they may not have figured out how
plumbing works but medieval Europeans
sure knew how to inflict pain welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’re counting
down our picks for the top 10 medieval
torture methods you can see straight
away that the airway is not compromised
that much they’re potentially still
alive for this list we’re considering
methods used in western medieval torture
during the 5th through 15th centuries
but they may have been developed earlier
in history we included methods that were
both lethal and non-lethal and beware
this top-10 is not for the faint of
heart
number 10 the chair of torture 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 in tens of
thousands of small spikes on the back
seat leg rests and arm rests that
pressed into a victim’s skin as they
were tightly strapped in sometimes fire
burned at the victims naked flesh
through a hole in the chairs 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
number nine impalement it must have been
absolutely astonishing amount of pain
and sort of mind who would want to
inflict this you can you just can’t
imagine afraid of needles you ain’t seen
nothing yet
in this absolutely brutal form of
execution a poll of varying thickness
penetrated a large part of the victims
body often through the anus and ideally
out through the mouth impalement was a
pastime of Vlad the third 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 Vlad’s
favorite method of impalements was
horrific he did it vertically inserting
the stake through the rectum so it went
right up through the core of the body to
emerge through the mouth
number eight fleeing oh my god 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 kingslayer’s like
Pierre Bastille who had murdered King
Richard the Lionheart with a crossbow
been pardoned and then flayed anyway
in to medieval variations victims were
dropped into boiling water to soften the
skin or burnt by the Sun before being
flayed head to toe number seven the
breaking wheel 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 cart wheel their limbs tied
to spokes in the wheel meanwhile a
torturer would hit at the victims 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 number
six the knee splitter the historical
equivalent of popping a kneecap 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 vise
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 nice Plitt was enough to
get an accused heretic to confess number
5 the pair of anguish crushing the
maxilla and zygomatic
ding the bones into the brain killing
the victim 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 pair of
anguish also known as the choke pair a
force leaved 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
pair was sometimes used to lead into
further rounds of punishment number 4
rat torture they were leap onto your
face and bore straight into it sometimes
they attack the highest fist if you’re
looking to torture someone on a budget
look no further this form of torture was
a cheap and widely used method of
interrogation using one of medieval
Europe’s most abundant natural resources
rest 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 dig right through
the hardest ground so you won’t have too
much trouble with the soft meat your
belly height number 3 the rack enough
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 as we continue to apply
tension we can see that finally it’s the
bone itself which is pulled apart and we
can see that the growth plate which is
the area of the bone where new tissue
forms is the weakest part of bone and
this is where the bone is actually
ripped just the sounds created by a body
on the rack or psychological torture and
sometimes enough to extract a confession
from a guilty observer I think I think
the toe
one of the tendons is gone just here on
the back of the knee joint
number two saw torture in the medieval
variation of this classic gruesome kill
executioner’s tied a victim upside down
by the legs and just started cutting it
was popular among inquisitors travelling
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 spikes the draw the blood
rushing to the victim’s head heightened
awareness and slowed the loss of blood
making this excruciating torture lasts
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
build up to your torment that much worse
before we unveil our top pick here are a
few honorable mentions if you feel like
you’re gonna fall apart and go to pieces
I actually don’t want to do this test
right now let’s get her out
when the person is placed inside this
brazen bull it’s just like cooking a
turkey in your oven you burn the outside
of the skin and you slowly dehydrate the
inside and if you leave them in there
long enough it will eventually become
very tough and very dry number one the
Judas cradle if you think this has a
happy ending
he who hasn’t been paying attention 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 every day be sure to subscribe
to watchmojo.com
you
plumbing works but medieval Europeans
sure knew how to inflict pain welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’re counting
down our picks for the top 10 medieval
torture methods you can see straight
away that the airway is not compromised
that much they’re potentially still
alive for this list we’re considering
methods used in western medieval torture
during the 5th through 15th centuries
but they may have been developed earlier
in history we included methods that were
both lethal and non-lethal and beware
this top-10 is not for the faint of
heart
number 10 the chair of torture 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 in tens of
thousands of small spikes on the back
seat leg rests and arm rests that
pressed into a victim’s skin as they
were tightly strapped in sometimes fire
burned at the victims naked flesh
through a hole in the chairs 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
number nine impalement it must have been
absolutely astonishing amount of pain
and sort of mind who would want to
inflict this you can you just can’t
imagine afraid of needles you ain’t seen
nothing yet
in this absolutely brutal form of
execution a poll of varying thickness
penetrated a large part of the victims
body often through the anus and ideally
out through the mouth impalement was a
pastime of Vlad the third 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 Vlad’s
favorite method of impalements was
horrific he did it vertically inserting
the stake through the rectum so it went
right up through the core of the body to
emerge through the mouth
number eight fleeing oh my god 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 kingslayer’s like
Pierre Bastille who had murdered King
Richard the Lionheart with a crossbow
been pardoned and then flayed anyway
in to medieval variations victims were
dropped into boiling water to soften the
skin or burnt by the Sun before being
flayed head to toe number seven the
breaking wheel 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 cart wheel their limbs tied
to spokes in the wheel meanwhile a
torturer would hit at the victims 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 number
six the knee splitter the historical
equivalent of popping a kneecap 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 vise
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 nice Plitt was enough to
get an accused heretic to confess number
5 the pair of anguish crushing the
maxilla and zygomatic
ding the bones into the brain killing
the victim 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 pair of
anguish also known as the choke pair a
force leaved 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
pair was sometimes used to lead into
further rounds of punishment number 4
rat torture they were leap onto your
face and bore straight into it sometimes
they attack the highest fist if you’re
looking to torture someone on a budget
look no further this form of torture was
a cheap and widely used method of
interrogation using one of medieval
Europe’s most abundant natural resources
rest 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 dig right through
the hardest ground so you won’t have too
much trouble with the soft meat your
belly height number 3 the rack enough
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 as we continue to apply
tension we can see that finally it’s the
bone itself which is pulled apart and we
can see that the growth plate which is
the area of the bone where new tissue
forms is the weakest part of bone and
this is where the bone is actually
ripped just the sounds created by a body
on the rack or psychological torture and
sometimes enough to extract a confession
from a guilty observer I think I think
the toe
one of the tendons is gone just here on
the back of the knee joint
number two saw torture in the medieval
variation of this classic gruesome kill
executioner’s tied a victim upside down
by the legs and just started cutting it
was popular among inquisitors travelling
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 spikes the draw the blood
rushing to the victim’s head heightened
awareness and slowed the loss of blood
making this excruciating torture lasts
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
build up to your torment that much worse
before we unveil our top pick here are a
few honorable mentions if you feel like
you’re gonna fall apart and go to pieces
I actually don’t want to do this test
right now let’s get her out
when the person is placed inside this
brazen bull it’s just like cooking a
turkey in your oven you burn the outside
of the skin and you slowly dehydrate the
inside and if you leave them in there
long enough it will eventually become
very tough and very dry number one the
Judas cradle if you think this has a
happy ending
he who hasn’t been paying attention 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 every day be sure to subscribe
to watchmojo.com
you
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