[f. prec. + -AL 2 5, which see. Apparently in no Dict. hitherto.] Beheading, execution by decapitation.
1850. J. Brotherton, in Coventry Her. & Obs., 1 March, 2/1. After the beheadal of Anne Boleyn, which took place within three years after her marriage, the King married Lady Jane Seymour.
1859. Wingfield, Tour Dalmatia, 6. The drums announcing Mary’s beheadal.
1881. Besant & Rice, Whittington, ii. 54. The beheadal of Sheriff Richard Lions.
1882–3. Schaff, in Herzog’s Encycl. Rel. Knowl., II. 1191. The reason for the beheadal was jealousy at John’s preponderant influence with the people.
