It’s a very common knowledge that people in middle ages had a knack for cruelty. And that insane cruelty (with which you’re probably acquainted by now, thanks to GoT) generally came out in its full glory while punishing people for the crimes they have committed and even for the ones they were just accused of !
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Only last night I was watching the Outlander series, and in one particular episode, our protagonist was accused of practicing witchcraft. Almost even before her trial started (in the episode I mean) the way people were demanding that she be burnt speaks volumes about how bloodthirsty even a lowly peasant was.
Crucifixion
Nailing (or tying) people to a wooden cross and then leaving them out in the open, both for people to see and to die a slow and agonizing death was a very famous practice in the middle ages, as is evident from the story of crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The ‘best’ part of crucifixion was the terror it generated among its witnesses, leaving them mentally too crippled to commit any crime or go against the authorities.
Using rats to kill people
Torturing or killing people using rats still remains a favorite method among people, but in early times it was more so. There was a thing called rat trap where a rat would be put inside a cage. The bottomless cage would be placed on a convict’s body (torso, generally) and the other side of the cage would be heated. The poor rat, finding the other side blocked by the heat, would slowly eat away the victim’s flesh to make way for itself.
The brazen bull
Designed by the ancient Greeks, this method was also called the Sicilian bull, as it was invented in Sicily. This was a device made of bronze, in the shape and size of an actual bull. The condemned person would be locked inside and fire would be set beneath the bull, heating the bronze till the person inside got roasted to death. This device also had such systems that converted screams of the condemned into the bellows of a bull.