Les bourreaux de France — le métier le plus redouté et le mieux payé du royaume

Executioner: France's Most Hated Job… and the Best Paid in the Kingdom 💡 A REALISTIC HISTORICAL IMMERSIVE This video uses historical facts to trace the role of the executioner in France before the abolition of the death penalty. It draws on historical sources and research to offer a faithful reconstruction. You'll discover the strangest profession in French history. Executioner. A word that sends chills down your spine. The executioner of capital punishment, he beheaded, hanged, and broke on the wheel… and yet, he was one of the HIGHEST PAID civil servants in the kingdom. 💰 Annual salary of an executioner under Louis XIV: the equivalent of €50,000 today. 🏠 Official residence, tax exemption, and the right to collect the havage (a tax… on goods that he himself levied). ⚔️ And yet, no one wanted to sit at his table. His children were expelled from school. He had to live apart from the city, forever scarred. In this video, I tell you the incredible paradox of the executioner: hated by everyone… and covered in gold. 🔍 On the program: ⏳ 00:00 — The paradox of the executioner 🪓 02:15 — Who became the executioner? Cursed Dynasties 💰 05:40 — The Wages of Death: How Much Did an Executioner Earn? 🏚️ 08:20 — The Life of an Outcast: Solitude, Exclusion, Social Curse ⚜️ 11:00 — The Sanson Family: The Dynasty That Shaped the Profession 🎯 13:15 — The End of an Era: The Arrival of the Guillotine 📌 If you enjoy history told in a different way, you've come to the right place. Main Sources: • Memoirs of the Sanson Family, Seven Generations of Executioners (1688-1847) • Jacques Delarue, "The Executioner's Profession" • National Archives, Registers of High Executioners • Frédéric Armand, "Executioners in France" 🎬 This video is a narrative documentary from the channel La France d'Avant (France Before). Other episodes about daily life in France before 1789 are available on the channel.