As long as there are laws, there will be people who will be out there to break it.
And when the law is broken, there has to be a system to punish the guilty.
And while in today’s times it usually means a visit to a jail cell, some of our ancestors
did not take too kindly to people breaking the law.
Which is why they had extremely cruel punishments which we cannot even imagine!
Let us take a look at some of the brutal punishments from history.
13.
Crucifixion The most famous torture device from history
has to be the crucifix.
It can be seen in almost all Christian households today because it is a standing reminder of
the great sacrifices that made for us.
But the saviour wasn’t the only one who was subjected to this brutal punishment.
Crucifixion involved nailing a person to a wooden cross and then leaving then hanging
out in the open.
This was supposed to not only punish the people with a slow and agonizing death but also to
remind others of the severe cost of breaking the law.
It was a pretty common practice in the middle ages and it was a torture that was not just
physical, but mental as well.
12.
Flaying The literal meaning of flaying is skinning.
That is, removing the skin off the flesh.
It was usually a fate reserved for animals that people hunted but in some cases, it was
also used as a torture method.
And the subject were not animals, but humans that were still alive.
The amount of skin that was torn away from the body depended on the crime and that basically
dictated whether the person would live with both mental and physical scars, or die as
a result of the extreme torture.
This method of punishment was particularly famous in Mesopotamia and there were also
cases where a chunk of flesh was removed as punishment.
So when Shylock demanded his pound for flesh, it wasn’t like there wasn’t a precedent!
11.
The Breaking Wheel This was another very brutal form of punishment
that was practiced in the middle ages.
It was actually a mode of capital punishment, so was reserved only for the greatest of crimes.
The breaking wheel, or the Catherine wheel as it was also called, involved tying a person
to a wheel.
Sometimes, these wheels also contained spikes.
More often than not, the culprits had to be beaten brutally so as to break their arms
and legs before they could be tied to the wheel.
Once they were tied, the wheel was turned.
This horrific punishment ensured that every single bone in the body would break and then
they were just left there waiting for death and relief from the pain.
As far as torturous deaths go, there isn’t much that we can think of that will top the
breaking wheel.
10.
Impalement While most of us shudder at the thought of
a colonoscopy, we should be just thankful that the age old punishment of impalement
does not do the rounds any more!
It was a popular form of punishment during the middle ages and was generally meted out
to those who were considered enemies of the state.
There were many devices which were used to meet out this punishment.
They ranged from pike, pole, spear, hook, stake and many others.
And what was even more scary was that different parts of the body were chosen for different
crimes.
Or shall we say different holes of the body.
All those who were given this punishment ultimately died a very slow and painful death and it
wasn’t a fate that anyone would want for themselves.
9.
Sawed in Half Well, the name pretty much tells you the whole
story.
This was a form of punishment where the culprits were hung and then sawed in half, though we
are pretty sure nobody care if the halves were equal or not.
It was pretty common form of a death sentence in different parts of the world like the Roman
empire, Spain and in parts of Asia.
A similar form of punishment was disembowelment where the organs of the people were taken
out while they were still alive!
8.
Death by Boiling Again, a very self explanatory name!
But at least this form of punishment was not that common.
Why you ask?
Because there was no blood involved, so it did not really go a long way in the form of
entertainment for our perverse ancestors.
Death by boiling basically involved dunking a living person in a vat of boiling water
or oil until they died slowly and horribly!
7.
The Rack Another very brutal and very horrible form
of punishment that was practiced in the earlier days was the rack.
And it was not just a punishment device but a torture device as well and we have no doubt
that many would have confessed to even sins they did not commit if they knew that they
would be facing the rack.
The rack was a device where the limbs of the person were tied to a rolling pillar sort
of a thing.
Once tied, these rollers would be turned so that the chains got tighter and tighter.
Which meant that the person was stretched and stretched until their limbs dislocated,
broke or is extreme cases were just torn off.
And since this device was a method of slow, horrible way of inducing great pain, it was
used to get out many confessions and information.
6.
Chair of Torture When we say that people have got the chair,
we think of the ones today where capital punishments are meted out.
But in the earlier days, chair referred to a very brutal form of punishment.
It was called the chair of torture and rightly so.
What it involved was a chair with many straps to hold you in place.
Oh and the chair was not really plain and comfy.
It was covered with metal spikes.
Anyone who was given the sentence of the chair was tied to it very tightly.
And if the victim squirmed, the spikes would go deeper and inflict even more pain.
Which led to more squirming and more pain.
It was actually an endless cycle of pain.
In fact, so effective was the chair that it was often brought in front of other accused
people so that they would see the fate that awaited them and would confess to their sins!
5.
Blowing by the Gun This was a particular form of death that was
practiced by the British in the early days of their rule in India.
When the natives dissented with the british, they would often be tied up in front of a
cannon.
The cannon would then be lit as the poor prisoners awaited a horrifying death.
Witnesses have given accounts of blood and gut splattering everywhere because of this
execution and that was enough for the British to get some order!
4.
Pear of Anguish This was a form of torture that made the use
of a terrible instrument of pain.
It consisted of a pear shaped device made of metal.
How it worked was that when the screw were turned, the pear, which was made of different
metal plates, would start to open up and grow to a much larger size than it originally was.
So you can imagine what they did.
The pear of anguish was inserted into a hold in the body and then the screws were turned
to give some real anguish to the people who were being tortured.
3.
Burning at Stake Witchcraft is something that people are scared
of.
Which is why it was one of the worst things you could be blamed for in the olden days.
Even today, it is looked upon with much suspicion.
But in the earlier days, if someone was accused of witchcraft, the people believed that there
was only one way of ensuring that the witches’ power was destroyed.
And that was to burn them at the stake.
In fact, the 17th century is plagued with many women being burned because people thought
they were witches.
One of the worst incidents was in Salem between 1692 and 1693 when several women and girls
were tried for being witches and were executed.
Though in this case they were killed by hanging but on most occasions, the only sure way of
getting rid of a witch was to burn her at the stake.
2.
Thumbscrews While these devices were not meant for killing
anyone, they were a form or torture and a very efficient one at that.
What it entailed was a device where the victim’s fingers or toes could be thrust through different
openings.
The device itself was made of different plates of metal which, when screwed, would slowly
shrink in size.
And when there were toes or fingers of people inside the thumbscrew as it was turned, they
would break.
Slowly and painfully.
And while the device was primarily used for fingers and toes, there were other, more frightening
devices as well.
There were thumbscrews that could crush knees and elbows and there were those made for the
head as well.
It is a frightening form of torture to even think about and that was probably the reason
why it was used widely the world over.
The device is thankfully not that common anymore, but in the medieval times it was very popular
way of extracting information or confessions from people.
1.
Public Stoning While this one may not sound as brutal as
some of the other forms of punishments, public stoning was actually one of the sentences
that could be given to anyone.
The reason was that not only did it mean that you were going to die a slow and painful death,
but there would not be just one executioner.
People you knew your whole life were often to be found among the mob and even if not,
seeing that much hatred directed towards you could not have been easy.
And while this brutal form of punishment has been banned today, there are still some places
where it is followed.
In fact, Iranian courts still order public stoning and women who are found guilty of
adultery are buried up to their necks and people are asked to not choose stones too
heavy or big so that the resulting death is slow and painful, not to mention dragged out.
And if by any chance they manage to survive that, they are then jailed!
As these torture and execution methods would tell you, the medieval times were a very cruel
and hard time.
And all of us should be thankful that most of these torture methods have been banned
and are no longer in existence.
And the ones that do still exist should be stopped.
Let us know what you think of these torture methods in the comments below and remember
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