10 Most Frightening Torture Techniques from the Middle Ages

10 Most Frightening Torture Techniques from the Middle Ages


Impalement: A sharp pole is pushed, bottom upwards, through the victim’s body
If you were Vlad the Impaler (more commonly known as Dracula) of
15th century Romania, you simply impaled your victims by forcing them
to sit ona sharp and thick pole. The pole was then raised upright and the victim was left to slide further down
the pole by his or her own weight.
Often,
the pole would emerge through the sternum so that its tip could be placed under the chin to prevent further sliding. It could take the victim three days to die. Vlad did this to between 20,000 and 300,000. It is said he enjoyed having a meal while watching impalements. (Photo by Trevor Matich)
Judas Cradle: The victim’s orifice is painfully stretched, flesh ripped

The Judas Cradle was perhaps a little less sadistic than impalement but still gruesome. The victim’s
anus or vagina would be placed over the point of the pyramid-shaped
cradle, then lowered on it by ropes. The intended effect was to stretch
the orifice over a long period of time, or to slowly impale.
The victim was usually naked, adding to the overall humiliation of the
torture and sometimes weights were added to the legs to increase the pain and hasten death. This
torture could last anywhere from a few hours to complete days. The device was rarely washed, so the victim could also be plagued with a painful infection.
Coffin Torture: Torture in a metal cage, pecked at by preying birds

The Coffin
Torture was feared in
the Middle Ages, and is often seen in films depicting the time (see Monty Python’s Holy Grail). The victim was placed inside a metal cage roughly made in the shape of the human body. Torturers could force overweight victims into a smaller device, or even make the “coffin” slightly larger than a victim’s body to make him more uncomfortable. The cage was frequently hung from a tree or a gallows.
Serious crimes, such as heresy or blasphemy, were punished by death inside the coffin where the victim was placed under the sun
allowing birds or animals to eat his or her flesh. Sometimes onlookers
would throw rocks and other objects to further increase the pain. (Photo by Charles Bray)
The Rack: designed to dislocate every joint in its victim’s body

Who could forget the dreaded rack, commonly believed to be the most painful form of medieval
torture? It consisted of a wooden frame usually with two ropes fixed to
the bottom and another two tied to a handle in the top. As the torturer
turned the handle, the ropes would pull thevictim
’s arms, eventually dislocating bones with a loud crack. If the
torturer kept turning the handles (they often went too far) some of the
limbs were torn right off the body.
In the later Middle Ages, a new variant of rack appeared. Spikes were added that penetrated the victim’s
back when he or she were forced to lie on table. As the limbs were
pulled apart, so was the spinal cord, increasing not only the physical
pain, but the psychological pain of knowing that, even if he or she
were to survive, mobility of any kind would be lost forever.
The Breast Ripper: Painfully tears and mutilates a woman’s breast

Used as a horrible punishment for women, the breast ripper was used
to inflict pain, blood loss and the mutilation of their breasts. It was
usually used for women accused of conducting abortions or of adultery.
The claws were often placed, red hot, on the victim’s exposed
breasts, the spikes penetrating to achieve a powerful grasp. They were
then pulled to rip off or shred the breasts. If thevictim wasn’t killed she would be scarred for life as her breasts were literally torn apart.
A common variant was known as “The Spider,” which is a similar instrument attached to a wall. The victim’s
breasts were fixed to the claws and the woman was pulled by the
torturer away from the wall, removing or mutilating them. This was a
brutal punishment that often resulted in thevictim’s death.
The Pear of Anguish: Rips orifices, dislocates jaw bones

This brutal instrument was used to
torture women who performed abortions, liars, blasphemers and
homosexuals. The pear-shaped instrument was inserted into one of thevictim’s orifices: the vagina for women, the anus for homosexuals and the mouth for liars and blasphemers.
The instrument consisted of four leaves that slowly separated from
each other as the torturer turned the screw at the top. The device
would tear the skin at the very least or expand to mutilate thevictim’s orifice. It could dislocated or break the jawbones
Pears of Anguish still in existence are lavishly engraved or adorned
to differentiate between the anal, vaginal and oral pears. This
torture rarely brought death, but was often followed by other
torture methods.
The Breaking Wheel: Designed to render vicitim’s limbs useless

Also called The Catherine Wheel, this device always killed its victim, but did so very slowly. The victim’s
limbs were tied to the spokes of a large wooden wheel. The wheel was
then slowly revolved while the torturer smashed the victims’ limbs with
an iron hammer, breaking them in many places.
Once his bones were broken, he was left on the wheel
to die. Sometimes the wheel was placed on a tall pole so birds could
pick and eat the flesh of the still-living human. It could take up to
two orthree days for him
to die of dehydration.
Sometimes it was ‘mercifully’ ordered that the executioner strike
the criminal on the chest and stomach, blows known as the coups de
grâce (French: “blow of mercy”), which caused lethal injuries, leading
to the end of the death by
torture.
Saw Torture: Common saw cuts victim in half

Saws were was common
torture
devices because they were readily found in most houses and no complex
devices were required. It was a cheap way to
torture and kill a victim accused of witchery, adultery, murder, blasphemy or even theft.
The victim was tied upside down, allowing blood to be diverted to the brain. This ensured that the victim maintained consciousness for as long as possible, it slowed the loss of blood and caused maximum humiliation. The
torture could last several hours.
While some victims were cut completely in half as a symbolic
gesture, most were only cut up to their abdomen to prolong the time it
took
to die.
The Head Crusher: Compresses the skull, shatters teeth, squeezes out the eyes

The head crusher was a popular
torture method used by the Spanish Inquisition, among other users. The
chin was placed over a bottom bar and the head under an upper cap. The
torturer slowly turned the screw, pressing the bar against the cap. The
head was then slowly compressed, first shattering the teeth into the
jaw, then a slow death with agonizing pain. Some variants of this
device included small containers that received the eyeballs as they
were squeezed out of the victims’ eye sockets.
This instrument was an effective way to extract confessions, as the
period of pain could be prolonged for many hours if the torturer chose
to. If the
torture was stopped midway, the victim often had irreparable damage done to the brain, jaw or eyes.
The Knee Splitter: Severs the knees and other limbs

Another tool favoured by the Spanish Inquisition because of its
versatility, was the knee splitter. It was a vice-like instrument with
sharp spikes outfitted on both sides of the grip. As the torturer
turned the handle, the claws slowly squeezed against each other
mutilating and penetrating the skin and bones
of the knee. Although its use rarely resulted in death, the effect was
to render the knees completely useless. It was also used on other body
parts including elbows, arms and even the lower legs.
The number of spikes the knee splitter contained varied from three
to more than twenty. Some claws were heated beforehand to maximize pain
– others had dozens of small claws that penetrated the flesh slowly and
painfully.