Today in History: Funeral held for the man behind the guillotine
The guillotine was intended to show the intellectual and social progress of the Revolution; by killing aristocrats and journeymen the same way, equality in death was ensured.
On this day in 1814, the funeral of Dr Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, the namesake of the infamous execution device, takes place outside of Paris, France.
Guillotin had what he felt were the purest motives for inventing the guillotine and was deeply distressed at how his reputation had become besmirched in the aftermath. Guillotin had bestowed the deadly contraption on the French as a ‘philanthropic gesture’ for the systematic criminal justice reform that was taking place in 1789.
The guillotine was first used on 25 April 1792, when highwayman (someone who stole from travellers) Nicolas Pelletier was put to death for armed robbery and assault in Place de Greve. The newspapers reported that the guillotine was not an immediate sensation. The crowds seemed to miss the gallows at first. However, it quickly caught on with the public and many thought it brought dignity back to the executioner.
However, the prestige of the guillotine fell precipitously due to its frequent use in the French Terror following the Revolution. It became the focal point of the awful political executions and was so closely identified with the terrible abuses of the time that it was perceived as partially responsible for the excesses itself. Still, it was used sporadically until the death penalty was abolished in France in 1981.
