Some image are so implanted in Medieval - inspire fantasy stories that it ’s tantalising to think that they make up material aspects of Medieval spirit . But often these write up are just reinforcing myths and misconceptions about life in the Middle Ages .
Top image from the Dragonlance series , which I love , but is steeped in pseudo - Medievalism .
One thing that it ’s important to remember when talking about the Medieval period is that it span a long time — from the 5th C CE to the fifteenth 100 CE — and involves a great number of European land . You ’ll notice that a great deal of the debunkery here involves fourteenth century England , thanks to works likeThe Time Traveler ’s scout to Medieval Englandby Ian Mortimer and the whole kit and boodle ofJoseph Gies and Frances Gies(although another source , Misconceptions About the Middle Ages , cover a snatch more ground ) . But the point here is that the Middle Ages were , in fact , far richer than the Medieval - comparable options of many swords and black art story would lead you to think .
Do fancy novel need to be historically accurate ? Certainly not . Part of the fun of worldbuilding is manufacture raw ideas , or fuse component of dissimilar refinement and time periods , and even integrating historical myths and misconception . But If you read a lot of books or watch a lot of movie with pseudo - Medieval setting , you may total away with a false opinion that you know what life in the Middle Ages was like . Plus , real history offers new estimate that you might want to incorporate into your own history in the future .
And this is not to say that all chivalric - esque circumstance luxate into these myths ; only that many , many do .
This post was instigate bythis gripping yarn on reddit ’s r / AskHistorians , which we highlighted a while back . Here are the misconception , with debunkery below :
It ’s easy to think that citizenry in the Middle Ages were easily divided into very broad classes : royal , nobles , knight , clergy , and fag peasants at the very bottom . But just because you did n’t have “ king , ” “ lord , ” “ sir , ” “ Padre , ” or “ buddy ” ( or their distaff analogue ) in front of your name does n’t mean you were n’t interested with your own social standing . There are vast class of people whom , today , we might more often than not refer to as “ peasants , ” but there were actually various class of people within that broad class .
Mortimer points out that , in 14th - century England , for example , you have your serf , the great unwashed bond to a especial lord ’s soil . villein were not considered costless folk , and they could be betray with the lord ’s land . And barren phratry were of a diverseness of societal and economic classes . A freeholder , for case , might become successful enough to rent a lord ’s manor , fundamentally acting as a lord himself . And , in a village , a few families might have the bulk of the political power , supply most of the local officers . We may tend to think of these mass as “ peasant , ” but they had much more complicated ways of mentation of themselves , with all the socio-economic class anxiety that goes with that .
There are few icon as firmly rooted in pseudo - Medieval fantasy as the tavern inn . You and your company enjoy a few flagons of ale in the main way , hear all the local gossip , then go up to your secret rented bedroom where you ’d catch some Z’s ( alone or with a lover ) on a lumpy mattress .
That image is n’t totally fiction , but the truth is a snatch more complicated — not to mention interesting . In Medieval England , if you combined a city inn with an alehouse , you ’d probably get something resembling that fantasy inn . There were inns where you could take a bed ( or , more likely , a space in a bottom ) , and these inns did have lobby for consume and drinking . But these were not public houses ; innkeepers were generally permitted to help food and toast only to their guests . And , Mortimer points out , you would likely discover a single way with several bottom , beds that could fit up to three citizenry . It was only in the most upscale hostelry that you ’d find chambers with just one or two layer .
There were establishments for drink in these cities as well : tap house for wine and alehouses for ale . Of the two , alehouses were the rowdier constitution , more likely to run as your Medieval Mos Eisley . But ale and cider were often made at home as well ; a husband might expect his wife to be skilled in brewing . The Gieses note inLife in a Medieval Villagethat a tavern in an English small town was often someone ’s dwelling house . Once your neighbour opened up a unused batch of ale , you might go to their house , pay a few pennies , and seat and drink with your fellow villager .
There are other selection for adjustment as well . Travelers could expect the cordial reception of masses of equal or lesser social course of study , enjoying their food and beds in rally for tale from the route and a hint . ( Mortimer enunciate that , if you were golden enough to stay with a 14 - hundred merchant , the digs were much nicer than any inn . ) Or you might go to a hospital , which was not just for healing , but also for hospitality .
sure enough , some fantasy stories will cast women in equal ( or comparatively adequate ) billet to military personnel , carrying out the same sort of trades that men might conduct out . But in many fictional stories , a woman who get armour or sells good would seem out of place — although this does not universally reflect Medieval reality . In England , a widow woman could take up the trade of her idle married man — and Mortimer specifically cites tailor , armourer , and merchant as craft open to widow woman . Some distaff merchants were actually quite successful , managing external trading ventures with impressive capital .
char engaged in criminal action as well , including banditry . Many criminal work party in Medieval England consisted of families , including wives with their husband and babe with their brothers .
Image from the Holkham Bible Picture Book , via theBritish Library Board .
Sorry , even in the Middle Ages , members of cultured society , from kings to villeins , followed certain etiquette , and that etiquette involved adept table manners . In fact , depending on when and where and with whom you were eat , you might have to follow very strict function for use up and drunkenness . Here ’s a confidential information : If a lord pass you his cup at the dinner tabular array , it ’s a sign of his favour . live with it , backwash and all , and pass it back to him after you ’ve had a sip .
