What is fagot-wood?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
March 18, 2003
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
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In his chapter, Of the Willow Tree, John Gerard (1597) uses withy and willow interchangeably. Technically, withes (plural of withy) were strong and flexible willow branches used for weaving baskets, furniture, and barriers like fences. Withy came to refer to any of the willows (genus: Salix).
Tops of trees with flexible wood were pollarded, lopped back to stimulate dormant buds into growing into withes, "which are in turn cut for basket-making and fagot-wood. Willows and poplars especially are so treated." (Century Unabridged Dictionary, 1889) Except for the old dictionary and a reference in Shakespeare, much is missing from the historical uses of willow.
Fagot-wood consisted of withes cut three feet long (~meter) and tied into bundles two feet in diameter. The bundles were used as fuel, although the dictionary mentions the bark stripped from the branches was used to tan glove-leather and willow charcoal was the preference for gun-powder.
Fagot-wood had one notorious use—the fagots (faggots) were piled against the stake for burning heretics, witches, and other 'riff-raff'. In Shakespeare's King Henry the Sixth (1623), the setting is the One Hundred Years War. The English captured Joan of Arc and sentenced her to death as a witch.
The Earl of Warwick pleads for Joan, "And hark ye, sirs; because she is a maid, Spare for no faggots, let there be enow (enough): Place barrels of pitch upon the fatal stake, That so her torture may be shortened." A large fire pulls oxygen out of the air and creates carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide suffocating a victim. Truly sadistic executioners kept the fires small. Joan's execution took place on May 30, 1431.
A few accused heretics escaped by admitting the errors of their ways. The forgiven heretic had "to burn one's fagot", an obligation to carry the bundle to a public place and set it on fire. Then to make sure no one forgot the person was once accused of heresy, the person worn a fagot-badge. "A representation of a fagot was worn on the sleeve by repentant heretics, as a symbol that they had recanted opinions worthy of burning." (Century Unabridged Dictionary, 1889)
BasketMakers Organization has a fascinating website. To learn more about basketry, basket weavers, or to learn to make baskets, click on the link:
http://basketmakers.org/
Wikipedia has an excellent section on the Spanish Inquisition that started 45 years after the death of Joan of Arc. To learn more about the Inquisition, click on the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Inquisition
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
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