Why Most So-Called “Medieval Torture Devices” Are Fake

We’ve all heard of so-called “medieval torture devices.” You can find tons of clickbait-y articles online and videos on YouTube and so forth talking about the most gruesome of these alleged devices. For instance, here is a YouTube video from BuzzFeed titled “5 Of The Most Gruesome Medieval Torture Devices.” It lists the “scold’s bridle,” the “rack,” the “iron maiden,” the “pear of anguish,” and the “brazen bull.”

Unfortunately for those who love reading about gruesome torture devices, most of the so-called “medieval torture devices” you hear about never existed at all during the Middle Ages. In fact, of the five devices listed in the aforementioned video, only the rack actually existed during the Middle Ages and, even then, it seems to have been rarely ever used.

Many alleged “medieval torture devices” were actually made up by hoaxers, showmen, and con artists in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. These hoaxers would display these phony instruments of torture for commercial gain, telling people they were real medieval torture devices and charging people to see them.

Other supposed “medieval torture devices” were made up more recently. For instance, the notorious “Spanish tickler” (not mentioned in the video linked above) was only made up in 2005 as a hoax article on Wikipedia. Meanwhile, other supposed “medieval torture devices” are real torture devices, but they didn’t exist during the Middle Ages. Let’s go through in alphabetical order and debunk supposed medieval torture devices one-by-one.

The “brazen bull”

For some reason, the brazen bull always seems to get mentioned on lists of “medieval torture devices,” even though it is not medieval in any sense at all; the stories about its use do not come from the Middle Ages, nor do we have any reason to think that any such device existed during the Middle Ages. In reality, the brazen bull is actually a legendary ancient Greek device that was allegedly used for torture and execution. (I say “allegedly” because, as I shall get to in a moment, the very existence of this device is very much in doubt.)

According to legend, the brazen bull was created by the inventor Perillos of Athens as a gift for Phalaris, the tyrant of Akragas, who ruled from c. 570 to c. 554 BC. The legends say it was a massive, hollow bronze bull with a door in the side. A person could supposedly be put inside the bull and a fire kindled underneath. The metal would then be heated until the person inside was roasted to death.

Supposedly, the person’s screams would be funneled through an acoustic apparatus to make it sound like the bull was bellowing. According to the legends, the first person to be roasted inside the bull was its creator, Perillos of Athens.

There is no physical evidence for the existence of a brazen bull. The first mention of the brazen bull comes from the Greek lyric poet Pindaros of Thebes (lived c. 518 – c. 438 BC) in his First Pythian Ode. Pindaros writes, as translated by Diane Arnson Svarlien:

“…but Phalaris, with his pitiless mind, who burned his victims in a bronze bull, is surrounded on all sides by a hateful reputation; lyres that resound beneath the roof do not welcome him as a theme in gentle partnership with the voices of boys.”

Pindaros was not even born until about a generation after Phalaris’s death and we have no evidence to indicate that he had never seen the brazen bull himself, so his testimony is only rumor. Furthermore, the very first full-length, detailed description of the legend of the brazen bull comes from even later—from the Greek historian Diodoros Sikeliotes (lived c. 90 – c. 30 BC) in his book Universal History.

It is therefore highly doubtful that the brazen bull ever existed at all. Furthermore, even if it did exist, we have no evidence to suggest that any form of the brazen bull ever existed during the Middle Ages. This one is therefore doubly debunked, since it not only probably did not exist, but is not even said to have existed during the Middle Ages according to the legend either.

ABOVE: Engraving by the French artist Pierre Woeiriot from before 1562 depicting Perillos of Athens being executed in the brazen bull he himself designed

The “iron maiden”

We have all heard of the notorious “iron maiden,” an iron cabinet large enough to fit a person in with spikes on the inside that kill anyone placed inside. It is one of the most famous supposed medieval torture devices. It is so famous that there is even an English heavy metal band called “Iron Maiden.” (You know a torture device has to be famous when there’s a band named after it.)

Unfortunately for all the iron maiden fans out there, there is no evidence that iron maidens existed prior to the nineteenth century and there is no evidence that any iron maiden has ever been used as a real torture device. The whole story of the iron maiden is nothing but a massive hoax that started out in the late eighteenth century and continues to this day.

The earliest known record of a supposed iron maiden comes from a guidebook to the city of Nuremberg written by the German philosopher Johann Philipp Siebenkees (lived 1759 – 1796), who claimed that the iron maiden had first been used in 1515 to execute a coin forger. Siebenkees’s account is now known to have been fraudulent, but, as early as 1802, a hoax iron maiden was displayed in the city of Nuremberg. The Nuremberg iron maiden was destroyed during World War II, but, by the time of its destruction, historians had already ascertained it was a fake.

Other phony “iron maidens” were created in the early nineteenth century by showmen and con artists looking to shock and horrify the public for (commercial) profit. They made fake “iron maidens” and displayed them, charging money for people to see them and telling everyone they were real medieval torture devices. An alleged iron maiden was even displayed at the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1893. Not a single surviving iron maiden can be dated any earlier than the early 1800s.

