Attitudes towards crimes and criminals in different eras and in different countries differed, so the severity of the punishment varied. But if a person was sentenced to execution, then it was very cruel. The most brutal executions in the history of mankind cause horror, since the condemned could die in terrible agony for weeks.
10 most brutal executions in the world
1. Chinese execution. Oddly enough, the executioners treated women with particular cruelty. One of the most terrible executions in history was practiced in China. The condemned woman was stripped naked and, deprived of support on her feet, saws were secured between her legs.
Execution "Sawing"
The woman's hands were tied to the ring. Under the influence of gravity, the victim fell down onto the cutting edges of the saws, so that her body was slowly sawed from the womb to the sternum. The reasons for such a terrible punishment are incomprehensible to us; for example, the rice prepared by the cook did not turn out to be as snow-white as the color of the owner’s wisdom required.
2. Quartering. In Russia, and throughout Europe, in India, China, Egypt, Persia and Rome, this execution implied tearing or dismemberment human body into several parts. The parts themselves were put on public display after the execution was completed. There are many options for dividing a criminal into parts - he was torn apart by horses, bulls, treetops. In some cases, an executioner was used to cut off the limbs.
Execution "Quartering" Moreover, it is impossible to even identify for what type of crime such punishment was imposed. It was often used when it was necessary to make an execution spectacular. That’s why they quartered deserters and members of their families, state criminals, rapists, Christians in ancient Rome, etc.
3. "Tin Soldier". Alcatraz prison has gone down in history as one of the most terrible prisons in the world due to its executions. The management of the correctional institution had an unhealthy imagination; it is simply impossible to explain the appearance of the “tin soldier” otherwise.
The convicted prisoner received an injection of heroin, after which he was doused with heated paraffin. At the same time, the guards put the person in a pose that was funny from their point of view. When the paraffin hardened, the person simply could not move anymore - the result was a “tin soldier”. After this, the guards cut off the prisoner's limbs. Death from shock and blood loss lasted for hours, which the executed person experienced in terrible agony.
4. “The Cradle of Judas.” Another no less cruel option for killing prisoners at Alcatraz is the “Cradle of Judas.” The person sentenced to execution was placed on a pyramid, with his hands and body fixed. The tip of the pyramid was placed in the anus or vagina, so that the structure gradually tore the body apart. To speed up the process, weights were attached to the condemned man's feet, increasing the pressure.
This slow and painful death from blood loss and sepsis took up to several days; with weights, the process was accelerated to several hours. Management famous prison borrowed this barbaric method from the medieval inquisitors.
5. Keeling. There was a separate set of executions for pirates, the worst of which was pitching. The person was tied up and pulled with a rope under the keel of the ship.
Execution "Kilevanie" As long as it lasted for a long time, then the person had time to choke, not to mention the blows on the keel itself, covered with sharp shellfish - the person’s skin was torn off. However, this type of punishment for disobedience to the captain, who had absolute power on the ship, was also practiced in the English fleet.
6. Deserted island. Another pirate execution option known throughout the world - the rebels were not killed, but were landed on a desert island that would feed the criminals.
Many unlucky rebels were left for years to eke out a miserable existence on a piece of land without normal food or amenities.
7. Walking on a plank. This type of execution among pirates is described in adventure novels.
Execution "Walking on the Plank" The crew of the captured ship was not needed by the robbers, so they set off to sea. The board was placed over the side of the ship, so that a person, having walked along it, fell into the sea in the mouth of waiting sharks.
8. Execution for treason. In many cultures, the punishment for adultery for a woman is death. Methods of execution vary. In Turkey, an adulteress was sewn into a bag with a cat and the bag was beaten. The maddened animal tore the woman apart, and the convict died from blood loss and beatings.
In Korea, the adulteress was forced to drink vinegar, and then the adulteress's swollen body was beaten with sticks until the fairer sex died.
9. ISIS executions. The types of punishments adopted by ISIS (an organization banned on the territory of the Russian Federation) are also classified as cruel, but they do not occupy the first place in the list of TOP 10 terrible executions.
