The Maiden
1564
A tall oak frame with a heavy angled blade hanging at the top: this is the Maiden, Edinburgh's beheading machine, built in 1564 and used for almost a century and a half. It predates the French guillotine by more than two hundred years. The name is a grim joke, perhaps from the Gaelic word for the device or from the idea that it was a maiden because it waited patiently for its victims. Over one hundred and fifty people are recorded as having been executed with it, among them nobles, ministers, forgers and thieves. Its most famous victim was Archibald Campbell, ninth Earl of Argyll, executed in 1685, who reportedly called it the sweetest maiden he had ever kissed.
Look at the construction. The frame is nearly three metres tall and the blade, weighted with a great lump of lead, runs in grooves in the uprights. A rope held the blade at the top and was released by the executioner. Below the blade is a wooden block with a notch for the neck, and a small bar held the victim's head in place. The machine was designed to be dismantled and stored, and it was kept by the town council and set up at the Mercat Cross or the Castlehill when needed. The blade was replaced more than once, and you can see the wear where the mechanism ran. Legend says the design was suggested by James Douglas, Earl of Morton, regent of Scotland, who was himself beheaded on it in 1581.
The Maiden was last used in 1710 and stored away, then passed to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1797, which makes it one of the oldest objects in the museum's care. It matters because it is a rare survival of the machinery of early modern justice and because so many episodes of Scottish history, from the religious struggles of the Covenanters to the politics of the Stuart court, passed beneath its blade. A memorable detail: contemporaries praised it as a merciful device, because the axe often needed several strokes.
Did You Know? The Earl of Morton, who is said to have introduced the Maiden to Scotland, was himself executed on it in 1581.
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