The Worst Medieval Torture Techniques Explained By Historian
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 พ.ค. 2024
- Medieval Historian Matt Lewis delves into the grisly details of medieval torture techniques. We cover everything from what it was like to be 'hung, drawn, and quartered' to the terrifying specialties of Vlad The Impaler. Matt explores the depths of human cruelty throughout the medieval period, offering a stark reminder of the barbarity that once prevailed.
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00:00 Introduction
00:32 Hanged, Drawn and Quartered
05:08 Impaling
08:48 Crushing
11:55 Beheading
14:13 The Wheel
16:58 Boiling
18:33 Sawing
20:21 Burning
22:32 Flaying
24:52 The Wooden Horse
26:14 Conclusion
#historyhit #medievalhistory #middleages
Imagine you are sitting in front of the court and the judge condemns you to death by sawing. This would have completely ruined your day, presumably. Even the best-humored persons would definitely feel slightly depressed when presented with such news.
The deterrent value was huge and there were no repeat offenders.
Oh golly, what a downer
I think you might be on to something here...
@robertouten and no way to save the innocent. If they are so many today, imagine then. But why would you care, right. You are not even human.
Slightly depressed
Fun fact: In germany the breaking wheel was called "rädern" (wheeling) and to this day if you are exhausted and all your limbs hurt from hard labour or exercise it's still common to say "ich fühle mich wie gerädert" - "I feel like I've been wheeled".
Murderers and rapists were usually executed that way in germany and primarily men. The last person to be executed in this way, at least in europe, was in Prussia 1841 - a man who killed the Bishop of Ermland.
In Polish we say "Nie zrobilbym X nawet jakby mnie kolem lamali" "I wouldn't do X even if they break my by the wheel" or if you want to call out someone's stubborness you would say something like "Nie przyzna sie do bledu nawet jakby go kolem lamali", "he wouldn't admit to mistake even if they break him by the wheel".
Same in Flemish (Belgium) it's called "geradbraakt" it's the torture but we also say it when extremely exhausted or have muscle pain from heavy manual work.
In Netherland we call it radbraken. And if your muscles and bones hurt from a hard day of work you say ik voel me geradbraakt.
We use the same term in Denmark. "Jeg føler mig radbrækket = I feel wheel broken"
This sort of punishment has made an impact to this day...
In Norway, it's called "radbrekking" and generally means that something is destroyed, like "det gamle radbrækkede udhus" (=the old radbroken outhouse) (Alexander Kielland, 1886).
Man, I wouldn’t have wanted to play with this guy when we were kids. “Mom, he’s impaling and crushing the dolls again.” 😂
Well, I'm watching this while I'm having dinner, so I understand the old fellow.
And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. -Jeremiah 29:13
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. - John 3:16
Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out.
-Acts 3:19
If you’re in North America, please go check out any of the churches available to you: PCA, OPC, Rpcna/Rpc, Urcna, or a canrc church
(These are conservative and actual Presbyterian churches)
If you can’t find one of the conservative presby churches then, maybe a Lcms Lutheran church.
If you are Scottish, I recommend the Free Church of Scotland and the APC
(Different from the Church of Scotland)
If you’re English I recommend the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in England & Wales and the Free Church of England
(Different from the Church of England)
Also online you can look up church finders for each of the groups, it will show you locations.
Same! Watched this while enjoying a large plate of delicious nachos :p
hahahaha same, just enjoyed some pasta aglio e olio while watching the recap
Lesson: know your enemy and if necessary fight until the end rather than being captured and tortured.
yeah many soldiers even turn to killing themselves rather than getting captured
Facts.
And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. -Jeremiah 29:13
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. - John 3:16
Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out.
-Acts 3:19
If you’re in North America, please go check out any of the churches available to you: PCA, OPC, Rpcna/Rpc, Urcna, or a canrc church
(These are conservative and actual Presbyterian churches)
If you can’t find one of the conservative presby churches then, maybe a Lcms Lutheran church.
