Octoberfest 2017: Medieval Torture Methods
Hi! Unlike a few of the other posts in this year's Octoberfest, today's topic had a plethora of information available for me to look at. I was actually expecting this to be one of my more difficult posts to complete because I'm talking about medieval times, but apparently, people really enjoy reading about how humans enjoy torturing each other. I can't really judge them because I'm one of those people and today, so are you. lol Anyway, something I've read a lot about over the years was how barbaric and inhumane many medieval torture methods were, so I thought we'd explore a few today.
Disclaimer time--because there are so many lists like this, there's obviously going to be some overlap between their lists and mine. I used the lists to find the names of the methods, but only picked a few I liked from each list. Because each list I saw has more or less the same names, this probably looks extremely similar. Not the intention at all. I only used the lists for the names; I looked up the information following those names separately. Okay, so now that I've gotten today's usual disclaimer out of the way, let's get started!
1. Keelhauling
Keelhauling was a practice used by the navy during the 1600s and 1700s, but was phased out midway through the 1800s for being inhumane. This was a commonly used method of punishment for sailors and was perfectly legal in its heyday. As you can see in the photo above, the sailor is stripped and tied, with weights holding down his legs to prevent him from swimming. A rope stretches underwater and attaches to both sides of the ship, and this would pull the person along quite roughly as the ship sailed. Underneath the ship is the keel, or a layer of very rough barnacles which would cause painful scarring on the person's back due to the vigorous dragging. I imagine the wounds combined with the saltwater made the cuts prone to infection so if the person didn't die from that or drown, the scars were used as a reminder of the repercussions of not following the rules.
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2. The Brazen Bull
This method of punishment was a new one to me but it's pretty brutal. The picture is a visual explanation of what The Brazen Bull was, which was developed and used in ancient Greece before being revived during the medieval period. This bull is made entirely of bronze but splits in half and is completely hollow on the inside. The person was then made to enter the bull and the opening would be locked from the outside, and a fire would then be lit from underneath the bull. The fire would heat the bull so much it would redden, and the heat would literally roast the person inside to death. The hollow insides caused the person's screams to be amplified and echo back to them, further adding on to their agony, and as the person's screamed, tubes connected to the bull's head would transform their screams into a bull's bellow. Prisoners who were jailed for treason or religious conflicts were commonly executed publicly in this manner.
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3. The Head Crusher
This was another popular torture device used on prisoners during medieval times, and it resulted in both a slow and immensely painful death for the person. It also resulted in an extremely graphic visual for any onlookers as it hid nothing. The name of the device is pretty self-explanatory in what it would do to the victim; but I'll explain the rest of the device. The person would place their chin over that bottom bar and their head inside the cap, and the executioner would then turn the screw at the top of the device. It functioned as a crank, slowly pressing the device tighter and tighter on the person's head, compressing it until it crushed. This was used during interrogations to force confessions or information out of someone but if the person had been under there long enough, whether the screw had been turned fully or not, the damage was usually irreparable and permanent. In executions, it would eventually crush the person's skull, causing their eyeballs to pop out, followed by blood, tissues and et cetera as the person's skull collapsed. Sounds disgusting.
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4. Scaphism
Scaphism is another particularly brutal method of torture that was used during medieval times but unlike the skull crusher, was reserved specifically for executions. Now the average prisoner wasn't often given scaphism, or 'the boats,' as their penance. The crime had to be worthy of the punishment, because scaphism was in a class of its own. Prisoners executed in this fashion were given a diet of nothing but milk and honey, which would give them diarrhea, then they were restrained to a boat either by being trapped inside of it or tied to it and pure honey was poured over all exposed parts of the body, focusing on the arms, legs and head. The boat was then left out in the sun or in a stagnant body of water, where insects and rodents would come in droves, attracted by the scent of honey, and eat the person alive. The cuts would infect over time, maggots would lay eggs in the decaying flesh, and the maggots would do the rest of the work. Smaller insects burrowed inside the person's body via open wounds and they would begin eating the person from the inside out instead. The prisoner would continue to be force fed the milk and honey diet, forcing them to wallow in their own excrement, which would cause the cycle to repeat until the prisoner died.
