Showing 17–18 of 18 results
The latest stories, interviews and updates of our museum.
31 Oct 2025
The Pillory as a Theater of Justice In the heart of the medieval square stood a wooden frame—simple, upright, and merciless. This was the public pillory, a device that transformed justice into spectacle. It was not a place of bloodshed or execution, but of humiliation, the moral theater where guilt met the gaze of the […]
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31 Oct 2025
A Device of Silence and Shame In the dim corridors of medieval justice, few instruments spoke louder about silence than the scold’s bridle. Also known as the “brank,” it became one of the most notorious medieval punishments for women accused of gossip, disobedience, or defiance. Beneath its cold metal frame lay not only physical pain […]
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31 Oct 2025
The Origins of the Scavenger’s Daughter Among the infamous instruments of Tudor cruelty, few are as paradoxical as the Scavenger’s Daughter. To modern ears, the name sounds almost poetic — yet it belonged to one of the most merciless English torture devices of the 16th century.Invented during the reign of Henry VIII by Sir Leonard […]
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24 Oct 2025
There are few torture devices that have lingered in historical memory like the Spanish Boot. This violent instrument of torture made from iron, wood, and the cruelty of human ingenuity represented both the finesse and fierceness of medieval justice. The Spanish Boot torture device continues to hold a dreadful presence reminding us how far people […]
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