If you are Scottish, I recommend the Free Church of Scotland and the APC
(Different from the Church of Scotland)
If you’re English I recommend the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in England & Wales and the Free Church of England
(Different from the Church of England)
Also online you can look up church finders for each of the groups, it will show you locations
@@taffykins2745🦙
@PeterMartyrVermigli_is_cool
Is that your signature and personal guarantee? Most people don't advertise that, but whatever floats your boat. 🤷♂️. Go get 'em!
This is why it has commonly been better to go down fighting rather than submitting to anyone.
Talking about the horrible noises and suffering and screaming, imagine the people who did these things! many times the profession of executioner was inherited, meaning the son of executioner would be in effect condemned into working as the executioner even-though they were a normal person. Sawing a living person in half..? Literally incomprehensible.
All true. No escape from it. No wokes allowed.
@@taffykins2745 Bet you can't wait to try these techniques out once your kind make america great again.
@Phukugoooglification hahahaha! You're twisted man! Stay home if that's what you think -- it's your best bet!
And be sure you're related to a baker or something. I wouldn't want you to get hurt.
Do you really not know that's how it was? You inherited your dad's job. He he was a blacksmith, so we're you. If dad was a baker, so we're you. If you were unlucky enough to have a dad who was an executioner, so we're you -- I guess they really hated it. 😞
@@Phukugoooglification hahaha! You funny! It's not done that way anymore. You can be a baker if you want!!
Worth noting that being an executioner was generally a thankless job with low pay and it understandably tended to take a pretty grim toll on one's mental health. Unfortunately, this made things worse - it was not uncommon for executioners to drink heavily to numb themselves to what they had to do, so there were several known cases where an executioner showed up to an execution drunk and botched it (like a headsman missing their swing of the axe).
Notably, this is true even today, which is why several formerly common methods of execution - like the firing squad - have largely been done away with. Simply put, prison staff didn't want to do them anymore. In an effort to assuage executioners' guilt, nearly all execution methods practice today involve multiple executioners, one of whom will always get a randomly selected "dummy" option that does not kill the condemned (for instance, in lethal injection cases all executioners press buttons to inject chemicals, one of which is either connected to a harmless substance like saline or does nothing; for firing squads, one of the guns is always armed with blanks). This is so that executioners can never be certain if they were the ones who actually did the deed or if they got the "dummy" option and therefore didn't actually kill anyone.
The last Swedish capital punishment was actually done by guillotine, in 1910. It's a quite common trivia question here in Sweden but most people guess hanging or getting shot.
It was in 1977 in France … also a common trivia question to which people often answer 18th or 19th century !
(sorry I replied that before seeing the entire video 🤣)
+wsmpify. That’s right. Alfred Andersson Ander was guillotined for robbery and murder. After that, the guillotine was stored away. It was only used once.
The guillotine was humane compared to most of the executions in the video!
As a child, reading a book about torture was the way I found out that language isn't always literal. When we learned about opposites in school, I remember loudly exclaiming "You can be destructive and creative at the same time." -I had yet to learn about context and situational awareness.
But you can be destructive and creative at the same time, many types of art use that method!
Why am I watching this before bed!? 😂
Sleep tight
Bro same ! 😂😂😂
Same here 🤣
Ok, the wheel was not at all what i thought it was and now it makes sense why it never made sense lol
Totally, just to use something close at hand, otherwise ridiculous.
"...I'm sure you can tell where this is going." YOU ARE A RIOT!!
Sawing, Terrifier style.
@@ElTio.45-70 Yeah, that one hurt...
And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. -Jeremiah 29:13
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. - John 3:16
Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out.
-Acts 3:19
If you’re in North America, please go check out any of the churches available to you: PCA, OPC, Rpcna/Rpc, Urcna, or a canrc church
(These are conservative and actual Presbyterian churches)
If you can’t find one of the conservative presby churches then, maybe a Lcms Lutheran church.
If you are Scottish, I recommend the Free Church of Scotland and the APC
(Different from the Church of Scotland)
If you’re English I recommend the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in England & Wales and the Free Church of England
(Different from the Church of England)
Also online you can look up church finders for each of the groups, it will show you locations
@@josephcollins6033🦙
@@ElTio.45-70🦙
Thank you Joe for your service!
