Le bourreau : icône de la haute justice : le maître des hautes oeuvres, la torture et les exécutions criminelles dans deux principautés en mutation : Hainaut et Brabant (ca.1350 - ca.1570)

We both know a lot yet very little about the character of the medieval and the modern executioner. In addition, our perceptions of this phenomenon are strongly influenced by external factors, such as those constructed during the romantic period and our more pointed knowledge of the everyday life of the masters of the guillotine. In other words, what we know mostly concern a period when the professional development of the artisans of punishment is at its culmination. Based on the realities that come through the deconstruction of this inherited conception of the executioner, this thesis, which is mainly based on urban and judicial officers accounts, analyses the origins of these particular artisans and their actions (torture and criminal executions) between the 14th and the 16th century. It takes Brabant and Hainaut as a framework, two principalities that are mutating during this period, including through power struggles and tensions that accompany their integration within the territory of the Dukes of Burgundy and their successors. The study reveals the subtle changes at work in the administration of punishment (E.g. the uniformisation of the penal enforcement rules over time) as in the organisation of the executioners into familial, professional and apprenticeship networks. When faced with the authorities on which they depend – the urban magistrates being on the front row – these transformations have gradually offered more flexibility to the hangmen and they have added weight to their demands, including the ones concerning the wages. The study shows that executioners participate in the construction of power and that they are at the centre of the power games and struggles between the various authorities that make use of their services. Furthermore, the thesis emphasizes on their particular place in interknowlegde societies where they evolve but also on how these judicial actors are subjected to geographic, moral and symbolic marginalisation from society. It demonstrates that, contrary to what our current perceptions of this character and his work might suggest, the story of the executioners, criminal executions and torture is much more complex and nuanced.