Rack

The rack was an instrument of torture used principally in the Middle Ages. It consisted of a long table, with cranks with chains attached on each end. The prisoner would be stripped naked and placed on the table, and his hands and feet attached to the handcuffs/footcuffs. Then the executioners would twist the cranks, stretching out the prisoner's legs and arms until the muscle was torn, or occasionally until the limbs were dislocated. Some cases even tore off the limbs.

History[edit]

The first one that was widely known was the rack known as the “Duke of Exeter’s Daughter”, however the main usage was on a saint named Saint Nicholas Owen (c. 1562 - March 1606) in which he was subjected to the rack for building priest holes for priests to escape persecution from the English government at the time.