Medieval torture

Feared and painful interrogation

Until well into the Modern Age, torture is a wide-spread instrument of the law, ordered by the judge if the accused does not confess to a crime during a trial but is believed to be guilty. The Latin word for punishment – ‘poena’ – gives us the word ‘pain’.

The court alone would decide on the type and length of torture used. The methods and instruments of torture are both numerous and horrific. Though their primary function is to force a confession, inevitably the death of the accused is more often the result.

As is the case with the so-called Swedish drink, a popular method of torture during the 30 Years’ War. Liquid manure or water mixed with urine and excrement is fed to the victim via a funnel. Frequently used by mercenaries of the Swedish army, the Swedish drink not only causes the fear of suffocation but intense gastric pain and in most cases fatal, bacterial infection.