Medieval Tortures: Medieval Punishments and Torture Devices

The Real Medieval Life

As much as fairy tales and modern media try to tell us that the medieval world was a romantic time to be living in, nothing can be far from the truth. Not all kings were just and not all Lords married their slaves. Wars and injustice was commonplace and truly, a jungle rule ruled the world then – may the strongest man win – as much as the women of today would hate that sentence.

Since war was commonplace, so were prisoners of wars, and we can bet our bottom penny that there was no Geneva Convention to stop the winning side to use all kinds of torture to either extract information or to simply punish the losing side to have the guts to challenge their superiority.

The rampant freedom to torture for the sake of information and punishment gave rise to unique – or bizarre, or grotesque, or gory, its all a matter of how you take it – punishment tools, methods and contraptions. In fact, some kings had people under them who were famous for their ways of torture, some kings themselves were famous for their torture chambers. And medieval torture methods were not totally illogical or unbelievable; many of the torture methods and contraptions have been adapted and are being used even in modern times.

Medieval Torture Devices

Of course, most of these contraptions today can be seen either in a museum or in medieval sexploitation movies, but here’s a quick list of medieval torture devices.

The Rack: Probably the most famous of medieval torture devices. The Rack was a rectangular frame with rollers, either at only one end or both. The victims hands and legs would be tied to the ends of the rack, with a handle being moved to gradually increase the pressure on the victims body, thus dislocating the joints in the body.
The rack still remains a famous symbol of medieval times, and has been used or hinted on while discussing medieval life. The famous revolutionary Guy Fawkes was among the few notable people who are known to have been tortured on the Rack.

The Scavenger’s Daughter:This torture device worked on the opposite concept of the rack. Instead of stretching the victim, the Scavenger’s Daughter would compress the body of the victim. Not much is seen or recorded of the Scavenger’s Daughter, and it would be safe for us to say that the Scavenger’s Daughter was not a widely used torture device.

Manacles: Possibly the most basic of torture devices. These were a set of handcuffs by which the victim would be hung for hours on end. Needless to say, this would put all pressure on the wrists, thereby resulting in excruciating pain to the victim.

Iron Maiden:The iron maiden was another popular form of torture. It was a body shaped box of about seven foot. The insides of the iron maiden were full of sharp spikes, and the structure had a double door.

The Water Wheel: The water Wheel was simply a big enough wheel set in a pool of water. The victim would be tied on the rim of the water wheel, and the wheel would be moved. This would force the victim to be dunked in water, as well as having their muscles and joints stretched.

The Cage: The cage was a simple small box which would house the prisoner for even years if needed. Most of the cages were hung from the ceiling, or sometimes, the victim would be just dumped into a cage on the floor.

Apart from these major contraptions, there were countless other medieval punishment devices. Also, these same contraptions were used to place the victim in the position for the punishment. For example, the rack was sometimes used to simply prepare a person in a particular position for the punishment. Here’s a quick list of medieval punishments:

Medieval Punishments

Whipping (Flagellation): Whipping was a common practice in medieval times. It was also the fastest way of administering justice to criminals. The type of whip would depend on the type of crime or misdemeanor committed. While most whips were made up of a single strand of leather attached to a handle, there have been records of three tail whips, or chain whips too.

Bastinado: Bastinado was the practice of hitting the soles of the feet with either a whip or a cane. Also, some victims were forced to walk with weights attached to their bodies after the beating.

There were many other medieval punishment contraptions. However, the above listed ones are some of the most famous medieval torture devices. Most of these devices are found in inquisition history and literature.