Jeanne de la Motte
A young woman found guilty of conspiring in intrigues against the
queen, Jeanne de la Motte was sentenced to be whipped, branded (with a
V on each shoulder for voleuse [thief]) and imprisoned for life.
She did not know this at the time as French prisoners were only told their
fate immediately prior to the sentence being carried out (with the exception
of the death penalty). Minor punishments such as beatings, whippings
and branding were normally carried out by executioners' aids but due to
her high status, Jeanne's punishment was undertaken by the chief executioner
of France. In order to maintain court dignity the sentence was scheduled
for six o'clock in the morning June 21st 1786 in the courtyard of the Palace
de Justice.
At five o'clock Jeanne was removed from her celll and taken to
Parlement to hear her sentence pronounced. Haughty and scornful at
first she refused to kneel whilst she heard her sentence as was customary
but started screaming and thrashing about when she learned of her sentence.
She had to be restrained and physically tied up abd carried down to the
courtyard where a scaffold had been erected. Despite the early hour,
a crowd of hundreds had gathered, for whippings of women were extremely
popular entertainment. On seeing the scaffold, whips and braziers,
Jeanne continued to thrash about and it took some time to remove her clothes.
With much effort she was finally stripped of her attire and forced down
upon her stomach whilst the executioner administered the beating.
From 'The Queen's Necklace' (F. Mossiker, 1790)
"Her whole body was revealed - her superb body, so exquisitely
proportioned. At the flash of those white thighs and breasts, th
erabble broke the stunned silence with cat-calls, whistles and obscenities.
The prisoner, after her whippings, slipped from his grasp - the executioner,
branding iron in hand, had to follow her as she writhed and rolled across
the courtyard to the very foot of the grand staircase...
The delicate flesh sizzled under the red-hot iron. A light
bluish vapor floated about her loosened hair. At that moment her
entire body was seized with a convulsion so violent that the second letter
V was applied not to her shoulder but her breast, on her beautiful breast.
Madame de la Motte's tortured body writhed in one last tremendous
convulsive movement. Somehow she had the strength to turn and bite
the executioner's shoulder. Then she fainted. She was taken
to Salpetriere prison (from which she later excaped).
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