Poor Joe. 😱
Joe deserves a raise 🤣
Rip Joe
This is an excellent video, especially with the comedic inserts to counter the grimness of the content. Well done!
I love all the little text bubbles. “Worst day every” had me lol
Hi, buddy!!! The man who inspired my mania for British history!!! Thanks for this!
As for the crushing, I had always heard it called pressing a person. This is where we get the term to "press someone for information." There was a famous occurrence of this in Colonial Massachusetts in 1692. It was Giles Corey. He was accused of witchcraft but refused to enter a plea, as you stated. So, they pressed him until he died. According to Wikipedia it took him 3 days to die. This would be primarily due to suffocation. This preserved his property for his children. His wife, Martha, was tried, convicted and hanged. It is an interesting sidenote to the Salem Witch Trials. Only those who pleaded not guilty were hanged. All who pleaded guilty, such as Tituba, were adjudged as being capable of being rehabilitated. Of course, all who pleaded, guilty or not guilty, lost their property.
Contrary to what some movies have said, there were never any burnings in the colonies. It is known that some of the captives of the Native Americans were burned.
BTW, you forgot St. Lawrence who was roasted to death. That definitely has to rank up there with terrible methods of execution.
Giles Corey reportedly kept saying, "more weight" when they were pressing him. Until he couldn't, anyway.
@@NefariousKoel St. Lawrence is reputed to tell his torturers to turn him over, he was done on that side.
I also heard of a case of impaling where the victim kept telling the executioners how to move him so the post didn't hit anything fatal on the way up.
There was a major slave rebellion in 1715 in New York City which was a major center for slavery at that time. Over 200 people, black and white, were burned at the stake. This was so horrific that it never made it to our school history textbooks.
Fascinating, horrifying, and very well done as always. The funniest bit was 'Sawing' because I heard (as an American) "Soaring" and the CC said the same, I was thinking of being tossed off a cliff instead of dismembering lol
I stopped reading after "being tossed off".
On these old paintings and wood-cuts: Ever notice the facial expressions of those being tortured don't at all reflect the pain they must be going through? In some it almost looks like they're enjoying it. Anyone else see this?
I'm not too sure, but I reckon from all the medieval pieces I've seen that none really had exaggerated facial expressions, it may just be because medieval art doesn't really focus on it ?
so typically from what i know, there was a sort of protocol that martyrs and christians are supposed to appear serene bc of the presence of god and their spiritual state at the time
and the cultural significance of "dying a good death" or being a good Christian at the time of death that you would not be fearful and be at peace
Notice a lot of crowns
ars moriendi, or the art of dying with dignity;
death was everywhere in medieval times, not just in the form of capital punishment but in famine and disease. accepting death without complaint was seen as a sign that you knew you were going to heaven, you had nothing to worry about. it was a pure expression of faith.
And so if you wanted to depict someone as being godly or good, you would draw them with a neutral or serene expression on their face, sometimes also looking up towards heaven, while they died, to honor them.
That's because they kept magical charms on their bodies that kept them from feeling pain. These things aren't just in the past. They will come back.
This has taught me a valuable lesson....never give up & be captured....humans are awful!
Thought this myself. I would prefer suicide before they got me. But sadly I bet a lot of people were surprise arrested or thought some last minute hope was going to save them.
Hey Matt. Love your work 👍
Nice one Matt, also enjoyed your Braveheart analysis.
At least for a time 'Membering' was on the statute as part of Hanging, Drawing and Quartering. The Regicides of Charles I and the surviving Gunpowder Plotters were all relieved of their privy members, to symbolise their ill begotten issue.
"I'm Matt Lewis, and today I'm going to run you through"
_rude_
See, I always thought "drawn" in this context meant the "drawing out" of the person's intestines. That would fit the order of the saying "hanged, drawn, and quartered," because they weren't hanged before being drawn through the street behind horses. When I was very small my parents slaughtered their own chickens, and my dad called it "drawing" the chicken when he pulled out its insides, a process which tiny me found fascinating.
