Underappreciated historical weapons: THE EXECUTIONER SWORD

this episode of Chatty versity is brought to you by my legendary supporters on patreon if you'd like to support Shanna versity on patreon visit patreon.com forward slash Shanna versity there's a link in the description as I'll just help you [Music] greatings I'm shad and I want to share a little bit of information with you about some awesome weapons that existed in the past that not many people know of they're a bit obscure they weren't used prevalently and some of them are so obscure so you know bit different that you might have expected that they were just fair to see creations that you see in pop culture like movies TV shows and novels and video games can forget the video games but no they actually existed and in this episode we'll be looking at a sword called the executioner sword and yes it really was a sword in history that actually existed I was called the executioner sword or we've named it the executors sword in the modern day because that's the best thing you know designation that we can even do it based on its usin function first of all the earliest known sword that was specifically designed in this way dates to 1540 so that's the 16th century technically right after the medieval period so this isn't actually a medieval sword in fact their most prominent period of use was during this 17th century there were many court rooms in town halls that actually had an executioner's sword hanging on their walls kind of like as the symbol of justice or indeed a reminder of the more severe penalties of breaking the law some things that you'll notice right off the bat in regards to the execution the sword is its size this is a big sword and it's distinct lack of a tip this is interesting because it clearly indicates the sword was never meant for thrusting and by virtue of its name you might be able to you know figure out what it was really meant for chopping specifically chopping off people's heads in fact the executioner's sword almost strikes me as the polar opposite of a certain type of sword which I mentioned in a second because when you have a sword you have several functions that you do out of n were of course chopping and thrusting but there are some swords that have certain qualities that are emphasized in its design to perform better at one of those categories the rapier the one that I was just saying I'll get to which I'm getting you now is of course a sword emphasized to really just excel in the thrust and to excel on the thrust it's cutting capacity has been reduced quite significantly but then there are swords where they're cutting potential as being increased by virtue of their design and the frosting you know depending on how much of a cutting capacity they want out of their sword will determine how less effective they will be able to thrust the best example we can give of a type of sword that is just thrown thrusting and even you know certain weight balances of stuff out the window to just go pure balls to the walls cutting power it's the executioner sword because it has a primary purpose and function which is to cut but do a proper a lot like this has been to cut through a human not just cut into the flesh to the bone this is a single hit kill sword and of course to help out in that regard it's two-handed because with two hands you get far more leverage in the swing the other fact that's important to know about this sword which is a little bit harder to see just by looking at it is the fact that they are void of a distal taper and a distal taper is the reduction in the width of the blade along the distal plane so not the profile of the sword were looking at it from front on historical swords that we use for combat most often had distal tapers on them this was a very important fact to reduce their weight and make them more usable nimble in the wrist to redirect their momentum but the executioner saw this isn't meant for combat in fact the additional weight on the upper portions of the blade would be very useful for it's designed function this is why if you were to say add a tip to an executioner sword you wouldn't just make it a regular two-handed sword common in other parts of the medieval period it would still be ridiculously top-heavy for this type of sword in this size category the other common implement for executing people through decapitation in the medieval period was the axe so then why would we want to pick an executioner's sword over an axe okay why was there even a need to develop this kind of a sword there's a couple of interesting points that can kind of come up as we consider this and it's that swords are generally have always been considered far more prestigious than the axe and so you might consider the people executed by a sword were the highest station or rank unfortunately we can't know that for sure this is all you know assumption based off of what we can try and piece together through historical record here and there I mean we know there are some very famous people who were decapitated through a sword specifically and Berlin second wife - King Henry the eighth was executed via sword decapitation in fact an expert French swordsman was commissioned to do the job to ensure that it was done in a single stroke the interesting thing about the options that King Henry considered for the execution of Anne Boleyn started with burning at the stake and then lessons - decapitation by axe and then lesson once again - decapitation by sword I was interesting that sword seemingly seems to have been considered a more merciful type of death one of the theories I've read which is an attempt to try and explain this comparison between sword execution versus axe execution is that with sword execution it can be done with the person kneeling yet upright and with axe execution they need to be leaning forward down being upright in a kneeling position is considered to be a more honorable