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5. Judas Cradle
This torture device seemed no less painful than the other methods I've mentioned so far, but it does have a different take than the four that preceded it. This method was used to force confessions and the technique used differed slightly, but it was also used in executions. The pyramid figure on the top of the stool would be inserted into the prisoner's anus or vagina and the person's legs would be tied together in such a way that moving one leg would automatically move the other, further impaling them on the pyramid. In some cases the person's feet were also weighted down, but this was more for executions rather than forced confessions. For forced confessions the person would repeatedly be impaled by the pyramid until authorities got the information they were looking for. Infections were quite common with this device so I suspect most of the individuals who were forced onto this for the purpose of a confession likely died afterward as well. In the long run, it's not much different than if they'd been executed from jump using this method.
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6. Flaying
Flaying is just a shorter way to refer to someone being skinned alive, which is what is being depicted in this photo. This was used as both a torture and execution method, but the end game was always death. If the person's crime justified a harsher punishment, the person would be left outside in the sun, where their skin would boil and burn. A shorter but no less painful method would be dipping the person into a large pot of boiling water, but pulling them out just before they are boiled alive. Even if the person was not meant to die using this method, damage to skin, nerves and tissues was irreparable at this point and if they didn't die of those wounds directly, they'd die of the infection that was sure to set in on said untreated burns. As for executions, after the skin was primed, the person would be laid flat and the first steps to removing the skin would begin. Relief cuts would be placed at strategic places on the body, as the goal was to strip the skin from the body at once, starting with the face. The goal was to have large sheets of skin rather than smaller strips because flayed skin was usually displayed as an example to others not to make the same mistake. Without the protective layers of skin, the entire body becomes as susceptible to infection as it'll ever be, and this likely killed a significant number of those who had been flayed. Hypothermia is another likely side effect that killed people, again due to the loss of protective covering. For some prisoners, losing consciousness due to pain was not an option, and the person was beaten to stay awake. If it was a fast killing, the pain would be inflicted all at once so the person could die, but if it was meant to be torturous the executioners would not allow the prisoner to fade in and out. Unfortunately, for many people this was not a quick death and many hung on for days, in agonizing pain, before finally succumbing to their injuries.
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7. Pear of Anguish
The Pear of Anguish is a torture device that was also meant to provide sexual mutilation or humiliation to its victims, similar to a couple of the other items on this list. People who found themselves on the receiving end of punishment via the pear were people who assisted in either having or helping someone else have a miscarriage, homosexuals, liars, witches, and those who spoke against the Church. There was an oral version of this device but that was reserved for heretics. This small contraption is called a pear because of its shape; the body is comprised of four small 'leaves' that fold into itself when not in use, mimicking the shape of a pear. The device would be inserted into the person's anus or vagina, with a crank on one end protruding from the genitals. Once it had been inserted, the executioner would turn the little crank at the top, unfolding the leaves and causing shredding to the person's insides. Some had poison on the tips of the tiny blades at the ends of the leaves, and this would result in a quicker death. The regular run of these would shred the person's insides but wouldn't kill them. It was usually used in conjunction with other torture methods and most of these were hardly ever cleaned, so infection was known to settle in quickly and the person would eventually die regardless. Without the poison tips though, this wasn't fatal when used alone.
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8. Lead Sprinkler
I remember seeing a scepter like this in an episode of Looney Tunes once, but I didn't know similar things were used as torture devices. lol Rather than beating someone over the head with it a la Bugs, the circular end of this device was detachable, and it was usually filled with molten metals or boiling liquids. The top would be reattached, and the executioner would then hold the sprinkler over the prisoner, dousing them in the metal or liquid pouring through the little holes at the top. A favored way to use this was to fill it with molten silver and drip it over the person's body by either shaking, holding or flicking the sprinkler in the person's direction, then finish them off by pouring the heated metal in their eyes.
