More Medieval Torture Devices & Techniques that You’ll be Grateful Are in the Past...

the English historian James Anthony froud once said quote wild animals never kill the sport man is the only one to whom the torch and death of his fellow creatures is amusing in itself and it would seem that the medievals were outstanding in creating torch 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 foreign rats the excessive fear of rats and mice is known as musophobia and 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 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 and as a tide came in the contaminated water brought with it to 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 scribbling 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 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 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 and 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 rap 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 open side down on top of his abdomen using a gloved hand the torturer would pick up and then play several hungry rats Inside the Cage once there the

rats Scurry around trying to find a way out scratching at the metal and the man's skin now the torture 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 buy bite into the softest surface that they could find namely the prisoner's flash 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 Heretics 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 parts of the chin the other on the hard breast bone the torture 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 necks 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 torches that would lead to more punishments or even execution the Spanish horse 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 horses 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 crutch 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 at the base of the spine broke and they were split in two the pair of anguish also known as the choke pair 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 threat the device would be inserted into the victim depended upon the crime committed with just the turn of a screw the torture would expand the device and the pointed end of the pair 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 pairs were never washed between victims there are several choke Pairs and museums across Europe they range from crude examples to the elaborately ornate such as the bronze model held at the torch

Museum and 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 soaring would begin at the genital area and continue up towards the head sometimes the torturer would stop soaring at the abdomen so that the process of death would take a lot longer the Hungarian General Michael ziligi was captured by the Turks in 1460 because he was considered to be a spy in a traitor the ottoman Commander had him sent to Constantinople where he was tortured and then sawn in half during the Ottoman conquest of labo in 1463 the knights hospitalists who were posted roads and reinforcements to the capital of mightylene but the Turks were

successful in their Siege and the Citadel fell Commander Mahmoud 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 over hydration 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 pinch 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 of the amounts 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 Francois villain 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 intestines 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 thank you for watching this episode on medieval torture methods please join me in being grateful that this is

a thing of the past and subscribe if you'd like to see more videos of this content