Representatives of the group willingly distribute in the media photos and videos of executions by burning and beheading, which is not much different from the medieval set of tortures and executions.
10. Executions for rape. Executions for rape are often much less brutal than for adultery, especially for the fairer sex. However, the death of a rapist was threatened not only in the Middle Ages, this is still relevant today in Iran, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Pakistan, Sudan.
However, Muslim tort law sometimes causes strange decisions. There are precedents when, after rape, a girl is executed by stoning, because the victim allegedly seduced the rapist. In other countries, for crimes of a sexual nature, the offender is punished with imprisonment for a term of 1 year to life imprisonment.
During Soviet times, rape committed by a repeat offender, rape that resulted in grave consequences, or rape of a minor victim was punishable by death. This law was in force until 1997. By the way, a similar penalty for the rape of a child in American state Louisiana was only repealed in 2008.
From the Heretic's Fork to being eaten alive by insects, these horrific old torture methods prove that humans have always been cruel.
Getting a confession is not always easy, and sentencing someone to death always requires a lot of so-called creativity. The following horrific methods of torture and execution ancient world were intended to humiliate and dehumanize victims in their last minutes life. Which of these methods do you think is the most cruel?
“Rack” (began to be used in ancient times)
The victim's ankles were tied to one end of this device and his wrists to the other. The mechanism of this device is as follows: during the interrogation process, the victim’s limbs are stretched in different sides. During this process, the bones and ligaments make amazing sounds, and until the victim confesses, his joints are twisted or, worse than that, the victim is simply torn apart.
"Cradle of Judas" (origin: Ancient Rome)
This method was widely used in the Middle Ages to gain recognition. This “cradle of Judas” was feared throughout Europe. The victim was strapped down to limit his freedom of action and lowered onto a chair with a pyramid-shaped seat. With each lifting and lowering of the victim, the top of the pyramid further tore the anus or vagina, often causing septic shock or death.
"Copper Bull" (origin: Ancient Greece)
This is what can be called hell on earth, this is the worst thing that can happen. The “Copper Bull” is a torture device, it is not one of the most complex designs, it looked exactly like a bull. The entrance to this structure was on the belly of the so-called animal; it was a kind of chamber. The victim was thrust inside, the door was closed, the statue was heated, and this all continued until the victim inside was fried to death.
"Heretic's Fork" (began to be used in medieval Spain)
Used to extract confessions during the Spanish Inquisition. The heretic's fork was even engraved with the Latin inscription "I renounce." This is a reversible fork, a simple device that fits around the neck. 2 spikes were clamped to the chest, and the other 2 to the throat. The victim was unable to talk or sleep, and the frenzy usually led to confession.
"Choke pear" (origin unknown, first mentioned in France)
This device was intended for women, homosexuals and liars. Shaped in the shape of a ripe fruit, it had a rather intimate design, and in the literal sense of the word. Once inserted into the vagina, anus or mouth, the device (which had four sharp metal sheets) was opened. The sheets expanded wider and wider, thereby tearing the victim apart.
Torture by rats (origin unknown, possibly UK)
Despite the fact that there are many options for torture with rats, the most common was the one that involved fixing the victim so that he could not move. The rat was placed on the victim's body and covered with a container. Then the container was heated, and the rat desperately began to look for a way out and tore the person apart. The rat dug and dug, slowly burrowing into the man until he died.
Crucifixion (origin unknown)
Despite the fact that today it is a symbol greatest religion world (Christianity), crucifixion was once a cruel form of humiliating death. The condemned man was nailed to the cross, often done in public, and left hanging so that all the blood would drain from his wounds and he would die. Death sometimes occurred only after a week. The crucifix is likely still in use today (albeit rarely) in places like Burma and Saudi Arabia.
Scaphism (most likely appeared in Ancient Persia)
Death occurred because the victim was eaten alive by insects. The condemned person was placed in a boat or simply tied with chains to a tree and force-fed milk and honey. This happened until the victim began to have diarrhea. She was then left to sit in her own excrement, and soon insects flocked to the stench. Death usually occurred from dehydration, septic shock or gangrene.
