Top 10 Medieval Torture Methods

How to make a heretic confess? Try sitting them in one of these babies, which – unlike the fictional Iron Maiden – made horror a reality. The Torture Chair, also known as the Judas Chair, is an infamous piece of furniture. It was covered tens of thousands of small spikes on the back, seat, leg rests and armrests that pressed into a victim’s skin as they were tightly strapped in. Sometimes, fire burned at the victim’s naked flesh through a hole in the chair’s bottom, causing even the most taciturn of the accused to confess. A tool of psychological stress as much as physical, this torture tool could kill within a few hours, or – worse – within a few days.

Afraid of needles? You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. In this absolutely brutal form of execution, a pole of varying thickness penetrated a large part of the victim’s body, often through the anus and ideally out through the mouth. Impalement was a pastime of Vlad III, the sadistic 15th century prince of Wallachia in modern day Romania, and inspiration for the Dracula legend. In one story, the Ottoman conqueror Mehmet II thought better of invading and turned back home when he saw a forest of 20,000 impaled corpses outside Vlad’s capital.

In this globally popular torture method dating back thousands of years, the torturer would peel off a victim’s skin slowly but surely, and within hours or days death would come thanks to shock, blood loss or infection. During the Middle Ages, flaying was used to execute and torture witches, criminals, and kingslayers – like Pierre Basile, who had murdered King Richard the Lionheart with a crossbow, been pardoned, and then flayed anyway. In twomedieval variations, victims were dropped into boiling water to soften the skin or burnt by the sun before being flayed head to toe.

Reserved we can only assume for the most hated criminals, the Breaking Wheel – also known as the Catherine Wheel – was used in Medieval France and the Holy Roman Empire to demolish a victim’s body. Victims lay atop a large cartwheel, their limbs tied to spokes in the wheel. Meanwhile, a torturer would hit at the victim’s bones with a hammer or iron bar. Soon after, the victim was executed, but in extreme cases, their mangled bodies were left out to die of exposure or dehydration.

The historical equivalent of popping a knee-cap, the Knee-Splitter was a device used during the Inquisition to render the knees useless for life. For this creative form of torture, the knee was placed in a vice that, when closed, penetrated the knee with large spikes. But don’t let the name fool you – the Knee-Splitter could be used on any major joint, from elbows to ankles, as well as plain old flesh. Sometimes, the psychological torture of watching someone getting knee-split was enough to get an accused heretic to confess.

If in 1600s Eastern Europe you were convicted of blasphemy, homosexuality or…of having a miscarriage (yeah, these were different times), you could be subjected to the Pear of Anguish – aka, Choke Pear. A four-sleeved pear-shaped instrument was inserted into an orifice – commonly the mouth, though there has been speculation that others such as the vagina for women, anus for homosexual men, and mouth for liars and blasphemers were used. Then, a torturer would turn a handle to slowly spread apart the sleeves, tearing skin, tissue and ligaments. Rarely lethal, the Pear was sometimes used to lead into further rounds of punishment.

#4: Rat Torture

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If you’re looking to torture someone on a budget, look no further. This torture was a cheap and widely used method of interrogation using one of Medieval Europe’s most abundant natural resources: rats. The Elizabethan-era Tower of London was apparently equipped with a Rats Dungeon, where the vermin would stream from the River Thames. More traditionally, there were two methods of this agonizing torture: one saw a hungry rat inserted into an orifice of a victim; the other would see the victim cut in the stomach and the rat inserted. Either way, the result was the rat would eat the victim from the inside out.

#3: The Rack

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The Rack was a mechanism used primarily in England and later spread to France during the Inquisition, though it had been used centuries earlier. The victim lay down on a wooden frame with hands tied up top and feet below, and with the ropes pulled taut, the action began. A crank system slowly pulled the victim in opposite directions, causing torn ligaments, broken joints, and bone fractures. Just the sounds created by a body on the rack were psychological torture, and sometimes enough to extract a confession from a guilty observer.

#2: Saw Torture

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In the medieval variation of this classic, gruesome kill, executioners tied a victim upside-down by the legs and just started cutting. It was popular among Inquisitors traveling between villages who couldn’t carry large equipment, and during the reign of Mehmet II…the same one who didn’t want to see himself on one of Vlad the Impaler’s spikes. The draw: the blood rushing to the victim’s head heightened awareness and slowed the loss of blood, making this excruciating torture last up to a few hours. Worse yet, before being subjected to this torture yourself, you’d likely have to watch someone else suffer through it, making the psychological buildup to your torment that much worse. Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions: - Water Torture - Strappado - Thumbscrew - Heretic’s Fork - Breast Ripper - Brazen Bull

The Judas Cradle had everything that made Medieval Torture horrifying, even more so than the similar Spanish Donkey: victim humiliation, chilling design, mechanical ingenuity, and the ability to cause a slow, agonizing death. A naked victim was tied up and lowered tail-first onto the top of a razor-sharp pyramid by a system of pulleys. Torturers could repeatedly drop the victim onto the point to force a confession or just leave them there to die slowly. Either way, Judas Cradles were probably never washed and were so badly contaminated that if the Inquisitor didn’t kill you, the Cradle surely would. Do you agree with our list? Which medieval torture method do you think is the most disturbing? For more gruesome Top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.