The White Tower was erected by William the Conqueror shorlty after the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Over theyears, this grew into the Tower of London and has been used as a royal residence, a state prison, a zoo, a mint, an armory, and the repository for the crown jewels. But perhaps its most infmaous use was as a torture center for the powers that be. Henry II (1154-1189 and one of the webmaster's ancestors, by-the-way) issued a warrant to the mayor and sheriffs of London to use torture against the Knights of Templar in order to obtain confessions of homosexuality and other malpractices (for which they were then executed).
The most popular instrument of torture in medieval England was the rack. It was introduced by the Duke of Exeter and even became known as the "Duke of Exeter's Daughter." This insidious device stretched the body "until the bones and joints were almost plucked asunder." If they did not die of their injuries, they were often so injured that they could not take part in their public confessions. The Jesuit matyr Edmund Campion could not raise his arms to swear his confessions, and the Protestant heretic Anne Askew was so badly injured that she had to be strapped to a chair and carried to her burning (although she never did confess or turn in her friends).
Guy Fawkes lasted 30 minutes on the rack before he confessed all in his part of the GunpowderPlot. He was tortured under the orders of the king, James I, who had written,"if he will not other wayes confesse, the gentler tortours are to be first usid unto him et sic per gradus ad ima tenditur (and so on step by step to the most severe) and so god spede youre goode worke."
Most notorious prisnoners were kept in "Little Ease," a small cell impossible in which to to stand upright or lay down. They may stay crouched for a week before their torture began in earnest.
Other means of torture used in the Tower included the thumbscrew, the boot, the caschie-laws, the langirnis, the narrow-bore, the iron collar, the pynebanis, the bilboes (which compressed the ankles), the pilliwinks (which squeezed the fingers), and the brakes, a device used to break the victims' teeth. Victims were burned with fire, had gauze forced down into their stomach, and had water poured into their throat.
Prisoners who refused to plead guilty were often subject to peine forte et dure, or pressing to death. This was used to extract confessions because if a victim died under torture, his estate would be passed onto his heirs. If he confessed, the crown would get the estate. So long, drawn-out tortures were favored as more likely to get a confession. This torture occured as late as 1726.
West WingCalliope's Private Chambers
Lower DungeonChildren of the Night, Demons
