1594: Jean Châtel, lipstabber

ExecutedToday.com ^ | December 29th, 2016 | Headsman

[CheshireTheCat]

On this date in 1594, Catholic militant Jean Châtel was dismembered for the near-assassination of King Henri IV.

Just two days before his public butchery, the 19-year-old clothier’s son (English Wikipedia entry | French) had milled about in a crowd awaiting the Huguenot* king’s return from Picardy. As Henri entered the Hotel de Bouchage and bent over to accept the obeisance of two courtiers, Châtel sprang out of the crowd and daggered him. The blade cut Henri’s lip — a glancing blow just a few degrees distant from a history-altering one.

Châtel would cite Jesuitical inspiration, and when his instructors’ quarters were searched they yielded seditious exhortations against Protestant princes. One Guignard, who had authored the most inflammatory tracts (e.g., regretting that Henri had not been slain at the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre), was put to death on January 7; the rest of the order was expelled from Paris — as was Châtel’s family, whose home was razed and replaced with a monument against religious fanaticism.

[redfreedom]

To be dismembered suggests being drawn and quartered. Or taken literally, being hacked up while still alive. It is certainly a gruesome way to die and fall under the “cruel and unusual” execution definition.

That method of execution is one extreme. Another extreme in a capitol case is to just give them free room and board in prison and let them go, which is what’s happening in America these days.

One extreme puts fear into those thinking about whacking another and the other extreme offers some degree of encouraging murder.