The Most Br*tal Methods of Exec*tion in History
Throughout history, executions have been used to enforce the power of the monarchy or a ruler. There were a huge variety of dark and disturbing ways in which a condemned person would be executed. From a hanging, drawing, and quartering brutal ordeals of the medieval and Tudor period in England to the guillotine in France, which came down on the necks of thousands with ruthless efficiency.
But which was the most brutal? Over the past few years, we’ve looked at a huge number of execution methods. Join us today as we look at these in detail.
Scaphism is an ancient Persian method of execution that was truly barbaric. What would happen is that the condemned would be placed into a boat, a small wooden vessel, and they would then be covered in milk, honey, and other things that insects and vermin, such as rats, would be attracted to.
Over time, these would slowly eat the person to death. What we know about the practice comes mostly from two accounts written throughout history that describe the punishment. One comes from Plutarch, a Greek philosopher who was a priest living around AD 100, and he documented what occurred during the sentence of scaphism. He stated,
“The king said that Mithridates should be put to death in boats, which execution is after the following. Taking two boats framed exactly to fit and answer each other, then lay down in one of them, then the person that suffers upon his back, covered with the other, and setting them together that the head, hands, and feet are left outside, and the rest of the body is secured within. They offer him food, and if he refuses, they force him to do it by pricking his eyes. After he has eaten, they cover him with a mix of milk and honey, pouring it into his mouth and all over his face. They then keep his face turned to the sun, and it becomes completely covered with the amount of flies that land on it. As within the boat, he does what those that eat and drink must do, referring to excretion and going to the toilet, meaning that the condemned would be lying in their own waste and filth. Vermin then spring out and eat the man, entering the bowels of him, and his body is eaten. When the man is dead, the upper boat is taken off, and swarms of creatures are growing in his insides.”
This particular person suffered for 17 days and then died. So, a person was placed into a boat, covered in milk and honey and other things that vermin are attracted to, then slowly, without being able to move, they would be eaten alive by flies and rats. Truly terrible. This punishment was used for centuries, and a Byzantine writer in the 12th century also described it. He cleared up what Plutarch meant, and also confirmed that this practice was used, with the victim being eaten alive by animals, unable to move and covered in their own excrement. The issue with scaphism is the ordeal that the person went through. When compared to other execution methods such as the guillotine, it was a slow and drawn-out process, intended to cause incredible suffering.
Seeing someone in this state would have had a strong deterrent effect. Let’s take the guillotine on the other hand, which was a device intended to take the heads of as many people in as quick a time. And as time went on, other execution methods were drawn up to be slightly more humane. For example, during hangings, the long drop method was used to immediately snap necks, not to endure suffering and inflict suffering for such a long time.
Execution itself is rather controversial, and it’s believed that scaphism was the worst method ever used throughout history, and it’s hard to disagree. Today, the Asian elephant is listed as an endangered animal, and its population is declining due to loss of habitat and poaching. But rather brutally, in and other countries in South and Eastern Asia, the creatures were used to administer justice brutally to criminals.
The Asian elephant was used to crush, dismember, and torture those who were captured in horrific public executions. Many of them had been trained to kill, and they were seen as versatile creatures, being able to kill people instantly or torture them. Bizarrely, they were used by royalty, and the elephant symbolized the ruler’s power and his ability to control animals considered wild and how he could use them to administer his will.
Elephants have been a symbol of royal power and still are in some places such as Thailand, and their power is often linked to total command. But to kill using a creature such as an elephant was seen as brutal and barbaric by those who would witness the proceedings. One account of an execution by elephant states,
“For treason and murder, the elephant is the executioner. The condemned person is made fast to a stake driven into the ground for the purpose, and the elephant is brought to view him and goes twice or thrice round him. When the elephant’s keeper speaks to the monstrous executioner, he twines his trunk round the person and stake, and pulling the stake from the ground with great violence tosses the man and the stake in the air, and in coming down receives him on his teeth, and making him off again puts one of his forefeet on the carcass and squeezes it flat.”
Another account from the 1800s states how a criminal is tied to a stake and the royal elephant runs down upon him and crushes him to death. Elephants were used as executioners in India for centuries, and this dates back to 200 BC. They were used to kill for a number of offenses including theft. In 1305, the Sultan of Delhi had his royal prisoners from the Mongols executed by crushing them to death with them.
It was said during the Mughal era that it was a common mode of execution to have an offender trampled under foot by an elephant, and that someone could be carried to the elephant garden to be executed by them. The use of elephants was linked to public execution, and many rulers used the creatures to great amusement.
They could be trained to crush a prisoner, or they could be trained to slice a prisoner with pointed blades fitted to their tusks. Another account of an execution using elephants states,
“Upon a certain day where I myself was present, some men were brought out who’d been accused of having attempted the life of the vizier.”
They were ordered accordingly to be thrown to the elephants, which had been taught to cut their victims to pieces. Their hoofs were cased with sharp iron instruments, and the extremities of these were like knives. On such occasions, the elephant driver rode upon them, and when a man was thrown to them, they would wrap the trunk around him and toss him up, then take him with the teeth and throw him before the forefeet upon the breast, and do just as the driver should bid them, and according to the orders of the emperor. If the order was to cut him to pieces, the elephant would do this with his irons, then throw the pieces amongst the assembled multitude. But if the order was to leave him, he would be left lying before the emperor until the skin should be taken off and stuffed with hay, and the flesh given to the dogs.
Another account states the man was a slave, and 2 days before he had murdered his master, brother to the native chieftain called Amir Sahib. About 11:00, the elephant was brought out with only the driver on his back, surrounded by natives with bamboo in their hands. The criminal was placed 3 yd behind on the ground, his legs tied by three ropes, which were fastened to a ring on the right hind leg of the animal.
At every step the elephant took, it jerked him forward, and every eight or 10 steps must have dislocated another limb, for they were loose and broken when the elephant had proceeded 500 yards. The man, though covered in mud, showed every sign of life and seemed to be in the most excruciating torment. After having been tortured in this manner for about an hour, he was taken to the outside of the town, when the elephant, which is instructed for such purposes, was backed and put his foot on the head of the criminal.
The use of elephants continued until the latter part of the 19th century in India, but the power of the British Empire ended the practice. It was used in other places, such as Sri Lanka, where it was said of one execution,
“The animal was mottled and of enormous size and was quietly standing there with his keeper seated upon his neck. The noble who accompanied us desired the man to dismount and stand on one side. The chief then gave the word of command, ordering the creature to slay the wretch. The elephant raised his trunk and twined it, as if around a human being. The creature then made motions as if he were depositing the man on the earth before him, then slowly raised his back foot, placing it alternatively upon the spots where the limbs of the sufferer would have been. This he continued to do for some minutes, then, as if satisfied that the bones must be crushed, the elephant raised his trunk high upon his head and stood motionless. The chief then ordered him to complete his work, and the creature immediately placed one foot as if upon the man’s abdomen and the other upon his head, apparently using his entire strength to crush and terminate the wretch’s misery.”
