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DoctorBocker t1_j36okvm wrote

Not gonna lie, I always thought the wheel was more involved in the 'breaking' part.

Now I know it's just pageantry.

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neoplastic_pleonasm t1_j370oqb wrote

It was done a lot of different ways, but in some cases they'd put the limbs up on wooden blocks and use the wheel to smash them.

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Black_Moons t1_j37gv00 wrote

I feel like that is what happened when they where told that 'using the wheel' was a method of torture/execution, but nobody really asked how it was done until it came time to do it to somebody.

"Dunno man.... get some wooden blocks and run him over with it? I heard we're supposed to break his bones or something"

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ValhallaGo t1_j37tzad wrote

The idea was to put a limb across the spokes and then hit it between the spokes.

Broken on the wheel. That’s more or less what it meant.

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_hic-sunt-dracones_ t1_j378r9p wrote

It was in a way. The person was straped to a wheel laying on the ground. Then they used another wheel (vertical) and smashed in the gaps between the spokes to break the limbs. Then the wattled those limbs through the spokes, errected the wheel again and let nature do the rest.

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Ineedtwocats t1_j37bn84 wrote

I suggest reading The Faithful Executioner

it goes into explicit detail about these things and you're not far off, sometimes the bones would be smashed with the wheel.

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Forgotten_Gravitas t1_j37ix7b wrote

Excellent book, and also throw in the diary of Franz Schmidt and the memoirs of Henry Sanson

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DrProfDoommuffinsPhD t1_j38tq0w wrote

Isn't The Faithful Executioner the title of Franz Schmidt's journal or am I mistaken?

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Forgotten_Gravitas t1_j38xfsc wrote

The one I'm referring to is "A Hangman's Diary: The Journal of Master Franz Schmidt, Public Executioner of Nuremberg, 1573-1617"

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FatWombat99 t1_j38rzja wrote

I remember one where they would tie you to the wheel and then they would actually roll you down the hill

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