Women did not escape torture and punishment during this violent era - Anne Askew was put to the rack for her religious beliefs, and subsequently died, during the reign of Elizabeth's father King Henry VIII. The highest nobles were automatically exempt from torture but other courtiers were not. Instruments and means of torture, for unproven crimes, included the following:

• The Rack
• The Scavenger's Daughter
• The Collar
• The Iron Maiden
• Branding Irons
• The Wheel
• Thumbscrews
• The Gossip's Bridle or the Brank
• The Drunkards Cloak
• Ducking stools
• The Pillory and the Stocks
• Assorted instruments designed to inflict intense pain

METHODS OF TORTURE DURING THE ELIZABETHAN ERA

• Whipping
• Cutting
• Branding and Burning
• Pressing
• Boiling in oil water or lead (usually reserved for poisoners )
• Starvation in a public place
• Cutting off various items of the anatomy - hands, ears etc