MEDIEVAL TORTURE-

-MEDIEVAL TORTURE-

   The Medieval period spanned about 1,000 years between the fall of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the Renaissance. During that time, the torture methods used were nothing short of inhumane.

   From impalement, to the blood eagle, these execution methods prove that they mastered the art of pain in the Middle Ages.

   Medieval execution was a horrifying and gruesome prospect. During the Middle Ages, the unspeakable cruelty of capital punishment was only matched by the creativity of the torture techniques. To put things into perspective, decapitation was seen as the quickest and least painful way to go.

   One of the most serious crimes was high treason. Since the punishment had to fit the crime, the Medieval execution method of being hanged, drawn, and quartered combined several forms of torture. 

   Usually, being “drawn” simply meant that the person was pulled by a horse to his final destination. However, sometimes this word took on a far grislier meaning when it referred to drawing the person’s intestines out of his body later on in the process.

   As for being hanged, that step is self-explanatory. But in many cases, the person didn’t die from the hanging itself. Instead, executioners would hang the victim until he was on the edge of death and then release him so he would still be alive for the real horror — the quartering.

   This began with castrating the prisoner, throwing his genitals — and sometimes his intestines — into a fire. The prisoner was then decapitated.

   Finally, as the word “quartering” implied, the body would be chopped into at least four pieces and chucked into a boiling concoction of spices. This prevented birds from picking at the remains and allowed for the body parts to be publicly displayed across the country as a grisly warning.

Though typically thought of as just a British punishment, this execution method was actually practiced throughout Europe.

   The most famous victim of this fate was William Wallace, since his fight to secure Scottish freedom from the English in the 1290s was inherently treasonous. Depicted in the 1995 film Braveheart, Wallace’s execution was so brutal in real life, that the film couldn't show the true depth of what happened.

   In Wallace’s case, he was drawn by four different horses that were each tied to one of his limbs. This was usually done to prisoners the king despised most. After the execution, Wallace’s remains were famously scattered around England as a warning to other potential traitors.

   This practice was used for about 500 years after Wallace’s infamous execution — until it was finally outlawed in 1803.

   Beheading was viewed as a more humane form of capital punishment than the alternatives.

   Unfortunately for some of the earliest victims, the execution method usually involved an axe. It was only later that more efficient swords were used, and victims were typically granted a relatively speedy death.

   When compared to other Medieval execution methods, it’s clear that beheading was one of the least painful — and so it was considered the most “honorable” way to die. That’s why beheadings were typically reserved for nobles, knights, and other royalty.

   Though members of high society were commonly granted the sword-based beheading, Margaret Pole, the Countess of Salisbury was beheaded with an axe. The executioner was reportedly a “blundering youth” who “hacked her head and shoulders to pieces.”

   Despite the many issues that occurred with beheading, it remained a popular execution method for centuries. The last person beheaded in England was Simon, Lord Lovat in 1747.

   Crushing with weights was one of many Medieval execution methods that were initially intended to coerce confessions out of alleged criminals. It was reserved for those who refused to plead guilty or not guilty to a crime. However, this approach commonly led to the victim dying.

   Weight was slowly stacked on top of these victims until they suffocated. Sometimes, their bones would break during the process — and burst through their skin.

   Margaret Clitherow was famously crushed to death for refusing to enter a guilty plea against charges that she practiced Catholicism and harbored priests. In 1586, she was stripped naked in public and dragged to a bridge to forcibly enter a plea. She never did, and so her limbs were tied with ropes and stretched out and a door was placed on top of her.

   About 800 pounds of stones were placed on top of her until her spine snapped and her ribs burst from her skin. Her steadfast disposition and tragic death led to her being named a saint by the Catholic Church in 1970.

   England finally outlawed this practice in 1772.

   Gibbeting was the practice of locking criminals in human-shaped cages and hanging them up for display in public areas as a warning to others. The gibbet itself refers to the wooden structure from which the cage was hung.

   In some cases, people were already executed prior to being gibbeted. But in other cases, they were still alive and left to die of exposure and starvation. Immobile and ghastly while alive — and reeking once dead — people who were gibbeted were haunting to behold.

   The body of a gibbeted prisoner could remain in the cage for years, creaking in the wind. And birds and bugs would pick at the corpses as they turned into skeletons.

   Women were spared from the gibbets, but not out of gentlemanly deferment. Rather, women’s bodies were “hot property" for surgeons and anatomists.

   Gibbeting fell out of fashion by 1832. But between 1752 and 1832, 134 men were “hanged in chains,” until it was finally declared illegal in 1834.

