Infinitum

Poilu or Grognard?

Poilu (pronounced /pwaly/ in French) is a warmly informal term for a French World War I infantryman, meaning, literally, hairy one. The term came into popular usage in France during the era of Napoleon Bonaparte and his massive citizen armies, though the term grognard (grumbler) was also common. It is still widely used as a term of endearment for the French infantry of World War I. The word carries the twin sense of the infantryman’s typically rustic, agricultural background. Beards and bushy moustaches were often worn.

The image of the dogged, bearded French soldier was widely used in propaganda and war memorials. The stereotype of the Poilu was of bravery and endurance, but not always of unquestioning obedience. At the disastrous Chemin des Dames offensive of 1917 under General Robert Nivelle, they were said to have gone into no man’s land making baa’ing noises, parodying the idea that they were being sent as lambs to the slaughter. Outstanding for its mixture of horror and heroism, this spectacle proved a sobering one. As the news of it spread, the French high command soon found itself coping with a widespread mutiny. A minor revolution was only averted with the promise of an end to the costly offensive.

The last poilu from World War I was Pierre Picault. However, French authorities recognise Lazare Ponticelli as the dernier poilu, as he was the last veteran whose service met the strict official criteria.

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Execution by Drowning

In Europe, drowning was used — more often than hanging, even — as capital punishment, at least for a time. In fact, during the Middle Ages, a sentence of death was read using the words “cum fossa et furca,” or “with drowning-pit and gallows.” Commonly, women who were convicted of theft were drowned. Furthermore, drowning was used as a way to determine if a woman was a witch. The idea was that witches would float and the innocent would drown. For more details, see trial by drowning. It is understood that drowning was used as the least brutal form of execution, and was therefore reserved primarily for women, although favorable men were executed in this way as well.

Drowning survived as a method of execution in Europe until the 17th and 18th centuries. England had abolished the practice by 1623, Scotland by 1685, Switzerland in 1652, Austria in 1776, Iceland in 1777, and Russia by the beginning of the 1800s. France revived the practice during the French Revolution (1789–1799) and was carried out by Jean Baptiste Carrier at Nantes.

Tags: Drowning, Witches