8 replies to this topic

[Christine Love]

Ax and rope were the main routes. Hanging by the neck until dead as form of capital punishment was introduced to England by the Anglo-Saxon invaders of the fifth century.

By the 16th century, offenders were also being drowned, drawn and quartered and boiled to death for crimes that ranged from cutting down a tree to stealing property worth more than a shilling. Traitors were hanged, then cut down while still alive, disemboweled so that their innards could be burned before their eyes, "privy parts" cut off, then decapitated, and finally quartered. I believe the intestines could also be cut at the low, and high end, and rolled out as in “guts for garters.”

The high mark of judicial bloodiness came with Henry VIII, of whose subjects 72,000 were executed!

Can you think of anyone else who beat this record, or did even more gruesome and horrible things for punishment, death, or torture?

[Aelfwine]

I do not know if he was the cause of 72,000 deaths you atribute to Henry V111, but the Prince of Wallachia Vlad The Impaller
certainly used some gruesome methods of execution.

[Christine Love]

I do not know if he was the cause of 72,000 deaths you atribute to Henry V111, but the Prince of Wallachia Vlad The Impaller
certainly used some gruesome methods of execution.

Hi Aelfwine!

72,000 deaths by Henry VIII comes from online Wikipedia...so you never know, but you bring up an excellent man to speak about! Vlad! I am going to look for some good facts on him to add to this thread.

[Christine Love]

Dracula:

His Romanian surname Drǎculea, is derived from his father's title Dracul, meaning affiliation to and/or descent from "Dracul" (see Vlad II Dracul); the latter was a member of the Order of the Dragon created by Emperor Sigismund.

Characterized as an exceedingly cruel madman. The number of his victims ranges from 40,000 to 100,000.

The atrocities made by Vlad in the German stories include impaling, torturing, burning, skinning, roasting, and boiling people, feeding people human flesh (their friends or relatives), cutting off limbs, drowning, and nailing of hats to the heads of people. His victims included men and women of all ages, religions and social classes, children and babies.

In the memoirs of the Serbian Janissary Konstantin Mihailović, it is documented by Mihailović that the Ottomans feared Vlad III, and Mihailović goes into great detail about how Vlad III would often cut off the noses of Turkish soldiers.

Impalement was Ţepeş's preferred method of torture and execution. His method of torture was a horse attached to each of the victim's legs as a sharpened stake was gradually forced into the body. The end of the stake was usually oiled, and care was taken that the stake not be too sharp; else the victim might die too rapidly from shock. Normally the stake was inserted into the body through the anus and was often forced through the body until it emerged from the mouth. However, there were many instances where victims were impaled through other bodily orifices or through the abdomen or chest. Infants were sometimes impaled on the stake forced through their mother's chests. The records indicate that victims were sometimes impaled so that they hung upside down on the stake.

Many have attempted to justify Vlad's actions on the basis of nascent nationalism and political necessity. Most of the merchants in Transylvania and Wallachia were Saxons who were seen as parasites, preying upon Romanian natives of Wallachia, while the boyars had proven their disloyalty time and time again (Vlad's own father and older brother were murdered by unfaithful boyars). His actions were likely driven by one or more of three motives: personal or political vendettas, and the establishment of iron-fisted law and order in Wallachia.

As expected, death by impalement was slow and painful. Victims sometimes endured for hours or days.


Some may be exaggerated by the German side of story-telling, but still unbelievably sick & scary...

[Aelfwine]

Those motives you mention Christine were no doubt true. However, I believe Vlad was also a sadist of a particularly nasty kind. I remember reading that Vlad was once imprisoned in Hungary, and to amuse himself whilst incarcerated he used to impale frogs provided for him by his prison guards.

[Christine Love]

Those motives you mention Christine were no doubt true. However, I believe Vlad was also a sadist of a particularly nasty kind. I remember reading that Vlad was once imprisoned in Hungary, and to amuse himself whilst incarcerated he used to impale frogs provided for him by his prison guards.

I agree Aelfwine! No human within the complete scope of normalcy could have committed all the atrocities.

[Christine Love]

The Judas Cradle, a terrible medieval torture where the victim would be placed on top of a pyramid-like seat. The victim's feet were tied to each other in a way that moving one leg would force the other to move as well - increasing pain.

The triangular-shaped end of the judas cradle was inserted in the victim's anus or vagina. This torture could last, depending on some factors discussed below, anywhere from a few hours to complete days.

Death Factors

The time it took someone to die varied enormously from individual to individual. Torturers would sometimes add weight to the victim's legs as to increase pain and hurry the victim's death. Other torturers would place oil on the device which increased pain considerably.

This device was rarely, if at all, washed. If the victim did not die quickly enough, or their painful execution was interrupted, they would invariantly die from an infection.

The victim was sometimes rocked or made fall repeatedly onto the "pyramid". This was done so torturers could acquire vital information from the victim. If he or she refused to talk, the torturer would either add more weight to the victim or make him or her fall repeatedly on the device.

Other information

The Judas cradle was called the culla di Giuda in Italian, the Judaswiege in German and The Wake in French.

The victim was usually naked when subject to the Judas Craddle. This was to increase humiliation.

To prolonge the victim's life and cause more pain, torturers would sometimes rise the victim with ropes for the night and continue the torture during the morning.

A common variant of the Judas Cradle was the Impalement Torture - equally painful.


http://www.medievali...as-craddle.html

[Christine Love]

The Coffin Torture was feared throughout the Middle Ages. It is enough for one to look at the picture to the left to realize the reason.

The victim was placed inside the "coffin". Torturers were well-known for forcing overweight victims into the device, or even making the "coffin" slightly larger than normal to make the victims more uncomfortable.

The period of time a victim was to be kept inside the coffin was determined by his or her crime. Very serious crimes, such as blasphemy, were punished by death inside the coffin where the victim was to be kept inside under the sun with animals eating his or her flesh.

The coffin was sometimes placed in a public plaza so the local population would congregate around it and mock the unlucky victim. Sometimes death occurred because of the hatred towards the person as others often threw rocks and other objects to further increase the pain.

[Lady of Bloomfield]

This whole thread makes me glad to be living in the present! Although there are still atrocities committed today, you have to admit that human rights have come a long way!