Was it customary for an executioner in Elizabethan England to ask for forgiveness from the executed?
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Accepted answer
Only the Upper Class was given the honour of execution by beheading - for commoners hanging and burning at the stake were used instead. Consequently beheadings were infrequent, and the executioner often inexperienced. A swift beheading required a calm sure swing, and the custom of having the condemned prisoner both forgive and pay the executioner was undoubtedly for the privilege of such. It was a finicky process to do right, and often wasn't.
In 1541 Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, required 11 strokes in front of 150 witnesses to die, for many of which she apparently had to be dragged back to the block kicking and screaming. The first blow only nicked her shoulder.
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