The English historian James Anthony Froude once said, “Wild animals never kill for sport. Man is the only one to whom the torture and death of his fellow creatures is amusing in itself.”
And it would seem that the medievals were outstanding in creating torture devices that were both breathtaking in their aesthetic and brutality. So, we’ve put together another compilation of some of their most creative methods for producing suffering. Welcome to Medieval Madness.
Rats
The excessive fear of rats and mice is known as musophobia. As with any phobia, the danger posed by these animals is completely irrational and disproportionate. But what if the threat was real?
Imagine being thrown into the delightfully named “Dungeon of Among the Rats,” a cell which lay beneath the waterline in the murky depths of the Tower of London.
There, in complete darkness, a man would be chained to the wall. As the tide came in, the contaminated water brought with it not only floating excrement and detritus but also filthy rats.
As the water receded and the vermin were left behind, the prisoner would be horrified to hear their little feet scrabbling around in the pitch-black cell, squeaking and hunting for food.
Then, when the rats finally found the fresh meat on offer—namely, the prisoner—they would begin at first to nibble and then to tear chunks of flesh, leaving their victims screaming in pain and terror.
The idea of confining a prisoner inside a small space and then introducing rats was quite an easy way to torture someone.
For most people, the thought of rats crawling all over them as they slept would be horrifying. When trying to get information out of someone, fear is just as good a method as causing actual physical pain.
Of course, if the aim was just to inflict as much suffering as possible, then adding a psychological element was always going to be a bonus.
One horrific form of rat torture was thought to have originated in China. It involved the prisoner being stripped naked and made to lie on his back on a table.
He would be tied down and a dome-shaped metal cage would be placed upside down on top of his abdomen. Using a gloved hand, the torturer would pick up and then place several hungry rats inside the cage.
Once there, the rats scurried around trying to find a way out, scratching at the metal and the man’s skin. Now, the torturer would begin to add hot coals to a well in the top of the cage, and the rats would begin to rush around in a panic.
In their desperation to escape, the rodents would begin to bite into the softest surface that they could find—namely, the prisoner’s flesh.
Using their small, sharp teeth and claws, they would burrow holes into the victim’s stomach and through his intestine as he lay helpless, screaming in horror.
Later in the 16th century, there is a report of a pottery bowl being used rather than a metal cage placed upside down on top of the prisoner.
Hot charcoal was then piled on top of the bowl, and the rats were said to have gnawed into the very bowels of the victim.
The Heretics Fork
Often used by Catholic inquisitors to suppress heresy, the medieval inquisitions began in the 12th century with the Cathars in southern France.
Heretics were regarded as a danger to the church and needed to be dealt with. The heretic’s fork was made from metal and had four teeth: two at either end of a metal rod.
A leather strap was attached to the device and wrapped around the victim’s neck tightly, causing further discomfort.
One end of the fork would be placed under the soft, fleshy part of the chin, and the other on the hard breastbone.
The torturer would be very careful when choosing the length of the tool because his goal was to cause optimum distress for the prisoner.
Just the action of swallowing their own saliva would have been incredibly painful. The victim would have to keep their head tilted backwards, looking up at the ceiling, their neck stretched and their head rigid.
The slightest movement of the jaw would cause these sharp spikes to dig further into the skin. They were not allowed to lie down at any time and were often suspended in some way, usually from the ceiling.
After a few hours of being held in this way, the muscles in both the shoulders and neck would become very stiff and begin to fail.
A very painful headache would also take hold because of the tension used to constantly hold up the head.
Even if the prisoner was able to stand this pain, sleep deprivation would eventually take hold and the head would droop forward as the victim nodded off.
Then, the sharp prongs would pierce the neck and throat. The fork was only used for a limited amount of time as a means of getting the prisoner to recant.
It was never meant to kill. It was usually the first in a number of tortures that would lead to more punishments or even execution.
The Spanish Horse
First used by the Holy Inquisition in 12th-century France when it was known as the “Wooden Donkey,” this was a triangular-shaped box with the sharp pointed end at the top, like where a horse’s back would have been.
Planks were nailed together to form the structure, which was usually between six or seven feet high and was supported by four legs fixed to a stand.
A horse’s tail and simulated head might be attached to the device just for fun.
The prisoner was forced to straddle the horse, one leg on either side, so that their full body weight was on their bottom and crotch area.
They could be kept in this position for hours to suffer the most excruciating pain.
Sometimes, their feet would be tickled to make them wriggle about, or weights might be added to their legs to pull down the body and increase the agony.
If death was the ultimate goal, then the victim would be left there until the sacral bone and the base of the spine broke, and they were split in two.
The Pear of Anguish
This mechanism was made from a hard metal and named for its shape. It had three or four leaves or petals that could open or close with the use of a key that rotated the central screw thread.
The device would be inserted into the victim, depending upon the crime committed. With just the turn of a screw, the torturer would expand the device and the pointed end of the pear would rip into the throat area, causing massive internal damage and blood loss.
If the prisoner didn’t die from their injuries, they would almost always die from infection later, as the pears were never washed between victims.
There are several choke pears in museums across Europe. They range from crude examples to the elaborately ornate, such as the bronze model held at the Torture Museum in San Gimignano, Italy.
The Saw
Once found guilty of crimes such as blasphemy, theft, murder, adultery, or witchcraft, prisoners were sometimes killed using this technique.
It was also often used in the late Middle Ages during times of war in the Ottoman Empire.
The prisoner would often be tied and suspended upside down. This caused the blood flow to slow down and meant the victim would stay conscious for longer.
After being hung there for several hours, the victim was subjected to other forms of torture and humiliation before the main punishment began.
With the legs tied wide apart, sawing would begin at the genital area and continue up towards the head.
Sometimes, the torturers would stop sawing up the abdomen so that the process of death would take a lot longer.
The Hungarian General Michael Szilágyi was captured by the Turks in 1460. Because he was considered to be a spy and a traitor, the Ottoman Commander had him sent to Constantinople where he was tortured and then sawn in half.
During the Ottoman conquest of Lesbos in 1463, the Knights Hospitaller who were posted to Rhodes sent reinforcements to the capital of Mytilene.
But the Turks were successful in their siege and the citadel fell. Commander Mahmud Pasha dictated the terms of surrender and vowed to pardon the knights, but then he had up to 400 of them sawn in half with the excuse that he had only promised to spare their heads.
Water Cure
We have all heard of dehydration, but overhydration, also known as water intoxication, is also possible.
This was used as a type of torture during the Middle Ages in France and then up until the 18th century.
Any quantity of water might be force-fed into the victim, from 3 to 16 pints (or 7.3 liters).
The mouth might be wedged open, the nose pinched closed, and a funnel forced down the throat.
Too much water becomes a poison when consumed too quickly in large quantities. It causes an imbalance in the amount of electrolytes in the body and a disturbance in brain function.
This can lead to unconsciousness and death. Gastric distension can occur, causing the stomach to burst, and can also lead to death.
Although the victim could be beaten in the area of the abdomen until they vomited so that the torture could begin again, other liquids such as urine or bile might be poured down the throat during the process.
During the Middle Ages, a similar torture that we now know today as waterboarding was used.
Spanish water torture involved a cloth being forced into the mouth of the victim and then liquid being poured over both the face and the mouth.
It was used during the Spanish and Flemish inquisitions and caused the prisoners to feel like they were drowning.
In 1462, the French poet and well-known criminal François Villon was tortured in this way.
After his ordeal, he was condemned to be hanged, but his sentence was commuted to banishment. He left Paris and was never seen again.
He was said to be broken in health and spirit because of the torture.
The Intestinal Crank
This was just a brutal form of execution rather than torture, because once started there was no turning back.
And although death wasn’t immediate, it was inevitable.
The conscious prisoner was restrained on a table. An incision that was large enough for someone’s hand to fit inside was made in the victim’s abdomen.
Reaching into the cavity, the torturer would separate the small intestine from the stomach and attach the upper section of the intestine to the crank with a hook.
Then the crank was rotated, pulling out the entrails whilst the helpless victim could only watch in horror.
In the end, there could be as much as 18 feet of guts wrapped around the crankshaft.
The crank was deliberately turned slowly in order to make the procedure last as long as possible.
Death was caused by a combination of both blood loss and extreme pain. No one survived this process.
