Top 10 Medieval Torture Methods

They may not have figured out how plumbing works, but Medieval Europeans sure knew how to inflict pain. Join http://www.WatchMojo.com as we count down our picks for the top 10 medieval torture methods. For this list, we're considering methods used in Western Medieval torture during the 5th-15th centuries, but may have been developed earlier in history. We included methods that were both non-lethal and lethal. And beware: this top 10 is not for the faint of heart.

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Top 10 Medieval Torture Methods

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.

For this list, we’re considering methods used in Western Medieval torture during the 5th-15th centuries, but may have been developed earlier in history. We included methods that were both non-lethal and lethal. And beware: this top 10 is not for the faint of heart.

10: 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 tens of thousands of small spikes on the back, seat, leg rests and armrests that pressed into a victim’s skin as they were tightly strapped in. Sometimes, fire burned at the victim’s naked flesh through a hole in the chair’s 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.

#9: Impalement

Afraid of needles? You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. In this absolutely brutal form of execution, a pole of varying thickness penetrated a large part of the victim’s body, often through the anus and ideally out through the mouth. Impalement was a pastime of Vlad III, 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.

#8: Flaying

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 shock, blood loss or infection. During the Middle Ages, flaying was used to execute and torture witches, criminals, and kingslayers – like Pierre Basile, who had murdered King Richard the Lionheart with a crossbow, been pardoned, and then flayed anyway. In twomedieval variations, victims were dropped into boiling water to soften the skin or burnt by the sun before being flayed head to toe.

7: 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 cartwheel, their limbs tied to spokes in the wheel. Meanwhile, a torturer would hit at the victim’s 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.

#6: Knee Splitter

The historical equivalent of popping a knee-cap, 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 vice 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 knee-split was enough to get an accused heretic to confess.

5: Pear of Anguish

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 – aka, Choke Pear. A four-sleeved 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 mouth 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 Pear was sometimes used to lead into further rounds of punishment.