The Most Painful Deaths In Human History

PART 2:

 The agreement was delivered through an allied commander who kissed a cross and swore that the princes would be released in exchange for a ransom. Mstislav trusted the oath and opened the defenses. His remaining soldiers were killed while Mstislav and several other princes were taken alive. The Mongols did not kill them immediately.

 The captured rulers were laid on the ground while heavy wooden boards were placed across their bodies, forming a large platform above them. The Mongol commanders then climbed on the boards, sat down, and began their victory feast. The weight of the commanders slowly crushed the prisoners into the earth while the feast continued directly above them.

 With the boards pinning their bodies to the ground, every breath became more difficult until Mstislav and the other princes died beneath the celebration. rulers who had commanded one of the largest armies in the region had been turned into the floor beneath their enemies. At number three, John of Leiden. In 1534, radical Anabaptist preachers seized the German city of Münster, expelled anyone who rejected their beliefs, and declared it the new Jerusalem.

 Their first leader, Jan Matthys, became convinced that God would destroy the army surrounding the city. On Easter Sunday, he rode outside the walls with only a small group of followers and was killed almost immediately. His death left a Dutch tailor named John of Leiden in control. John declared himself king, dressed in elaborate royal clothing, and created his own court inside Münster.

 He eventually took 16 wives and continued promising that God would send an army to save the city. Instead, the siege dragged on for more than a year. Food became so scarce that people ate horses, dogs, and rats before turning to leather, leaves, and grass. The promised rescue never arrived. In June 1535, someone inside Münster helped the bishop’s soldiers enter through one of the gates.

 John survived the fighting, but was captured alive. For the next 6 months, he was imprisoned and taken across the surrounding territory with two of his closest followers, Bernhard Knipperdolling and Bernhard Krechting. They were displayed as defeated leaders and repeatedly questioned before being returned to Münster. On January 22nd, 1536, all three were brought into the main square, where the prince bishop and a large crowd had gathered to watch their execution.

 John was taken first and fixed against a post by an iron collar that held his head upright. Executioners then used heated iron tongs across his body. When Knipperdolling saw what was waiting for him, he tried to end his own life by pushing his weight against his collar. The executioners noticed, pulling him upright and secured his head to the post so he could not shorten what was coming.

 The public execution of all three men continued for hours before a dagger finally ended each of their lives. Their bodies were then locked inside three enormous iron cages and raised onto the tower of St. Lambert’s Church. Each cage stood roughly 6 ft tall, with John’s placed above the other two, so the self-proclaimed king still hung over his followers even after death.

 Their remains were left above Münster for decades, and the last traces of bone were reportedly still visible in 1585. The cages were later removed when the old church tower was demolished then returned to the replacement tower in 1898. Two of them fell when the church was damaged during the Second World War, but both were recovered and restored.

Nearly 500 years after John of Leiden’s execution, all three original cages still hang from the church tower today. At number two, Robert François Damiens. On January 5th, 1757, a French servant named Robert François Damiens pushed through a group of guards at Versailles and struck King Louis the 15th with a small penknife.

 The blade passed through the king’s thick winter clothing and left a long but shallow wound on his side. Louis believed that he was dying, but within 8 days he had recovered. Damiens was arrested before he could escape and repeatedly insisted that he had acted alone. Even though the king survived, the court treated the attack as regicide and ordered the same punishment used against the man who had killed Henry the Fourth nearly a century and a half earlier.

 France had not carried out this form of execution since 1610. 16 executioners were brought to Paris from across the country for the sentence. On March 28th, an enormous crowd filled the Place de Grève in Paris. People rented windows overlooking the square, climbed onto rooftops, and waited for hours to watch the sentence.

Damiens was secured to a raised platform where the hand that held the knife was burned with sulfur. Executioners then applied heat instruments and a scalding mixture across several parts of his body, carefully avoiding a fatal injury before the final stage. Ropes were fastened to his arms and legs and connected to four horses.

 The first pull failed, so the animals were repositioned and ordered forward again. Damiens remained alive as the attempts continued for close to an hour. Two additional horses were brought into the square, but even six animals failed to complete the sentence. The executioners finally asked for permission to weaken his joints before trying once more.

 Only then were the horses able to complete the quartering and bring the punishment to an end. By that point, roughly 2 hours and 15 minutes had passed, and witnesses recorded that Damiens remained responsive through much of it. His remains were burned and the ashes scattered. The court also ordered his birthplace demolished and forbade another building from being constructed on the site.

 All of this had been carried out over a penknife wound from which Louis the 15th had already recovered. Damien became the last person in French history to be executed by quartering. At number one, Andronikos the first Komnenos. In 1182, Andronikos Komnenos entered Constantinople claiming that he had come to protect its young emperor Alexios the second.

 The population welcomed him as a savior, but after taking control of the government, had the boy killed and crowned himself. His rule soon filled the capital with arrests, executions, and families waiting for revenge. Three years later, a Norman invasion threw the empire into panic.

 Andronikos ordered a nobleman named Isaac Angelos arrested, but Isaac killed the officials sent to capture him and fled into the Hagia Sophia, where a gathering crowd declared him the new emperor. Andronikos tried escaping Constantinople by boat, but the rough water repeatedly drove him back toward the shore until soldiers caught up.

 He was returned to the city wearing two heavy iron collars normally used to restrain caged lions, with his feet tightly shackled beneath him. Waiting inside Constantinople were people whose relatives he had executed or blinded. The former emperor was dragged before Isaac and beaten in front of the palace. His beard was torn out, several of his teeth were pulled, and his right hand was removed with an axe.

 He was then thrown into prison without food, water, or treatment. Several days later, one of his eyes was blinded and he was placed on a camel to be paraded through Constantinople. Crowds followed him across the city, striking him with sticks and stones as the procession moved toward the Hippodrome. At one point, someone threw a pot of scalding water over his face.

 Yet, he remained conscious as the camel carried him toward the arena. The Hippodrome was normally used for chariot races and imperial ceremonies, and Andronicus had once appeared there above the crowd as emperor. This time, he entered it as their prisoner. Inside the Hippodrome, Andronicus was suspended upside down between two columns.

 The contemporary historian Niketas Choniates recorded that he remained in possession of his senses throughout the final attack. As the crowd continued striking him, Andronicus repeated “Lord have mercy” and asked why they were still attacking a man who was already broken. They did not stop until he was dead. Even then, his body remained hanging inside the Hippodrome for several days before it was finally taken down and thrown into one of the arena’s vaults.

 Only later did a small group of people move his remains to a nearby monastery. By the time Andronicus died, several days had passed since his capture. Three years earlier, the people of Constantinople had opened their gates and welcomed him as a savior. In the end, he was killed inside the city’s own arena by the population he had once ruled.

 Thanks for watching and I’ll catch you next time.