Throughout history, various methods of torture have been inflicted on people as a way to extract confessions (whether the person was guilty or not!), as a warning to others or as inhumane punishments. Here are just a few of the unbelievable contraptions used throughout the years.
The Rack
The monstrous Rack was first used in the 15th century in England's Tower of London. Those who were accused of treason or heresy were placed on the Rack, their wrists and ankles tied with rope, and stretched out on their backs. The wheel was turned, and the victims were stretched until their joints were dislocated.
In 1546, writer and Protestant preacher Anne Askew was tortured on the Rack in an attempt to gather names of Protestant sympathisers. Anne refused and was sentenced to be burned alive; the Rack had caused so much damage to her body that she had to be carried to her execution.
The Scavenger’s Daughter or Skevington’s Gyves
The Scavenger’s Daughter was used throughout the 16th and 17th centuries at The Tower of London. It was made of metal and looked similar to an A-frame in which the poor prisoner’s body was strapped. The frame then folded down, forcing the head down and the knees up, compressing the body until breathing was seriously restricted, and blood came from various facial orifices.
The Pear of Anguish
Developed in the 17th century, the Pear of Anguish looked like a metal pear on a handle. The bulbous part was forced into the victim’s mouth, and a screw turned, causing the pear to expand out. This caused immense suffering as it shattered teeth and, eventually, the jaw bone. There are rumours that the Pear was used in another part of the body, but the less said about that, the better!
The Tongue Tearer
Relatively self-explanatory, the Tongue Tearer was a metal device that looked similar to a pair of scissors and was used on heretics and blasphemers. It would be placed into a fire until it was searing hot before it was clamped down onto the prisoner’s tongue. The tongue was then twisted before being torn from the victim’s head.
The Judas Cradle
Just reading about this makes me seriously wince! The Judas Cradle was a large pyramid with a sharp tip (you know where this is going). The victim was suspended from the ceiling and lowered down until the point penetrator either the anus or the genitalia. Sometimes, to really drive the point home (see what I did there!), weights would be added to the prisoner, pulling them down and increasing their agony.
The Oubliette
I first came across the concept of The Oubliette in The Labyrinth and later in an episode of The X Files. Oubliette comes from the French verb, oublier, meaning ‘to forget’ – and it's understandable why this torture was so named. Like a dungeon, it was a very narrow tunnel or room with no room to move around. No light penetrated the Oubliette, and the prisoner would be left down there for months, even years, slowly going insane. Often, they would die, usually from starvation, but the corpse would be left to rot and be attacked by rats – further adding to the terror of the next victim left down there!
Hanged, Drawn and Quartered
Any men reading may want to look away now! Being publicly hanged, drawn and quartered was the ultimate punishment for men convicted of high treason - women were burned alive as it was considered more decent (!!!!). The unfortunate victim was fastened to a wooden paddle and dragged behind a horse until he reached his place of execution. He would then be hanged until almost dead and then cut down. His genitalia would be cut off, and his body disembowelled– all while fully conscious. The prisoner would then finally be granted peace by being beheaded before his body was cut into quarters. It's a little bit over the top if you ask me.
In 1606, Guy Fawkes was supposed to suffer this fate but managed to break his neck by jumping from the gallows.
Rat Torture
Remember Nineteen Eighty-Four, when Winston was trapped in Room 101? It turns out that wasn’t just a figment of Orwell’s imagination.
Elizabeth 1st had a ‘rat dungeon’ in the Tower of London, a dark place that filled with rodents as the tide of the Thames came in. Once inside, they came face to face with the prisoners, which would soon become their dinner.
Diederik Sonoy also used rat torture during the Dutch Revolt. He would strap a naked prisoner down and trap rats under a bowl on the victim’s stomach. Red hot coals would be placed on the bowl, and the rats would eat the person alive in a bid to escape the heat.
The Iron Maiden
The Iron Maiden was a fearsome invention. It was a metal sarcophagus in which the victim was placed before the door was shut, trapping them inside. This was awful enough, but the Maiden had an interior full of spikes that would pierce the body of the poor unfortunate inside.
But did they actually exist?
They were often thought to have been used in medieval times, but they didn’t appear to have been spoken about until the 19th century. Some think the stories of the Maiden were inspired by the Schandmantel or the ‘barrel of shame’, a weighted barrel that prostitutes and poachers would be forced to wear (although there were no spikes).
Another theory is that the Carthaginian execution of Marcus Atilus Regulus inspired the legend of the Maiden. They ‘shut him into a tight wooden box, where he was forced to stand, spiked with the sharpest nails on all sides so that he could not lean in any direction without being pierced.’
The Brazen Bull
This invention from the ancient Greeks is pure horror. The Brazen Bull was a large, hollow bronze bull with a door in the side. The victim would be forced inside the animal and locked in before a fire was started underneath the contraption. The agonised screams of the person being roasted alive were converted internally, giving the impression that the Bull was bellowing.
It was supposedly created for the tyrant Phalaris in 560 BCE by Perilaus, the court sculptor. To test it out, Phalaris insisted Perilaus enter the Bull and order the fire to be lit. Before he burned to death, Phalaris had him freed—but then thrown off a cliff.
There has been some discussion about whether the Brazen Bull was real, but horrifically, it looks like it was.
The fact that people could even think of these punishments, let alone create them, highlights how dark human nature can be. And there are plenty more from times gone by. If you enjoyed this article, keep an eye out for part 2, which is coming soon! Thanks for reading; take care of yourselves, and I will see you next time.
Hi! I spend a lot of time writing for the website, and I basically exist on caffeine and anxiety - if anybody would like to encourage this habit, please feel free to buy me a coffee!
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