals and/or the deterrence of potential criminals. Jump to: navigation, search Death Penalty World Map Color Key: Blue: Abolished for all crimes Green: Abolished, except for crimes committed under certain circumstances (such as crimes committed in time of war) Orange: Abolished in practice Red: Legal form of punishment Capital punishment, also referred to as the death penalty... for other uses please see Crime (disambiguation) A crime is an act that violates a political or moral law. ...

When used as a verb, gibbeting refers to the public display of executed criminals.

Execution equipment

Gallows

Gibbet is sometimes used to describe a gallows, a structure used in the execution of criminals by hanging. These gallows in Tombstone Courthouse State Historic Park are maintained by Arizona State Parks. ... Hanging is a form of execution, or a method for suicide. ...

Guillotine

Gibbet is also the name used for an early form of the guillotine, employed in Ireland, England and Scotland. The British Museum has a drawing depicting the execution of one Murcod Ballagh in 1307 in Ireland. Jump to: navigation, search Public guillotining in Lons-le-Saunier, 1878 Guillotine from Baden (reconstruction) The Maiden, an older Scottish design Portrait of Dr. Guillotin The guillotine is a machine used for the mechanized application of capital punishment by decapitation. ... Jump to: navigation, search Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location within the UK Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area - Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population - Total (mid-2004) - Density Ranked 1st UK... Jump to: navigation, search Royal motto: Nemo me impune lacessit (Latin: No one provokes me with impunity) (Scots: Wha daur meddle wi me) Scotlands location within the UK Languages with Official Status1 English Gaelic Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow First Minister Jack McConnell Area - Total - % water Ranked 2nd UK... The main entrance to the British Museum The British Museum in London is the United Kingdoms - and one of the worlds - largest and most important museums of human history and culture. ... Jump to: navigation, search Events July - The Knights Hospitaller begin their conquest of Rhodes. ...

A notable example was employed in the West Yorkshire town of Halifax, where decapitation was the penalty for numerous offences, including the theft of cloth (Halifax being a centre of wool cloth manufacture). The device was used from the late 13th century through to 1648. West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in England, corresponding roughly to the core of the West Riding of the traditional county of Yorkshire. ... Halifax is a town in the county of West Yorkshire, northern England, with a population of about 90,000. ... Beheading—Facsimile of a Miniature on Wood in the Cosmographie Universelle of Munster: in folio, Basle, 1552. ... (12th century - 13th century - 14th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 to 1300. ... // Events Peace treaty signed at Westphalia ends the Thirty Years War. ...

The Halifax model of gibbet was also introduced in Scotland during the minority reign of James VI (later King James I of Great Britain), where it was known as the (Scottish) Maiden. James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton introduced the maiden, and was later executed by the device, on 2 June 1581. Jump to: navigation, search James VI of Scots and James I of England and Ireland (Charles James) (19 June 1566–27 March 1625) ruled England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. ... The Maiden The maiden (also known as the Scottish maiden) was a gibbet (primitive type of guillotine) used as a means of execution in Scotland. ... James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton (c. ... 2 June is the 153rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (154th in leap years), with 212 days remaining. ... Events January 16 - English Parliament outlaws Roman Catholicism April 4 - Francis Drake completes a circumnavigation of the world and is knighted by Elizabeth I. July 26 - The Northern Netherlands proclaim their independence from Spain in the Oath of Abjuration. ...

Display

Gibbet also refers to a gallows-type structure from which the dead bodies of executed criminals were hung on public display to deter other existing or potential criminals. It can also be used as a verb, denoting the action of placing criminals in gibbets. This practice is also called "hanging in chains". [1]

Gibbeting was often the fate of traitors, murderers, highwaymen and sheep-stealers. The structures were therefore often placed adjacent to public highways. In England, Gibbet Hill marks one such site between Coventry and Kenilworth in Warwickshire; the same place name is used for sites near Haslemere in Surrey, and Mary Tavy in Devon. In law, treason is the crime of disloyalty to ones nation. ... Folk image of a mounted highwayman Highwayman was a term used particularly in Britain during the 17th and 18th centuries to describe criminals who robbed people travelling by stagecoach and other modes of transport along public highways. ... Jump to: navigation, search Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location within the UK Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area - Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population - Total (mid-2004) - Density Ranked 1st UK... The Precinct in Coventry city centre For alternative meanings see: Coventry (disambiguation) Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. ... Map sources for Kenilworth at grid reference SP295715 Kenilworth is a town in Warwickshire, England. ... Warwickshire (pronounced either /ˈwɔːɹɪkˌʃə/ or /ˈwɔːɹɪkˌʃɪə/) is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in central England. ... Haslemere is a town in southern England, with a population of nearly 14,000. ... Jump to: navigation, search Surrey is a county in southern England, part of the South East England region and one of the Home Counties. ... Location within the British Isles Mary Tavy is a village with a population of around 600 located four miles north of Tavistock in Devon, south-west England. ... Devon is a county in South West England, bordering on Cornwall to the west, Dorset and Somerset to the east. ...