I think in some cases they did draw the guts out, but maybe more a thing with continentals than Brits? That said Guy Fawkes was drawn and 'drawn' in this way I believe.
Yep. Some historians aren't very good at history.
Sheesh... I didn't realize just how brutal the breaking wheel and sawing were. Really fascinating stuff though
Just imagine the psychological damage to the people who had to do these things.
One of my ancestors during Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries was caught hiding priests and mum's in his attic. He was hung, drawn and quartered ; his brother pilfered his head from London bridge, was caught, and hung, drawn and quartered too! John Finch, now canonized by the Catholic Church.
My heart goes out to Joe. Mr. Bill didn't have it so bad.
😂 good one!
You're not being boiled in oil, you're being deep fried.
While the term might be frying for food, in this case it does literally mean BOILING. The boiling point of oil is about double that of water, meaning a much more excruciating and violent death.
They are not mutually exclusive. You are being boiled AND deep fried.
The wheel: I understood that one was tied to it, spreadeagled, and had the limbs smashed by a sledgehammer, until the final coup de grace was delivered?
I bet that was totally another method along with a dozen others not mentioned. Humans are very creative and exploratory when it comes to cruelty
Yeah that's what I read it as too, I guess though that maybe it was a variation?
@@Mordred86 Cruel times deserve cruel methods...
22:40 I recognize that painting immediately from the movie In Bruges. Lol
And all this happened just a few generations ago... truly shocking. Even more shocking in what more of less subtle ways this atrocious pathologic behavior is still present in society. Violence has so many, to many forms...
I think Joe should be in every future video too, Matt! He’s earned it.
One of the impalement drawings this showed , was from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) by Father Philippus Baldaeus (1632-1672) who worked with the Dutch East Endian Company. Sri Lanka had some of the most vicious punishments for criminals and even POWs..specially western POWs(Called 32 torture's). This was one of the main reasons Brits demanded that such harsh treatment should be stopped immediately after the 1815 highland accord. Its common to hear Sinhalese people still talking (Jokingly, well mostly Jokingly) about breaking necks, or Decapitation or Impaling someone. Another remnant of former cruelty can be found in a term akin to the mostly American saying to point out the obvious "does the bear shit in the woods" similarly sri lankans sometimes say "does a man shit after getting stepped on by an elephant" - getting trampled alive by an Elephant was another form of punishment.
How do they even know you would stay conscious long enough? How many times have they done it to get the technique down enough to perfect it?
Practice makes perfect
There obviously wasn't much to do back in the day. If only they had some good box sets of The Wire or something to occupy their time.
Thank you for the visual aid
I ❤ Vlad the impaler
PURE GOLD! Keep em rolling in good sir lol 💯.
Now THAT was inhumane !!! I wonder how many people still refused to enter a plea even throughout the torture they were made to endure?
When it comes to hurting each other, us humans are really creative
Th u for yr channel . Although grim 😢
I lost my innocence when I was taken to the London dungeons as a child. I remember being in utter shock on the train home. I couldn’t believe humans could b so cruel to each other. Ive had PTSD since. And human beings haven’t changed.
Loved it!
How can you leave out drowning in wine, of Duke of Clarence fame?
Keelhauling?
I think crushing was also used during Salem Witch trials for an old gentleman.
Great - decided to watch this before bed and my name happens to be Joe lol
It's good to see a man who enjoys his work.
Can anyone explain the Pear of Agony? I actually saw one in a museum case of torture devices, but I couldn't figure out why such a complicated instrument would be used
No mention exists of the so-called "Pear of Anguish" as a torture device before 19th century when most of the alleged "Medieval torture instruments" were invented and reproduced because people became fascinated with them.
If any genuine expanding pear-type devices exist (the earliest reliably traceable example was catalogued in Louvre in 1856, obtained from a private collection), historians have suggested possible uses ranging from stretching socks to squeezing fruit juice.
Rip joe, you did a good job showing us history
And now we have social media!
