Ten Of The Most Gruesome Medieval Torture Techniques

Medieval torture techniques are some of the most brutal of all time, and whether they were encouraging a prisoner to talk, punishing a sinner, or simply carrying out a death sentence Medieval torturers were encouraged to perfect their deadly craft.

Part of that perfection of their deadly art involved designing and building devices such as the Judas Cradle, Pear Of Anguish and Iron Chair (pictured above), devices that could only be used as torture devices.

The Judas Cradle, one of the simplest of all torture devices, forced the victim to sit atop a pyramid shaped "seat" that resulted in orifice expansion and intense pressure.

The Pear Of Anguish was also an orifice based device, used to torture homosexuals, blasphemers, and  "women accused of facilitating a miscarriage"- it was usually inserted and expanded to mutilate and wound internally.

But in the end the Iron Chair was one of the most iconic and widely used torture devices in Medieval history, and one of the most feared.

Even though it was just a chair covered in spikes it was used for long term torture, as restraints were tightened over time and the spikes sank deeper into the skin...

Read The 10 Most Gruesome Torture Techniques From Medieval Europe at io9