Torture with a saw (began to be used in ancient times)
Everyone, from the Persians to the Chinese, practiced this form of death, such as sawing the victim. Often the victim was hung upside down (thus increasing blood flow to the head), between which they placed big saw. The executioners slowly sawed the man's body in half, drawing out the process to make death as painful as possible.
Humanity has always tried to punish criminals in such a way that other people would remember it and, under pain of severe death, they would not repeat such actions. It was not enough to quickly deprive a convict, who could easily turn out to be innocent, of life, which is why they came up with various painful executions. This post will introduce you to similar methods of execution.
Garrote - execution by strangulation or fracture of the Adam's apple. The executioner twisted the thread as tightly as he could. Some varieties of garrote were equipped with spikes or a bolt that broke spinal cord. This type of execution was widespread in Spain and was outlawed in 1978. Garrote was officially used for the last time in 1990 in Andorra, however, according to some sources, it is still used in India.
Scaphism is a cruel method of execution invented in Persia. The man was placed between two boats or hollowed-out tree trunks, placed on top of each other, with his head and limbs exposed. He was fed only honey and milk, which caused his severe diarrhea. They also coated the body with honey to attract insects. After a while, the poor fellow was allowed into a pond with stagnant water, where there was already great amount insects, worms and other creatures. They all slowly ate his flesh and left maggots in the wounds. There is also a version that honey attracted only stinging insects. In any case, the person was doomed to long torment, lasting several days and even weeks.
The Assyrians used flaying for torture and execution. Like a captured animal, the man was skinned. They could rip off some or all of the skin.
Ling chi was used in China from the 7th century until 1905. This method involved death by cutting. The victim was tied to poles and deprived of some parts of the flesh. The number of cuts could be very different. They could make several small cuts, cut off some skin somewhere, or even deprive the victim of limbs. The number of cuts was determined by the court. Sometimes convicts were given opium. All this happened in a public place, and even after death, the bodies of the dead were left in plain sight for some time.
Wheeling was used back in Ancient Rome, and in the Middle Ages they began to use it in Europe. By modern times, wheeling had become widespread in Denmark, Germany, France, Romania, Russia (legislatively approved under Peter I), the USA and other countries. A person was tied to a wheel with large bones already broken or still intact, after which they were broken with a crowbar or clubs. A person who was still alive was left to die of dehydration or shock, whichever came first.
The copper bull is the favorite execution weapon of Phalarids, the tyrant of Agrigentus, who ruled in the second half of the 6th century BC. e. The person sentenced to death was placed inside a life-size hollow copper statue of a bull. A fire was lit under the bull. It was impossible to get out of the statue, and those watching could watch smoke coming out of the nostrils and hear the screams of the dying man.
Evisceration was used in Japan. The convict had part or all removed internal organs. The heart and lungs were cut out last to prolong the victim's suffering. Sometimes evisceration served as a method of ritual suicide.
Boiling began to be used about 3000 years ago. It was used in Europe and Russia, as well as some Asian countries. A person sentenced to death was placed in a cauldron, which could be filled not only with water, but also with fat, resin, oil or molten lead. At the moment of immersion, the liquid could already be boiling, or it would boil later. The executioner could hasten the onset of death or, conversely, prolong a person’s torment. It also happened that boiling liquid was poured onto a person or poured down his throat.
Impalement was first used by the Assyrians, Greeks and Romans. They impaled people in different ways, and the thickness of the stake could also be different. The stake itself could be inserted either into the rectum or into the vagina, if they were women, through the mouth or through a hole made in the genital area. Often the top of the stake was blunt so that the victim did not die immediately. The stake with the condemned person impaled on it was raised up and those sentenced to painful death slowly descended down it under the influence of gravity.
Hanging and quartering was used in medieval England to punish traitors to the motherland and criminals who committed a particularly serious act. A person was hanged, but so that he remained alive, after which he was deprived of his limbs. It could go so far as to cut off the unfortunate man’s genitals, gouge out his eyes and cut out his internal organs. If the person was still alive, then at the end his head was cut off. This execution lasted until 1814.
