The Iron Maiden, often thought to be a medieval torture device, is actually an 18th-century hoax. First mentioned by German philosopher Johann Philipp Siebenkees, the Iron Maiden was never used during the Middle Ages but was a product of later myth-making. This device, along with other supposed medieval torture tools, was fabricated to portray the past as more brutal than it was.
The Iron Maiden Torture Device: an 18th-Century Hoax