Spanish Inquisition
Unlike their Imperial counterparts, the Spanish Inquisiton does not shove Inquisitorial retinues up your ass whenever you commit the slightest of offences. It was however probably inspired by it, or at least, the romanticized version of it, with the grim dark turned up a few notches of course.
They were a combined political/religious party formed in 1480 by the Spanish Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms and to replace the Medieval Inquisition, which was under Papal control.
The Spanish Inquisition is often stated in popular literature and history as an example of Catholic intolerance and repression. Modern historians have tended to question earlier accounts concerning the severity of the Inquisition. Henry Kamen asserts that the 'myth' of the all-powerful, torture-mad inquisition is largely an invention of nineteenth century Protestant authors with an agenda to discredit the Papacy and further exaggerated later by anti-Christian and/or anti-religious critics. Although records are incomplete, about 150,000 persons were charged with crimes by the Inquisition and about 3,000 were executed (with some escaping before the sentence was carried out so the Spanish Inquisition merely burnt them in effigy).
While they have a reputation for torture, they actually had regulations on how far the torture could go; no removing body parts and nothing that resulted in death. The first head of the Spanish Inquisition made frequent use of torture, the Pope at the time went to the King and Queen of Spain to try and rein him in. Despite this the Spanish Inquisition are known to have been fairer, and used torture less often, than the secular courts at the time. There were several cases where people were on trial in secular courts for lesser crimes and blasphemed in the court room just so they could be tried by the Spanish Inquisition instead.
Victoria Lamb makes some pretty badass Spanish Inquisitorial models.