People often dream of visiting the past. But history buffs should pay attention to the fact that not everything is as romantic as it might seem. The past was a brutal, cruel place where the slightest legal or social disorder could lead to a painful and gruesome death. Over the past few hundred years, most Western nations have abolished death penalty. But in the past, very often the goal was to cause as much pain as possible to the person who was executed.
Were different reasons for this; some are political, religious and some were used as intimidation. Regardless of the reasons, the executions were horrific. See below what were the most terrible executions in the history of mankind.
Skafism
Skathism (also known as "boats") was an ancient Persian method of execution that involved tying the condemned person inside a small boat or hollowed-out tree trunk. The only thing left outside were the victim's arms, legs and head.
The victim was force-fed milk and fed honey to induce severe diarrhea. Moreover, honey was smeared all over the body, with special emphasis on the eyes, ears and mouth.
The honey attracted insects that would breed in the victim's excrement or dead skin. Death occurred within days or weeks from dehydration, starvation, and septic shock.
Bestiaries
In ancient Rome, huge crowds gathered in amphitheaters to witness brutal, inhumane executions.
Bestiaries were one of the favorite activities at these meetings. The prisoners were sent to the center of the arena. Angry wild tigers and lions were also released there. The animals remained in the arena until they maimed or mauled the last victim to death.
It is important to note that some entered the arena voluntarily, for money or fame, but these fighters were given weapons and armor and fought purely for the entertainment of the crowd, while criminals or political prisoners were completely defenseless and had no chance to defend themselves.
Execution by an elephant
Death by elephant was a common method of execution in South and South-East Asia, although Western powers, like Rome and Carthage, also resorted to it.
Death occurred either quickly or slowly, depending on the severity of the crime. A trained elephant either stepped on the head, causing instant death, or stepped on the limbs, destroying one after another.
Vertical shaker
The vertical shaker was invented in the United States in the 19th century. It is very similar to hanging, but in this case, the prisoner was strongly lifted up by the neck to sever the spinal cord and cause instant death. This method was intended to replace traditional hanging, but was not widely used.
Sawing
Sawing execution has been used throughout the world. Often, the condemned man was hanged upside down, which allowed the executioners to begin sawing at the genitals. The inverted position allowed sufficient number blood flow into the brain to keep the victim alive to continue the horrific torture.
Skinning alive
Live flaying has also been used different cultures. The victim was held while his skin was cut from his body. Death occurred from shock, blood loss, hypothermia or infection, and this could take time.
In some cultures, human skin was hung in public place to warn others of the consequences of disobeying the law.
Wheeling
Wheeling is one of the most brutal executions on our list. Reserved for particularly nasty criminals. The condemned man was tied to a large wheel with spokes. He was then beaten with batons or other blunt instruments.
Bloody Eagle
Blood eagle is a ritual method of execution described in Scandinavian poetry. The ribs of the convicted person were broken out so that they resembled wings, and the lungs were taken out and hung on the ribs.
There is some debate as to whether the ritual was a fictional literary device or an actual historical practice, but many agree that the details are too macabre and could very well have been used in practice.
Burning at the stake
We've all seen this inquisitorial execution shown in the movies, but few realize how widespread it was in medieval times and antiquity.
In Europe, a convicted person was often given the chance to confess for a lighter sentence - they were strangled to death before the fire was lit. Otherwise, they either burned or died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Bamboo torture
An unusual and very painful method of execution. It is believed to have been used in parts of Asia and also by Japanese soldiers during World War II.
The victim was laid on pointed bamboo shoots. Over the course of several weeks, the highly resilient plant began to grow straight through the victim's body, eventually impaling it.
The prisoner was fed, preventing him from dying prematurely, thus making his death even more painful.
Lynchy
Lingchi, also known as "Slow Cut" or "Death by a Thousand Wounds", is a particularly gruesome method of execution that was used in China from ancient times until 1905.
The executioner gradually and methodically cut the victim into pieces, leaving him alive as long as possible.
Buried alive
Unfortunately, many cultures have used this method of execution for centuries. Death occurred in the form of suffocation, dehydration, or worst of all, starvation. In some cases, Fresh air entered the coffin from below, as a result of which the condemned man remained alive in complete darkness for several days or weeks until he finally died.