It was used in other continents, even, and was noted to have been used by the Romans at times, as they used war elephants. The practice was eventually ended by the European colonial powers that colonized regions, but seeing one of these executions would have been very traumatic. Images depict elephants trampling people to death and also using their tusks to slay people where they stood.
The execution by elephant has to be one of the most shocking and one of the most strangest execution methods used throughout history, turning a beautiful animal to become a disturbing killing machine. One of the earliest accounts of the method comes from the Roman Empire where it was used as a punishment for a group of women known as the Vestal Virgins who took strict vows of celibacy.
They devoted themselves to tending a fire honoring the goddess Vesta and if one of the women broke their vow of celibacy, they would be killed and buried inside of the city. This happened and an account of the offending women’s immurement alive states,
“When condemned by the College of Pontifices, she was stripped of her vittae and other badges of office, was scourged, attired like a corpse, placed in a closed litter, borne through the Forum attended by her weeping kindred with all the ceremonies of a real funeral to a rising ground called Campus Sceleratus.”
This was located just within the city walls and gate. A small vault underground had been previously prepared containing a couch, a lamp, and a table with little food. The Pontifex Maximus, having lifted up his hands to heaven and uttered a prayer, opened the litter, led forth the culprit, and placed her on the steps of the ladder which gave her access to the subterranean cell.
He delivered her over to the common executioner and his assistants who led her down, drew up the ladder, and having filled the pit up with earth until the surface was level with the surrounding ground, left her to perish deprived of all tributes of respect usually paid to the spirits of the departed. There were around 10 accounts of Vestal Virgins being immured for breaking their vows.
Immurement was also used during the Middle Ages and was used by the Roman Catholic Church who punished monks and nuns who broke their vows or challenged the teachings of the church. These were meant to not die within days but were instead intended to live long lives of isolation away from everyone refusing to have contact with the outside world.
They would only have a small amount of food dropped through small passages on a daily basis. This led to many different skeletal remains of people who were immured being found in the following centuries in countries such as England, Italy, Germany, and France. People were simply forced into small chambers and were then sealed in after these entrances were bricked up and so on.
For example, in the 1800s, a bridge in Bremen in Germany was demolished and found with the immured remains of a child inside of a fountain. Also, in a church in Lincolnshire, in England, the remains of an immured individual was found. Elizabeth Bathory, the Hungarian Countess, often compared with Vlad the Impaler, was immured herself in a number of rooms in 1610.
She had been sentenced to this for the death of a number of girls and some estimates place her number of victims in the hundreds. She died 4 years later after her immurement was sealed, dying of causes other than starvation as her rooms were often well supplied with food. There are many different accounts of immurement. One states,
“In the case of Jean, widow of B. de la Tour, a nun of Les Bénédictines, in 1246, who had committed acts of heresy, the sentence was confinement in a separate cell in her own convent where no one was to enter or see her, her food being pushed in through an opening left for the purpose.”
Another account states,
“At Lodi in 1662, Sister Antonia Margarita Limana stood trial for having introduced a man into her cell and entertained him for a few days. She was sentenced to be walled in alive on a diet of bread and water.”
It had been used in Asia as early as 2500 BC where a number of burials allude to immurement. However, in Persia, it was a tradition that it’s believed was even used very recently. An account from Persia states,
“Another sad sight to be seen in the desert sometimes are the brick pillars in which some unfortunate victim is walled up alive. The victim is put into a pillar which is half built in readiness. Then if the executioner is merciful, he will cement quickly up to his face and death comes speedily. But sometimes a small amount of air is allowed to permeate through the bricks and in this case the torture is cruel and the agony prolonged. Men bricked up in this way have been heard groaning and calling for water at the end of three days.”
It was used in other countries also. It was also used in Mongolia as recently as the early 1900s and in coffin form. One account says,
“The prisons and dungeons of the Far Eastern country contain a number of refined Chinese shut up for life in heavy iron-bound coffins which do not permit them to sit upright or lie down. These prisoners see daylight for only a few minutes daily when the food is thrown into their coffins through a small hole.”
Whether it was inside of a coffin or within a walled cell within castles or priories and buildings, immurement would have been incredibly tragic. It would have been very sad and brutal with the victim simply waiting for their own death and it was similar to an oubliette where someone was simply forgotten and left to die.
What is also sad is that examples of immurement can be found today inside some of the walls in some structures which means many of these stories have yet to be told. It was used all over the world, and immurement was incredibly disturbing. Blowing from a gun, it’s believed, emerged as an execution method in the 16th century, and it was even used during the 1900s.
It was believed that Portuguese explorer Francisco de Almeida executed a number of people in 1509 using the method, and other Portuguese explorers did the same. Francisco Barreto was accused at one time of blowing a number of prisoners to pieces in Mozambique. It was a barbaric practice in which someone was tied to the mouth of a cannon, which was then fired, usually resulting in someone’s body being completely destroyed.
One account of the practice says,
“The prisoner is generally tied to a gun with the upper part of the small of his back resting against the muzzle. When the gun is fired, his head is seen to go straight up in the air, some 40 or 50 ft. The arms fly off right and left, high up in the air, and fall at perhaps a distance of 100 yd. The legs drop to the ground beneath the muzzle of the gun, and the body’s literally blown away altogether, not a vestige being seen.”
As mentioned, it was most used and associated with the British, who went over to conquer places such as India, and it was used to execute rebels during rebellions, such as the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The British would execute sepoys who would desert and aid rebellion, and they used the old Mughal punishment of blowing from a cannon to punish others. In March 1764, native officers planned to get people to defect to an enemy force, and with this, one native officer was blown in front of a gun in front of his soldiers.
More examples continued as the decades rolled on, and in 1798, a mutiny amongst British soldiers broke out, and the British executed one of their own soldiers by blowing them from a cannon. This is the only example of a European being blown from a gun by the British. It was often used alongside other public punishments such as flogging and it had a profound effect on those who were summoned to watch the execution.
In 1806, the Vellore Mutiny began with a number of British soldiers and officers being killed in their sleep and reprisals resulted with six people being blown from a gun. Further plots were discovered and further execution using the method was ordered. But it was mostly used by the British to suppress the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
There were a huge number of executions ordered to put this down and deter people from rising up and accounts of the executions do exist. In a journal, it documented that on 8th of June, two sepoys from the 35th Light Infantry were blown from guns. 10th of June in Ludhiana, Peshawar, some 40 from the 54th Regiment were blown from guns.
On 13th of June, 10 sepoys from the 45th Regiment at Ferozepur were blown from guns. Two hanged. That same day, 10 sepoys from the 54th Regiment suffered the same fate. The 26th of the same month, one was blown from a gun, one hanged and three were shot. On the 8th of July, it’s assumed that a captured rebel would be blown away.
