Noyades

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Republican marriage. (Discuss)

Noyades were drownings superintended during the Reign of Terror at Nantes, France by the attorney Carrier, the representative-on-mission.

The drownings were carried out by cramming some 90 priests in a flat-bottomed craft under hatches, and drowning them in mid-stream after scuttling the boat at a signal given, followed by another in which some 138 persons suffered like "sentence of deportation"; of these drownages there are said to have been no fewer first and last than 25.

Jean-Baptiste Carrier was responsible for the execution of around 2000 people by tying them naked in sealed barges. the barges were then holed and sunk in the Loire estuary.

One of the gruesome features of the noyades were what have been termed the 'underwater marriages', where a priest and a nun would be tied together before they were drowned. The drownings were also referred to as 'republican baptisms' or republican marriages.

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia.