It’s the 16th century. You’re in the Marxburg. A castle perched high on the hillside above the town of Browach. Far below, the magnificent River Rine meanders past on its way to the North Sea. But you’re in no mood to take in the view. Instead, you’re in the grips of acute psychological anguish. Your head is locked between two pieces of cold metal. You can’t move and you certainly can’t escape. As you look into the icy, remorseless eyes of your interrogator, he asks you once again.
“Is there anything you’d like to confess?”
You’ve already given him everything. You’ve got nothing left to tell him that he hasn’t already heard.
“So be it,”
he says. And then a sharp, piercing screech begins. It’s the sound of a screw turning slowly and a mechanism creaking into life. Now that anxiety is accompanied by something else, a blinding, constrictive pain that feels like the worst headache you’ve ever had, multiplied by a thousand, your head is squeezed as if beneath some immense weight. You feel as if you’re being buried alive or drowned at the bottom of the sea. And all the while that blinding, unrelenting pain remains. Your cheekbones vibrate under the pressure. Your teeth and jaw grind alarmingly against one another. You feel as if your whole head is about to cave in, like it’s about to implode and collapse, akin to a ripe pumpkin. You can’t take much more of this. You are in the clutches of the skull crusher, one of the most barbaric entries into the rogues gallery of torture devices. If you’re lucky, you’ll get away with just a shattered jaw and a permanently disfigured face. If you’re not so lucky, you’ll die in withering agony as your bones splinter, your eyes pop from your skull, and your brain is reduced to slurry. In this video, we’re exploring this horrifying method of interrogation and brutalization and asking what was the skull crusher all about? Who was actually using this nightmarish device? And most importantly, how much of these accounts is historical fact, and how much is just fantasy? The skull crusher or the headcrusher is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a medieval and early modern torture implement designed to exert massive pressure onto the head of the poor victim within. The device was built in a number of different designs, but most feature the same core components. There’s a small metal cap intended to fit over the top of the victim’s head. There’s the base plate that sits below the victim’s chin, and there’s a handle at the top of the device, which the torturer will use to inflict unbearable suffering on his victim. Connecting all these different components is a system of metal threads, and all of this mounted within a robust frame made from other metal or wood. Once the victim’s head is fitted snugly between the cap and the base plate, the torturers can get to work. They will begin with just a slight twist of the handle. This creates a downward force driving the metal cap towards the base plate. It only takes a small turn of that handle to generate a huge amount of pressure. Anything between the cap and the base plate will be subjected to enormous levels of force. It’s just like a table vice in a workshop, only in this case, it’s the victim’s head that sits between those cruel jaws. Squeezed between the base plate below their chin and the metal cap above the victim’s skull is quite literally crushed. The bony cranium will resist for a while, but once fractures start to appear in the bone, the head will simply collapse. There’s a fine line between torture and straight up execution. Once strapped into the device, the victim is completely at the mercy of their torturer. Just a few twists of the handle can transform the headcrusher from a method of interrogation to an instrument of death. So where did this macabre device actually originate? The team at the Clink Prison Museum in London suggest that the headcrusher was used by the Spanish Inquisition of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella from the late 15th century onwards in their campaign against religious heresy. Inquisitors would specifically target conversos or moriscos, which meant Jewish and Muslim converts to Christianity. While conversion was definitely seen as a good thing in late medieval Spain, some people who converted would still be eyed with suspicion. The Inquisition was designed to achieve a purely Christian Spain, and so the idea that former Jewish and Muslim converts might still be practicing their old ways was not acceptable. Those suspected of heresy would be arrested and questioned. If they didn’t provide the inquisitors with the information they required, they’d be tortured. This could include a few rounds with the skull crusher. This crusher was certain to elicit a confession, even if the confession was just a desperate falsehood intended to make the torture stop. Victims may also reel off a list of names, giving the inquisitors plenty of candidates for the next round of interrogations. Again, these names were often plucked out of thin air. Anything to bring that nightmare to an end. Later on, Protestants and alleged witches were also targeted. Many of these targets may have been subjected to a bit of light headcrushing. Then, they would surely confess and be executed. If the skull crusher didn’t kill them first, of course. However, not everyone agrees that the skull crusher actually came from Spain. Authors Daniel Deal and Mark Donnelly believe that the skull crusher was a uniquely German device which was first recorded in 1530 in the Holy Roman Empire. Deal and Donnelly say that the device was also known as the crans meaning the garland. Another name was Schneiden, but this is a strange one as Schneiden means cutting in modern German. The skull crusher was certainly going to inflict a lot of damage, but the one thing it wasn’t going to do was cut you. The Holy Roman Empire used torture in a similar way to the Spanish Empire. Religious crimes like witchcraft and heresy could be investigated using torture as authorities used a variety of eyewatering methods to bring about a confession. But heresy in the Holy Roman Empire was a bit more complex than it was in Spain. Ferdinand and Isabella had a very clear vision for what they wanted from Spain. One nation united under the banner of Catholicism. But the Holy Roman Empire was not a single unified nation, more of a kind of confederation of states and following the Protestant Reformation in the early part of the 16th century some of those states were Protestant whilst others Catholic. The peace of Augsburg in 1555 granted a degree of religious freedom to these states. So both Protestants and Catholics had their own designated safe havens within the Holy Roman Empire. This should have basically ended the use of devices like the skull crusher, at least for heretics, but in truth it probably didn’t. The peace of Augsburg had