In the violent upheaval of the French Revolution, few figures stood closer to death than Charles-Henri Sanson. Kings, queens, nobles, priests, criminals, and commoners all passed before him. He did not shout slogans, draft laws, or lead mobs. He stood silently at the scaffold, performing a task that made him both indispensable and despised. By the time he laid down his office, Sanson had overseen nearly 3,000 executions, including some of the most famous deaths in European history. Sanson was a professional executioner born into a family that had wielded the sword of justice for generations.
The execution of Robespierre and his supporters on 28 July 1794. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The Sanson family had been executioners since the late seventeenth century, forming one of the most remarkable and stigmatized dynasties in French history. Charles-Henri Sanson was born on 15 February 1739 in Paris, the eldest son of Charles-Jean-Baptiste Sanson, the executioner of Paris. The office was hereditary, passed down much like a trade, though one burdened with social isolation. Executioners were legally necessary but socially untouchable. They lived on the margins of respectable society, often barred from ordinary interactions, marriages, and professions.
Charles-Henri did not wish to inherit this role. His father initially hoped to spare him from the family curse and sent him to study medicine. Sanson showed promise and trained as a physician. But fate intervened. When his father fell ill and became unable to perform his duties, the teenage Charles-Henri was forced to take his place. Sanson was probably only 16 or 17 years old when he carried out his first execution, sealing a destiny he had never chosen.
In 1778, upon his father’s death, Charles-Henri Sanson officially became the High Executioner of Paris, the most prominent such position in France. Paris was the heart of the kingdom, and executions there were public spectacles attended by vast crowds. Sanson was responsible not only for carrying out death sentences but also for maintaining the instruments of execution, supervising assistants, and ensuring that justice was performed according to law.
Despite the brutality of his work, Sanson approached his role with a strong sense of duty and restraint. Contemporary accounts suggest that he was reserved, educated, and deeply aware of the moral weight of his position. He reportedly disliked executions and was troubled by unnecessary cruelty. His medical background led him to favor methods that were swift and reliable. This inclination would soon place him at the center of a technological shift in how France administered death.
Before the Revolution, execution methods varied according to social status. Nobles were typically beheaded by sword or axe, while commoners faced hanging, breaking on the wheel, or burning. These methods were often gruesome and inconsistent. In 1789, as revolutionary ideals of equality before the law took hold, reformers sought a uniform and humane method of execution.
The result was the guillotine, named after Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, who advocated for a mechanical device that would deliver quick and painless death regardless of class. Sanson was initially skeptical. He worried about the reliability of the machine and the practical challenges of its use. However, after testing and refinements, he became its primary operator.
The guillotine transformed Sanson into a killing machine. The blade fell swiftly, efficiently, and repeatedly. What had once been an occasional public punishment became a grimly regular event. The guillotine was so effective, Sanson could execute hundreds of people in a single day. One time he decapitated 12 victims in 13 minutes. Sometimes forty or fifty condemned individuals would arrive and he would dispatch one every two minutes.
The execution of Louis XVI. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
On 21 January 1793, Charles-Henri Sanson executed Louis XVI, King of France. The execution was unprecedented: a reigning monarch put to death by his own people. Sanson later described the event with stark restraint. He ensured that the king was treated with dignity, binding his hands gently and positioning him carefully beneath the blade. When the guillotine fell, Sanson lifted the severed head to show the crowd, as custom demanded.
Later that year, on 16 October 1793, he executed Marie Antoinette. By then, Paris was deep in the Terror, and executions had become almost routine. Sanson is said to have shown quiet respect, helping the former queen climb the scaffold after she stumbled. His role was not to judge, but to perform the sentence of the state.
The Reign of Terror marked the most intense and exhausting period of Sanson’s career. Between 1793 and 1794, executions occurred daily, sometimes dozens in a single day.
At the height of the Terror, Sanson and his assistants guillotined 300 men and women in three days, 1,300 in six weeks, and between 6 April 1793 and 29 July 1795, no fewer than 2,831 heads dropped into the baskets.
Sanson and his assistants worked relentlessly. The guillotine was moved to larger public squares to accommodate the crowds and the volume of executions.
Despite his outward composure, the psychological toll was immense. Sanson reportedly suffered from insomnia, depression, and physical exhaustion. He did not relish his power; instead, he saw himself as trapped by his duty. He once wrote that he felt like “an instrument” rather than a man, compelled to obey the law even when it horrified him.
Outside the scaffold, Sanson lived a constrained life. He was married and had two sons, Henri and Gabriel, both of who assisted Sanson in executions. Unfortunately, in 1792, Gabriel was on the scaffold and holding up a severed head when he slipped, likely because of the bloody platform. He died from his injuries, and the accident resulted in French scaffolds thereafter having sides.
After the fall of Robespierre and the end of the Terror, executions declined. In 1795, after nearly four decades of service, he gradually retired, passing responsibilities to his son, Henri Sanson, who continued the tradition for another 47 years before himself retiring.
Charles-Henri Sanson died on 4 July 1806 at the age of 67. By then, he had executed nearly 3,000 people—more than any executioner in French history.
References:
# Charles-Henri Sanson. Wikipedia
# Memoirs of the Sansons. Henri Sanson
# Charles-Henri Sanson. Biographs
# The French Executioner Charles-Henri Sanson. Geri Walton
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