Ugh. I honestly could only make it halfway through this-- and I love horror movies. I tried to imagine what it would be like to see people doing this do someone and wanted to puke.
I can’t imagine the people who, for lack of a better word, administered these executions. What type of person are they? Doesn’t matter how mad I am at a person, I wouldn’t be able to do this those of things to another.
10:53 On the first day of secondary school we were ✨ceremoniously✨ shown Margaret Clitherow’s preserved hand - still trying to ascertain what they were trying to achieve by showing that to a bunch of 11 year olds
Wow, was this in York?
TH-cam autoplay finally coming up clutch
Poor Joe 😂 great video I was here to see how the wheel punishment worked it never made sense to me till now.
R.I.P. Joe. Deus misereatur animae tuae
The most bone-chilling thought to have is: "Any possible way a human can be injured, tortured or slowly killed has been done already, many, many times. Anything at all. Any thought you have, no matter how extreme - someone has gotten there first." What a race!
I'll have to look up other means of torture during the Civil War, I haven't heard of that yet.
What is the artwork used in 18:10 ? The colors are gorgeous!
It’s a painting of Saint Paraskevi located in Church of Saint Marina in Greece. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be much info about it online but you can find the full picture with these details!:)
@@siiri1964 Thank you! ❤
Why did I watch this before bed?
Death by a Thousand Cuts was a torture and execution method in China. A very precise technique for a long and painful process.
Lingchi
I love how people ,like this guy , give you that warning as if we’re all pussified
Ahh, the good old days!!
Being impaled to me is possibly the scariest
Thank You sir for your thorough relation. Wanted to add that in my country there was a drowning method performed. Stones were tied to a person and she was thrown into the water. Once drowned - it meant that she was innocent. Once resurfaced - meant - was in conspiracy with the devil. ..........
His problems started with that nail up his harris.
"Said to have" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in a lot of these stories. As is "often."
Well how else are you going to refer to the written accounts we rely upon to understand History?
This video should be a hit with a title like that because us humans are so morbid 😂
'Tis but a scratch!
Well, now. I watched this video while eating dinner. I think I might need to review my life choices 😅😅😅
The most famous case of “pressing” torture in the American colonies was of Giles Corey who refused to plead guilty or not guilty (in order to save his property) to being a witch during the “Salem Witch Trials” in 1692
it happened much much earlier, earliest starting around 895, was the very imaginative way of giving someone wings, their version of redbull, the Blood Eagle.
The Blood Eagle is not attested in contemporary sources, and only really mentioned in the sagas after the advent of Christianity, so its historicity is pretty dubious (just like that other favorite of Viking lore, the Berserker).
@cqueenie7420 Vikings were not known in documenting everything, especially in details as runes ae not like that, and are known mainly due to their neighbours documenting it all.
Historians dont go for contemporary sources and prefer to look in the history documentations, close to the said date the better. There is enough "writings" about the berserker to know that it is based on similar stories.
@@cypherglitch true, but again, nobody at the time, Dane/Norse/Saxons/Franks etc. mentions it. It comes later, so while it could be true, I do take it with a grain of salt.
@cqueenie7420 yeah, when I first heard about it I was wondering how the hell they split the sternum to make the wings. but the vikings were giants. yeah sounds awesome, for a tv series way. it does line up with the way vikings were seen though.
The first time I had heard of it was watching the series Vikings. The Blood Eagle thing...yikes, but as you said, no record of it actually being practiced. I remember thinking that the person would likely die from shock shortly into the procedure, unlike the first portrayal in Vikings where the poor sod remains conscious throughout. Either way...pretty creative dispatch.
"cut off the genetalia" me about to eat a meatbal... yeah I'll place that down for the moment...
If you compare hell punishment and medieval punishment then hell would be a child's play
15:47 love the caption, give me a break. I thought the purpose of the wheel was to do that.
Imagine they gave you the boil but they couldn’t get it hot enough, ends up being a hot tub ( but you yell and put on a show ) until they think your done for …. They leave , you climb out warm and clean and escape
Would never happen. Nice fantasy though. Sadly, what you are hearing here is the real thing. Some empathy, yes?