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9. Garrote
What an awful way to die. The garrote, much like many of the other items on this list, has a long and rich history stretching back before the medieval period, but was used during that time period for its effectiveness. As you can see in the photo, the person would sit on the small seat and some sort of chain (this depended on the area and preferred item) that was attached to both sides of the bar would be placed around the person's neck, effectively locking them in. The executioner would stand behind the person and turn the handle, which would gradually tighten the chain around the person's neck until they died. Later models of the garrote would install a spike in the bar, which would penetrate the person's spinal cord as the chain tightened and forced them against it. This would break the neck and hasten death. Garrote executions were held publicly for most of their existence, but when prisons began making executions more of a private affair and phasing out some of the harsher execution methods, the garrote ended up on the list of methods to scrap.
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10. Ducking Stool
I want to say I remember mentioning this during last year's witchcraft post but I can't clearly remember if I did or not. I may have just read about it. This method of execution was one favored by witch hunters and was meant to either force a confession out of an alleged witch or kill her. It's rather self-explanatory; the alleged witch was tied into a chair, which was then lifted above a body of water and dangled over it using ropes. This would allow the executioners to raise or drop the chair as needed into the water. The chair would then slowly descend into the water and in many cases would be completely submerged for a time in hopes of getting a forced confession. If the witch confessed after being brought up--and many of them did to avoid being drowned--she was executed. If she did not confess, she would be dunked, again and again, spending varying periods of time underwater until she either confessed or drowned. Criminals were also subjected to this punishment in an effort to force a confession, but the method received most of its publicity from its popularity during the witch trial days.
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11. Breast Ripper
This here device was created for and used exclusively on women. Big whoop for us, right? This method of torture was used on women who'd committed adultery or had an abortion, and as sexual mutilations were favored forms of punishment back in the day, this was a common punishment. These clamps, which were made out of iron or another metal, were heated and applied to the woman's breast while she was tied to a wall. These were used to either mutilate and permanently brand the woman for her crime, or rip off her breast completely. This resulted in lifelong embarrassment for the woman, which was the point. While I was trying to find a source for this method, I saw a peek at an article about ISIS, and female mutilation using similar tools to the Breast Ripper are apparently still being used today.
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12. Knotting
This method of punishment confuses me a bit in the sense that I've gotten two different explanations of what they are, only one of which I've been able to corroborate, which isn't the one depicted in this photo. lol Let me explain. The first explanation I got of knotting was the human knot, which twisted the body into a pretzel of sorts by tightly binding a person's limbs and joints with ropes like in the photo above. The person would then be twisted, breaking the bones. But the explanation that I have seen more often is that it was a punishment for women, those with long hair, to be specific. A large stick would be twisted into the woman's hair and the executioner would continue to turn it until all of the woman's hair was caught up in the stick. If he ran out of strength, someone else would step in and continue to turn it until the woman's scalp was ripped off, exposing the skull underneath.
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13. The Wheel
Finally, this method, which is also referred to as the Catherine Wheel or the Breaking Wheel, is a method of torture that was used to execute prisoners in an extremely painful fashion. This wooden wheel had spokes going around it and the person would be tied to it, and the executioner would then lash their arms and legs. As the photo shows, two torturers would handle the execution. The device received its latter nickname from the manner in which it would crush the person's bones. While the person was tied up to the wheel, a torturer would lash the person's body with a club or cudgel. If the prisoner was to die quickly using this method, the bones would be crushed on the wheel and the lashes would be more strategic. If the person was to die a slower death, the torturers would still hit them but would drag the torture out for days until the person finally died. Other times, the person was beaten and simply left to die on the wheel. As an example to others or a show of power, sometimes the body was left on the wheel afterward.
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Today's post--and the entire basis of Octoberfest, really--can be summed up in three words: Humans are brutal. lol I was originally going cut this off at 10 things, but because there were so many methods available and to make up for the other shorter lists in this year's series, I stretched this one out a bit more and added a few more things. I figured medieval torture devices were gruesome but good grief. I grossly (literally) underestimated just how bad they were. It's almost like humans are never more tickled than when they find new ways to maim, control or hurt each other sometimes. That's just my view, but I'm realizing that I've become a pessimist so maybe I'm a little biased. lol Anyway, I hope you enjoy today's post and I'll see you in a few days!
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