Medieval Myths DEBUNKED

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[-joe-davidson]

Another note on the ale they drank is that it was much lower alcohol content back then and they could drink it more casually without getting totally smashed in the process.

[amandajones]

Part of the height myth actually comes from the fact that industrial revolution era people were shorter and more malnourished than the people before AND after them.

[bujin]

Oldest medieval person I've found in Wales was Angharad ferch Owain, wife of Gruffydd ap Cynan and mother of Owain Gwynedd and our "warrior princess" Gwenllian (among many other chlidren), who lived to the ripe old age of 97. Born in 1065 and died in 1162. That's pretty impressive.

[rlamacraft]

Talking of bright colours, the churches and cathedrals would also have been a lot more decorated prior to the reformation. I'm sure they would think our modern taste for unadorned stone and brick is dull

[stuartbaxter-potter]

"There was no progress, it was all grim and 'orrible."

I love the way you phrased this one, and it reminds me that I need to read a new book called the Bright Ages about all the progress that happened in the Middle Ages.

[kleinesgespenst]

Thank you for myth-busting! I keep running into those myths when I teach history, some of them are even in our schoolbooks and the kids are really suprised when I try to explain that it's usually more complicated than that. It's great to have a video to back that up.

[marissabulso]

One thing people often do not realize about the Middle Ages is that it encompasses a massive amount of time. It is difficult to generalize about a swathe of time that spans from the fall of Rome to the Renaissance, and includes many lands.

But one thing surely holds true: people are people are people.

Lovely video, Jason! Many thanks. ❤

[edi]

The colour thing goes a LOT further!
Medieval people loved bright colours and rich patterns. Even hard working farmers had times where they had little to do and probably painted or carved decorations just because. Today, we see grey castles and churches, but they all used to be plastered at least indoors and quite often lavishly decorated.
I heard historians deny the use of decorative plants, but I'm pretty certain that they enjoyed flowers too even if the poorer ones had only place to grow food.

[Riceball]

One big myth that wasn't touched on was that there was no medicine during that time and all they had was lancing/leeching and prayer and if you got so much as a paper cut you were good as dead due to infection. This is, of course, untrue, while they didn't have advanced surgical techniques, or the advanced medicines we have now, they still had medical treatments of various kinds and were aware of the anti-baterial properties (even if they didn't understand the science behind them) of things like honey.They also had some basic surgical techniques, while they probably couldn't repair damaged internal organs, they could at least remove arrows. Famously, Henry V, as a young man/boy, took an arrow to the face, a surgeon was able to remove it by having special tools custom made for him, just for this operation. He was also able to treat the wound and keep it from getting infected by using honey, and I think, vinegar.

[sevenproxies]

I'd like to add a bit to the first myth if I may. Not only was infant mortality high, but death by childbirth complications was also much more common back then compared to today. And most pregnant mothers didn't give birth to their first child in their 30's so their deaths also end up putting a thumb on the scales in terms of death before the age of 30, alongside the high infant mortality rate.

[smallbeard]

Can we have more like this? I want more like this!

I love hearing the little things I already knew myself, but I love hearing even more the things I had no clue about!

[PalmelaHanderson]

You almost touched on it, but the idea that archers (especially English archers) were small, wiry people. I think this mostly comes from modern Tolkienien fantasy tropes (IE archers are long and thin). An English longbowman would have been a beef castle of a man. The minimum draw weight of an English longbow would have been something like 80 pounds, but could easily go up to 140 or 150 pounds. 80 pounds is pretty much the max weight of modern compound bows, at least that you commonly see.

You try pulling back a Yew longbow with a 120 pound draw weight if you're under 6'0" tall and don't have massive shoulders (or rather one massive shoulder, as was the case in medieval times). The strength it takes to do that is incredible.

(side note: that's why the scenes in movies where a commander is yelling at his archers to "HOOOOLD!" is probably inaccurate. It's too hard to maintain any kind of accuracy when you're pulling that kind of draw weight for any extended period of time.)

[WPTheRabbitHole]

great video, thank you..
it always amazed me how people would flippantly say "Medieval people didn't drink water" or "Medieval people all died at 30"..

[EvilLPS]

Just to add to the first myth, people normally say that a simple wound or infection could kill you, and this would all be a reason to have a low life, but in fact, people in medieval times were quite clean (maybe not by our modern standards) and had crude and unsophisticated but somewhat effective methods to deal with this kind of problem.

[paulapridy]

I am fascinated by archaeology but your content gives a more firm grip for me of the relics I can observe. Thank you.

[cindyrissal]

Low ceilings meant smaller room volume...took less to heat it...short doors were easier to defend, also...the bad guys had to duck to come in. In this position they were slightly more vulnerable...

[HappyBabushka]

I think a lot of misconceptions about the middle ages come from our memory of the victorion period where life was actually awful and people didn't live very long due to chemical and pollution exposure coupled with terrible city diets. It wasn't till ww2 when kids were evacuated to the countryside that the country people saw city folk and noticed how poorly and feeble the children were despite rationing not being in full swing in london at that stage

[jessecunningham]

Great video!
A few more tidbits to add about doorways and scientific progress:
1) I remember reading that Viking settlements had small doors, with each home facing a different direction. Can’t remember the purpose of this, but I think it had something to do with defense.
2) One author stated it quite eloquently, that the Renaissance was merely the blossoming or culmination of all the scientific progress that had been happening during the medieval era.
In fact, if you look at the history of technology, the medieval era was one of unprecedented advances in technology unlike the world had experienced beforehand.

[Solhai]

I hadn't realized the part about the actual size of people compared to their houses and what 'amenities' or needs the household would provide in such a time. Explaining misnomers like these is so useful to not alienate us from the past and our earlier foundations. Thank you!

[wilkothewilkoman]

Fascinating as usual Jason. Wish my history teachers at school had ridden up to class wearing mail with an arming sword, it could have been way more interesting.