On the 19th, Aurangabad, one was blown away, two shot. On the 5th of September, Satara, six were blown away. On 17th of September, one was blown away, 121 were summarily executed. On the 23rd of September in Karachi, one was blown away. At the end of October, near Agra, one was blown away. On the 16th of November, two sepoys were blown away.
During the few months between May and September 1857, 523 people were executed by the British in India and 44 of them had been blown from a gun with the most common method of execution being a firing squad. There were also accounts of Indian rebels captured British civilians and officers and blew them from cannons during the rebellion, but this is disputed.
The British continued the brutal practice after the rebellion and in 1871 had executed 65 Sikhs by blowing them from guns. As mentioned, it had been used by the Mughals for a long time and it was used to punish certain crimes such as abduction and constant thievery. There were a number of things that often went wrong during the executions though.
For example, in one execution in 1857, it was ordered that blank cartridges should be used, but some cannons had been loaded with grapeshot. This led to a number of spectators and members of the public being hit by the grapeshot, which caused them to be hit with shrapnel and they had to have limbs amputated.
Also, some soldiers were knocked a significant distance backwards and the British soldiers were injured by flying pieces of bone and flesh. There was another incident where a soldier who was to be killed fell down just as the shot went off. This was recorded and an eyewitness stated,
“One wretched fellow slipped from the rope by which he was tied to the guns just before the explosion and his arm was nearly set on fire. Whilst hanging in agony under the gun, a sergeant applied a pistol to his head and three times a cap snapped, the man each time wincing from the expected shot. At last, a rifle was fired into the back of his head and the blood poured out of his nose and mouth like water from a briskly handled pump. This was the most horrible sight of all. I’ve seen death in all its forms, but never anything to equal this man’s end.”
As the condemned would be blown to bits, often birds of prey would circle above and would eat the pieces of flesh that were thrown into the air and also dogs would rush to the scene to devour the remains of a human who had been blown from a gun.
It was also used in Afghanistan for a while and was even used as late as the 1920s to destroy political opponents. During the 1880s, the Amir of Afghanistan was known for executing 5,000 people a year, and many of these were done using cannons. The method of execution was incredibly barbaric and terrible. It would result in someone being destroyed by a cannon fire. When comparing methods of execution, blowing from a gun has to be up there as one of the most dangerous and distressing to have witnessed. The British used it in India to send a clear message to any possible rebels or deserters to fall into line with their colonial rule.
A gibbet was usually a wooden structure in which a metal cage or body could be hung to, and the point of this was to display to everyone the dead criminal or dying criminal. It was also known as being hanged in chains. It was a common punishment used in England, and it was made more popular by the Murder Act 1751, which gave judges the power to use gibbeting as a sentence for murder.
But, it was also used for people who committed a wide variety of crimes, from sheep stealing to piracy and even treason. It was also used commonly for highwaymen, and the criminal’s rotting remains would be placed in a gibbet next to a public highway to deter other possible thieves. In the same manner, pirates were often hanged on a gibbet close to a low watermark or a tidal part of a river.
Their bodies would be left dangling until they’d been covered and submerged by the tide at least three times. Execution Dock can be found in London, and it was here where criminals’ bodies were hanged in chains along with other points along the River Thames. Often, ships would pass under the bodies of convicted pirates, and this would act as a stark reminder for potential pirates not to commit acts of piracy.
There were some complaints as some foreign visitors to England did not agree with the brutal display of the remains of an executed person. It was said also that the sight and smell of decaying corpses was bad for health and was linked to disease. The cage used in gibbeting wasn’t always used, but it was used to keep the condemned person in a human way.
It was said of the cage during a gibbeting that the body was encased in flat bars of iron of 2 and 1/2 inches in breadth. The feet were placed in stirrups from which a bar of iron went up each side of the head and ended in a ring by which he was suspended. A bar from the collar went down the breast and another down the back. There were also bars in the insides of the legs which communicated with the above and crossbars at the ankles, the knees, the thighs, the bowels, the breast, and the shoulders. The hands were hung by the side and covered with pitch. The face was pitched and covered with a piece of white cloth. Gibbeting mostly meant the display of human remains.
So, the display of someone’s head during the Tudor period or later on London Bridge would be linked to the practice. But, it was used in many different countries, too. In Germany, a Jewish financier, Joseph Süß Oppenheimer, was gibbeted in a human-sized birdcage that hung outside of Stuttgart. Hitler would later use this story to attempt to turn the German public against the Jews in his propaganda.
Sometimes the bodies would also be covered in tar or bound in chains as this would prolong the decay of a criminal. For example, a murderer John Breds in East Sussex was hanged and then gibbeted for more than 20 years inside of an iron cage. The image of passing under the remains of a decaying corpse would be a strong one for many people living inside towns and cities.
In Australia, 5 years after gibbeting ended in England, the body of a murderer John McKay was gibbeted near to a spot where he murdered his victim in Tasmania. This caused great upset and the body was not removed until a friend of the victim asked the authorities to take it down as he was disgusted with the images of McKay’s corpse rotting in the air.
As mentioned, some criminals in some cases were gibbeted alive. This was where they were locked in a cage and then hoisted in the air with no way out on display. This was intended to cause a criminal to die slowly from starvation and exposure. As someone would walk past the criminal in the cage each day, they would notice them slowly losing weight and slowly succumbing to a painful death with the passing public mocking them each day.
It was mostly always men who were gibbeted as female corpses at the time were in high demand from scientists and surgeons for dissection and science. But for many people in the crowd, they would be happy to see gibbeting. Despite opposition from some, it was a popular way of seeing that justice was administered.
But imagine living close to a gibbet. The flies would be feasting on the rotting remains of a criminal and it would smell horrific. And many people were forced to keep their windows shut because of this. Sometimes decay would take years and bones would eventually fall through the cages once flesh had been picked out by the birds. Efforts were made to make sure that people did not take criminals out of the gibbets even once dead.
And one pole was even studded with 12,000 nails to keep people from touching it. The cages were made by blacksmiths and were expensive to create and would be used more than once for different criminals. The last gibbeting in England was the case of James Cook who was a bookbinder who murdered another man in Leicester. He was executed on the 10th of August, 1832 in front of Leicester prison.
And then following this, it was said the head was shaved and tarred to preserve it from the action of the weather and the cap in which he had suffered was drawn over his face. On Saturday afternoon, his body, attired as at the time of his execution, having been firmly fixed in the irons necessary to keep the limbs together, was carried to the place of its intended suspension.
Cook’s body was then placed on a specially built 10-m high gallows near to a toll gate in Leicester, and it was said of his gibbeting,
“Thousands of people were attracted to the spot to view this novel but most barbarous exhibition, and considerable annoyance was felt by the person residents in the neighborhood of the dreadful scene. Representations were in consequence made to the authorities, and on the following Tuesday morning, instructions were received from the Home Office directing the removal of the gibbet.”
