Medieval Punishments that STILL EXIST Today

medieval punishments for modern times looking back at the past most of us find comfort in the fact that many of the most Savage Customs traditions and rituals of our ancestors no longer exist perhaps the most relieving is that many of the goriest and messiest of the devices and methods used for punishment like the horrific blood eagle disembowelment process have died out rather terrifyingly however a number of these medieval practices are still around today and some are even endorsed by governments that usually Champion human rights vlogging in the Middle Ages and early modern period vlogging typically involved exposing a wrongdoor's upper half and suspending them by the wrists on a wooden post with their bareback extra taut and so more susceptible to pain the offender was brutally lashed 20 or more times depending on the severity of the crime if the victim fainted during the ordeal either from loss of blood or shock the flogging was paused and a bucket of water splashed in their face to restore Consciousness after which it resumed vlogging was a regular occurrence in Europe and it was usually reserved for those who stole cheated or were drunk in public such as at Durham in 1690 when a married woman named Eleanor Wilson was given a lashing after being caught drunk on a Sunday from the 20th century this excruciating punishment disappeared from Europe but it is unfortunately still practiced in many Muslim countries today such as Indonesia Iran Singapore and the Maldives in Saudi Arabia one of the most infamous cases involved blogger raif badawi who in 2014 was sentenced to a grueling 1000 lashes for criticizing Islam online while a Filipino man was handed 75 lashes for accidentally bringing into the country to chocolate bars with alcohol inside them decapitation lopping off the heads of villains and Crooks is about as old as time itself but the most enduring image of this Macabre measure came from the late 18th century the guillotine which cut heads swiftly using a sharp angled blade dropped from a height gained International notoriety during the French Revolution yet older methods were not so humane from as early as 1066 when William the Conqueror beheaded troublemaking Norman Nobles decapitation was the preferred way to go for European Aristocrats but it was in no way quick with the French brandishing The Sword and the English and Germans favoring the ax executions were often gruesomely drawn out Affairs such as those performed by James II headsman Jack Ketch who was well renowned for taking three or four slashes to finish the job nowadays decapitation is still carried out in Saudi Arabia where most recently in November 2022 12 people were beheaded By The Sword in 10 days and it's also the chosen method of execution by Islamic State militants one of the most egregious examples was when 27 hostages lost their lives in this grisly manner at the hands of four radicals dubbed The Beatles because of their British accents crucifixion even before Jesus was strung on the cross crucifixion was a very popular punitive choice in the ancient world it was most infamously wielded as a punishment against the perpetrators of a slave revolt led by former Gladiator Spartacus in 71 BC after it was put down Roman Legionnaire crosses crucified around 6 000 participants lining them across the Appian Way for maximum psychological effect later on in the 16th century it was commonly employed by the Japanese against Christians such as in 1597 when 26 were nailed to a cross in Nagasaki while in 1651 many non-christians suffered the same fate after an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the ruling Shogun today this barbaric punishment is still carried out in Sudan where it's permitted under Sharia law in 2013 three men found guilty of murder was sentenced to hanging and then public crucifixion in accordance with article 168 of the 1991 Sudanese penal code curiously because of its religious undertones crucifixion has also been used in the modern age as a form of protest to recall the suffering of Jesus in 2013 eight bus drivers from Paraguay hammered themselves to a cross to show their disdain for their employer who fired them after they asked for overtime pay and other basic work benefits immolation being burnt at the stake was a classic medieval punishment typically meted out to women believed to be witches or most memorably Joan of Arc in 1431 in Ruan France branded as Heretics by Christian inquisitors immolation was officially sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church in 1184 as the punishment for heresy since it was widely believed that the victim would have no body to enter the afterlife condemning them to Eternal Purgatory instead tied to a stake instead of blaze in large fires the victims usually died from carbon monoxide poisoning rather than immolation but those unfortunate enough to be ignited by smaller fires could survive for up to two hours eventually succumbing to either heat stroke shock loss of blood or passing away after their vital organs had thermally decomposed there were many horrific variations of this grotesque ceremony such as the addition of a rope tied around the victim's neck that would strangle them at the same time as they were being incinerated while in Germany religious zealots placed burning lumps of sulfur under the armpits of suspected witches creating a blaze which even water cannot extinguish which made light work of them amazingly the practice of witch hunting still continues in parts of Africa such as in Kenya where in 2008 11 elderly people were burnt to a crisp after an angry mob were convinced they were all evil warlocks or sorceresses blinding removing the eyes of offenders was a punishment doled out by innumerable bygone civilizations instituted in 303 by emperor Diocletian the byzantines were particularly enthusiastic practitioners gouging out the eyes of early Christians with either a red hot iron dagger tent Peg or nail which was plunged into the iris elsewhere basil II a later Byzantine Monarch of the 10th Century infamously blinded thousands of Bulgarian Renegades he made sure that a man for every 100 remained with one eye so that they could lead them to the king of the bulgars who upon seeing the nightmarish remnants supposedly died of shock instantly in modern times although rare blinding is still legally permitted in Iran under a law in which the victim has the power to decide whether the assailant should have their eyes taken out in a literal interpretation of the old Maxim an eye for an eye in March 2015 Iranian Medics gouged out an eye of a convict with the express permission of his victim who was made sightless by an acid attack another example happened at a Crackdown on protests that erupted in the Kashmir region in 2016 when the Indian Armed Forces intentionally blinded up to 500 demonstrators including children as young as four by firing small metal pellets into the faces of unarmed youths causing partial or full loss of sight for many castration castration has featured heavily throughout the ages for ritual reasons such as for the goddess Ishtar six thousand years ago and to deter crimes as seen in the 9th century reign of King Alfred of England and Jefferson's 18th century Virginia laws it could also be used to assert authority over another party like an 1144 when the Duke of Normandy in the north of what is now France ordered the castration of the bishop of cies and several of his Entourage after they elected him as Bishop without his consent the missing parts were subsequently presented to the Duke on a platter yet interestingly enough it wasn't always used in a punitive way and in some cases non-criminals were even encouraged to go under the knife from the 16th century highly prized singers known as castrati had their nether regions purposefully removed in Boyhood often at the bidding of their own parents so they could retain the highness of their prepubescent voices as adults a lack of testosterone meant the singer's bones didn't Harden resulting in unusually large rib cages which enable them to hold notes for an extremely long duration surprisingly many Western countries such as Canada Sweden Germany Norway and Denmark and several U.S states including Georgia Iowa Louisiana and Texas to name a few have laws that permit forced chemical castration on abusers although requiring consent the Czech Republic Remains the only EU state to perform therapeutic surgical castrations but this has been heavily criticized by human rights groups who argue that patients are sometimes coerced into making this Choice since refusal can lead to longer-term detention so it seems the medieval world is still alive and well although that can't be said for the many people unlucky enough to have come into contact with it today

Channel: Simple History

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Keywords: simple history, animated history, educational, education

Id: kZVxn2bBE3M

Length: 9min 53sec (593 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 17 2023