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Toggle Medieval and early modern instruments of torture subsection. 4.1 Chair of torture. 4.1.1 Appearance. 4.1.2 Use. ... Knee splitter; Lead sprinkler; Mancuerda ...
The morning star first came into widespread use around the beginning of the fourteenth century, particularly in Germany where it was known as Morgenstern. [1] The term is often confused with the military flail (fléau d'armes in French and Kriegsflegel in German), which typically consists of a wooden shaft joined by a length of chain to one or more iron-shod wooden bars.
A splitting maul also known as a block buster, block splitter, chop and maul, sledge axe, go-devil or hamaxe is a heavy, long-handled axe used for splitting a piece of wood along its grain. One side of its head is like a sledgehammer, and the other side is like an axe.
Alexandre Dumas père utilizes a choke pear in his fictional account of the prison escape of François de Vendôme, duc de Beaufort in the novel Twenty Years After.. A footnote in the book says: “This poire d’angoisse was a famous gag, in the form of a pear, which, being thrust into the mouth, by the aid of a spring, dilated, so as to distend the jaws to their greatest width.”
The 17th-century perjurer Titus Oates in a pillory. The pillory is a device made of a wooden or metal framework erected on a post, with holes for securing the head and hands, used during the medieval and renaissance periods for punishment by public humiliation and often further physical abuse. [1]
Engraving by Justus Lipsius of a vertical impalement. Impalement, as a method of torture and execution, is the penetration of a human by an object such as a stake, pole, spear, or hook, often by the complete or partial perforation of the torso.
Ground billiards is a modern term for a family of medieval European lawn games, the original names of which are mostly unknown, played with a long-handled mallet (the mace), wooden balls, a hoop (the pass), and an upright skittle or pin (the king).
This metal device featured a plate that sat below the victim's jaw, which was connected by a frame to the head cap. As the torturer slowly twisted the handle, the gap between the head cap and plate decreased, crushing the skull, including the teeth, mandible and facial bones, and ultimately inducing death.