The practice of gibbeting was one of the most brutal and shocking execution methods in history, which involved the public display of the remains of a criminal. It was meant to act as a very severe reminder that justice had been administered with the execution of a serious offender. It did attract criticism, but was used for centuries, and was probably seen as an effective way of deterring someone from committing crimes such as murder. If you had to pass under the gibbet every day, you would certainly remember it.
Keelhauling, also known as keelhauling in Dutch, was a form of punishment, torture, and execution enacted upon sailors who were at sea. If a sailor committed an offense on board a ship, then they would be tied to a line which was then looped underneath the ship that they were sailing on. The prisoner would then be thrown overboard over one side of the ship, and would be dragged underneath the ship’s keel from one side to another.
This would be very painful and very dangerous, and would often result in the person suffering very serious injuries and psychological pain. The first thing they would think is that they were drowning, and this often happened if the victim was dragged slowly and if they did not emerge out of the sea quickly. They were often pulled out of the water dead, having succumbed to the ocean.
Also, underneath the bottom of the ship were barnacles and other pieces of marine growth and life, such as shells. And when a victim was keelhauling, they would often smash against the hull of the boat, and this would lead to the barnacles stabbing them in their back, causing many different wounds on their body.
As the ship was at sea, there would be no immediate medical attention available, and these wounds would often get infected and would also lead to slow death. Victims would smash their heads against the ship’s hull or keel if the ship was moving, which could knock them unconscious and also then result in their drowning.
It’s believed that keelhauling was mostly used by pirates and on board pirate vessels, and the first known recording of this practice comes from the Greeks, who used it to punish those found guilty of piracy around 700 BC. But during the 17th century, many English writers wrote of the practice being used on English naval ships.
Because of how brutal keelhauling was, there were no records of it being carried out inside of ships’ logs and records from the 1600s, and some historians doubt that it did ever occur in Britain or on board British ships. There was an account in Britain of keelhauling on HMS Alexandria, which was debated in Parliament in 1880.
However, in Europe, in the Netherlands, it was used as recorded punishment inside of the Dutch navy. One painting named The Keelhauling of the Ship’s Surgeon of Admiral Jan van Nes shows a huge crowd gathered to watch the practice being performed on a surgeon. It was used as an intimidating form of show punishment with the purpose of causing great fear to other sailors and possible offenders.
An account of keelhauling states that keelhauling, a punishment inflicted for various offenses in the Dutch navy, it is performed by plunging the delinquent repeatedly under the ship’s bottom on one side and hoisting him up the other after having passed under the keel. The blocks or pulleys by which he is suspended are fastened to the opposite extremities of the main yard and a weight of lead or iron is hung upon his legs to sink him to a competent death.
By this apparatus, he is drawn close up to the yardarm and thence let fall suddenly into the sea, where passing under the ship’s bottom, he is hoisted up onto the opposite side of the vessel. As this extraordinary sentence is executed with a serenity of temper peculiar to the Dutch, the culprit is allowed sufficient intervals to recover the sense of pain, of which indeed he is frequently deprived during the operation.
In truth, a temporary insensibility to his sufferings ought by no means to be construed into a disrespect of his judges when we consider that this punishment is supposed to have peculiar propriety in the depth of winter whilst the flakes of ice are floating on the stream and that it is continued till the culprit is almost suffocated for want of air, benumbed with the cold of water or stunned with the blows his head received by striking the ship’s bottom.
It’s believed that keelhauling was an evolution of the medieval punishment of ducking, which was where an accused criminal would be submerged in water from a ducking stool or chair. Many women were accused of witchcraft and were subsequently ducked and actually died from being drowned by the practice. Keelhauling was a brutal and barbaric method of punishment and execution, which was used by navies and sailors to punish unruly his on board a ship and also pirates.
There were other methods of execution used to punish pirates, such as gibbeting, in which their remains were displayed on the shores of a prominent dock, but keelhauling was rare in the fact it used a ship as the executioner’s axe. To be hanged, drawn, and quartered was a very serious punishment, and possibly one of the most brutal administered in history.
The punishment was seen as adequate justice for the attack on the authority of the English monarchy, and for this, the most extreme form of punishment was used. Treason as a crime had a rather wide meaning for the kings and queens who felt threatened during the medieval, Tudor, and following eras. Henry VIII, for example, believed that simply predicting the death of a monarch was enough for someone to be condemned for this, and he had Elizabeth Barton, a woman who did this, executed for treason.
But there were accounts during the Elizabethan period of a number of treasonous plots against the Tudor queen, and because of this, scores of men were executed being hanged, drawn, and quartered following the plans to put Mary Queen of Scots on the throne in schemes such as the Babington Plot. Hanging, drawing, and quartering, in its simplest form, was an execution method that used a number of different stages aimed to inflict great pain and suffering, but also aimed to shock the public.
The point of this was to get the public to fall into line, and if they saw a brutal execution, they would be less likely to commit crimes such as treason because of it. The first part was the drawing, in which a prisoner would be collected from their place of incarceration, and then attached using a hurdle or a wooden frame.
They would be tied to this, and then would be attached to the back of a horse who would draw them through the streets. Sometimes the prisoner would not be tied to the wooden frame, and their head would bash against the cobbled streets. They could also slip from the frame, and this would cause pain. They were paraded throughout the streets, where the public would often throw things and shout obscenities their way, before they were taken to a place of execution.
They would be then handed over to an executioner, would be hanged from a gallows or a wooden frame until they were almost dead. If someone passed out, they would be revived, and some executionists to inflict more suffering would then hang them again. After this, the person was disemboweled and emasculated, with their entrails pulled out, and then burned in front of them on a fire.
Obviously, this could easily kill, but often condemned individuals were forced to watch their parts being burned in front of them. They were then beheaded using an axe, and their body was cut into four pieces, with these being sent to different places in the country to be displayed to act as a gory reminder of the people to behave themselves.
Heads were also displayed in prominent places such as London Bridge after the execution. During the 13th and 14th century in England, those who were found guilty of treason were punished in many different ways, including drawing and hanging, but also more brutal ways such as beheading, disemboweling, and even burning were used.
It was said in the 13th century that a man who plotted and attempted to kill King Henry III was dragged asunder, then beheaded, and his body divided into three parts. Each part was then dragged through one of the principal cities of England, and afterwards hung on a gibbet used for robbers. The first recorded examples of hanging, drawing, and quartering were used during the reign of Edward I.
Dafydd ap Gruffydd turned against Edward I and declared himself the Prince of Wales, and for this he was captured and then sentenced to what we would regard as high treason. Because of this, Dafydd was drawn through the streets of Shrewsbury, near to the Welsh Marches, where he was then executed. He was dragged attached to a horse’s tail then hanged alive before being revived and then disemboweled, eviscerated, and he was forced to watch his entrails being burned in front of him for sacrilege in committing his crimes in the week of Easter.
