8 Medieval Traps Designed to Keep Intruders Alive as Long as Possible

8 Medieval Traps Designed to Keep Intruders Alive as Long as Possible Sometime around 1534, a new device appeared in the Tower of London, commissioned under Sir Leonard Skeffington, Lieutenant of the Tower during the reign of Henry VIII. It became known as Skeffington's gyves, or, more grimly, the Scavenger's Daughter. Unlike the rack, which tore the body apart by stretching it, this device worked in the opposite direction entirely.