Executioner in Germany — English decapitations were (with eceptions such as Anne Boleyn who was beheaded with a sword) regularly performed with axes. The person to be beheaded kneeled or laid down, bended forward, and placed his neck on a high or (if like Charles I laying on the ground) low wooden block. The blow would be be lead down vertically to end in the block. In a number of German territories decapitations were performed with long two handed swords; the exectuioner would stand behind the victim kneeling in front of him head upright in order to receive an ultimately horizontal blow.