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
- William Wallace (c. 1270 - 1305)
- Simon Fraser (d. 1306)
- Jack Cade (c. 1420 - 1450)
- 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)
- Tara Chambler, character from The Walking Dead
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
gollark: Oops, it seems that I forgot to put my code in a `while` loop. Fixed.
gollark: The sequence *cannot* be stopped.
gollark: On an unrelated note, it is already too late. Protocol Charlie-India-Mike-Delta-Bravo-7436 has been initiated.
gollark: Imagine not using procedural tactic generation.
gollark: I had a laptop which had a high-power enough CPU to keep hot chocolate pleasantly warm.
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
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.