After this, his body was cut into quarters for plotting to kill the king, and his remains were sent to different parts of England to be displayed as a gory reminder to the people to fall into line. His right arm was sent to York, left arm sent to Bristol, right leg to Northampton, and left leg to Hereford with his head placed on a spear at the Tower of London.
William Wallace in 1305, the Scottish knight and military leader, classed as Braveheart, was also executed in London following his capture in a similar way. And he was forced to wear a crown of laurel leaves as he was drawn through London to Smithfield, where he encountered the brutal punishment. Further executions in this manner occurred during the medieval period, but treason had not officially been outlined in law until the Treason Act 1351, which was passed by Edward the Third.
This claimed that a monarch’s right to rule was absolute, and that any questioning of this was seen as treason. It was also the monarch’s duty to protect their throne and lands, and petty treason was also introduced, which outlined offenses such as killing a lord or a master. And men found guilty of petty treason were drawn and hanged, and women were also burned at the stake.
But it was high treason which was deemed the most serious offense. The Treason Act said that anyone was committing high treason if they committed a number of offenses. These were compassing or imagining the death of a king, his wife, or eldest son and heir. Violating the king’s wife, his eldest daughter if she were unmarried, or the wife of his eldest son or heir.
Levying war against the king in his realm. Adhering to the king’s enemies in his realm. Giving them aid and comfort in his realm or elsewhere. Counterfeiting the Great Seal or Privy Seal or the king’s coinage. Knowingly importing counterfeit money and killing the chancellor, treasurer, or one of the king’s justices whilst performing their offices.
With this, hanging, drawing, and quartering was seen as a standard sentence for these offenses. The execution of the third Duke of Buckingham outlined his sentence in brutal fashion. He was executed in May 1521, and it was said he would be laid on a hurdle and so drawn to the place of execution,
“and there to be hanged, cut down alive, your members to be cut off and cast in a fire, your bowels burned before you, your head smitten off, and your body quartered and divided at the king’s will, and God may have mercy on your soul.”
During certain executions which featured a very angry crowd, they would often get involved in the killing process and shaming process. William Wallace was whipped and attacked by the crowd with rotten food, and rubbish was thrown at him. And a priest, Thomas Pilchard, who was executed for being a Catholic priest, it was said at the time, was barely alive when he reached his execution before he was hanged, drawn, and quartered.
After the king’s commission and the sentence of death had been read out, the crowd were then asked to move back from the scaffold where the brutal practice was performed. Sometimes executioners or officials would ask questions to get the condemned person, following their drawing, to confess to their treason.
They were sometimes allowed to speak to the crowd. Often other condemned people would be forced to watch others being executed in the same way beforehand. For example, in 1584, priest James Bell was forced to watch his friend being quartered. It is debated at what point someone would be dead along the process. Drawing, as mentioned, was very dangerous itself, often resulting in a prisoner’s head being smashed against the ground.
A victim may be conscious at the part of the ordeal where his entrails were burned shortly before the head was removed and the body cut into four bits. It was said that during the execution of Major General Thomas Harrison, a man who signed the death warrant of King Charles I, that he was alive for several minutes after being hanged.
And then when he was cut open and disemboweled, he then allegedly tried to hit the executioner, and because of this, his head was cut off quicker. During disembowelment, John Houghton, it was said, began to pray before the final part of his ordeal occurred. One of the most famous people to be hanged, drawn, and quartered was Guy Fawkes, one of the leading men involved in the Gunpowder Plot.
Fawkes had been caught guarding the gunpowder in the undercroft of the Houses of Parliament, and after his torture, which involved the rack, he was hanged, drawn, and quartered. However, Fawkes jumped off the scaffold before in one final act of defiance, and it’s claimed broke his neck before the sentence was carried out.
The practice of hanging, drawing, and quartering continued for centuries, and the accounts of them were very brutal. It was abolished in England by the Forfeiture Act of 1870, just over 150 years ago, which is shocking considering how terrifying the practice was. Hanging and posthumous beheading replaced the old disemboweling and quartering in 1814, but it was still very brutal.
The last hanging, drawing, and quartering was of David Tyrie in 1782. He was a Scotsman who’d been caught corresponding with the enemy French. It was said of his execution,
“From the time he was put on the sledge till he came to the gibbet, he continued in an unconcerned conversation with the jailer, in which he expressed that he thought there were not three better, sounder, or honest hearts in the kingdom than his own, which was going to be burned. That there was only one thing which gave him concern, which was that his father was living, and he feared this misfortune would bring gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. He never hung his head the whole time. When arrived at the place of execution, no halter was provided, upon which he smiled and expressed astonishment as the inattention and neglect of his executioners. And indeed the business would have been slowed for some time had not a rope and pulley been procured out of a lugger that lay upon the shore. During which time he read several passages in a Bible he carried in his hand. After hanging exactly 22 minutes, he was lowered upon the sledge and his sentence literally put in execution. His head was severed from his body, his heart taken out and burned. His privates cut off and his body quartered. He was then put into a coffin and buried amongst the pebbles by the seaside. But no sooner had the officers retired but the sailors dug up the coffin, took out the body, and cut it into a thousand pieces. Each one carrying away a piece of his body to show their messmates on board. A more dreadful affecting execution was perhaps never seen.”
Hanging, drawing, and quartering was certainly one of the most sadistic execution methods used throughout history. Crucifixion was used by the Persians, Greeks, and many other ancient people. The Greeks were against the practice, but it was said that a Persian general was executed in the manner by the Athenians in 479 BC.
It was said they nailed him to a plank and hung him up. He suffered death by crucifixion. It was also said in another account they crucified him with the hands and feet stretched out and nailed to cross pieces. This barbarity, unusual on the part of the Greeks, may be explained by the enormity of outrage by Athenian deference of local feeling.
The Jewish king Alexander Jannaeus, the king of Judaea, crucified 800 people during his reign and did this in the middle of Jerusalem. It was also said that Alexander the Great crucified 2,000 survivors from his siege of Tyre, and it was well established as a method of execution in these lands. It was intended to be a gruesome and horrific scene, and the most painful and humiliating of deaths that could happen.
A number of people who committed different crimes were crucified, from pirates and slaves to those deemed enemies of an emperor or a state. It was said by Roman law that if a slave killed his or her master, then all of the master’s slaves would be crucified as punishment for the death. And both men and women were crucified.
It was carried out by groups of soldiers whose specific job it was to perform the executions. The condemned individual would be forced to strip naked and would then be scourged and whipped. They were sometimes whipped so badly that the condemned individual would lose lots of blood, and would be suffering from shock as they arrived at their site of execution.
The condemned person was forced to also carry the horizontal beam used in their execution, but they didn’t usually have to carry the whole cross. The death march was often done through very crowded streets, with the prisoner still suffering from the scourging, and they would be shamed in a number of different ways.
The public would spit and hurl abuse at them, and they were sometimes forced to wear a sign outlining their crimes and their name. When they arrived at the place of execution, the cross was then laid down with the crossbeam secured to a vertical beam. They would then be nailed to the cross, and if the place of execution was regularly used, often the vertical beam remained in the ground.
