Throughout the centuries there have been many brutal execution methods which have been feared.
For example in Britain, hanging drawing and quartering was used against those people who
were deemed guilty of treason, and Henry VIII would utilise the brutality of this death
sentence to deal with some of his enemies.
The Gunpowder Plotters would be subjected to this, but there was one execution method
which had been around for centuries and it was greatly feared.
The oubliette was known for its brutality, and it was a hole in the ground in which someone
would be simply left to rot and left to die and succumb to their fate.
There was one oubliette in Warwick Castle that was so feared that during the 100 years
war, the French soldiers fighting at various battles would learn of it and they would rather
die on the battlefield than be taken a prisoner and be sent to the oubliette.
But how did the oubliette become the most feared execution method of the medieval period?
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The oubliette is named this as it derives from the French verb oublier which simply
means to forget.
This idea of forgetting completely encapsulates the oubliette as an execution and torture
method, and it was in it’s simplest form a hole in the ground or a dungeon in which
prisoners would never escape from, or they would never leave.
They would be forgotten about and would be left to rot and starve, often with the remains
of the person who went before them inside.
Oubliettes had little or no light at all, and they were often very far underground making
them cold damp and smelly, and in some there was also sewers that would flow into them,
meaning prisoners had to be sitting in human waste and deal with rats and other vermin.
The conditions were so cramped also that the prisoner could not move, and they would be
forced to just sit in the dungeon, or crouch and they would have to contemplate their imminent
demise and death.
It was psychological torture, and sometimes the owners of castles or houses would starve
the victim, or they would be given some food and drink to keep them alive longer, meaning
they would be kept alive for their ordeal to get worse.
The sides being so narrow and the height being so little also led to many prisoners who were
held in oubliettes having to spend all day crouched over as there was no space to sit
which would cause a huge amount of pain.
Slowly the victim would lie their sanity and mind.
There were other style oubliettes which were known as bottle dungeons, which were shaped
like a bottle.
So the inmates would be thrown through a hatch in the ceiling or lowered into the pit below,
and due to the design of the dungeon and the ceiling they would not be allowed to escape
and could not get out.
They were just left in there often with the remains of the deceased’s rotting corpse
who had been in there before them.
This was a terror tactic and owners of castles would do this to show the prisoner what was
coming to them next.
There has been examples of oubliettes found where the remains of prisoners still were
left.
For example in Leap Castle in Ireland, there was an oubliette that had spikes coming up
from the floor, meaning when a prisoner was thrown in they were impaled by what was below.
In 1922 workmen at Leap Castle when they came across the oubliette in a corner of the bloody
chapel were shocked to find the remains of many humans that had been left.
Infact there were so many bones that it took 3 carts to remove them from the castle and
then bury these remains elsewhere.
It was a horrific death especially after the impalement on the spikes below.
Oubliettes were used mostly as a terror tactic, and there were many examples of them found
all over Europe.
It’s believed that the Bastille in Paris had an oubliette, and many were built during
the high and late Middle Ages by fuedal lords who wanted to strike fear into the hearts
of their local enemies.
They would capture rebels and regional rivals, and then put them in the oubliette to kill
them and to terrorise, and with this word quickly spread not to mess with someone.
The oubliette at Warwick Castle was built with this in mind, and with punishment in
mind as it is found in the corner of the castle hidden away in the underground prison which
is in the very basement of a large tower.
This oubliette in particular is so narrow that the prisoner would be locked in a lying
prone position and they would not be able to stand up, which was complete torture.
These dungeons may have been brought to England by the Normans following their conquest, and
may have been used to keep the population down as they did encounter a significant amount
of rebellion and revolt.
But they were used sparingly it’s believed and it would be the most serious our prisoners
who were sent to the oubliette.
There is an example of the oubliette found in the most imitating English fortress, the
Tower of London.
But this was built in the centuries after, and it was known as Little Ease.
The Tower would be of course known for its torture and execution with two of Henry VIII’s
wives losing their heads inside the walls of the fortification.
But this was built into the side of a wall, and it’s believed was pretty much like a
cupboard which could be opened and a prisoner thrown inside of and they were then locked
into place in one position.
It’s believed that Guy Fawkes the gunpowder plotter was subjected to the torture of Little
Ease, and that this coupled with his racking would have been what led to him eliciting
his confession to the King’s men.
The Nazis even during the Second World War took inspiration from the oubliette, and they
would bring in standing cells to the concentration camps where inmates were held for long periods
of time locked in one position in a very cramped structure.
Because of this, the oubliette which was the dungeon in which prisoners were simply left
and forgotten became one of the most brutal and feared execution methods used throughout
History.
It was a hole in the ground with a barbaric purpose, to erase someone from history by
starving them and letting them succumb to the conditions of their imprisonment.
When seeing an oubliette you can’t help but think of the horror that occurred inside
of them and the fear that must have been eating up in the prisoners mind knowing that very
quickly they would be dying and the vermin inside would be there to pick at their remains.
It was a harrowing execution method, and is certainly one of history’s most feared.
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