The rock group Iron Maiden got its name from the medieval torture device of the same name.
The most famous of these devices was the iron maiden of Nuremberg.
It was destroyed during WWII air attacks, but pictures remain. In essence, it was a standing box. Spikes protruded from the back of the box, and spikes were also fixed in the doors.
It’s suggested that the door was shut very slowly so as not to kill outright but to first inflict a great deal of pain before death was brought on. The iron maiden drew a lot of interest from 19th-century fiction writers.
As a result, separating what is fact from what was imagined has proven difficult. We do know that it wasn’t used as often as other means of torture or execution.
As a matter of fact, the earliest record of use comes in the very late Middle Ages, in August 1515.