Preview

Medieval Torture Paper

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1984 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Medieval Torture Paper
People have these romantic notions that the medieval time period was full of knights in shining armor and fairytale princesses, when in all reality, the medieval time period was a bloodthirsty and violent time period. Government and religious officials used sadistic torture to punish suspects and obtain confessions. Torture is the deliberate and cruel infliction of mental and physical suffering to obtain information or for any other reason. ”The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear” ( Lovecraft). The tools and devices used brought extreme pain to the victim. This cruel infliction of mental and physical suffering was said to be done in the name of crime and its deserved punishment. It was also done as a means to intimidate a suspect or for revenge. The laws of this time period did not have any fixed rules for the treatment of prisoners or suspects. The different types of torture were used depending on the victim’s crime and social status. The government turned its back on these practices, which lead to the creation of gory torture chambers because of the misuse of freedom. In bigger cities like London, crime was more harshly enforced. A skilled torturer used instruments, methods and devices to prolong life as long as they could, while inflicting the most pain before they executed the victim. Many castles had torture chambers in the dungeon or in the tallest tower, where they can torture many victims at once. Medieval tortures had two types of devices. Devices they used to torture victims and devices they used to execute victims. Torture chambers of the medieval time period are designed to scare the victims. These chambers are built underground or in the tallest tower of the castle. When the victim enters the chamber, there awaits the torturer wearing a black hood with their face covered. The entrance of these chambers were accessed through winding passages, which served the function of muffling the screams of the victims throughout the rest of the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Throughout the centuries, both the system and the concept of prison have undergone many radical changes that eventually led to the formation of the prison as we know it now. In the 16th and 17th centuries, prison tended to be a place where criminals were kept in it while awaiting their punishment. It was a place, where criminals were held, rather than a means of punishment. In fact, criminals, at that time, were publically punished, rather than imprisoned, in the most torturous ways such as whipping, and slaughtering. However, in the 18th century, people in charge decided to put an end to these cruel methods of punishing. They came up with new methods of punishing instead of using torture in punishing criminals. In fact, the incarceration with hard labor was the new method of punishing criminals. Thus, the prison itself became a tool of punishment.…

    • 625 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    This source shows what medieval torture devices were made of and what their uses were. It also shows us the technology in which they had, for the medieval people this device was quite advanced as they had not yet discovered advanced technology. This torture device was a large untreated wooden chair with spikes covering the back of the chair, the armrests, the seat, leg rests and the foot-rests. This device was used to get someone to confess something. they would start a family member of the person to the chair and only when the person confesses to what they have done will the family member be let off the chair. If the person would not confess the family member could be strapped to the chair for hours onto of hours until they slow pass from loss of blood. This chair helps historians get an insight on how the Medieval Courts would get people to confess what they have done. It also teaches the historians what type of ruthless torture devices were made to make people reveal a secret.The Torture Chair is a cruel torture device in which gives historians an insight into the…

    • 1591 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Elizabethan England and Elizabethan Crime and Punishment - not a happy subject. Violent times. Crimes were met with violent, cruel punishments. Many punishments and executions were witnessed by many hundreds of people. The Lower Classes treated such events as exciting days out. Even royalty were subjected to this most public form of punishment for their crimes. The execution of the tragic Anne Boleyn was restricted to the Upper Classes and Nobility and was witnessed by several hundred spectators!…

    • 1199 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Like all of its kind, the Spanish Inquisition did involve torture and executions. However, contrary to the many rumors about it, the torture was not done by monks and priests, but rather by the official torturers of the state. Although the Inquisitors, who were often churchmen did hold the trials of these men, and give out the punishments for those who would confess to having been heretics or other such sins, they would not torture or perform the executions. The punishments given out by the torturers were not often and light as Diane Moczar asserts by saying: “torture was in fact rarely used, and even when it was,…

    • 752 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dark Ages Research Paper

    • 452 Words
    • 2 Pages

    * Vikings robbed Peasants and small towns. Early scholars gave the name "Dark Ages" to the period in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. During this period, barbarian Goths, Vandals, and Huns swept down on Europe from the north and east. They destroyed many fine buildings and works of art that had existed during Roman times. During the Dark Ages, knowledge survived only in monasteries, and there were very few schools. Many of the old arts and crafts were lost. This is why the time was called the "Dark Ages." the eastern Roman Empire was not conquered by the barbarians. There, the arts still flourished. People were still thinking and making fine works of art in other parts of the world. In China and India, great civilizations grew and spread. In the 1000s, Europe began to slowly recover from its artistic darkness. The lost knowledge of the ancient Greeks and Romans was found again. There was a new interest in learning, and the richer life of the Middle…

    • 452 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Elizabethan Government

    • 803 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Crime and punishment was dealt with harshly in the Elizabethan era. The Queen administered death sentences for high treason. "The most important courts were probably the Great Session (or Assizes), held twice a year in each county, and the Quarter Sessions Court, held four times a year (Thomas)." People were tortured for important information (Mahabal).…

    • 803 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Doctors In The Holocaust

    • 1795 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Some of them might be considered more inhumane than others, but they were all painful and cruel. Some were performed for specific reasons, and others were only performed to make their victims suffer.…

    • 1795 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dark Ages Research Paper

    • 1203 Words
    • 5 Pages

    To begin with, the Dark Ages in Europe, Asia, and Africa was an era that was later named by scholars. It was a period of religious struggle where the Orthodox Christians strived to recreate a pure Christianity, without the “dark” Catholic ways even though the Catholics did not view this era as “dark” ("The Dark Ages"). The Catholics viewed this period as amiable and a productive religious era ("The Dark Ages"). This was also the time when the Muslims started their many conquests ("The Dark Ages"). Muslims reigned until the Crusades, and the issue between Christianity and Islam remains even to this day ("The Dark Ages"). European, Asian, and African cultures had been greatly…

    • 1203 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Annotated bibliography

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Bibliography: Jacobs, W. (2011). Point: Using Torture May Be Justified In Extreme Cases. Points Of View: Torture, 2.…

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The earliest origins of imprisonment was the use of holding defendants prior to trial and dates back to the 9th century. This early form of incarceration was not designed as a form of punishment, rather it was reserved for individuals unable to provide surety for loans or behaviour. The majority of these individuals were held within country gaols, although there were some purpose built gaols such as Tower and Fleet (McLaughlin et al, 2001, p.159).The stocks, flogging, mutilation and execution were all commonplace public spectacles used frequently when dealing with criminals. It was not until the mid 16th century that methods of punishment began to change.…

    • 1244 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tragedy In Torture

    • 1125 Words
    • 5 Pages

    'torture' means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected…

    • 1125 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    This is what the Jews had to endure for over a decade during the Holocaust. There were several tortures in the concentration camps. One was the actual train ride to get to the camps. The victims were shoved onto a train and crammed until no more would fit and if there were any left they would be shot. The long hours of standing and no food or water took its toll on the victims and some died in the actual train. The doctors would also perform various medical experiments on the people imprison there. There was also a movement in the hospitals where doctors were encouraged to kill off any people with a mental or physical disability. In the women camps the prisoners were raped or sometimes the aesthetically pleasing Jews were kept in cages as some kind of sick pet. Sometimes they were bound by their hands or their feet and tortured and otherwise cruel and unusual punishment. The death marches were also a very intense style of punishment and selection. The SS soldiers and guards marched the prisoners to another camp or place. They were shot if they fell or lagged behind. Hence the fact that most of these tortures often ended in murders if just more proof that the Nazis had several murderous…

    • 1239 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Salem witch trials were a very gruesome part of America’s history. The punishments they used to determine whether the person was a witch or nit was inhuman. Basically, these people had two choices. They either would get tortured and confess and be killed or not confess but still die from the torture being brought upon them. The Salem witch trials impacted history in its own way. Torture throughout history can be read and understood, however, it is a different kind of punishment that takes place within these particular trials.…

    • 405 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Procedures for this would vary from starvation, strappado, the rack, to numerous others. All were unequivocally painful and cruel to the human body and mind. Occasionally, people would merely be forced to watch others getting tortured, which would often result in a quick confession, as it psychologically damages his/her mind and inserts extreme fear into them. If by any chance the victim refused to admit their crime throughout every session, they would either be imprisoned for life or executed as punishment, regardless of any previous diabolical acts performed. As aforementioned, torture was merely applied for extracting one’s acknowledgment of heresy, however a plethora of citizens suffered immensely due to religious beliefs, unfair trials, punishment, and the…

    • 719 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Women's Prison System

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Various forms of punishments exercised during the 1700s were mutilation of all or some body parts, whippings, branding, and torture. Some people could be cast out or exiled from their neighborhood or country. The most serious crimes resulted in capital punishment. In addition, forced labor and the equivalent of prostitution was a common kind of punishment enforced on females. “Attitudes toward crime and punishment historically have been informed by prevailing ideas about class, gender, race, and nation” (“Crime and Punishment, Changing Attitude Toward, 2008). Most crimes during these times were non-violent. Activities that would be considered criminal…

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics