Why Medieval Torture Devices are Not Medieval

By Peter Konieczny

When many people think about the Middle Ages they see it as a time when people were tortured by a wide collection of diabolical instruments. Whether it is the Pear of Anguish or the Iron Maiden, these torture devices are portrayed as medieval. The reality, however, is that many of these devices never existed in the Middle Ages.

You can find many examples of popular websites making lists of medieval torture devices – here, here, here and here – and for a video list see here. Movies and television shows will dramatically portray their use, museums will prominently display examples of them, and you can read countless books that tell us about the history of torture, all of them offering at least a chapter dedicated to the Middle Ages. A typical example can be found in L.A.Parry’s book The History of Torture in England:

And what strikes us most in considering the mediaeval tortures, is not so much their diabolical barbarity, which it is indeed impossible to exaggerate, as the extraordinary variety, and what may have be termed the artistic skill, they displayed. They represent a condition of thought in which men had pondered long and carefully on all the forms of suffering, had compared and combined different kinds of torture, till they had become the most consummate masters of their art, had expended on the subject all the resources of the utmost ingenuity, and had pursued it with the ardour of a passion.

However, when one takes a close look at books like these, it soon becomes obvious that very little of the tortures they describe took place in the Middle Ages. Instead, they recount various events from the 17th to 19th centuries, with perhaps a few anecdotes from previous eras (and in some recent books, noting the use of modern tactics like waterboarding). The authors will mention various torture devices, and usually add in some statement that while we first hear about it in the 17th century, it was ‘undoubtedly’ or ‘would have been’ also seen in medieval times. These statements never include any evidence to back up such assertions. Today historians are starting to take a look at these medieval torture devices, and are realizing that they are not only not medieval, but might not even have been torture devices at all.

The supposedly medieval torture device, the Pear of Anguish, displayed at the Museum der Festung Salzburg, Austria – photo by Klaus D. Peter, Wiehl, Germany / Wikipedia

For example, Australian historian Chris Bishop took a look the so-called ‘Pear of Anguish’. The metallic device can be found in several museums, which will note that it is from the Middle Ages despite having little idea where their particular item comes from. Typically, this pear-shaped item has a latch at its tip, which when triggered will open the spring-loaded lobes. The lobes can then be screwed back together with a key.

19th century depiction of the Pear of Anguish

The idea behind the Pear of Anguish was that it be inserted into the mouth of the victim (or into the vagina or anus) and then opened up. Supposedly, the device would cause immense pain and tearing, which could only be eased by screwing the lobes back down. Bishop’s research reveals that objects calling themselves the Pear of Anguish first start appearing around the middle of the 19th century. There is a reference to a ‘pear’ type object that was used by a well-known criminal in Paris at the turn of the 17th-century: he apparently had a device designed for him that allow him to gag his victims. But beyond that there is no mention of such a torture device from the Middle Ages. In fact, a careful examination of these devices show that it could never have been used to torture people. Not only would have the springs been too weak to open up a bodily orifice, but the way the latch was designed meant that it could not be opened at all if it was inside something. Bishop offers some suggestions on what this device could have been:

One could imagine them as surgical instruments – some sort of speculum perhaps, or a device for levering open the mouth in order that a dentist might operate. But then they could just as easily be shoe-extenders, or sock-stretchers, or glove-wideners.

However, it seems that once the idea that it was some sort of torture instrument, it became very popular, with museums in Europe needing to have one. The myth of the Pear of Anguish was thus born. Bishop explains: