The Groom of The Stool - Ridiculous History

After great battles during the medieval period, it was often the job of the local women to help count the bodies of the men killed. As dead bodies are so heavy, they commonly chopped off one of the hands of every corpse and placed them in a large canvas bag which was later emptied for counting. The bag was commonly called a ‘handbag’, leading to the name we have for women’s bags today.