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Recent Examples of headsmanSeveral other leading figures of the period ended their days on the executioner’s block, including the unhappy Comte de Chalais, whose headsman bungled the job and ended up frantically chopping away at his screaming victim with a small hatchet.—David A. Bell, Foreign Affairs, 1 Mar. 2012 Even if your reality is the headsman’s block!—Helen Shaw, Vulture, 4 Oct. 2021 Two other men, subjects of excellent Holbein drawings in the show, would keep appointments with the headsman.—Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 21 Feb. 2022 Once upon a time, the queen could have sent rebels to the Tower and the headsman’s block, even relatives—especially relatives.—Matt Seaton, The New York Review of Books, 9 Mar. 2021 The British prime minister has assembled a trio of headsmen to sever Britain from the mainland.—Vanityfair.com, VanityFair.com, 22 Mar. 2017
No longer the beloved Renaissance prince of his youth, Henry was, by his mid-40s, an increasingly infirm and mercurial monarch who had few qualms about sending his closest companions—among them the aforementioned Thomas More—to the executioner’s block.
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Meilan Solly,
Smithsonian Magazine,
20 Mar. 2025
The Mirror and the Light opens with that profoundly disturbing execution, Foy a pale rictus of fear and vulnerability as she is led to the block, where she is blindfolded and positioned before the executioner’s sword.
Now, while media and fans are all crunching the numbers and trying to predict who will die and who their murderer is in Season 3, several people involved with the series are effectively telling audiences to brace themselves for something big in the finale, which will run 90 minutes.
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Tim Lammers,
Forbes.com,
5 Apr. 2025
Look at this week’s murderer, Freya Frostad (Mary-Louise Parker) — she’s built an entire career and life on the belief that one only needs 44 things in this life.
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