way to die because you are kind of kneeling as in prayer before God whereas being killed bending over you're being killed like an animal one being the death of a god-fearing person the other death of a lowly animal I don't know how anecdotal this is a theory I've come across and haven't been out of substantiate it with any valid historical source but it's certainly an interesting point to consider yet there is a more practical advantage for the executioner sword over an axe and that is in cutting ratio this is an advantage that all swords have over axe just generally regarding the cut if they have decent cutting capacity and that's the entire length of the blade is capable of cutting where in contrast the ax the ax head depending on its design can actually be quite narrow and if you have a user tax you can overshoot a target and the blade misses it completely and the haft just hits what you're aiming for because the cutting ratio the area way is strikingly there's actually much much smaller it's virtually impossible to do that with the sword and listen you're like super close and you hit with the cross guard what if it was only a partial miss which is a lot easier to do with an axe then with a sword okay where half of the axe head goes through the person's neck okay and they're half decapitated and what if they they survive it for a short time okay and the pay that that would be in July here on the chopping block with half their head attached good know with a sword it is much much easier to hit your target on any length of the blade in comparison with the axe and so the executioner sword is actually a bit of a safer decapitation weapon than the axe for the purpose of its namesake executions it doesn't mean it's all sunshine and daisies okay one of the problems that swords have in cutting through thick targets like someone's neck bone and all that stuff is mass sorta do not have nearly as much mass as an axe so what do you expect that we see on the executioner sword it's a bigger blade this thing is broad okay it has mass and this is to assist in its cutting capacity but of course mass isn't the only thing you need it to be really really sharp okay this sword is partially dull it'll run into a lot of trouble cutting through and it can have a failed cut and failed cuts they happened in executions so all this understood about the execution of sword what it was what it was used for and what a science certain engages and disadvantages can we now expand its uses into medieval fantasy the interesting thing about SI is we kind of have execution of sword equivalents in fantasy settings because we love giving our heroes overly sized swords as they're ridiculously oversized swords but then there's a kind of moderately oversized saws which just you know you still yeah it like the swords from the Warcraft movie those are actually in terms of thickness they're about as wide as broaden you know as the executioner style sauce but in terms of their depth or thickness on the distal plane are ridiculously too heavy but still it's a good example of the types of fantasy swords actually a bit closer to the executioner style saw that exist in real life say you had an adventurer and he wanted an executioner's sword well your sword would be particularly useful against creatures that need to be decapitated or chopped up yeah yeah I think I think this type of sword actually much better zombie killing sword than other types of swords and really any type of monster that just needs to be cut up to be dealt with efficiently execution sword is a great pick because again you get those inherent advantages or heavy chopping capacity kind of like an axe but honestly it's not as much of an axe axe is still have more but they're chopping capacity is much greater than the average sword and then they have the added advantage of their cutting ratio much easy to hit your targets or this type of weapon so very useful for a particular burly style of ventra orcs would love this weapon and really any type of creature that's particularly strong and still employs weaponry in their combat so the fantasy setting is already void of particularly broad blade and swords the executioner's sword is a wonderful historically authentic addition to liven up your fantasy settings and stuff and there we go and this has being the executioner sword has been my privilege to introduce it to you if you have not known about it already and if you have to just talk about it because it's awesome sword and it really existed thank you very much for watching I look forward to seeing you again especially when I look at some other obscure yet awesome real historical weapons if you know of some real weapons that not many people know of that exist in history please feel free to share them in the comments below and in this regard I would love to learn about ones that are not necessarily restricted to the medieval period because of course the medieval period is the area of study that I have the most information on so if you know something that I don't about other cultures would really awesome unique obscure weapons let me know because I'll probably do some more research and making it episode a video on those as well I can't wait to read your comments down below and until next time [Music] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Shadiversity

Views: 1,215,900

Keywords: sword, swords, knight, knight's, castle, castles, medieval, renaissance, blade, history, historical, middle ages, game of thrones, skyrim, krotos, god of war, dnd, dungeons and dragons, d&d, video, game, roleplaying, rpg, role, playing, weapon, weapons, rapier, longsword, hema, chivalry, histoprical european martial arts, executioner's sword, education, fantasy, orc, greatsword, distal taper, axe, battleaxe, great axe, anne boleyn, king henry the 8th

Id: t0L5OAfjgxU

Length: 11min 24sec (684 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 16 2018