If this was the case, their wrists would be nailed to the horizontal beam first before they were then fastened. The nails that would secure someone to the stake were often around 15 cm long, and would cause horrific pain when they went through the hands and the ankles. There were different positions for different condemned people, as it was said by Seneca the Younger that,
“I see crosses there, not just one kind, but made in different ways. Some have their victims with heads down to the ground. Some impale their private parts. Others stretch their arms on the gibbets.”
Women in some occasions were even nailed to the cross facing it. In Roman crucifixions, it could take a condemned individual a few days to die. However, sometimes humans helped to bring death along a little bit quicker.
It was said that the attending Roman guards could only leave the site when the victim had died and were known to precipitate death by means of deliberate fracturing of the tibia or fibula, spear stab wounds into the heart, sharp blows to the front of the chest, or a smoking fire built at the foot of the cross to asphyxiate the victim.
Legs were also broken and in some cases a person was deliberately left alive for weeks and as long as possible to make sure their execution had a huge deterrent effect on the crowds. But corpses of those who were crucified were mostly left on the crosses and were eaten by birds and animals. The length of time which caused death could range from hours to days depending on the health of the victim, the guards’ actions, and also the environment.
There were many causes of death from crucifixion from cardiac rupture and heart failure to pulmonary embolism to even shock and infection caused by the wounds. It was believed that when the whole body’s weight was supported by the arms on the cross, death could be caused by asphyxiation. There was a small window for survival after crucifixion if someone was helped down from the cross, but it was very rare, especially as the Roman guards would accompany the proceedings and the executed person.
The point of performing crucifixion was that it was a way of putting people off committing very serious crimes. Often victims were left on display after death to serve as a warning and it intended to act as is slow and painful death for someone. The point was also to make the condemned feel very vulnerable and exposed by their death and fate.
And often legs were shattered with iron clubs to inflict more pain and bring about death quicker. Obviously, the most famous use of crucifixion was used upon Jesus of Nazareth, who was charged with a claim of being the king of the Jews. But there were many other examples such as Saint Peter, who it’s alleged was crucified upside down as he did not feel worthy enough to die in the same manner as Jesus did.
It was introduced in Japan in the 15th century after a long time where no capital punishment was used. It was suggested to the Japanese as Christianity spread throughout the region. And the use of it in Japan was different at times. One account states execution by crucifixion included being paraded around the town on horseback.
Then the unfortunate was tied to a cross made from one vertical and two horizontal poles. The cross was raised. The convict speared several times from two sides and killed with a thrust through the throat. Their corpse was left on the cross for 3 days. If one condemned to crucifixion died in prison, his body was pickled and then the punishment executed on the dead body.
It was said that the Japanese even used it as a method of punishing prisoners of war. An Australian prisoner of war during the Second World War named Ringer Edwards was crucified for killing cattle and he survived 63 hours before being cut down. As mentioned during World War I, there was propaganda that emerged with the allies that a Canadian soldier had been crucified on a barn door with bayonets or knives.
Investigations did look into this story and at the time found little evidence. But in 2001, an article was published which named the crucified soldier. There have been remains found of people crucified throughout history. And the wounds of those men and women show how brutal the practice was. Some have been found with nails still embedded in their hands and also with legs broken.
Even in the UK, a body of a crucified individual was found at Fenstanton and it’s believed that this may have been a slave who suffered the fate. One of the most heinous and brutal execution methods throughout history was crucifixion and this would have been a true horror for someone to suffer. It is remembered mostly for the execution of Jesus Christ, but it was used a number of times throughout the centuries by many different nations.
The whole point was to inflict severe humiliation and pain onto someone deemed a very serious criminal. Death by burning was a horrific execution method used throughout history and it was used for centuries. There were many examples of burning alive used in ancient Egypt and it was linked to the idea of showing no mercy.
In Egyptian times, some women were even burned to death who committed adultery and those who were involved in plots were also burned at the stake. It was also written that Celts would burn humans alive in the form of druidic sacrifice and the practice was linked to the idea of giving sacrifices to the gods throughout the centuries.
But in Christian countries, it was used to burn those who were considered religious criminals or heretics. Burning heretics was used strongly during the Spanish and medieval Inquisition in Europe and the punishment was written into the law. In England, Lollards were burned in this way for over a hundred years and there were even recording accounts of many Jews being burned throughout the medieval times.
The persecution of Jews occurred centuries before and massacres resulted in Jews being burned alive. In York’s Clifford Tower, many were trapped inside the castle building and this was then set on fire and resulted in the deaths of dozens of the city’s Jews. In 1540, a Jewish man in Hala, in Germany, Johannes Pfefferkorn, was charged with impersonating a priest and was tortured and killed.
He was lashed on a pillar, and then a ring of glowing coal was placed around him, and this turned to fire, and he was pushed towards it and was slowly roasted to death. The Spanish Inquisition continued with the heretic burning, and it’s believed that between 30,000 to 50,000 people succumbed to this fate, being burned at the stake because of the Inquisition.
In many different towns and cities, dozens of people were being burned each month, and things continued as the influence of the Inquisition spread. One of the most famous accounts of an individual being burned at the stake was Joan of Arc, the heroine of France. During the 100 Years War, she led the fight back for the French against the English and lifted the siege of Orléans.
But after capture, she was handed over to the English, who tried her and then burned her at the stake. Many believed that they’d burned a saint that day. Those who wished to change or reform religion also incurred the same fate. For example, John Frith and William Tyndale, who worked on translating the Bible.
Both of these men were eventually burned, and many during the 16th century became martyrs in this way. But it’s during the reign of Bloody Mary I that the punishment became synonymous with her reign and rule over England. Mary, when she came onto the throne, had to deal with the fact she had to restore Catholicism as a religion of the country over the prospering Protestantism.
To reinforce her message, she sought many high-profile executions of Protestants and religious reformers who would not return to Catholicism. In Oxford today, the Martyrs’ Memorial marks the site where Bishops Latimer, Ridley, and Cranmer were all executed. All three were high-profile churchmen and refused to return to Mary’s religion.
They were all burned at the stake. It was said of Cranmer’s execution, as the flames grew around him, he placed his right hand into the heart of the fire, calling it the unworthy hand. The flames rose up around him, and he succumbed to his fate. Ridley and Latimer were both burned together in this way, and were burned on the same stake.
It was said that one in particular suffered more with the fact that the smoke did not make one of them pass out. Often to make things quicker and less painful, an executioner could take pity on the alleged heretic, would place a small bag of gunpowder around the neck of the person tied to the stake. With this, the flames would get higher, and the gunpowder would explode instantly, killing the person on the fire.
The Marian persecutions continued throughout England, and in this it solidified Mary I’s reign as a brutal one, and cemented her place as a feared ruler in history. The traditional punishment for women found guilty of treason at the time was being burned also, and this was different for men. The last woman condemned to death for petty treason was Mary Bailey in England, who was sentenced to be burned in 1784.