In some fantasy level , magic is pronto accepted by everyone as a fact of life . In others , magic is treat with hunch at best or as blasphemy at worst . You might even discover the Biblical edict , “ Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live . ”
But not all claim of thaumaturgy in the Middle Ages were treated as heterodoxy . In her essay “ Witches and the Myth of the Medieval ‘ Burning Time , ' ” from Misconceptions About the Middle Ages , Anita Obermeier state us that during the tenth century , the Catholic Church was n’t interested in trying witch for heresy ; it was more interested in eradicating heretical superstitions about “ night - fell creatures . ”
And in fourteenth - century England , you might consult a thaumaturge or a witch for some minor “ charming ” job , such as finding a lost object . In Medieval England , at least , magic without any dissident components was tolerated . Eventually , the late 15th hundred would give rise to the Spanish Inquisition , and we do see witches hunt down .
Witch burnings were n’t unheard of in the Middle Ages , but they were n’t common , either . Obermeier explain that , in the 11th C , sorcery was treated as a secular crime , but the church would issue several reprimands before it would resort to burning . She set the first burning for unorthodoxy at 1022 in Orleans and the second at 1028 in Monforte . It ’s uncommon in the 11th and twelfth century , but becomes a more common penalization in the 13th one C for relapsed heretics . However , it bet where you are . In the 14th century , you in all probability wo n’t be burned as a hag in England , but you may very well get the stake in Ireland .
Yes , knightly the great unwashed of various social class were interested in way , and sometimes way — particularly gentleman’s gentleman ’s fashion — drive somewhat derisory . former wearable is more functional , but during the 14th century , men ’s fashions in England were both consistence - heraldic bearing and rather experimental . Corsets and supporter were mutual for men , and increasingly , popular fashions encouraged men to show off the shape of their hips and leg . Some aristocratic man wore gown with sleeves so long they were in danger of tripping on the cuffs . It became stylish to wear horseshoe with extraordinarily recollective toe — one such brake shoe , imported from Bohemia , had twenty - inch toe that needed to be draw to a human beings ’s garters . There was even a cult of bust one ’s mantle so that the caput run through the arm hole rather than the headspring hole , with the sleeves functioning as a voluminous collar .
Image : pick of Medieval leather shoes from theMuseum of London .
It ’s also important to note that fashions would trickle down from royalty , through the aristocracy , and down to the common ethnic music . In the season after a fashion appeared among the nobility , a less expensive version would appear among those of lesser stations . In fact , sumptuary laws were go past in London to preclude people from dressing above their stations . For lesson , a common woman in 1330s London was not permitted to line her hood with anything but sheepskin or rabbit pelt , or risk of infection lose her hood .
Actually , if you were a high - ranking mortal , opportunity are that you had high - ranking servants . A lord might broadcast his son to serve in another lord ’s manor house — perhaps that of his married woman ’s brother . The son would receive no income , but would still be treated as the son of a lord . A lord ’s steward might really be a lord himself . Your position in society is n’t just based on whether or not you were a servant , but also your familial status , whom you served , and what your particular chore was .
Something you might not expect about servant in English menage in the former Middle Ages : they were overwhelmingly male . Mortimer direct to the earl of Devon ’s household , which had 135 member , but only three cleaning lady . With the exception of a washerwoman ( who did n’t live in the house ) , the staffers were all valet , even in households headed by women .
avowedly , if you ’re looking out of doors of Game of Thrones , a lot of healing in fantasy novel is just plain magical . You ’ve got your cleric family who suffer their healing from the gods , and otherwise you might have someone on hand who can dress a wounding or make a poultice .
And yes , a spate of Medieval medication was based on what we would consider today mystical buncombe . A great mickle of diagnosis involved astrology and humoral theory . Blood letting was a respected method of treatment , and many of the remedy were not only useless — they were downright dangerous . And while there were aesculapian colleges , extraordinarily few physicians were capable to attend .
Still , some aspects of Medieval medicine were logical even by modern standards . Wrapping variola in scarlet cloth , handle gout with genus Colchicum , using camomile oil color for an earache — these were all effective treatments . And while the notion of a barber - surgeon is a appal one to many of us , some of those sawbones were in reality quite talented . John of Arderne employed anesthetics in his drill , and many surgeons were skilled in couching cataract , stitchery abscesses , and gear up finger cymbals .
From John Arderne ’s De arte phisicali et de cirurgia , viaWikimedia Commons .
James G. Patterson , in his essay“The Myth of the Mounted Knight”from Misconceptions About the Middle Ages , explains that while the image of the mount knight might have been a democratic one during Medieval fourth dimension , it did n’t pit the realness of warfare . Armored cavalry , he explain , can be incredibly utile — even devastating — against untrained subverter , but they were far less utile against a educate foreign foot . Rather , ground forces , admit knights on foot who frequently wait on as officer , were priceless in conflict . Even during the Crusades , when the image of the mounted knight seemed synonymous with glory in battle , most the genuine battles involved beleaguering .
In the 14th century , English war focused progressively on archery . In fact , Edward III interdict football in 1331 and then again in 1363 in part because people were spending too much time playing football game and not enough time practicing their archery . The English Archer were able to repel many a Gallic horse power .
A common opinion during the Middle Ages was that women were more lustful than men . A lot more lustful , in fact . Rape was a criminal offense in fourteenth century Medieval England , but not between spouses . A wife could not legally refuse her husband ’s advances , but a husband could not refuse his wife ’s advances either . The democratic belief was that woman were always hanker for sex , and that it was bad for their health not to have intercourse regularly . A woman ’s climax was also important ; another rough-cut belief was that a cleaning lady could not conceive without an coming . ( alas , this also made rape impossible to prosecute if the dupe became pregnant ; Medieval English scholars believe women ’s soundbox had a mode of , in the modern parlance , shutting things down . )
So what was an unmarried woman to do ? Well , if she could n’t chance a hubby , the English physician John of Gaddesden recommended that she find oneself a accoucheuse who could get the job done manually .
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