   One of the more aesthetically recognizable periods of the Medieval era was the Viking Age. This period saw Norse warriors descend upon various places in Europe to raid, trade, and settle. It also reportedly saw culturally specific execution methods. Perhaps the most grisly was the blood eagle, which was specifically tailored for revenge and ritual torture.

   The first unfortunate subject was the king of Northumbria, Aella. He had allegedly killed Viking leader Ragnar Lothbrok by throwing him into a pit of snakes. As a result, Lothbrok’s sons invaded England in 865, and saw to it that Aella suffered death by blood eagle.

   The victim’s hands and legs would be tied to prevent any sudden movements. The executioner would then stab the victim in the tailbone and move up toward the rib cage. Each rib was then carefully separated from the backbone with an axe.

   With the person’s internal organs now on display, Vikings would rub salt onto the gaping wound to keep the person awake. Finally, the executioner would pull the subject’s lungs out in order to form two bloody “wings.”

   The blood eagle has been described as both a ritual execution and a form of vengeance. The former intended to honor Odin, father of the Norse pantheon of gods and the god of war. The latter, meanwhile, aimed to punish dishonorable individuals in the most excruciating manner possible.

   King Henry VIII introduced the practice of boiling people to death as a way to execute people who used poison to commit murder.

   As one might expect, people sentenced to this punishment were simply placed in a large container of heated liquid, which might be water, oil, wax, or even molten lead. And then they basically got cooked.

   The sensation of being boiled alive was an absolutely horrific one. The method could be made even worse if the water had yet to reach boiling temperatures by the time the person was submerged.

   Oftentimes, the limbs and extremities were the first things to burn. After the person’s outer layers began to cook, their organs began to cook as well. The fluids rose in temperature until they were also boiling.

   All who went through this Medieval execution could only pray for a fast and merciful death. But boiling to death was unfortunately a very slow process.

   A quick death would only come if the liquid was already boiling when the victim was dunked in. They might also be able to speed up the process if they ducked their head underneath the liquid to boil their brain. But otherwise, it was long and torturous until the very end.

   Boiling to death was undoubtedly one of the worst possible ways to die in the Middle Ages. Since the victim would probably remain conscious, he’d notice his eyes burning, clothes fusing with his body, and skin blistering.

   Impalement was a macabre and prolonged torture that preceded an inevitable death. Traditionally, a stake would be partially sharpened and then planted in the ground with the point facing upward. 

   The victim would then be placed over the spike. They would then be skewered through the rectum if they were a man or the vagina if they were a woman.

   The semi-greased stake would forcibly penetrate the victim’s insides until the person eventually died, and the stake would often exit near their neck, throat, or shoulders. Some of these poles were purposefully blunted to prolong the torture — with some cases of impalement going on for hours or even days.

   Vlad the Impaler is estimated to have slaughtered 80,000 people in various ways. Around 20,000 of them were impaled — and put on display outside the city of Targoviste. The sight was so terrifying that the invading Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, immediately turned around after seeing it.

   Depending on your particular phobias, immurement might be the most horrifying Medieval execution method of all. The seemingly mundane term describes the complete enclosure of a person in a small space with no escape besides death.

   Immurement was a popular form of capital punishment across various cultures. The practice was typically carried out by locking the victim in some sort of coffin-like box or sealing them into a wall or another structure. 

   While some cases of immurement were just temporary punishments, those who were sentenced to die this way were forced to confront the fact that their only freedom was death.

   The most notable Medieval figure believed to be immured was King Richard II. Known for his arbitrary and factional rule, he died under mysterious circumstances in 1400. It was rumored that he died due to starvation while he was being confined in the Pontefract Castle.

   Those in power during the Middle Ages generally attempted to match the severity of capital punishment with the associated crime.

   Unfortunately, both sexism and superstition were alive and well in Medieval times. The ramifications of this deadly combination resulted in women being accused of witchcraft or heresy and subsequently burned at the stake.

   From Spanish heretics during the Inquisition, to French martyrs like Joan of Arc, the practice of burning people to death became distressingly popular during this time.

   The accused would be bound to a stake and burned until their anguished screams finally ceased. But in some cases, those in charge would provide the victims with a semblance of mercy by attaching a container of gunpowder to the victim. This would explode when heated by the fire — killing the person much quicker.

   In England, burning people for heresy fell out of fashion in 1612 — but burning at the stake for other crimes continued well into the 18th century.

   It seems strange, that people continued to break the law or commit treason, despite these gruesome forms of punishment. You would think that these torturous punishments would be a very good deterrent, yet crimes were still being committed. People were either very stupid, or maybe they just thought they would never get caught?

Pictures are from Mel Gibson's Braveheart, where William Wallace was hanged, drawn and quartered.