july 9 1668 archbishop james sharp a man
with many enemies is sitting in his
coach at the royal mile in the scottish
city of edinburgh a man named james
mitchell sneaks up to the carriage and
fires a pistol at sharp only the bullet
hit sharp's friend bishop andrew
honeyman the bishop took a hit to his
hand but he survived as for sharp he was
eventually assassinated in 1679. today
is not the day to get into religious
squabbles on scotland back in those days
instead we want to focus on one of the
more horrendous instruments of torture
ever used and that was one brought out
on many occasions in many countries
before we get into the various
iterations of this very frightening
contraption we'll first finish the story
we started mr mitchell's tale is unlike
most others and that he must have had an
incredibly high pain tolerance it took
until 1674 for mitchell to be caught it
was the brother of archbishop sharp sir
william sharp that did it mitchell was
taken to a dungeon on the small island
of bass rock off the scottish mainland
and told that if he confessed his life
would be spared on february 12 1674
mitchell admitted his guilt in front of
the high court of justiciary and was
told his punishment was to have one of
his hands chopped off the courts later
said no one actually said they'd spare
his life and so mitchell recanted his
confession that led him to being fixed
with the boot something that mitchell
later wrote was an extreme inquiry of
torture he was tortured on several
occasions so that he might again confess
to the crime but it seems even though he
passed out at least once from the pain
he never did admit to the assassination
attempt again mitchell wrote about his
case in detail and mentioned being
tortured with the boot but he didn't go
into details as to what it felt like
there is however a picture in existence
that shows what the scottish boot looked
like what we can see from the sketch is
what looks like a fairly simple device
boards of wood surrounded both the
victim's lower legs but there's enough
space to hammer wooden wedges down the
sides the picture also shows a
long-handled mallet with which the
wedges would be hammered down this was
useful when a confession was required
because the wedges would be forced down
in increments although it seems before
mitchell's bones were crushed he passed
out which didn't bode well for a
confession mitchell was eventually
executed by hanging on the 18th of
january 1678. it seems in terms of
torture boots the ones fitted to
mitchell weren't the worst that have
been used throughout history a long
history such boots had too take for
example the story of jacques de molay
the last grand master of the catholic
military order the knights templar his
story is a long one too but let's just
say his crusades came to an end after he
was accused of various crimes against
the church in the early 1300s after
extreme interrogation he admitted that
the templars engaged in some strange
initiation rituals including denying
christ and trampling on the cross just
like mitchell had done the malay
confessed to certain crimes during
torture but later recanted his
confessions one of the tortures he
endured was having his feet roasted
above a fire there were some various
ways this could be done but sometimes it
involved putting the person's foot
inside some kind of device and then held
above the flames this was of course
agonizing for the recipient of the
torture but it was slow enough to give
the person time to confess to cut a long
story short the malay like many other
templars were burned at the stake and
that was the end of the night's templar
there were different kinds of punishment
similar to this over the centuries but
the outcome was usually the same that
was the legs and feet either being
crushed or partly crushed or the feet
and legs being heated up inside a kind
of boot and that's exactly what happened
to dermado hurley he was a 16th century
roman catholic archbishop in ireland who
was eventually executed under the orders
of queen elizabeth the first the pope
and england weren't exactly getting
along those days so o'hurley's job was
always a risky one he was eventually
arrested and accused of taking part in
the roman inquisitions sure the
catholics were known for their own
brutal tortures during the inquisitions
hence the boot gets its name from the
spanish inquisitions but the other side
weren't exactly saints either in the
book history of ireland in the reign of
elizabeth o'hurley's fate is described
in lurid detail his interrogators first
asked him to renounce his beliefs but he
wasn't about to do that then he was told
if we cannot convince you by argument we
will make you quit your false law and
embrace our religion or feel our power
he was then tied to a stake and his feet
were bound in a pair of thick leather
boots according to the writer they were
filled with water salt bitumen tallow
pitch and oil after which they were
roasted over a fire we don't know if
what the writer says next is an
exaggeration but we wouldn't want to put
the torture to the test he said that
slowly the skin flesh muscles and pretty
much everything else were cooked off
leaving just the bones sounds like
something from a horror movie and to be
honest the description does sound a bit
like catholic propaganda that's because
of what the writer says next the martyr
having his mind filled with thoughts of
god and holy things never uttered a word
but held out to the end of the torture
with the same cheerfulness and serenity
of countenance he had exhibited at the
commencement of sufferings as if flying
the heat of the summer sun he were lying
in a dainty bed upon a soft pillow
beneath an overshadowing tree with
spreading leafy branches and besides a
rivulet humming with gentle murmur
through fragrant lilies something
doesn't sound quite right here and so
you won't be surprised to hear that the
writer says the interrogators failed to
break o'hurley's unconquerable spirit
the book was written in 1903. so we
guess you could get away with not
letting the facts get in the way of a
good old tale back then still there are
more accounts of the torture mentioning
his flesh falling from the bones inside
of boats we just doubt that he endured
all that with the equipoise of someone
enjoying the luxuries of a soft bed we
have no idea what state his feet and
legs were in when he was executed in
june 1584 but in his last words he
mentioned that he'd been treated
savagely even by the standard of the
times saying they have proceeded against