Spanish tickler
The Spanish Tickler is an execution method also known as the "Cat's Paw". The Cat's Paw was a torture and execution device. The device was attached to the executioner's hand, allowing him to easily remove the flesh from the victim. Everything was done live, and the convict died much later due to infection.
Chinese bamboo torture
A notorious method of terrible Chinese execution throughout the world. Perhaps a legend, because to this day not a single documentary evidence has survived that this torture was actually used.
Bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants on Earth. Some of its Chinese varieties can grow a full meter in a day. Some historians believe that the deadly bamboo torture was used not only by the ancient Chinese, but also by the Japanese military during World War II.
Bamboo grove. (pinterest.com)
How it works?
1) Sprouts of living bamboo are sharpened with a knife to form sharp “spears”;
2) The victim is suspended horizontally, with his back or stomach, over a bed of young pointed bamboo;
3) Bamboo quickly grows high, pierces the skin of the martyr and grows through him abdominal cavity, a person dies for a very long time and painfully.
Like torture with bamboo, the “iron maiden” is considered by many researchers to be a terrible legend. Perhaps these metal sarcophagi with sharp spikes inside only frightened the people under investigation, after which they confessed to anything.
"Iron Maiden"
The “Iron Maiden” was invented at the end of the 18th century, i.e. already at the end of the Catholic Inquisition.
"Iron Maiden". (pinterest.com)
How it works?
1) The victim is stuffed into the sarcophagus and the door is closed;
2) The spikes driven into the inner walls of the “iron maiden” are quite short and do not pierce the victim, but only cause pain. The investigator, as a rule, receives a confession in a matter of minutes, which the arrested person only has to sign;
3) If the prisoner shows fortitude and continues to remain silent, long nails, knives and rapiers are pushed through special holes in the sarcophagus. The pain becomes simply unbearable;
4) The victim never admits to what he did, then she was locked in a sarcophagus for long time, where she died from loss of blood;
5) Some Iron Maiden models had spikes at eye level to poke them out.
The name of this torture comes from the Greek “scaphium”, which means “trough”. Scaphism was popular in ancient Persia. During the torture, the victim, most often a prisoner of war, was devoured alive by various insects and their larvae who were partial to human flesh and blood.
Skafism. (pinterest.com)
How it works?
1) The prisoner is placed in a shallow trough and wrapped in chains.
2) He is force-fed large quantities of milk and honey, which causes the victim to have profuse diarrhea, which attracts insects.
3) The prisoner, having shit himself and smeared with honey, is allowed to float in a trough in a swamp, where there are many hungry creatures.
4) The insects immediately begin their meal, with the living flesh of the martyr as the main course.
Pear of suffering
This cruel tool was used to punish abortionists, liars and homosexuals. The device was inserted into the vagina of women or anus in men. When the executioner turned the screw, the “petals” opened, tearing the flesh and bringing unbearable torture to the victims. Many then died from blood poisoning.
A pear of suffering. (pinterest.com)
How it works?
1) A tool consisting of pointed pear-shaped leaf-shaped segments is inserted into the client’s desired body hole;
2) The executioner little by little turns the screw on the top of the pear, while the “leaf” segments bloom inside the martyr, causing hellish pain;
3) After the pear is revealed completely, the offender receives internal damage, incompatible with life and dies in terrible agony, if he has not already fallen into unconsciousness.
copper bull
The design of this death unit was developed by the ancient Greeks, or, to be more precise, by the coppersmith Perillus, who sold his terrible bull to the Sicilian tyrant Phalaris, who simply loved to torture and kill people in unusual ways.
A living person was pushed inside the copper statue through a special door. And then Phalaris first tested the unit on its creator - the greedy Perilla. Subsequently, Phalaris himself was roasted in a bull.
Copper bull. (pinterest.com)
How it works?
1) The victim is closed in a hollow copper statue of a bull;
2) A fire is lit under the bull’s belly;
3) The victim is roasted alive;
4) The structure of the bull is such that the cries of the martyr come from the mouth of the statue, like a bull’s roar;
5) Jewelry and amulets were made from the bones of the executed, which were sold at bazaars and were in great demand.
