Human history has been filled with gruesome bloodshed, but for some there is one cruel death above all others that stands out as the most horrifying executions on record
If there is one thing the history books can be counted on for, it’s depictions of cruel and unusual punishments. After trying to lead a rebellion against a cruel kingdom, a man faced unimaginable torture – and his co-conspirators were forced to take part in it.
György Dózsa didn’t lead just any rebellion: he wanted to change everything fundamental about the social order in his country, bringing new rights and wealth to the peasant class, scrapping the nobility altogether and redistributing their land, as well as that of the Catholic Church amongst normal people.
Dózsa managed to ramp up a lot of momentum after electing co-leaders in the peasant army, which from an early stage boasted 40,000 members – calling for more members to join from town after town against the nobles, with anti-landlord sentiment rising rapidly.
Historians claim that Dózsa didn’t want to rule himself in the Kingdom of Hungary: he wanted to represent the people, their will, and desires on the political stage. Back in 1514, this and the aims of redistributing lands and wealth from the elite classes and the Catholic Church to the poor were totally radical.
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In one impassioned speech, he said: “Know ye that the treacherous lying nobility have risen up violently against us and against all the crusading armies preparing for holy war, to persecute and exterminate us.” He also encouraged, “ordinary commoners [to] suspend and hang nobles on their own gates, hang on skewers, destroy their property, tear down their houses, and kill their wives and children in the midst of the greatest possible torture.”
With momentum gaining after Dózsa’s early victories, riots began to spread, with the people encouraged they might be able to take the nobility down once and for all. As more and more people joined his peasant army, nobles were killed, often in horrific circumstances, and the mansions of the rich burned down. Nobles who were caught by the revolution but gave into its aims were often let go, though some of Dózsa’s more zealous and angry followers killed some of them anyway.
The authorities began to panic and hired mercenary soldiers to come to their aid. Dózsa and his army got tantalisingly close to the capital city – the nobles had to take him down. The peasant army, in comparison to the heavy cavalry the nobles had to defend themselves, was poorly trained and equpped.
On 15 July 1514, Dózsa’s army fell in a brutal battle near modern-day TimiÈ™oara, now-Romania. The nobles might have finally defeated the quickly-spreading revolution, but they had to utterly destroy the man at the centre of it, and the punishment they inflicted on him has been dubbed by some as the “cruelest death in history”.
Dózsa was allegedly forced to sit on an iron throne that had been heated until it was smouldering, and wear a crown of iron and hold a sceptre that was equally hot: all in an attempt to humiliate him for trying to become leader. Nine of his fellow rebels were starved in the meantime, before being brought into the room to become complicit in his punishment.
The next steps saw hot pliers put into his flesh, before his co-conspirators were forced to take bites of his skin that had been broken by the pliers, and eat them. Initially, some refused, but after they were immediately and brutally executed, reportedly cut into pieces. Those who remained, terrified, did as they were told.
Little is known about the origins of György Dózsa, with historians disputing whether the revolution leader was from a noble family or the son of an infantry captain. Whether or not the same branch of the Dózsa family has continued is unknown, but one historian claims that revolution ran in the bloodline, alleging that his brother János may have led another rebellion.
