Klein Henszlein
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Klein Henszlein [Klaus Hanslein] (died 1573) was a German pirate active from 1560 to 1573 who raided shipping in the North Sea until his defeat and capture by a fleet from Hamburg. Taken back to Hamburg, Henszlein and his men were paraded through the city streets before being beheaded on September 10, 1573; their heads were then impaled on stakes. In a later account, the executioner described how he "flicked off" the heads of the thirty-three pirates (not including Henszlein) in only 45 minutes, then proceeding to behead the bodies of those pirates killed during their capture. He later claimed to have been "standing in blood so deep that it well nigh in his shoes did creep".
References
- Bottling, Douglas. The Pirates. Alexandria, Virginia: Time-Life Books Inc., 1978.
- Niehaus, Alisha. Piratepedia. New York, New York: Dorling Kindersley Ltd., 2007.
Categories:
- Articles with short description
- Short description is different from Wikidata
- German pirates
- People executed in the Holy Roman Empire by decapitation
- 1573 deaths
- Executed German people
- Year of birth unknown
- 16th-century executions in the Holy Roman Empire
- People executed for piracy
- 16th-century pirates
- History of Hamburg
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