Sword of justice

Description

In the Middle Ages supreme secular jurisdiction was wielded by the king or the emperor, although jurisdiction was usually delegated to bailiffs or local rulers. In many places the symbol of judicial authority and sign of sovereignty was a sword of justice (not to be confused with an executioner's sword). The present example can be assigned to the judicial sphere on account of the engravings on the blade. On the front the imperial eagle and a sequence of letters not yet interpreted probably the first letters of a biblical quotation are engraved and inlaid with brass. The back shows a lion and another series of letters. The lion may be understood either as a symbol of judicial authority or as the Habsburg lion. The sword very probably dates from the time of the Habsburg imperial governors who exercised supreme judicial power in Basle from 1286 to 1382. After the battle of Sempach King Wenzel in Prague permitted judicial authority to pass from the Empire to the Basle town council. Basle thereby acquired the key offices that led to the city's independence. It remains uncertain whether this sword fulfilled a strictly symbolic function as a sword of justice, or was used by the executioner for beheading.