The French Hang a Pig!

The French Hang a Pig!

            The French have given us some of the most loved things like French Fries, bagels, croissants and now they give us a piece of history that is just too funny not to writ4e about.

            I know they didn’t give us French fries, but hey it sounded good to add it in there. LOL. Anyway, back to this piece of history that I thought was just too funny to be true, I had to do some further research to see if this was true and found that it is most assuredly true. Poor old Peppa Pig! LOL No that wasn’t the name of the pig, but it was really the only pig I could think of to reference right now.

           The Trial.

The Middle Ages was a time of upheaval in Europe, and they were on the road to covering every aspect of murder and capital punishment. Upon researching this a bit more I learned that a dog in Massachusetts was held in prison for the rest for his life after he “murdered” the Governors Wife’s Cat.

Tax Dollars

I guess they can use tax dollars on anything in this Country. Hmm, I can think of much better things to do than put a dog on trial for murder of a cat. I guess next we are going to start putting wild animals on trial for doing what their nature says to do. (Shaking my head)

            Anyway, back to this poor unfortunate pig.  The pig was put in clothes, given a lawyer and a jury, and put on trial. Guess the justice system was bored.

Anyway in 1386, this poor pig was just going about its piggy business. A child got too close to his pen, and he attacked the child. The child later died of its injuries and the pig was arrested for murder. He was held in a regular prison cell like any other human prisoner would be.

            After his arrest and holding, he was then dressed and sent to court to stand trial for the murder. He was dressed appropriately, given a lawyer to defend him. (I use this term loosely, I don’t know, and it doesn’t say whether the pig was male or female, so for ease of writing I am using He and Him.) Then after standing trial in front of a jury. Now we think of this as a jury of our peers these days, but back then I don’t think they really could use a jury of their peers, or it would have consisted of roosters, cows, and pigs.

Making Light.

I make light, but this is silly that they would do this to a domestic animal. Even in the middle-ages. So, a jury, but if you look up juries from the middle-ages the juries were not people put there to find truth or guilt and innocence. They were out there to find in favor of the Lord, Lady, or accuser. We must only look at the Witch trials of the same era to know this to be true.

            Now, what would be a fitting punishment for a pig found guilty of murder? Well, you would think a quick trip to the butcher shop or slaughterhouse, wouldn’t you? But no, like all murderers of the time he was hung for all to see from the gallows. It doesn’t say how long he was left there to hang and what happened to him after his hanging. I am sure he then got to go to the slaughterhouse. A one-way trip that is.

          Final Thoughts. 

Now I did make light of this. In all seriousness it is no trivial matter having a child murdered but putting a pig on trial or any other animal on trial for murder is just preposterous. But back then the beliefs and understanding of the people and court system were a lot different. I can understand why they would seek justice in this way, but on the other hand I can’t see it. I just can’t.

            Hope you liked this episode of fascinating historical facts; it won’t be long, and I will publish another one. I also like to research weird historical and pieces of knowledge. If you would like to share some of your weird facts and historical facts, then send me an email or comment and tell me. If I like it enough, I will feature it on here as an episode.