me in all points cruelly contrary to
their own laws even if o'hurley wasn't
as laid back about the torture of the
boot as some people have said he almost
certainly was tortured this way as were
many others in europe back then the
french had a version of the boot similar
to the one we've just described although
it sometimes differed in that the
boiling water was soaked through the
boot rather than poured into it then
there was the story of another scotsman
who also got the boot over the matter of
his religious beliefs this man was named
john spiral and unlike other people in
this video he was tortured by two kinds
of boots he was arrested on november 12
1680 accused by the high court of
justiciary of treason and supporting an
uprising by the militant presbyterian
covenanters presbyterians who were
reformers within protestantism were
subjected to a lot of persecution back
then in scotland we found a book about
scottish martyrs published in 1871 it
details what happened to spruell and
some others that were tortured at the
same time as him in one part the book
states the presses told mr spiro that if
he would not make a more ample
confession than he had done and sign it
he behooved to underlie the torture
spiral countered saying torture was not
even lawful and anyway he had nothing to
confess the hangman that struck the
boots on his legs then proceeded to
hammer in five wedges in pain spiral was
asked if he knew anything about the plot
to blow up a certain abbey or the plot
to kill the duke of york he denied
knowing anything and stated again that
he was not part of any kind of rebellion
this is what the writer said happened
next when nothing could be expiciated by
this they ordered the old boot to be
brought alleging this new one used by
the hangman was not so good as the old
and accordingly it was brought and he
underwent the torture a second time and
adhered to what he had said before so
this guy got two kinds of boots because
the newer kind was apparently not very
effective the hangman struck the wedges
again but the pain wasn't enough to make
mr spero confess he was however not
exactly sitting back enjoying his day
out he had to be carried back to his
cell and even though he needed medical
attention he was denied a visit by the
surgeon the writer of the book admits
that the boots used were not in
existence when he wrote the book in 1871
although his research led him to believe
that the torture could have at least
broken the shin bone he also said the
boot was a kind of torture imported from
france where it was known as les brodkim
spiro by the way was almost sent off to
work as a slave in the plantations of
the new world but he stayed in scotland
and fought for his innocence he won in
the end and became a successful
businessman as for liberal kel one of
the best accounts we have is one of a
man named francois ravajak in 1610 he
assassinated king henry iv of france by
stabbing him in his coach it went
without saying back then that he was
gonna die in the worst way imaginable
but the question was did he have
accomplices to know the answer the
authorities had to torture him the
registers of the french parliament kept
a record of this when the first wedge
was driven into his boot he cried out
god have mercy upon my soul he screamed
louder after the second wedge was driven
in shouting god i accept these torments
and satisfaction for my sins he fainted
after the third wedge went in and
couldn't be brought around by some slaps
in the face and the wine poured down his
throat that must have hurt but this is
how the actual execution was described
before being drawn and quartered he was
scalded with burning sulfur molten lead
and boiling oil and resin his flesh then
being torn by pincers now we head over
to germany where the boot took on a
different form one that was arguably
even more gruesome this boot had some
sharp studs connected to the inside
unlike the shin boots we've described so
far this boot sometimes covered both
sides of the feet to understand how it
worked imagine two studded plates one
that went over the top of the foot and
the other below it after it was secured
a crank would be turned so the two
plates came together and after enough
turning the foot would be completely
crushed still while such instruments of
torture existed and were later part of
exhibitions around the world if they
were ever used we don't know because the
written accounts don't exist for
instance the earl of shrewsbury
collected such devices and wrote about
them in the 1893 book collection of
torture instruments from the royal
castle of nuremberg that book describes
many devices used to crush feet toes
shins legs but actual documents covering
the tortures are not easy to find it's
the same story with a similar torture
that was said to have happened in china
this was called the kia kwen and it
involved three pieces of bamboo being
connected with a rope around a person's
foot when the rope was pulled the boards
would tighten and so this was also used
to extract confessions from people
rather than kill them we couldn't find
much information about that but we had
more luck finding stories about a kind
of boot torture that happened in india
in the mid 19th century in an 1856
report to british parliament titled
torture and madras a whole list of
tortures were mentioned including some
very unique ones such as this placing
the carpenter beetle or other gnawing
insect or some stinging reptile confined
within a coconut shell on the navel or
still more sensitive part of the body
causing great torment pretty much the
whole gamut of tortures were mentioned
in that report with some leading to
death or disablement the complaint goes
on to say that the torture was ignored
despite the british government and the
government of madras knowing it happened
and was illegal the british east india
company knew about it too and stood
accused of willfully and disgracefully
concealing it that's because they were
often behind it one of those tortures
was called kitty and consists of
tightening sticks or boards around a
person's fingers or feet and then
tightening them with a rope it was said
to have been used mostly by local tax
collectors although police sometimes
used it as a way to extract confessions
riots were common back then in some
reports it was compared to the boot but
like the chinese version of the torture
the device looked more like a sandal now
you need to watch the blood eagle worst
punishments in the history of mankind or
have a look at this