The Breaking Wheel, 1548

The breaking wheel, also known as the Catherine wheel or simply the wheel, was a torture device used for capital punishment from antiquity into early modern times for public execution by breaking the criminal's bones/bludgeoning him to death. As a form of execution, it was used from classical times into the 18th century; as a form of post mortem punishment of the criminal, the wheel was still in use in 19th century Germany. The wheel was typically a large wooden wagon wheel with many radial spokes. The condemned were lashed to the wheel and their limbs were beaten with a club or iron cudgel, with the gaps in the wheel allowing the limbs to give way and break. Alternatively, the condemned were spreadeagled and broken on a saltire, a cross consisting of two wooden beams nailed in an X shape, after which the victim's mangled body might be displayed on the wheel

Restrictions Only for Ireland and United Kingdom

1540s 1548 Cruel Cruelty Infamous Inhumane Inhumanity Interrogate Interrogation Method Notorious Persecute Persecuted Persecuting Persecution Punish Punishing Sixteenth Suffering Torturer Torturing Woodblock

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