Pirates were sometimes executed by hanging on a gibbet erected close to the low-water mark by the sea or a tidal section of a river. Their bodies would be left dangling until they had been submerged by the tide three times. In London, 'Execution Dock' is located on the north bank of the River Thames in Wapping; after tidal immersion, particularly notorious criminals' bodies could be hung in cages a little further downstream at either Cuckold's Point or Blackwall Point, as a warning to other waterborne criminals of the possible consequences of their actions (such a fate befell Captain William Kidd in May 1701). Jump to: navigation, search A pirate digging a grave. ... Jump to: navigation, search The clock tower of the Palace of Westminster, which contains Big Ben London is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England. ... Length 346 km Elevation of the source 110 m Average discharge entering Oxford: 17. ... Wapping is a place in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. ... Blackwall is an area of the East End of London, situated in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. ... Kidd was already a wealthy man before becoming a privateer. ... Events January 18 - Frederick I becomes King of Prussia. ...

The dead bodies still went through the process of decomposition, and could easily be nibbled at by scavenging animals. To maintain hygiene, most cultures bury (or otherwise dispose of) their criminals just the same as normal citizens. It is only the most heinous criminals who warrant gibbeting. This public humiliation, even after death, is a notable exception to most cultures' respect for the dead. Rotting fruit Decomposition is the reduction of bodies and other formerly living organisms into simpler forms of matter and, most particularly, to the fate of the human body after death. ... Jump to: navigation, search Hygiene is the maintenance of healthy practices. ... Underwater funeral in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seafrom an edition with drawings by Alphonse de Neuville and Edouard Riou. ... Look up Culture on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Wikinews has news related to this article: Culture and entertainment Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Cultural Development in Antiquity Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Culture and Civilization in Modern Times Classificatory system for cultures and civilizations, by Dr. Sam Vaknin... Jump to: navigation, search Thanatology is the scientific study of death. ...

Variants

In some cases, the bodies would be left until their clothes rotted or even until the bodies were almost completely decomposed, after which the bones would be scattered.

In cases of drawing and quartering, the body of the criminal was cut into five portions, each of which was often gibbeted in different places. Drawing and quartering was part of the penalty once ordained in England for treason. ...

So that the public display might be prolonged, bodies were sometimes coated in tar and/or bound in chains. Sometimes, body-shaped iron cages were used to contain the decomposing corpses.

A gruesome example of the cage variation is the Caxton Gibbet, as used in Cambridgeshire, England. This gibbet employed a suspended iron cage into which live victims were placed. Over time, the victim would die from starvation, dehydration or exposure. Occasionally, the cage was set up so that the victim would drown; pirates were sometimes executed by being placed in a cage at low-tide. As the water rose above them, they slowly drowned. Like traditional gibbeting, the body in the cage would remain suspended for some time as a warning to others. Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs) is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west. ... Jump to: navigation, search Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location within the UK Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area - Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population - Total (mid-2004) - Density Ranked 1st UK... Starvation is a severe reduction in vitamin, nutrient, and energy intake, and is the most extreme form of malnutrition. ... Jump to: navigation, search Dehydration is the removal of water (hydor in ancient Greek) from an object. ... Exposure can be: A condition of poor health or death resulting from prolonged exposure to weather radiation poisoning Exposure of the skin to sunshine, etc. ...

Another example of the cage variation is the gibbet iron, on display at the Atwater Kent museum in Philadelphia, U.S. The cage, created in 1781, was intended to be used to display the body of convicted pirate Thomas Wilkinson so that sailors on passing ships might be warned of the consequences of piracy. As Wilkinson's planned execution never took place, the gibbet was never used. Philadelphia is a village located in Jefferson County, New York. ... ... 1781 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search A pirate digging a grave. ...

Crucifixion can be considered a form of gibbeting, but is mortal in itself. Crucifixion is an ancient method of execution, in which the victim was tied or nailed to a large wooden cross (Latin: crux) and left to hang there until dead. ...

Timeline

• Crucifixion has existed since approximately the 7th century BC, and has been used by various cultures through history.
• 1448 - 1476: Vlad III Dracula, Prince of Wallachia (also known as Vlad the Impaler), impales his enemies on stakes and leaves them out for display.
• 1843: England outlaws gibbeting.