Portraiture of Henry VIII by the workshop of Hans Holbein the Younger
Following the death of Henry VIII in 1547, his possessions were inventoried. The collection, now kept in The British Library, consists of over ten thousand items, grand in the style befitting a king, and some extraordinary and bombastic, in the style of King Henry VIII.
Mental Floss compiled a list of some of the more bizarre items owned by King Henry VIII.
One such item they describe as follows:
"3. A SCAVENGER’S DAUGHTER The “scavenger’s daughter” was a gruesome and brutal instrument of torture invented sometime during Henry VIII’s reign by Sir Leonard Skevington, the Lieutenant of the Tower of London. The device consisted of an A-shaped iron brace, inside of which a victim would be made to sit in a crouched position, with their head almost touching their knees, and their wrists, ankles, and neck shackled in place. An iron bar passed through the top of the A-frame would then be tightened like a vice, crushing the victim with excruciating force—apparently, until the eyes, nose, and even ears began to bleed. The “scavenger’s daughter” was intended to be an alternative to the rack, which stretched its victims rather than compacting them, but unlike the rack, it mercifully seems to have only been used occasionally."
Mercifully, indeed. See the list linked above for more of the king's possessions.