Torture by rats was very popular in ancient China. However, we will look at the rat punishment technique developed by the leader of the 16th century Dutch Revolution, Diedrick Sonoy.
Torture by rats. (pinterest.com)
How it works?
1) The stripped naked martyr is placed on a table and tied;
2) Large, heavy cages with hungry rats are placed on the prisoner’s stomach and chest. The bottom of the cells is opened using a special valve;
3) Hot coals are placed on top of the cages to stir up the rats;
4) Trying to escape the heat of hot coals, rats gnaw their way through the flesh of the victim.
Cradle of Judas
The Judas Cradle was one of the most torturous torture machines in the arsenal of the Suprema - the Spanish Inquisition. Victims usually died from infection, due to the fact that the pointed seat of the torture machine was never disinfected. The Cradle of Judas, as an instrument of torture, was considered “loyal” because it did not break bones or tear ligaments.
Cradle of Judas. (pinterest.com)
How it works?
1) The victim, whose hands and feet are tied, is seated on the top of a pointed pyramid;
2) The top of the pyramid is thrust into the anus or vagina;
3) Using ropes, the victim is gradually lowered lower and lower;
4) The torture continues for several hours or even days until the victim dies from powerlessness and pain, or from blood loss due to rupture of soft tissues.
Rack
Probably the most famous and unrivaled death machine of its kind called the “rack”. It was first tested around 300 AD. e. on the Christian martyr Vincent of Zaragoza.
Anyone who survived the rack could no longer use their muscles and became a helpless vegetable.
Rack. (pinterest.com)
How it works?
1. This instrument of torture is a special bed with rollers at both ends, around which ropes are wound to hold the victim’s wrists and ankles. As the rollers rotated, the ropes pulled in opposite directions, stretching the body;
2. Ligaments in the victim’s arms and legs are stretched and torn, bones pop out of their joints.
3. Another version of the rack was also used, called strappado: it consisted of 2 pillars dug into the ground and connected by a crossbar. The interrogated person's hands were tied behind his back and lifted by a rope tied to his hands. Sometimes to his bound legs a log or other loads were attached. At the same time, the arms of the person raised on the rack were turned back and often came out of their joints, so that the convict had to hang on his outstretched arms. They were on the rack from several minutes to an hour or more. This type of rack was used most often in Western Europe.
4. In Russia, a suspect raised on the rack was beaten on the back with a whip and “put to the fire,” that is, burning brooms were passed over the body.
5. In some cases, the executioner broke the ribs of a man hanging on a rack with red-hot pincers.
Shiri (camel cap)
A monstrous fate awaited those whom the Ruanzhuans (a union of nomadic Turkic-speaking peoples) took into slavery. They destroyed the slave's memory with a terrible torture - putting a shiri on the victim's head. Usually this fate befell young men captured in battle.
Shiri. (pinterest.com)
How it works?
1. First, the slaves' heads were shaved bald, and every hair was carefully scraped out at the root.
2. The executors slaughtered the camel and skinned its carcass, first of all, separating its heaviest, dense nuchal part.
3. Having divided it into pieces, it was immediately pulled in pairs over the shaved heads of the prisoners. These pieces stuck to the heads of the slaves like a plaster. This meant putting on the shiri.
4. After putting on the shiri, the neck of the doomed person was chained in a special wooden block so that the subject could not touch his head to the ground. In this form they were taken away from crowded places so that no one would hear their heartbreaking screams, and were thrown there in an open field, with hands tied and feet, in the sun, without water and without food.
5. The torture lasted 5 days.
6. Only a few remained alive, and the rest died not from hunger or even from thirst, but from unbearable, inhuman torment caused by drying, shrinking rawhide camel skin on the head. Inexorably shrinking under the rays of the scorching sun, the width squeezed and squeezed the slave's shaved head like an iron hoop. Already on the second day, the shaved hair of the martyrs began to sprout. Coarse and straight Asian hair sometimes grew into the rawhide; in most cases, finding no way out, the hair curled and went back into the scalp, causing even greater suffering. Within a day the man lost his mind. Only on the fifth day did the Ruanzhuans come to check whether any of the prisoners had survived. If at least one of the tortured people was found alive, it was considered that the goal had been achieved.
