One of the most prominent and significant symbols of the French Revolution was the guillotine.
It was the execution device which was being used to take the heads of thousands of people
who were believed to have been dissenting towards the Revolution at a period of time
which was known as the Reign of Terror.
It would also take the heads of the King and Queen, but the guillotine took inspiration
from beheading devices which had been around for centuries.
The French were looking for an execution device which could quickly take the life of a condemned
person, and they wanted a more clinical execution method when compared to what they had before
such as the breaking wheel which was often very barbaric.
But one of the biggest inspirations for the French guillotine came from Scotland, where
a device had been used for centuries before and it had taken the heads of hundreds of
people.
But what is the story of the Scottish maiden?
Join us today as we look at this and assess whether it was one of History’s most brutal
execution methods?
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The Maiden was an execution device which was used in Scotland between the 1500s and the
1700s, mostly in Edinburgh.
IT was a device which was introduced in 1564 during the reign of Mary Queen of Scots, and
its final use was in 1716.
It was a device which came a long time before the guillotine, and the Maiden was built in
Edinburgh and was made of oak, and on it was a lead weight and also an iron blade.
Machines like this were not new, and there were other examples in Britain for example
the Halifax Gibbet.
By 1563 in Scotland, the sword which was used for executions in the capital was worn out,
and then money was used to pay for the loan of a sword for beheadings.
So the Scots when they wanted to execute someone using sword would pay to borrow and executioners
swords to perform the job rather than make their own.
But after this the Provosts and Magistrates of Edinburgh conceived the idea of the Maiden,
and it was constructed to become a reliable and cheap method of execution.
The original maiden was made by Adam and Patrick Schang and George Tod.
A blacksmith Andrew Gotterson added the lead weight to the blade after the other men had
made the frame.
They were paid for their work, and Schang was interestingly the makers of some of the
royal furniture.
But the time then came for the first execution using the maiden.
The first life and head claimed by the device was that of Thomas Scott of Cambusmichael
who made his way to the device in Edinburgh on the 3rd April 1565.
There were funds allocated for moving the parts of the Maiden from Blackfriars in Edinburgh
to the Towns’ cross where the execution would be carried out.
The different parts could be collapsed easily and then dismantled for storage when the time
came around, but executions using the Maiden took place at the Mercat Cross in Edinburgh,
and also on Castlehill and the Grassmarket near to Edinburgh Castle.
The device could also be leant and moved, and this happened in 1591 when Leith needed
the device to execute William Gibson.
But one of the most high profile victims of the maiden was the Regent James Douglas the
4th Earl of Morton who helped rule the country during the minority of King James VI.
Douglas had fallen from grace, and he was taken to Edinburgh for his execution on the
30th May 1581.
He was kept on the royal mile 100metres from the maiden and his execution site, and he
would be executed 3 days later.
The blade of the maiden fell and took Douglas’ head clean off, and it was said to have been
clean work, but following his death his corpse was left at the foot of the maiden on the
scaffold for a day to act as a warning.
His head was placed on a spike high above Edinburgh.
Some historians have claimed that it was the 4th Earl of Morton who brought the device
to Scotland having seen it work in a similar way in Yorkshire with the Halifax Gibbet in
operation taking the heads of serious criminals, yet he would lose his head on the device.
In its time in operation, which was roughly a century and a half, over 150 people were
executed open the maiden.
Archibald Campell, the 1st Marquess of Argyll lost his head on it, as did his son who shared
the same name as him.
They are probably the only father and son to lose their heads on the device, but both
were executed for being rebellious.
The last execution on the maiden took place on the 30th June 1716, and John Hamilton was
beheaded on it as he was convicted of murdering a pub owner.
Following this execution, the maiden was stored away and it can still be seen today.
But the way the Maiden worked was similar to the guillotine.
The executed person would place their head on the crossbar of the device which was about
four feet from the bottom.
Then lead weights were attached to the axe blade, the blade would then be guided through
grooves cut through the frame.
A peg was attached to a cord and this kept the blade locked before the executioner, When
it was time for the execution to take place, the executioner would take out the peg and
this would cause the blade to fall and take the head off the condemned.
Sometimes shockingly even if a crime was linked to animal theft, the executioners would attach
the animal to the cord, and when they were driven off the blade would fall.
But the Maiden was an execution device which would inspire the guillotine in France which
would take the heads of thousands.
The guillotine and the maiden had a number of similarities including the frame and also
the way the blade fell and took the head clean off.
But the guillotine would be a device that would take the heads of the French King Louis
XVI and his queen Marie Antoinette as well as many different politicians and key figures.
But the Scots would get rid of the maiden in the early 18th century, but the specific
device of the Edinburgh maiden would take over 100 people’s lives, and their heads
would then be placed high above the castle and other structures and gates around the
Scottish capital.
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