This is one torture technique you really wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of.
One look at the cruel contraption known as 'The Scavenger’s daughter' will give you a good idea of agonising this was, as it looks almost impossible for a human to fit into.
But that was kind of the point - its creator wanted whoever ended up in it to be excruciatingly uncomfortable.
Advert
The Scavenger’s daughter is certainly a drastic step up from other methods used throughout history across the globe, such as being 'licked to death' by a goat.
It was introduced during the reign of King Henry VIII and was the brainchild of the Tower of London's terrifying Lieutenant, Sir Leonard Skevington.
Seemingly taking inspiration from the stocks and pillories which were used for public humiliation at the time, he took the basis of these designs and made his device ten times more barbaric.
Those who were unlucky enough to find themselves stuck in the Scavenger’s daughter were restrained by their neck, wrists and feet - without any wriggle room.
Advert
The device consisted of a metal rack which was shaped into an A-frame, with the person's head being strapped at the top, their hands in the middle and their legs at the bottom.
The torture device is considered as the sister to another method known as the Duke of Exeter’s Daughter, which is more commonly referred to as the rack.
Instead of stretching your body like it's chilling counterpart 'the rack', the Scavenger’s daughter compressed your skeleton into an unbearable crouching position.
The frame had a central screw mechanism, which the torturer would tighten, causing the bars of the metal rack to contort around the victim's body.
Advert
History buffs behind the 'Off With Our Heads' YouTube channel previously explained that a person would be 'forced into a nightmarish position, seated with their legs painfully bent at the knee and their arms encircled by the bars'.
They explained that eventually, the victim's body 'would be twisted into the fetal position as bones snapped and joints dislocated'.
Other historians say compressing the body this way for extended periods of time would also 'force blood from the nose and ears', so it really was a brutal experience.
It is said that torturers were known to leave a person trapped in the Scavenger’s daughter for days on end while continuing to tighten the screws intermittently.
As you can imagine, a lot of people who were being tortured under the suspicion of committing crimes would often confess to things they hadn't done just to end the ordeal - and who can blame them?
Advert
According to the Science Museum Group, the Scavenger’s daughter was 'very rarely used' and is only mentioned briefly in documents from the Tower of London.
"There are two on display at the Tower currently, and one of those is a replica," it adds. "It is unknown how frequently the device was used outside of the Tower."
Olivia Burke