And the final woman sentenced to be burned for high treason was Catherine Murphy in 1789, who was hanged and then burned for coin clipping and coin forgery. She was hanged beforehand, and then her body burned publicly, which cast doubt on the fact that she was the last person burned at the stake. In England, the final case of a woman actually being burned at the stake was that of Catherine Hayes, who died in 1726.
She had murdered her husband, and it was said of her death,
“The fuel being placed around her, and lighted with a torch, she begged for the sake of Jesus to be strangled first, whereupon the executioner drew tight the halter, but the flame coming to his hand in the space of a second, he let go. When she gave three dreadful shrieks, but the flames taking her on all sides, she was heard no more. And the executioner throwing a piece of timber into the fire, it broke her skull where her brains came plentifully out. And in about an hour or more, she was entirely reduced to ashes.”
As mentioned, it was also a common punishment for witches and following witch hunts, often women were burned. In England and Wales, the preferred execution method for this was hanging, but it was estimated that roughly 50,000 people were executed for witchcraft in Europe with many of them being burned alive.
Another practice linked to burning alive is sati, used on the Indian subcontinent. This involved a woman setting fire to herself following her husband’s passing by jumping on her deceased husband’s funeral pyre. This emerged in the 400s and it was used a lot in India. The East India Company, when they were involved in the country, then began to compile accounts of sati and they were around 600 women a year being burned in this manner and later the practice was banned and outlawed.
There were other methods closely linked to burning such as the use of the brazen bull. This was a hollow metal structure shaped like a bull in which the condemned criminal would be forced inside of. This would then be placed over a fire and slowly the person inside would roast to death inside the hot structure.
Some cultures even poured molten metals and compounds down a criminal’s throat and ears which would cause immense pain. It was said that one Spanish conquistador in the Americas in the 16th century had been captured by natives and had molten gold poured down his throat as the onlookers mocked saying,
“Eat gold, Christians.”
It was said of burnings at the stake that if the fire was small, the convict would burn for some time until death from heatstroke and loss of blood plasma. When this method of execution was applied with skill, the condemned body would burn progressively in the following sequence: calves, thighs, and hands, torso and forearms, breasts, upper chest, face, and then finally death.
On other occasions, people died from suffocation with only their calves on fire. Some records report that victims took over 2 hours to die. Being burned at the stake has gone down in history as one of the most brutal and barbaric execution methods. One saving grace for someone being killed was that often they would pass out due to the smoke that they would be unconscious in their final moments.
There were accounts when burnings went wrong, which resulted in someone being slowly roasted to death in a rather terrible scene. And there were some blundering executioners who struggled to light the fire, prolonging the ordeal, and also prolonging death. It was a sentence closely linked to religious crimes and those who dared to think differently during times of oppression.
The blood eagle was important in its form of ritualistic sacrifice and as an offering to the gods as much as it was to inflict pain and suffering onto a high-ranking criminal or enemy. According to two sagas, the victims were forced and secured into a position where they were lying down. Huge crowds would then gather to witness the sacrifice.
The Vikings loved their gods and the blood eagle was seen as a sacrifice to them with the enemies of the Vikings being killed. Lying down, an executioner, sometimes a high-ranking member of the settlement, would take an axe to the condemned. They would take their weapon to the victim’s back and would cut open a large wound or flap of skin and muscle from their back.
Following this huge cut, they would then sever the ribs from the spine of the victim, would then pull the ribs out to the sides to form the wings. After this, the executioner would then complete the blood eagle by pulling out the victim’s lungs and laying them over the extended ribs. And it was just before here that someone would likely have been killed.
The point was to create a pair of wings, and then the victim could be suspended and displayed in huge scenes. There has been much debate as to whether this practice actually occurred, or whether it is just propaganda from the Viking sagas. The blood eagle does appear at times in Norse literature, and there have been also references to it.
There are two specific victims of this practice mentioned, one being Halfdan Harald, a prince, and the other being King Aella of Northumbria. Both of these executions were performed, allegedly, in consequence for a father being killed. The first account, from the late 9th century, claims that Torf-Einar ritualistically executed Harald Fairhair’s son, Halfdan Longleg.
It was said that the execution was done as a sacrifice to Odin. It was said of Halfdan’s blood eagle,
“Einar made them carve an eagle on his back with a sword, then cut the ribs all from the backbone, and draw the lungs there out, and gave him to Odin for the victory he had won.”
It was also referenced in another saga saying,
“After Earl Einar went up to Halfdan and cut the blood eagle on his back in this fashion that he thrust his sword into his chest by the backbone and severed all the ribs down to the loins, and then pulled out the lungs, and that was Halfdan’s death.”
In both of these accounts, the blood eagle is clearly described as a method of Halfdan’s execution, but it’s closely linked with the sons of the notorious Viking leader, Ragnar Lothbrok, that we consider the blood eagle. Ragnar Lothbrok had many sons, but he was killed by King Aella of Northumbria, who it’s said executed Ragnar by feeding him to a pit of snakes in retribution to the raids and violence Ragnar had inflicted upon of Following this, Ragnar’s sons set out to avenge their father, and Ivar the Boneless captured King Ælla of Northumbria.
Ælla was killed following a battle for the control of the city of York, and it was said that they caused a bloody eagle to be carved on the back of Ælla, and they cut away all of the ribs from the spine, then they ripped out his lungs.
The blood eagle was referenced again in the 11th century, and it was written again that Ælla was killed by the horrific execution method. Ælla’s death was recounted again, and it was said that they did at the appointed time, and when they had captured him, ordered the figure of an eagle to be cut in his back, rejoicing to crush their most ruthless foe by marking him with the cruelest of birds.
Not satisfied with impressing a wound on him, they salted the mangled flesh. There are other accounts of the blood eagle. It was said,
“Now the blood eagle, with a broad sword, the killer of Sigmund carved on the back, fewer were more valiant, as the troops dispersed, a chief of people who made the raven glad.”
But there is debate as to whether the blood eagle was ever practiced or not, or whether it was just used to make the stories and sagas better, and to make the Vikings more feared. Doubt has been cast over the use of it as a sacrificial method. It has been compared to other brutal torture and execution methods, such as crucifixion.
However, what has been questioned is the skill that a Viking chieftain had to perform the blood eagle well, to carve open the back, and perform the ritualistic sacrifice. One of the legendary execution methods performed throughout history was the blood eagle. Whether it was actually performed or not is up to debate.
However, it’s practices like this that made the Vikings very feared. Through raids and propaganda, they became known as some of the most brutal and feared people across the medieval period. Usually it was those who were convicted of serious offenses such as murder and robbery who would be punished on the wheel. People were either wheeled or broken on the wheel, and this execution and torture method would take place on scaffold sites for thousands of people to watch.