Watching videos of botched beheadings tells some gruesome stories !! Virtually all of these are perfect examples of cruel and unjust punishment !! They took a wicked mind to come up with for certain !!!
What I always wondering is who came up with this ideas, and what kind of person volunteers to do this to other people?
Oh, no! I did not know where the sawing thing was going
Also stretching people out on a special table, pulling people apart by two or four horses… Yikes!
Just love this shit! Thanks.
Fascinating and informative
Nice
Somebody had a lot of fun editing this 🤣
Sadism aside, you have to wonder what they thought they were getting out of such elaborate cruelty. The death penalty then was as ineffective a deterrent as it is these days.
1) the powers were sadistic 2) show to others not to challenge their power. - it’s wild / evil
because they didnt have “police” or jails (the kinds u think of right now) so crime was extremely high and when they did catch someone which was very rare, they had to punish them in a cruel way to still somehow make a point and deter people from committing crimes
@@sp3ctr0ph0bia There are a couple of assumptions there. Was crime 'extremely high'? Was it extremely rare for offenders to be caught? The more extreme punishments were reserved for heresy and political actions, maybe deterrent effect minimal for such non-crimes
Lead poisoning has a lot to do with it. It made you more irritable, neurotic, and such. Especially amongst the rich. Pottery at the time was glazed with lead, and only the wealthy could afford such pottery. I do not know if they kept track of how effective a deterrent the death penalty was. Torture was considered a valid means of extracting information then as well.
@@claytonberg721 I'm pretty sure the lead pipes theory was debunked, people have always been evil, no lead needed.
Yep, pretty gruesome.
This channel is so fun🤗
i've always seen the 'horse' torture in medieval scenes. weird how you say it wasn't but it could have been?
These days they just force you to listen to radio 1.
Thats why as Marines, we rush the target. Dont wanna be captured. Brutal......
Don't mind me taking detailed notes
Will the next part be "The Worst Antique-era Torture Techniques Explained By Historian"?
edit. Would be interesting to her expert opinion on scaphism, rarely talked about execution method.
Hey, you're the first video I've seen who actually mentioned Sir John tiptoft! Didn't he get executed by his own side?
In the new Shogun series on Hulu there’s a scene where a European sailor is boiled alive, and it’s absolutely harrowing. Before he dies he’s basically melted like an old candle.
Yes I saw this too was particularly awful
Gadfly here 😖. Disemboweling! Modern day surgery : exploratory laparotomy. Same insistion
i knew it, he mentioned the cook
most of these acts of cruelty was done by someone wanting to keep their power or gain land
Joe: *dies after this video*
Joe in heaven: I am in paradise
all i'll say is if i were given the job of torturer / interrogator - i'd find an excellent neurologist and focus primarily if not entirely on every nerve as possible
starting with the smallest and working the amount of pain upwards. but that's a variable. some people have more pain tolerance from dead nerves in
areas while others are extremely sensitive to that same nerve and others are in the middle or 'normal' cuz they can still feel it but its more of a mild pain.
either way, it wouldn't be quick... that and i've always liked the way achilles said to hector "you will walk the underworld blind, dumb and deaf; the fool
who thought he could kill achilles" - at least from the movie. wasn't big on that part of "mythology" which i hate people saying ancient religions that some
are still practiced today are just "mythologies" while other religions that are FAR MORE CULTLIKE and scamming people (scientology massive pyramid
scheme and blackmail scam + tax exemption as its a sci-fi religion!) anyways. i don't think the modern human knows the true Creator nor their name.
or anything about humanity. as its been lost several times over. in my eyes this spec of dust is a prison.
I've never heard of disembowelment being part of being drawn, hung and quartered.
Really.. that's crazy because it's the main terrifyingly part of the punishment.
i paused at the moment he said boiling is another way, before i continue to play, i did see this on a history channel on tv, it was to do the the bishop and poisining in which Henry viii's cook got punished by boiling, when i click play, i guaranty that he will mention the kings chef