Inside the walls of the Tower of London during the Tudor period, there was a horrifically
savage contraption used which inflicted so much pain that it killed.
Those who were unfortunate enough to be tortured on the rack underwent a terrible ordeal which
resulted in some awful injuries and permanent problems.
There were a significant number who were also executed after their ordeal on the rack, and
some were taken to their deaths disfigured by their injuries caused by it.
The Rack led to the Tower of London developing a notorious reputation for suffering and pain,
along with the executions that occured there.
But what actually occured on the rack, and why would someone find themselves on it?
Join us today as we look at History’s most brutal torture device.
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It’s during the reign of Tudor monarchs such as Henry VIII and Elizabeth I that the
rack is mostly associated with.
But it did have a longer history which dates back to ancient times.
It’s believed that the Greeks may have used the rack first as a way of torturing slaves
around 300 years BC, and the whole point of the device was to extract information.
Herostratus, a man who was later executed for burning down the Temple of Artemis was
placed on the rack to find out more information about the burning of one of the wonders of
the ancient world.
Then during the Roman times, it was used by Emperor Nero.
He faced an assassination attempt, and to extract more information from the conspirators
the rack was used, and was even used on a woman.
This helped to solidify Nero’s brutal reputation as a feared leader.
In Britain, the rack first emerged before the Tudor Period around the mid 1400s, and
the Constable of the Tower of London at the time John Holland brought the device to the
fortress.
This rack became known as the Duke of Exeter’s Daughter, as Holland was the 2nd Duke of Exeter.
It was during this time that the Rack became infamously used, and used to extract information
during interrogations.
As a device, the rack had a number of different versions created within different countries.
In Europe, it was used in the form of a ladder where someone would be strung up to and stretched,
but it usually had a wooden frame that was raised off the ground and it was flat.
A prisoner would then be placed on it, and at each end of the rack was a roller and rope
or chains, where someones wrists and ankles would be attached to.
During the racking, the interrogators would ask a number of questions, starting off slowly
with turning the rollers which would cause tension and stretching on the prisoners limbs.
If the prisoner continued to refuse to answer questions and not hand over any information,
the interrogators would then slowly turn the ratchet and the stretching would continue.
As the chains cranked and the victim was stretched more, then the strain placed on the joints
would be excruciating.
The shoudlers, elbows, knees and hips would be placed under huge stress, and at times
the joints would dislocate and separate out of their sockets which was incredibly painful.
As medical care was poor during the Tudor times also, this could cause permanent disfigurement.
The muscles would be stretched so much that the arms and legs may be so badly damaged
that a person may never walk again, and there would be screaming heard throughout the Tower
of London.
The body would pop also and cartilage and ligaments would snap, as would bones as more
pressure was placed on the limbs.
If a prisoner continued to refuse, they were continuously racked until they would lose
consciousness, or if the guards believed they had got enough information they would stop
but the damage would have been done already.
The rack was used alongside other torture methods too, for example the Scavenger’s
Daughter.
This was a device made by another Constable of the Tower, and was an A frame which someones
head, arms and legs would be attached to.
Then this would swing and the prisoner’s body would contort and compress in bizarre
and painful ways.
When used alongside the rack, which was used the stretch, the compression device of the
Scavenger’s Daughter would be horrifically painful.
Also interrogators and guards whilst a prisoner was on the rack would perform other tortures
such as pulling out toenails and finger nails, and also they would cut someones body or even
burn them with brands to get them to give over information.
There was one shocking account of a woman during the Tudor Period being racked for information.
Anne Askew was a Protestant who was later burned at the stake for heresy.
She was linked to a plot with Henry VIII’s sixth wife Catherine Parr who herself was
accused of being too religiously radical.
To get Anne Askew to give over information about the Queen, she was brutalised on the
rack and was punished so severely that she could not walk to her execution where she
was burned at the stake.
She was carried on a chair, and then burned on this because her hips and shoulders had
also dislocated, and the rack completely ruined Anne Askew and caused such pain.
To make things worse when she fainted, she was revived a number of times to resume her
torture causing even more suffering.
The Constable of the Tower had refused to torture her as he believed it was wrong to
subject a woman to such an ordeal, and whilst he left the King to speak about it, Anne was
tortured.
Another account of torture on the rack was that of Saint Nicholas Owen, who was a catholic
martyr brutally punished on it.
He refused to give over any information about Catholic plots, and was racked so badly that
he actually died on the device as he was tortured so severely.
But the most famous person to be tortured on the Rack was Guy Fawkes.
He was caught under the Houses of Parliament along with a huge amount of gunpowder and
he planned to blow the King James I to kingdom come along with his government in the gunpowder
plot.
Fawkes was the one caught and it was considered that he was part of a group, and to get him
to give over names he was placed on the rack.
He was tortured so badly that he did eventually give over names, and his signature was completely
undicipherable when compared to it when he entered to Tower.
Even the strongest of people would be broken by the rack, and it was a torture method which
inflicted such pain and suffering.
It helped the Tower of London to gain it’s notorious and barbaric reputation, and has
gone down in History as the most famous torture method used.
Often just the sight of the rack was enough for someone to give over information to the
guards.
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