fallen apart by 1618, resulting in the 30 Years War and the deaths of up to 8 million people. If armies could still do battle over issues as obscure as transubstantiation, then let’s be honest, states were probably still torturing people over it, too. There was also the question of witches. Between 1560 and 1660, thousands of people were put on trial for witchcraft and sorcery. Many of these falsely accused individuals may have been forced to endure a date with the skull crusher. Secular crimes like treason and sedition may also be met with torture in the Holy Roman Empire. Basically, any situation in which the state needed information from you and you were reluctant to give that information might end with the skull crusher. In a 2008 article for the Daily Telegraph, journalist Ailen Simpson went further. She said the head crusher was used to mutilate unwed mothers or women by crushing their teeth in their sockets and smashing their bones until their brains were forced out of their skulls. However, this doesn’t quite ring true with other accounts of how the skull crusher was deployed. It’s certainly true that the Holy Roman Empire was a deeply misogynistic and completely patriarchal society. And it’s also true that women who conceived a child out of wedlock would be brutalized and humiliated. There are records of unwed women being flogged for their supposed crimes. But even the princes, lords, and elect accounts of the Holy Roman Empire would probably feel that crushing a woman’s skull for daring to have sex before marriage might even for them have been a little too much. Also, this was supposed to be an interrogation device. Let’s remember, not a straightup punishment. So, what exactly was the woman supposed to confess? So, the skull crusher may have been used in Spain and in Germany during the late medieval period and right into the early modern period. But what about the prisoners themselves? How would all of this actually felt for the hapless victim who was subjected to the headcrusher? The first small twists of the handle would probably not caused much physical damage or pain. At this stage, the skull would have been able to handle the pressure. In the early phases of the torture, the victim would feel that their head was being squeezed in a vice and eventually this would cause a rolling dull pain extending right across the cranium and into the brain. There would also of course been a sense of indescribable panic. Even if the victim had not heard of the skull crushing before, they would have seen the device when they entered the torture chamber, and they would have understood that the torment had barely even begun and that things were about to get a lot worse. The weakest points of the skull would be the first to experience the truly damaging effects of the device. This would have been the mandible or lower jaw and the teeth. As the torturer twisted the handle further, the teeth would be pressed together with an immense pressure and would shatter in the victim’s mouth. The jaw would shatter, too, reducing the victim’s lower face to a messy, bloody pulp. At this point, the torturer might pause. This wasn’t supposed to be a swift death. It was supposed to be a long, drawn out process of torture and torment. Whilst the shattering jawbones might release a surge of adrenaline, deadening some of the pain, this wouldn’t last long. All the while, the feeling of panic and dread would be ramping up. It’s believed that torturers may have tried to add to the psychological horror at this point. Some historians have suggested the deployment of a small hammer, which the torturer would use to tap upon the metal cap. These tiny impacts would feel like massive blows on the victim’s damaged cranium. They would also create booming echoes within their skull, heightening the severe distress they must now be experiencing. A few more twists of the handle would be about all a victim could bear. With the weakest points of the skull already shattered, further pressure would cause catastrophic injury to the facial bones, particularly around the eye sockets. It’s thought that the eyes might completely pop out of the skull during the process. Some examples of skull crusher devices even include a basket which is designed to catch the errant eyeballs as well as any other matter that might come pouring out of the victim’s head. The torture might conclude at this point with the victim’s head and face irreparably damaged, mangled to the extent that they could never live an ordinary life again. The torturer’s handiwork would be evident for as long as the victim lived and would serve as a startling deterrent to anyone considering doing anything harmful to society like worshiping the wrong god or worshiping the right god but in the wrong way. Alternatively, the torture might continue. While torturers probably did try their best to keep their victims alive, if they decided the prisoner was no longer useful, they could quite simply be killed. Another turn of the handle would see to this. With nothing else to crush, the full pressure of the device would now bear down on the victim’s cranium. As the skull splintered and cracked, the brain would be exposed and then perforated by the pressure of the cap on the victim’s head. There was no surviving this, but at least during those final devastating turns of the screw, the victim would likely be unconscious, and the torment of the headcrusher would finally be at an end. This stomach churning account gives us an idea of the true horror of the skull crusher. It shows us what would have happened if anyone was actually subjected to it. But the big question is, was anyone actually subjected to the headcrusher? Was this really a torture device that states were genuinely using in the 15th and 16th centuries? Well, let’s break it down a little. We’ll start with an easier question. Did the skull crusher really exist? And this one’s actually quite simple. It certainly did exist and it still does. Examples of these devices are found in museum collections around the world. There’s one in the Palacio de los Olvidados in Granada in Spain. And the medieval torture museum seems to have three on display in the USA, one in LA, one in Chicago, and another one in Florida. In 2008, auctioneer John Nicholson was invited to the Criminal Museum in Rudesheim close to Berlin. After the museum’s owner passed away, the curator’s estate decided to sell a collection of torture implements. Visiting the museum was an unnerving experience for Nicholson and he told the Daily Telegraph newspaper,
“There were these big wooden doors with great big metal locks and metal bolts. They opened to reveal a stone staircase leading to the basement. The basement was dark and damp, but featured a wide variety of torture instruments. I had never come across anything like it before. It was horrible and intriguing both at the same time.”
