Outlander TV: The Execution of Heretics and Witches in Episode 206, “Best Laid Schemes”

Episode 206, “Best Laid Schemes,” is probably the most enjoyable episode of the season. What attracts me while writing down my notes is the type of execution that would be applied to those accused of practicing the black arts. It is different than the one detailed in the books: burning. In fact, it seems that the King is planning to use the traitor’s death instead. I decided to explore this deviation from book 2.

At the charity hospital, Monsieur Forez requests Claire to assist him in the preparation of a body for burial. He is in a rush since he has been asked to perform his duties, which involve more than just hanging people. The criminal or victim is also drawn and quartered, a reference to the traitor’s death. Of course, Forez confirms that this manner of death depends on Louis’s decision. He refers to it as his majesty’s pleasure. The King is pursuing everybody who practices the occult, and whoever associates with them, which means that both Master Raymond and Claire are at risk.

There is a difference between this scene and its book counterpart. In the books, Monsieur Forez is discouraging Jamie in associating with the Jacobite cause, by reminding him of the traitor’s death. The adaptation has modified this scene in two ways. In episode 205, there is the scene between Claire and Annalise. Jamie’s former love interest seems not to speak out of jealousy only but also tries, via Claire, to discourage Jamie in getting involved in politics, which is what Forez does in the books. Book Forez seems to have respect for Claire (not much for Jamie though). TV Forez appears not to like her; he is intimidating and austere. However, he does warn her at least. Overall, this scene hints to both Raymond and St. Germain being arrested.

Subsequently, Claire goes to warn Raymond about the King’s crusade. He opts to leave the city but emphasizes to Claire that she has put herself at risk by coming to inform him about Louis’s plan. I like what Raymond says to Claire: “We will meet again Madonna in this life or another.” This comment is a possible reference to them finding each other again in another period, even though the author has confirmed that they would not meet again.

Another difference between the adaptation and the books is the manner of death for witches and practitioners of the occult. In the books, there is a reference to du Carrefours being burned for leading a group that used to perform “debased occult practices” (Dragonfly in Amber, ch. 26). Members of the nobility used to belong to this group, which shares a resemblance to “Les Disciples du Mal.” Burning by fire was believed to cleanse the victim or accused:

In general, executions were designed to fit the crime. The authorities often burned heretics and witches, ostensibly in an attempt to purify them. Fire cleansed the soul, and, when coupled with a sincere confession, gave the individual one last chance to reach heaven. (From Executions, the Guillotine and the French Revolution).

However, there were exceptions to this norm, which makes it possible to practitioners of the occult in Episode 206 to be executed in a different manner. There is a reference in the link provided above that the Anabaptists were executed by drowning. Of note is how the commoners were killed:

Commoners were typically hanged. The goal  was not to break the neck immediately, but rather to let the individual slowly strangle to death while he or she struggled to escape. This lengthy death would complete the humiliation of the victim who would typically flail about and, eventually, lose control of their bowels. To further punish the family of the victim, the state might display the body on a gibbet or give the body to the local medical college for dissection. Since the taboo on dissection remained fairly strong during this time period, this action further disgraced the family of the criminal (From Executions, the Guillotine and the French Revolution).

Based on this observation, no wonder Monsieur Forez can have a profitable business by selling body parts, and the fat of hanged men. It seems that the bodies of commoners were never given respect and a decent burial. There is a reference to this type of death in book 2. It is the scene in which Jamie recounts a nightmare of Black Jack to Claire.

“Yes, of course you have; you were in France, you’ll have seen deserters hanged now and then. A hanged man looses his bowels, doesn’t he? As the rope tightens fast round his neck” (Dragonfly in Amber, ch. 8)

“You’ll go to your death with your arse burning from my pleasure, and when you lose your bowels, it will be my spunk running down your legs and dripping on the ground below the gallows” (Dragonfly in Amber, ch. 8)

Fortunately, Jamie’s body did not have that insulting fate. Obviously, there was a difference how nobles and commoners were executed. Nobles were given a fast, clean death by beheading, and were able to escape public dismemberment. This distinction is emphasized in Episode 206 when Claire brings up the condition of how the poor live in the city during a conversation between Louise and her friends. When Claire tells them about the corpses of the mother and child she saw on a road, they are simply indifferent. They would never do anything to alleviate the living conditions of commoners. They would just prefer to have their dead bodies removed from a highly frequented area.

This disparity of how people were killed is what led to the creation of the guillotine. In this way, the victim or accused was given a quick death regardless of their social status.

With the guillotine, death could now be nearly instantaneous, with considerably less pomp and circumstance. Executions by guillotine were certainly well attended, but they lacked some of the extended spectacle of earlier execution rituals . . .  (From Executions, the Guillotine and the French Revolution).

The above link also details that beheading became less prone to human error with the guillotine: it eliminates two or more swings to kill somebody. Furthermore, it mentions that Anne Boleyn requested a French swordsman to behead her, implying the belief that the French were efficient in doing this type of job. Based on this detail, it makes sense that Monsieur Forez’s services are in demand by the English in book 2.  Furthermore, Forez describes the traitor’s death as public entertainment, a consistency with the TV adaptation: “That is what delights the crowds, of course, as well as the popping eyes” (ch. 23).

I decided to include a little bit more about the guillotine in this post since Claire mentions it in a later book when warning Michael Murray about the Terror (book 8). A subsequent post about episode 206 will be published soon.

Sources

Gabaldon, Diana . Dragonfly in Amber. New York: Bantam Dell, 1993. Print.