Why didn't people condemned to death try to run during execution?

by TheRealRaiden

With this question I'm primarily citing the executions of medieval nobles, but am also encompassing time periods and circumstances which are "close enough".

Whenever a noble was sentenced to death in Medieval Europe, their execution was usually public, at the town square or whatever, so that everyone could see them dead. There were exceptions, naturally, but - as far as I know - most executions were public. We know that it was tradition for the condemned to bribe the executioner to ensure the execution isn't botched, and there were also stories of some nobles raising their arms to signal the executioner to strike (which means their arms weren't bound).

Now, if it was just a common thief or murderer being brought in under guard, it's easy to see how escaping the noose would be damn near impossible. But the nobility had money, and they were rarely restrained. Why not just bribe the guards to give you a minute head start, then just run? Someone with gold and status - even if facing death - shouldn't have too much trouble hiding out in the countryside or fleeing the country, right? I mean, I doubt it was easy to stage a nationwide manhunt in the 13th century. Once you got out of the city escape was more or less guaranteed.

So, given that they had nothing to lose (what are their captors going to do, kill them?), why didn't any - or even most - nobles being put to death try to get out of it by simply running? Was it an honor thing? Did they fear the crowd more than the noose? Or have a good number of prisoners actually escaped from the scaffold, we just never hear of them?

Patchknight

I think the best way of answering your question is to address and disassemble your incorrect assumptions. If we're discussing specifically noble executions, we'll talk about some of the most execution-happy parts of English medieval history - the reign of Henry VIII.

Let's take Thomas Moore, but truthfully you could talk about any of the other executed nobles from any other point in history.

Why not just bribe the guards to give you a minute head start?

Why would you? The people who arrange executions are aware of the custom of 'bribing' the headsman to make a clean cut, because nobody wanted to be like Thomas Cromwell who was damn near butchered - we know that because gruesomely botched executions are attached to the name forever. That being said, not every executed individual paid off the headsman, only in certain circumstances, or when ceremony would suggest it prudent. On the other hand, if you're a headsman (and a guard... and another guard... and three more guards... there's a lot of people to hypothetically bribe), you know that if you're bribed off you're like to be executed yourself for dereliction of duty. What will the crowds report when you turn your eyes away from Thomas Moore fleeing the scaffold? Moreover, what's stopping you from just taking the money and then executing the bastard anyway? What's he gonna do, accuse you of bribery?

If you're a lord, you have whatever ragged remains of your name and estate to look after. Even stripped of that, you might try to salvage your public image with decency in the face of death, and you certainly would have difficulty, at best, orchestrating such a massive corrupt undertaking. London was, for example, kilometers wide in 1600 - you'd have to pay off dozens, if not hundreds, of law officials, and if any one of them rats you out (which they have enormous incentive to do) your plot is foiled before it even begins. Moore and other nobles had their reputations and literary works to look after. In the years immediately following Moore's death, I doubt his books and philosophy would have been as kindly regarded if he attempted to flee martyrdom.

the nobility had money

Did they? Ignoring all the practical concerns of bribing the guards, how do you think gold went from the hands of nobles to the hands of guards? After they were arrested, nobles relied on family members and sympathizers to bring them money, and the amount of money they'd give the headsman for a clean execution would be small at best - easily snuck in or overlooked out of mercy. If you need a large sum of money to bribe all the guards, you need to implicate a large amount of people to help you, and if you're the daughter of a lord who has just been condemned to death, you're not likely to risk your neck (literally) helping him escape execution, and putting all your trust in a bunch of guards who have all the incentive in the world to betray you - your family is now out of sway with people in power, and to report more members of it for treason would earn you quite the accolade as a guard. EVEN IF you successfully escape, family members who helped you escape would be implicated for aiding you and put to the sword themselves. Moore, or even the most Machiavellian of lords, wouldn't want to see their children put to the sword for helping them. This is ignoring that so many lords lost all titles and estates when condemned to execution, and that the majority of wealth was then, as now, tied up in capital, not in liquid currency that could be used to bribe guards.

why not get out of it by simply running?

I'll assume you mean 'physically attempting to escape on foot'. To answer this, again, the answer is 'why'? It's an utterly hopeless gesture. Most crowds assembled disliked the person being executed, and in the case that the crowd wouldn't have interfered (which is already a spurious notion, since just physically being there acts as a barrier), the guards would easily and almost instantly catch up. Recapturing would probably guarantee harsh pain as you're dragged back to the scaffold, likely bound and beaten, then executed anyway.

I doubt it was easy to stage a nationwide manhunt in the 13th century. Once you got out of the city escape was more or less guaranteed.

Although it's true the peasantry wouldn't have any awareness of Thomas Moore's face, a vagrant fleeing the city would arouse suspicions. Feudal systems relied on successive tiers of political power and that meant successive tiers of policing. Local police would absolutely hear reports of noble-dressed (or alternatively naked-dressed) individuals into their fief, and once turned over to the authorities they would be cross-referenced for that scandalous execution escape that was recently staged.

But again, the answer is 'why would you?' Most nobles were only successful in a political context. At best they'd manage to blend in among the peasantry and become a serf (as did happen to many exiled families), but this is a miserable existence for someone who has known wealth. Moore was an intellectual and he'd never be able to publish again. Life was not a meritocracy - even if he adopted a nom de plume, he could write a genius political treatise or even discover general relativity, and nobody would ever read it.

This discussion isn't limited to Tudor era capital punishment. These concerns are intrinsic to most civil societies, and to human psychology. I couldn't find any references to nobles attempting these things, and the reasons why should be fairly well outlined by now.

Now, there is another facet of this discussion - nobles who evaded the capital punishment by leveraging military or political power against their liege. Doubtlessly this is a thing that happened, with nobles inciting civil war or blackmail, but this, I think, isn't what you're asking about. These incidences didn't begin with a noble with his hands on the chopping block, but rather with nobles refusing to be jailed and using their resources to wage war or change minds against the power attempting to jail them.