they may not have figured out how
plumbing works but medieval Europeans
sure knew how to inflict pain welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we're counting
down our picks for the top 10 medieval
torture methods we can see straight away
then the airway is not compromised that
much they're potentially still alive for
this list we're considering methods used
in western medieval torture during the
5th through 15th centuries but they may
have been developed earlier in history
we included methods that were both
lethal and non-lethal and beware this
top-10 is not for the faint of heart
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number 10 the chair of torture how to
make a heretic confess try sitting them
in one of these babies which unlike the
fictional iron maiden made horror a
reality the torture chair also known as
the Judas chair is an infamous piece of
furniture it was covered in tens of
thousands of small spikes on the back
seat leg rests and arm rests that
pressed into a victim's skin as they
were tightly strapped in sometimes fire
burned at the victims naked flesh
through a hole in the chairs bottom
causing even the most taciturn of the
accused to confess a tool of
psychological stress as much as physical
this torture tool could kill within a
few hours or worse within a few days
number nine impalement it must be
absolutely astonishing amount of pain
and sort of mind who would want to
inflict this you can you just can't
imagine afraid of needles you ain't seen
nothing yet in this absolutely brutal
form of execution a poll of varying
thickness penetrated a large part of the
victims body often through the anus and
ideally out through the mouth
impalement was a pastime of Vlad the
third the sadistic 15th century Prince
of Wallachia in modern-day Romania and
inspiration for the Dracula legend in
one story the ottoman conqueror mehmet
ii thought better of invading and turned
back home when he saw a forest of 20,000
impaled corpses outside Vlad's capital
Vlad's favorite method of impalements
was horrific he did it vertically
inserting the stake through the rectum
so that went right up through the core
of the body to emerge through the mouth
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number eight playing
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oh my god what youtube in this globally
popular torture method dating back
thousands of years the torturer would
peel off a victim's skin slowly but
surely and within hours or days death
would come thanks to shocked blood loss
or infection during the Middle Ages
flaying was used to execute and torture
witches criminals and kingslayer's like
pierre Bastille who had murdered King
Richard the Lionheart with a crossbow
been pardoned and then flayed any way in
to medieval variations victims were
dropped into boiling water to soften the
skin or burnt by the Sun before being
flayed head to toe number seven the
breaking wheel reserved we can only
assume for the most hated criminals the
breaking wheel also known as the
Catherine Wheel was used in medieval
France and the Holy Roman Empire to
demolish a victim's body victims lay
atop a large cart wheel their limbs tied
to spokes in the wheel meanwhile a
torturer would hit at the victims bones
with a hammer or iron bar
soon after the victim was executed but
in extreme cases their mangled bodies
were left out to die of exposure or
dehydration number six the knee splitter
the historical equivalent of popping a
kneecap the knee splitter was a device
used during the Inquisition to render
the knees useless for life for this
creative form of torture the knee was
placed in a vise that when closed
penetrated the knee with large spikes
but don't let the name fool you the knee
splitter could be used on any major
joint from elbows to ankles as well as
plain old flesh sometimes the
psychological torture of watching
someone getting nice split was enough to
get an accused heretic to confess number
5
the pair of anguish crushing the maxilla
and zygomatic thrusting the bones into
the brain
killing the victim if in 1600s Eastern
Europe you were convicted of blasphemy
homosexuality or of having a miscarriage
yeah these were different times you
could be subjected to the pear of
anguish also known as the choke pear a
force leaved pear-shaped instrument was
inserted into an orifice commonly the
mouth though there has been speculation
that others such as the vagina for women
anus for homosexual men and mouths for
liars and blasphemers were used then a
torturer would turn a handle to slowly
spread apart the sleeves tearing skin
tissue and ligaments rarely lethal the
pair was sometimes used to lead into
further rounds of punishment number 4
rat torture they were leap onto your
face and go straight into it
sometimes they attack the highest fist
if you're looking to torture someone on
a budget look no further this form of
torture was a cheap and widely used
method of interrogation using one of
medieval Europe's most abundant natural
resources rest the Elizabethan era Tower
of London was apparently equipped with a
rat's dungeon where the vermin would
stream from the River Thames more
traditionally there were two methods of
this agonizing torture one saw a hungry
rat inserted into an orifice of a victim
the other would see the victim cut in
the stomach and the rat inserted either
way the result was the rat would eat the
victim from the inside out dig right
through the hardest ground so you won't
have too much trouble with the soft meat
your belly number three the rack enough
the rack was a mechanism used primarily
in England and later spread to France
during the Inquisition though it had
been used centuries earlier the victim
lay down on a wooden frame with hands
tied up top and feet below and with the
ropes pulled taut the action began a
crank system slowly pulled the victim in
opposite directions causing torn
ligaments broken joints and bone
fractures as we continue to apply
tension we can see that finally it's the
bone itself which is pulled apart and we
can see that the growth plate which is
the area of the bone where new tissue
forms is the weakest part of bone and
this is where the bone was actually
ripped just the sounds created by a body
on the rack or psychological torture and
sometimes enough to extract a confession
from a guilty observer I think I think
that one of the tendons is gone just
here in the back of the knee joint
number two saw torture in the medieval
variation of this classic gruesome kill
executioner's tied a victim upside down
by the legs and just started cutting it
was popular among inquisitors travelling
between villages who couldn't carry
large equipment and during the reign of
mehmet ii the same one who didn't want
to see himself on one of vlad the
impaler spikes the draw the blood
rushing to the victim's head heightened
awareness and slowed the loss of blood
making this excruciating torture lasts
up to a few hours worse yet before being
subjected to this torture yourself you'd
likely have to watch someone else suffer
through it
making the psychological build up to
your torment that much worse before we
unveil our top pick here are a few
honorable mentions if you feel like
you're gonna fall apart and go to pieces
I just know what to do this test right
now let's get her out
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when the person is placed inside this
brazen bull it's just like cooking a
turkey in your oven you burn the outside
of the skin and you slowly dehydrate the
inside and if you leave them in there
long enough it will eventually become
very tough and very dry
number one the Judas cradle if you think
this has a happy ending
he who hasn't beaten paying attention
the Judas cradle had everything that
made medieval torture horrifying even
more so than the similar Spanish donkey
victim humiliation chilling design
mechanical ingenuity and the ability to
cause a slow agonizing death
a naked victim was tied up and lowered
tail first onto the top of a razor-sharp
pyramid by a system of pulleys torturers
could repeatedly drop the victim on to
the point to force a confession or just
leave them there to die slowly either
way
Judas cradles were probably never washed
and were so badly contaminated that if
the Inquisitor didn't kill you the
cradle surely would do you agree with
our list which medieval torture method
do you think is the most disturbing for
more gruesome top 10s published every
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