7. Anyone who underwent such a procedure either died, unable to withstand the torture, or lost his memory for life, turned into a mankurt - a slave who does not remember his past.
8. The skin of one camel was enough for five or six widths.
Spanish torture water
In order to the best way to carry out the procedure of this torture, the accused was placed on one of the types of racks or on a special large table with a rising middle part. After the victim's arms and legs were tied to the edges of the table, the executioner began work in one of several ways. One of these methods involved forcing the victim, using a funnel, to swallow a large number of water, then they hit the swollen and arched belly.
Water torture. (pinterest.com)
Another form involved placing a cloth tube down the victim's throat through which water was slowly poured, causing the victim to swell and suffocate. If this was not enough, the tube was pulled out, causing internal damage, and then inserted again and the process repeated. Sometimes torture was used cold water. In this case, the accused lay naked on a table under a stream of ice water for hours. It is interesting to note that this type of torture was considered light, and the court accepted confessions obtained in this way as voluntary and given by the defendant without the use of torture. Most often, these tortures were used by the Spanish Inquisition in order to extract confessions from heretics and witches.
Spanish armchair
This instrument of torture was widely used by the executioners of the Spanish Inquisition and was a chair made of iron, on which the prisoner was seated, and his legs were placed in stocks attached to the legs of the chair. When he found himself in such a completely helpless position, a brazier was placed under his feet; with hot coals, so that the legs began to slowly fry, and in order to prolong the suffering of the poor fellow, the legs were poured with oil from time to time.
Spanish armchair. (pinterest.com)
Another version of the Spanish chair was often used, which was a metal throne to which the victim was tied and a fire was lit under the seat, roasting the buttocks. The famous poisoner La Voisin was tortured on such a chair during the famous Poisoning Case in France.
Gridiron (grid for torture by fire)
This type of torture is often mentioned in the lives of saints - real and fictitious, but there is no evidence that the gridiron “survived” until the Middle Ages and had even a small circulation in Europe. It is usually described as an ordinary metal grate, 6 feet long and two and a half feet wide, mounted horizontally on legs to allow a fire to be built underneath.
Sometimes the gridiron was made in the form of a rack in order to be able to resort to combined torture.
Saint Lawrence was martyred on a similar grid.
This torture was used very rarely. Firstly, it was quite easy to kill the person being interrogated, and secondly, there were a lot of simpler, but no less cruel tortures.
Bloody Eagle
One of the most ancient tortures, during which the victim was tied face down and his back was opened, his ribs were broken off at the spine and spread apart like wings. Scandinavian legends claim that during such an execution, the wounds of the victim were sprinkled with salt.
Bloody eagle. (pinterest.com)
Many historians claim that this torture was used by pagans against Christians, others are sure that spouses caught in treason were punished in this way, and still others claim that the bloody eagle is just a terrible legend.
"Catherine's Wheel"
Before tying the victim to the wheel, his limbs were broken. During rotation, the legs and arms were completely broken off, bringing unbearable torment to the victim. Some died from painful shock, while others suffered for several days.
Catherine's Wheel. (pinterest.com)
Spanish donkey
A wooden log in the shape of a triangle was fixed on “legs”. The naked victim was placed on top of a sharp angle that cut straight into the crotch. To make the torture more unbearable, weights were tied to the legs.
Spanish donkey. (pinterest.com)
Spanish boot
This is a fastening on the leg with a metal plate, which, with each question and subsequent refusal to answer it, as required, was tightened more and more in order to break the bones of the person’s legs. To enhance the effect, sometimes an inquisitor was involved in the torture, who hit the fastening with a hammer. Often after such torture, all the bones of the victim below the knee were crushed, and the wounded skin looked like a bag for these bones.
Spanish boot. (pinterest.com)
Quartering by horses
The victim was tied to four horses - by the arms and legs. Then the animals were allowed to gallop. There were no options - only death.
Quartering. (pinterest.com)
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