by Lian Kan
Another famous case that contributes to the idea of a few seconds of consciousness after death was during the Reign of Terror in France between 1793 and 1794, where around 17,000 people were executed by the guillotine, which was also known as the ‘The National Razor’. Some notable figures who were guillotined included King Louis XVI, Queen Marie Antoinette and George Danton. However, one death which sparked questions and experiments was Charlotte Corday, who was executed by the guillotine for the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat. After she was executed, onlookers reported that when the executioner lifted up her head and slapped her lifeless cheek, Corday's severed head was said to have ‘flushed red’ and had an expression of ‘unequivocal indignation’ at the man’s actions.
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| Salome Receives the Head of John the Baptist by Caravaggio |
Anne Boleyn, John the Baptist and Marie Antoinette all have something in common - which is that they all died from decapitation. Beheadings have been widely used throughout history, most notably, in Europe from the Tudors and the Reign of Terror. To die from losing your head was generally considered as a death for people from noble birth in the Tudor era - regarded as an upgrade from the other alternatives of death such as being hanged, drawn and quartered or being burnt at the stake. Decapitation was also regarded as the more ‘humane’ killing method as it was believed to be painless since the death is instant - but some people argue otherwise.
It can sometimes take more than one blow to kill someone, most commonly due to an inexperienced executioner or occasionally, a blunt weapon. Some notable beheadings from the Tudors included two of King Henry VIII’s wives, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, Lady Jane Grey and Sir Walter Raleigh. Mary Queen of Scots had the first blow hit the back of her head. The second blow killed her, but it took a third to decapitate her fully. Margeret Pole, sister of Edward IV and Richard III, was declared dead only after eleven blows. These situations are perhaps why some nobles requested experienced executioners to finish the job in one blow, such as Anne Boleyn, who had a French swordsman come to behead her. However some witnesses claimed that Anne Boleyn attempted to speak after being beheaded - ironic as the French executioner was hired to decapitate her with one strike.
Scientifically speaking, the brain requires oxygen to continue to function, so once the head is separated from the body the only oxygen left would be any in the blood and tissues remaining. Consciousness is another matter, and scientists have strived to discover how long the brain remains conscious after death, as in decapitation the brain ceases to function due to the loss of blood, not the action of decapitation. This was tested in 1880, when Dr. Dassy de Lignieres attempted to pump dog blood back into the head of a murderer who had been guillotined three hours previously to test whether it would be able to come back to life. He observed that the eyes and lips fluttered for two seconds before going back to being lifeless. In 1905, Dr. Beaurieux recreated this experiment with a freshly decapitated head, and this time the eyelids and lips ‘worked in irregularly spasmodic movements for about five or six seconds’ and at the sound of his name the man’s eyes slowly lifted up to meet the doctor’s eyes.
Arguably, the cases of Anne Boleyn and Charlotte Corday could be explained by spasms in the muscles that control the eyes and lips, as shown in the experiments by Lignieres and Beaurieux, but until the dead can speak, we will never know for sure.
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