Inside was a grim collection of torture devices. Nicholson found exhibits like the highwoman’s coffin which would display the bodies of brigands and bandits. And amongst this collection, he also found a skull crusher. While a find like this must have been exciting, Nicholson didn’t have too much hope for the device at auction. He predicted that it would fetch somewhere between 50 quid to £100, which suggests that such items are not so rare and not particularly sought after by collectors. So that answers our first question. The device itself definitely exists. But just because something exists in a museum doesn’t necessarily make it a historical fact. When Nicholson wandered down into that museum basement back in 2008, he didn’t find just skull crushers and highman’s coffins, but he also found other things like the spiked torture chair known as the confessional or the maiden’s womb and the vast humansized chest lined with piercing barbs known as the Iron Maiden. Now, the Iron Maiden is one of the quintessential medieval torture devices that everyone has heard of or at least seen, but which no one really knows that much about. There’s a good reason everyone has heard of this device. The Iron Maiden has a cool name and it plays upon some of our deepest human fears like the fear of small enclosed spaces and the fear of getting pierced by lots of little spikes. So, this explains why it’s so famous. But why does no one seem to know anything about how, where, and when it was used? And that’s because there isn’t anything to know. There is no evidence to suggest that the Iron Maiden was ever actually used at all. In the words of historian Klaus Graph, the execution tool Iron Maiden is a fiction of the 19th century. The objects were adapted to the dreadful fantasies of literature and legend. Unfortunately, it’s not quite true to say that the Iron Maiden was never used. In 2003, one such device was found beneath the Iraqi National Olympic Committee in Baghdad. The head of the Olympic Committee was Uday Hussein, the sadistic son of the Iraqi dictator Saddam. According to Time magazine, it was clearly worn from use, its nails having lost some of their sharpness. So, yes, it’s possible to torture someone with an Iron Maiden, but in a medieval and early modern context, it’s just not real. It didn’t happen. So, all of this leads us to the question, which camp does the Skull Crusher fall into? Is it like the rack, i.e. bloody awful and definitely real, or is it like the Iron Maiden, which is basically mythology cosplaying as historical fact? When we were researching this video, we actually grew quite suspicious that the Skull Crusher was in the latter category and that it was a piece of revisionist historical fantasy. And this is because so many accounts of the Skull Crusher talk in worryingly vague terms, cobbling together conjecture and assumption to make something just about plausible. One museum, which I won’t name, describes how the skull crusher quote symbolizes the sheer cruelty of Middle Ages torture techniques. And then the next sentence, epitomize the gruesome nature of execution in medieval times. Okay, fine. But what does this mean? Was it used in 8th century Britain? Or was it used 600 years later in some other part of the sprawling medieval world? Like with many accounts of the torture, the museum gives us no location, no dates, and definitely no names. Even the more honest accounts didn’t fill us with much confidence. The Hornman Museum collection includes the torture chair reportedly used in Cuenca, Spain in the 17th century. This chair includes a disturbing contraption that looks very much like a headcrusher. But the description of the device reads like this. We know that although many components are genuine, the chair was greatly added to in the 19th century to feed the Victorian interest in gruesome historical displays. Even the entry in Daniel Dal and Mark Donny’s book begins with the words,
“As far as we are aware.”
So much of the evidence is actually not that convincing. There’s a lot of hearsay going on and a lot of vague details about how grim and horrible medieval torture was. Of course, medieval torture was grim and horrible, but we already know this. These descriptions of the skull crusher don’t tell us anything new or anything useful. Rather than hoping for specific concrete examples of the torture in practice, we’re going to have to go with the historical consensus on this one. And the historical consensus is this. Yes, the headcrusher torture was indeed used in Spain and Germany, and it was a devastatingly effective way to reduce someone to a gibbering wreck with a smashed skull. While 19th century revisionists and hoaxes did add their own twist to the historical accounts, it does look like they weren’t just making it up. With the Iron Maiden, later writers and curators concocted a horrifying story out of basically nothing, combining ancient legend with the general idea that the Middle Ages was a dark and unenlightened time. With the Skull Crusher, however, it seems that these writers and creators were working differently. They were simply adding their own seasoning and flavor to an already spicy piece of historical fact, which is very, very bad news for you in your torture chamber on the banks of the Rine.
