Head on a spike
Placing a severed head on a spike (or pike or pole) is a custom used sometimes in human history and in culture. The symbolic value may change over time. It may give a warning to spectators. The head may be a human head or an animal head.
Oliver Cromwell's head was placed on a spike and erected in the 17th century. A drawing from the late 18th century.
Noted examples
- John the Baptist (late first century BC – c. 30 AD)
- William Wallace (c. 1270–1305)
- Simon Fraser (d. 1306)
- Jack Cade (c. 1420–1450)
- Richard of York (1411–1460)
- Thomas More (1478–1535)
- Thomas Cromwell (c. 1485–1540)
- Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658)
- Jacques de Flesselles (1730–1789)
- Bernard-René Jourdan de Launay (1740–1789)
- Staker Wallace (1733–1798)
- John Murphy (1753–1798)
- Vela Peeva (1922–1944)
Gallery
A sketch of a head impaled on a pike, included in a letter to Ronald Fuller dated 1924
Drawing of the French Revolution: "Aristocratic Heads on Pikes"
Engraving c.1789 of French militia hoisting the heads of Jacques de Flesselles and the marquis de Launay on pikes
See also
- Decapitation
- Mouting points and synonyms:
- Battlefield Cross, a symbolic replacement of a cross made up of the soldier's rifle stuck into the ground with helmet on top
- London Bridge
- Impalement, in which the object is alive at the time of penetration
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