Medieval Torture – The Horrific Oubliette
Perhaps the most horrendous punishment given to supposed offenders centuries ago, was confinement within the dreaded oubliette – a dark and sinister type of prison.
The term oubliette is French in origin and comes from the French verb, oublier, meaning ‘to forget.’
The oubliette was given this name as the victim was essentially thrown in there to be forgotten.
It was effectively a type of dungeon with zero light, and you could only enter through a trap door in the roof.
Because of the shape of these prisons, they are often also known as bottle dungeons.
Oubliettes were built as narrow pits, in which the prisoner had little room to do anything but sit there and contemplate the horrendous situation they now found themselves in.
Sometimes lords would starve the victim, or they would be given just enough food and drink thrown down to them, to die a slow agonising death.
This was doubtlessly worse than a swift end, as the victim was kept alive for months or even years in the dark, losing one’s sanity.
Unlike the stereotypical image of a dungeon being located in the basement of a castle or building, the oubliettes were sometimes built into the walls of the upper floors.
This was, so victims were surrounded by the noise and signs of life around them as they slowly expired.
When they did die, the deceased’s corpse was sometimes left to rot there.
This would attract vermin, and the presence of rats.
A half-devoured and rotting body would also act as a brutal addition to the terror, when its next victim arrived.
As a result, many examples of oubliettes have been discovered with the skeletal remains of an assortment of victims, whose bones were never removed.
Oubliettes were most prevalent during the High Middle Ages and Late Middle Ages, between about 1100 AD and 1500 AD.
For instance, the famous Bastille Prison in Paris appears to have had an oubliette.
At the same time, there are many examples of oubliettes in castles located across the English and Irish countryside.
A good example is Warwick Castle, Warwickshire in the English Midlands.
This castle was first built at the behest of William the Conqueror in 1068.
An oubliette was installed, one which was so narrow that the victim had to remain lying in a prone position, unable to stand up.
Such oubliettes were doubtlessly being used against the Normans’ political enemies, in the newly conquered England.
😳 The Oubliette in the lower dungeon of Warwick Castle.
