Medieval Torture In The Middle Ages
Torture is practiced in more than 90% of all countries in all regions of the world, big or small, dictatorship or democracy. Torture was a legitimate way to obtain testimonies and confessions from suspects for use in legal inquiries and trials. "What strikes us most in considering the medieval tortures is not so much their diabolical barbarity as the extraordinary variety, and what may 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 the 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
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This can either take place in a town square or other public gathering location such as a school, or take the form of a procession through the streets (Wikipedia). In the middle ages, a hanging could last several hours - or more - before death occurred. It was the type of hanging where a body was left to slowly strangle. It was hanging where the victim was sometimes positioned upside down, with a stone around his neck. Hanging was common - even for stealing (Bos). Treason or murder, were serious crimes, but others were what we would call minor offences. For example, the death sentence could be passed for picking pockets or stealing food. One of the worst forms of executions was the guillotine it was made of a razor sharp blade attached to a rope. The victim’s head was placed in the middle of the frame as the blade dropped, taking the victim’s head from the body. The decapitation was considered to be an instant and painless. People who committed Treason, Theft, and Rebellion died by the guillotine (staff). The breaking wheel, also known as the Catherine wheel or the wheel, was a torture device used for capital punishment from antiquity into early modern times for public execution by breaking the criminal's bones/bludgeoning him to death. The wheel was a large wooden wagon wheel with many radial spokes. The victims were lashed to the wheel and their limbs were beaten with a club or iron cudgel, with the gaps in the wheel allowing the limbs to give way and break (Wikipedia).Coffin torture was for people who committed treason, rape, and murder. They were placed inside a metal cage roughly the size of the human body. The torturers also forced overweight victims into smaller cages to heighten their discomfort as they hung from a tree or gallows. Generally, they would be left there
This can either take place in a town square or other public gathering location such as a school, or take the form of a procession through the streets (Wikipedia). In the middle ages, a hanging could last several hours - or more - before death occurred. It was the type of hanging where a body was left to slowly strangle. It was hanging where the victim was sometimes positioned upside down, with a stone around his neck. Hanging was common - even for stealing (Bos). Treason or murder, were serious crimes, but others were what we would call minor offences. For example, the death sentence could be passed for picking pockets or stealing food. One of the worst forms of executions was the guillotine it was made of a razor sharp blade attached to a rope. The victim’s head was placed in the middle of the frame as the blade dropped, taking the victim’s head from the body. The decapitation was considered to be an instant and painless. People who committed Treason, Theft, and Rebellion died by the guillotine (staff). The breaking wheel, also known as the Catherine wheel or the wheel, was a torture device used for capital punishment from antiquity into early modern times for public execution by breaking the criminal's bones/bludgeoning him to death. The wheel was a large wooden wagon wheel with many radial spokes. The victims were lashed to the wheel and their limbs were beaten with a club or iron cudgel, with the gaps in the wheel allowing the limbs to give way and break (Wikipedia).Coffin torture was for people who committed treason, rape, and murder. They were placed inside a metal cage roughly the size of the human body. The torturers also forced overweight victims into smaller cages to heighten their discomfort as they hung from a tree or gallows. Generally, they would be left there