ABOVE: Photograph of a supposed iron maiden from the Lubuska Land Museum in Zielona Góra, Poland

While the iron maiden itself may be fake, though, there is a vaguely similar torture device mentioned by the early Christian apologist Tertullian (lived c. 155 – c. 240 AD) in his letter “To the Martyrs” and by the theologian Augustine of Hippo (lived 354 – 430 AD) in his apologetic work The City of God. According to Tertullian and Augustine, in around 250 BC, the Roman general Marcus Atilius Regulus was captured and tortured by the Carthaginians.

According to Tertullian and Augustine, one of the ways the Carthaginians tortured Regulus was by putting him in a wooden box with nails poking through the sides, forcing him to stand upright. The crucial difference between this device and the iron maiden, though, is that the device described by the ancient writers was not designed to kill anyone, but rather only force them to stand upright for prolonged periods of time.

Of course, the device described by Tertullian and Augustine probably never existed either, since both of these writers were writing centuries after the events they were describing allegedly took place and earlier historians of the period mention nothing about the box with nails.

ABOVE: Illustration by the Austrian artist Vinzenz Katzler from 1868 depicting a man being forced into an iron maiden

“Pear of anguish”

You may have also heard of the “pear of anguish,” which is a kind of metal device with metal leaves that can be expanded by turning a screw. Supposedly, medieval torturers would shove the device down the victim’s throat, vagina, or anus and slowly turn the screw at the end to cause the leaves to expand, leaving the victim in unbearable pain.

Guess what? That one’s totally made up too. Although there are a number of examples of supposed “pears of anguish” displayed in museums, there is no reliable record of any such device having ever at any point been used as a real instrument of torture.

The earliest reports of such a device come from the late eighteenth century, long after the end of the Middle Ages, when it was supposedly used by a criminal in Paris. We have no contemporary, first-hand accounts of this device being used as an implement of torture, though.

Another reason why we are pretty sure the “pear of anguish” was probably never really used to cause someone anguish is because, realistically speaking, it would probably be impossible to use one of these devices in the way they are said to have been used.

The putative surviving examples of the device are all probably too mechanically weak for any of them to have realistically been opened inside a bodily orifice. Furthermore, the way the screw is designed would most likely prevent the device from being opened inside anything at all.

ABOVE: Photograph of a so-called “pear of anguish” from the Museum der Festung in Salzburg, Austria

ABOVE: Photograph of another supposed pear of anguish from the Lubuska Land Museum in Zielona Góra, Poland

The “scold’s bridle”

The “scold’s bridle” is an instrument of punishment in the form of an iron muzzle that enclosed the head with a bridle bit that inserted in the mouth, either to compress the wearer’s tongue or press it up against the palate to prevent the wearer from speaking.

In addition to preventing the wearer from speaking, the bridle could also be painful or unpleasant to wear because it induced excess salivation and caused fatigue in the mouth. The bridle was also a form of public humiliation, because it was very visible and wearing such a bridle was regarded as shameful.

Unlike the other two torture devices I have just mentioned, the “scold’s bridle” really existed and it really was used as a torture device—but not during the Middle Ages. The earliest recorded mention of the scold’s bridle comes from Scotland in 1567, which is about a hundred years after the end of the Middle Ages. The scold’s bridle seems to have been mainly used to punish women who were perceived as gossipy or excessively talkative.

The scold’s bridle continued to be used as a torture device and as a form of public humiliation in some parts of England and Scotland until as late as the nineteenth century. The scold’s bridle, then, is a modern torture device, not a medieval one.

ABOVE: Image of an eighteenth-century “scold’s bridle” from Scotland

ABOVE: Fictitious lithograph illustration from 1885 imagining a woman wearing a scold’s bridle in Puritan New England

The “Spanish tickler”

This one isn’t mentioned in the BuzzFeed video I linked at the beginning of this article, but you can find all sorts of articles online about it. It is a supposed medieval torture device known as the “Spanish tickler” or “cat’s paw.” It is supposedly a claw-shaped metal instrument that functioned as an extension of the torturer’s hand and was used to tear away the victim’s naked flesh.

Guess what? The Spanish tickler doesn’t exist. It was not even made up in the nineteenth century, but rather within my lifetime. The so-called “Spanish tickler” was totally made up on 15 December 2005 by a Wikipedia editor with the username “Andyok,” who created a hoax article on Wikipedia titled “Spanish tickler.” The original version of the hoax Wikipedia article reads as follows:

“The Spanish Tickler (or Cat’s Paw) was oftentimes attached to a handle; in size and appearance it was an extension of the torturer’s hand. In this way it was used to rip and tear flesh away from the bone, from any part of the body.”

Over the past fourteen years since the Spanish tickler was made up, it has metastasized across the internet and into popular culture. There is a Coloring Book of Torture, with the “Spanish tickler” in it:

ABOVE: Image of the so-called “Spanish tickler” from the Coloring Book of Torture

You can even buy an iPad case with the Spanish tickler on it for $45:

All this just because someone created a hoax about a fake medieval torture device on Wikipedia in 2005!

The hoax article about the so-called “Spanish tickler” was ultimately discovered by responsible Wikipedia editors on 2 March 2018 and has now been deleted. There is, however, an archived version of the hoax article online that you can read. Here is a link to the archived version.

Conclusion

Torture did indeed exist during the Middle Ages, but it was not nearly as common as many people today assume it to have been. Furthermore, people during the Middle Ages did not really have most of the bizarre and horrifying devices that have become so emblematic of medieval torture in the modern imagination.

For your convenience, here is a table I made summarizing the findings of the article above: