The Cruelest Methods of Execution in History

In this video, we’ll take you on a journey through the darkest chapters of history. Today, we’re talking about some of the most brutal execution methods ever developed by humankind. They show not only how ancient cultures punished criminals and sinners, but also the horrific depths to which human imagination could reach.

Through the careful analysis of historical sources and the expertise of historians and cultural researchers, there are some shocking things to tell about our past. We’ll start with a truly brutal method from England, practiced there from the Middle Ages until the beginning of the 18th century.

Even among the terrible methods common at the time, it was considered particularly cruel. You’ll find examples of hanging by the neck and quarters. Anyone who counterfeited coins or committed high-wire offenses back then had to expect to be punished in this way. Instead of a quick end, however, this method aimed to make the condemned slowly die in three acts.

“First, the condemned was hung by the neck, but this was done so slowly that the person survived.”

“Hanging and gasping for air, his abdomen was then opened, and you can surely imagine what the subsequent evisceration entailed. But even this step was carried out with such care that he survived. Then came the finale: the condemned man was tied by his arms and legs to four horses.”

“A rope was attached to each limb, which was then connected to a horse. Afterward, the horses were startled so that they quickly galloped off in four different directions.”

Next, we come to a very unknown execution method from Asia called linkski, also known as death by 1000 cuts. This method was used from around the year 900 and was actually still practiced into the early 20th century.

As the name suggests, the condemned man was subjected to more and more cuts with sharp objects, step by step, with the executioner taking care not to inflict too much damage too soon. Here, too, the longed-for end for the condemned man could not be quick; instead, it could even take several days until he was… His suffering was relieved. Over the course of almost 1000 years, this method was continually refined, and rulers passed their knowledge down from generation to generation. Fortunately, such methods are now a thing of the past in Asia.

You’re probably familiar with the next ancient execution method by name, but you likely don’t know exactly how it was carried out. It’s impalement, which has been practiced in various cultures since antiquity and was very common in Europe during the Middle Ages. In fact, there are several variations of this terrible method, each more gruesome than the last.

“In the so-called most humane version, people were simply killed with a sharpened stake and died almost instantly. In the Eastern European version, made famous by the Romanesque prince Platz III in the 15th century, the condemned were placed on a sharpened stake, and their own body weight caused them to slide down until they finally collapsed.”

But even though it sounds unbelievable, this is actually not the most gruesome form of execution if the executions were to last longer. Instead of a sharpened stake, a blunt one was used. Another variation of this method existed in Asia, where the condemned person was tied over a bamboo shoot that grew upwards beneath him.

We can’t really go into detail here, but let’s just say that bamboo grows several centimeters a day and doesn’t need daylight. Anyone who already finds rats disgusting should probably stop listening now. The so-called “rat torture” used in the Middle Ages is so repulsive that even those in charge at that time were extremely reluctant to carry it out. But let’s start from the beginning.

For this method, you needed a cot with shackles, a cage, a few rats, and fire or glowing coals. First, the condemned person was laid on their back and tied to the cot. Then, the cage with the rats was tied tightly to their stomach. The special thing about this was that the cage had no bottom, so the rats ran directly on the condemned person’s skin.

Then, glowing coals were placed on top of the cage, or it was heated with fire from above. But how to use this method of execution? You need to know two things. Firstly, rats are terrified of fire and desperately try to escape the heat. Secondly, rats have very sharp teeth and can even chew through concrete. So, if you put two and two together, you can surely imagine why this method was so cruel.

If you need more proof of how terrible humans have been to their fellow human beings throughout history, let’s move on to one of the most well-known execution methods of all time: flaying. In this method, people were actually skinned alive. They often repeatedly fainted and then waited from the pain until death occurred.

This method could take several hours or even days. Despite, or probably because of, its extreme cruelty, flaying was practiced in various cultures around the world from antiquity to modern times. As we have already seen in the video, animals were also frequently used in the Middle Ages to bring about a gruesome end for criminals and convicts.

Another animal that served this purpose hundreds of years ago was the fire ant. While a single fire ant is unpleasant, hundreds of them can lead to death. A person condemned to death by fire ants was bound and exposed to hundreds of the dangerous ants, which then swarmed over and inside them. Although this method is, of course, very cruel and painful, it did lead to their death relatively quickly.

Finally, we come to an execution method that all of you who have watched the Viking series Vikings will likely be familiar with: the so-called blood eagle. Scientists and doctors were long divided on whether this method was anatomically possible or just a myth. However, it is now certain that this method was indeed used by the Vikings.

But what exactly happens with the blood eagle? The idea is to use the condemned person’s body to reconstruct a kind of eagle, with their ribs serving as wings. We can’t describe exactly how this is done here, but suffice it to say, it is almost unparalleled in its horror. If you enjoyed this video, be sure to check out our video about the most unbelievable punishments in human history.