Foot roasting

2025-07-25T14:14:12Z

2601:14B:4100:61E0:680E:470:3BEE:6EFE: /* Ancient Rome */

{{short description|Method of torture}}
{{More citations needed|date=February 2018}}

[[File:The story of our Christianity; an account of the struggles, persecutions, wars, and victories of Christians of all times (1893) (14597346288).jpg|thumb|300x300px|Engraving of the Spanish Inquisition where a woman is being prepared for torture.]]

'''Foot roasting''' is a method of [[torture]] used since ancient times.

==Ancient Rome==
The [[Ancient Rome|Romans]] immobilized the prisoner and pressed red-hot iron plates to the soles of his feet. The [[Spanish Inquisition]] bound the prisoner face-upward to the rack with his bare feet secured in a [[stocks]]. The soles of the feet were basted with [[lard]] or oil and slowly barbecued over a [[brazier]] of burning coals. A screen could be interposed between the feet and the coals to modulate the exposure, while a [[bellows]] controlled the intensity of the flame. A version that consisted of a chair with an integrated foot stocks was referred to as the Spanish chair,<ref>Swain, John, ''The Pleasures of the Torture Chamber'', New York: Dorset Press, 1931.</ref> but this is readily confused with the [[Iron chair]]. By way of contrast, in the Brittany chair, the coals were held in a movable iron tray which could be cranked upward until it actually made contact with the feet.<ref>Abbott, Geoffrey, ''Rack, Rope, and Red-Hot Pincers'', Cadwell, ID: Caxton Press, 2000</ref> Added diversions included placing slivers of hot coals between the toes, or suspending the prisoner head-downward and placing hot coals directly on the soles.{{Failed verification|date=March 2023}} The destruction of the Order of the [[Knights Templars]] is credited largely to foot roasting, which was committed with savagery sufficient to, literally, drive the sufferers to insanity; Knights also had their toes [[Denailing|denailed]].<ref>Robinson, John J., ''Dungeon, Fire and Sword: The Knights Templars in the Crusades'', Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1991.</ref>

It horrifies our sensibilities that even young children were occasionally subjected to the foot roasting torture. The underlying theory was that the shock and horror of the unbelievably savage agony would likely induce immediate compliance with the torturer's demands, thereby restricting physical injury to an absolute minimum.

== Brittany ==
In [[Brittany]], a torture chair was used<ref>Geoffrey Abbott, ''Rack, Rope, and Red-Hot Pincers'', London: Trafalgar Square Publishing, 1993, pp. 106-107.</ref> that immobilized the feet and provided a movable tray of coals that could be cranked up and down, eventually making physical contact with the soles of the feet.

== Star kicking ==
A form of torture called "star kicking" supposedly began with [[Countess Elizabeth Bathory]], who derived sadistic pleasure from placing oiled bits of paper or string between her prisoners’ toes and lighting the material on fire, inflicting savage burns.<ref>Kimberly L. Craft, ''Infamous Lady: The True Story of Countess Erzsebet Bathory'', North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace Independent Publishing, 2002, p. 232.</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Torture]]
[[Category:Ancient instruments of torture]]

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Foot roasting