The aim was to put the public off carrying out the same sort of crimes. The execution wheel was usually a large wooden wheel which had a number of spokes inside, similar to a wagon cart wheel, and it could be modified. Someone would be strapped onto the wheel, and the first point of the wheel was to cause mutilation and brutal injuries on the body.
Firstly, the execution would begin with the breaking of a condemned person’s legs. This was usually done with the wheel being dropped onto the legs of the victim. They would then also drop this onto other parts of the body such as arms, shattering them. This was very painful, and the victim was usually wedged between wood to cause more pain.
Sometimes these bits of wood had sharp edges on which would then embed into the person. Following this, the executioner could then kill them by aiming the wheel at the victim’s heart or neck. But there was often a second act of the breaking wheel, and the body of the victim was attached to another wooden spoke wheel which was then attached onto a mast or pole for the crowd to see.
They could even display someone on a mast which would act as a crucifixion almost. Sometimes executioners would behead the prisoner or garrote them if needed, and they would also batter the victim with wooden clubs, shattering further bones between the spokes. Sometimes wheeled prisoners were then thrown on a fire after the execution was carried out.
The body would also be left out for days on end to decay, and it would then be picked out by the birds and other animals. In some cases, if the victim fell from the wheel still alive, or if the execution somehow failed, this was seen as God intervening to save the condemned, and they would then be cut down, however brutal the injuries were that they had sustained.
There were accounts of people surviving a substantial time following an ordeal on the breaking wheel, with some people remaining attached to the wheel conscious for days on end. It’s considered that the wheel could have emerged from France, but in the country, the condemned were placed on a cartwheel.
They then had their limbs stretched out along the spokes. The wheel was then turned slowly, and a hammer or iron bar was smashed onto the limbs breaking them. This would continue even when the limbs were broken, and an executioner could take mercy on the victim by hitting them in the chest or abdomen. Usually, shock or dehydration in this manner caused death, and in France, people were sometimes strangled to death also before the breaking may begin.
It was also used by the Holy Roman Empire for men who had committed murder. But those who had committed less serious crimes were also beaten on the wheel. More barbaric criminals were broken feet first, with the breaking of their legs, with the ordeal lasting for hours. One serial killer in 1581 was guilty of 544 murders, and over the course of two horrific days, he was tortured and executed on the wheel with 42 strikes breaking his bones.
There was one account in 1786 in which the breaking wheel was used in what today is Germany, in which the execution on the wheel was considered botched. Heinrich Doller was executed on the wheel for murder, and it was said that the first stroke of the wheel should have crushed his chest and that this would usually kill.
However, when the first strike happened, Dollowa was still alive and was alive throughout the whole of his breaking when all of his limbs were shattered after the numerous brutal strikes. Dollowa was confirmed as being alive when he was raised on a pole and left to die. And it took him 6 hours to succumb to his fate.
It was said that inadequate weight meant his chest had not been crushed and that nail which was hammered through his brain had been hammered in too low not to kill him. The method was even used in India and also was used in Britain. In Scotland, a servant Robert Weir was broken on the wheel in Edinburgh in 1603 and it was used rarely in the country with only murderers really being broken.
It was even used during slave rebellions and in executing those who were involved in these. Eleven slaves were killed using it in French Louisiana in the 18th century who escaped their masters and it was a common deterrent. It was also used in Russia and also in Sweden where an eyewitness said of an execution on the breaking wheel,
“Here the executioners gave him the first stroke. His cries were terrible of the utmost horror for as the headsman had no skill in his business, the wretch under his hands received upwards of 15 blows with each of which were intermixed with the most pitious groans and invocations of the name of God. At length after two strokes given on the breast, his strength and voice failed him. In a faltering dying tone, he was just heard to say,
‘Cut off my head.’
And the executioner still lingering, he himself placed his head on the scaffold. In a word, after four strokes with a hatchet, the head was separated from the body, and then the body was quartered. Such was the end of the renowned Pac Qual, and may God have mercy on his soul.”
It was even used in Germany in the 1800s to take lives, and was still in use in 1836 in Hesse Castle. There have been many archaeological discoveries involving those who were executed on the breaking wheel, with their injuries showing how brutal the execution method really was. A famous case of its use is showing the execution of Saint Catherine, who was sentenced to be tortured and killed on the wheel, but when she touched it, it allegedly shattered before she was then later beheaded.
However, the breaking wheel was a barbaric method of execution that was used on the European continent mainly. There are huge numbers of accounts of how brutal the practice was, and to see someone being beaten so savagely in this manner would have been very traumatic for someone to observe. Today, examples of breaking wheels can be found in museums and around the world, and upon these such suffering must have occurred.
The brazen bull was a torture and execution device which emerged from ancient Greece. It was said it was invented and proposed to Phalaris, the tyrant of Akragas, as a way of executing criminals in a different way. The bull would have been made from bronze and had a door on one side to let criminals into the device, and it was hollow.
Now, once the condemned were locked inside of the bull, then a fire was lit underneath it, and then the metal of the device would get warmer and then excruciatingly hot, and the person inside it would be slowly cooked and roasted to death. It would have taken some time for someone to be roasted to death, and it would have been incredibly painful and a very sinister way to go.
Also, it could be used to torture someone to gain confessions and information from. It has been doubted whether the device ever did exist or whether it was used as propaganda like the blood eagle has been for the Vikings to make the Greeks seem more fearsome. It was also said that the head of the bull was designed in such a way that it had a number of tubes inside that would stop the prisoner’s screams being heard and instead the sound from the human inside would appear like the cry of an angry bull.
The Greek leader was said to have been impressed at its design and the smoke apparently generated from it would release an incense style smell. But when the bull would have been opened after the execution was performed, the body of the condemned would have been reduced to a smoldering pile of ashes or bone. It was said by the constructor that,
“his screams will come to you through the pipes as the tenderest, most pathetic, most melodious of bellowing.”
And it’s believed that for inventing the brazen bull, he would be rewarded. However, Phalaris then ordered the creator, Perilaus, to himself get inside the bull and he was tricked in getting inside. Once inside, he was locked in then a fire was set and screaming away the bull could be heard. However, shortly before death, the door was opened and he was taken away.
It was said that Perilaus, the creator, was then thrown off a hill and killed and it was even alleged that the brazen bull killed Phalaris. It was written and documented a century later that the bull was used as a form of torture and the Romans claimed to have used the bull to kill Christians and torture them.
Saint Eustace allegedly was roasted to death by the bull and it’s believed that the device around the year 287 burned another Christian with Emperor Diocletian using it. But there is some debate as to whether the brazen bull was actually used or not. Previously when we looked at the blood eagle and the Viking practice of performing this ritualistic sacrifice, we mentioned how doubt has been cast whether this had actually been used, the brazen bull could have been similar in this regard as a device that was written about to communicate how fearsome and brutal the Greeks and Romans could be in a way that would intimidate their enemies and keep possible resistance from rising up.
