Time travel to medieval Europe - Q&A

I answer questions that prospective time travelers raised in my initial briefing.

FOOTNOTES

1. Eileen Power, Medieval Women, ed. M. M. Postan (Cambridge University Press, 1975), chapter 3; Diane Bornstein, The Lady in the Tower: Medieval Courtesy Literature for Women (Archon, 1983), chapter 6; Maryanne Kowaleski, “Women’s Work in a Market Town: Exeter in the Late Fourteenth Century,” in Women and Work in Preindustrial Europe, ed. Barbara A. Hanawalt (Indiana University Press, 1986), 145–64; Joseph and Frances Gies, Women in the Middle Ages: The Lives of Real Women in a Vibrant Age of Transition (Thomas Y. Crowell, 1992), chapter 9; Jennifer Ward, Women in Medieval Europe, 1200–1500, 2nd ed. (Routledge, 2016), chapter 6.

The topic of women as merchants is also briefly mentioned in Power, Medieval Women, 56; Kowaleski, “Women’s Work in a Market Town,” 147, 155; and Ward, Women in Medieval Europe, 88.

5. William of Rubruck, The Mission of Friar William of Rubruck: His Journey to the Court of the Great Khan Möngke, 1253–1255, trans. Peter Jackson (Hackett, 2009).

6. Bernard Hamilton, Religion in the Medieval West (Edward Arnold, 1986), 115, 189–91.

7. Joseph R. Strayer, The Albigensian Crusades (Dial Press, 1971), 22–25; Walter L. Wakefield, Heresy, Crusade and Inquisition in Southern France, 1100–1250 (University of California Press, 1974), 66–67, 76–79; Malcolm Barber, The Cathars: Dualist Heretics in Languedoc in the High Middle Ages (Routledge, 2000), 50–54.

8. By the way, I’m aware of the irony of talking about the Romulans being the sneaky ones while showing images from “The Enterprise Incident.”

VIDEO CREDITS

Stock footage by YuriArcursPeopleimages, chipleader, BlackBoxGuild, StockVideoEU, and perovaphotostock, courtesy of Envato

“Immunization,” 2nd ed., Encyclopaedia Britannica Films, [1955]

“The Enterprise Incident,” Star Trek, directed by John Meredyth Lucas, Paramount, 1968

“Day of the Dove,” Star Trek, directed by Marvin Chomsky, Paramount, 1968

IMAGE CREDITS

Abrégé de la Chronique d’“Enguerran de Monstrelet” (15th century), folio 208
Bibliothèque nationale de France

The Triumph of Death by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1562)
Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

Romans arthuriens by Robert de Boron (c. 1270–90), folio 158v
Bibliothèque nationale de France

The Cloisters Apocalypse (c. 1330), folio 5v, “The Court of Heaven”
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Cloisters Collection, 1968

0:00 Intro
1:01 What if you're a woman?
5:49 What about a woman traveling alone?
8:54 What about guns?
10:33 Can I as an engineer talk to medieval engineers?
10:57 Can I as a surgeon or doctor talk to medieval surgeons or doctors?
11:44 Can I go as a journeyman?
13:53 Health
15:51 Would it be weird that I have healthy teeth?
17:09 What if I have tattoos?
18:53 What if I wear eyeglasses and can't wear contacts?
22:03 Buddhism correction
29:37 What if I have other non-Catholic beliefs?
36:57 What if I am Orthodox?
42:58 Aren't modern social classes the same as the medieval class system?
47:10 What if I try to introduce modern technology?
48:55 What if I tell people about democracy?
49:21 What if I try to teach people modern science?
51:35 Would medieval people even understand the concept of time travel?
53:14 Should I be concerned about bears or wolves?
53:27 Novels about time travelers visiting the Middle Ages
54:32 Endnotes and credits

[premodernist_history]

CORRECTION: The smallpox vaccine is still produced.

Long ago I asked my doctor if I could get vaccinated for smallpox, and he said no. Over the intervening twenty years my memory of that degraded from "I'm not allowed to get it" to "They no longer manufacture it."

But in fact they do still manufacture it. But it's only provided to select people on a need-to-have basis.

Make sure you seek it out before your trip. I don't care if it isn't super easy to transmit. A bout of smallpox is no joke.

[MrCheeze]

"The episodes won't be able to come out very rapidly, because I have to do a lot of research." Now that's something you love to hear!

[edwardcardona]

There's no way you actually think that the people watching an hour long history video about medieval Europe don't want you to nerd out about a passage you've read that feels significant to you. This is EXACTLY the sort of audience that wants to hear the details. Please, please, follow your heart on this stuff. The whole channel and video is just you talking about things you want to talk about, that's why we love it.

[LandonEpps]

I’d like to believe the only reason there were so many pilgrims in medieval Europe is because we eventually invent time travel and it’s the most popular backstory.

[cookieaddictions]

Your annoyance at people who are convinced anything out of the ordinary would get them executed is hilarious 😂

[edudespinosa]

Back in high school I used to have a history teacher who made our classes so engaging that I would spend all the time imagining myself living there. Listening to your videos, I get the same exact feeling. It is so refreshing to have found such an amazing and incredible channel! Your videos are always engaging, well researched and massively interesting!

[NeoForsyth]

You should make this a series. Like "Time traveling to ancient Greece" or "Time traveling to ancient China".
Edit: Yes guys I know he already said this question. At time I commented this, I was only 10 minutes in.

[silence]

Thank you for reassuring that Vegas is a better destination for a bachelorette party than a medieval Paris. Almost made a mistake! lol. Anyway, great video, thank you for sharing your knowledge

[Letterswords]

As an Epidemiology PhD student: On the topic of smallpox, you can actually still get the smallpox vaccine today. It's still used for protection against monkeypox in high-risk individuals, as smallpox and monkeypox are similar enough that the antibodies offer cross-protection. On a historical note: observing the cross-protective effect between cowpox exposure (which results in relatively mild symptoms in humans) and smallpox infection was what led to the development of the first vaccines (and explains the connection of the word vaccine to the latin word for cow, vacca)

[twelvecatsinatrenchcoat]

I like that now he's had a chance to hear our questions, the tone is less "Here's what you need to know!" and more "WHAT ARE YOU DOING THATS NOT HOW THIS WORKS YOURE GOING TO DIE"

[RachelandJunAdventures]

"And boars. No one asked about boars, but that's another thing to be worried about."

I love this line, haha. This is such a fantastic video and series. Thank you for answering everyone's strange, theoretical questions! I really hope to see more videos like this.

Also, my thought with people asking "what about traveling alone" goes straight to the isekai fantasy genre. There is a massive fanbase for isekai fantasy anime/novels/manga/manhwa/etc where someone is unintentionally transported to some sort of alternative world or historical setting and has to make their own way through it. SO my question is: what if you're an unintentional time traveler?

I feel like you would accidentally reveal yourself as being extremely out of place before you even realized what happened. I just imagine walking up to someone and asking to use their phone or inquiring about their old-timey cosplay, or demanding to know if this is "a prank show".

[jackhazardous]

This video has the vibes of a school field trip asking the tour guide questions

[downeastbeast]

Traveling to medieval Europe:
What I expected: "Heretic! KILL HIM!"
What I got: "Hey, so, did you meet that weird guy who called himself an 'astrobiologist'? What an odd fella, man, takes all kinds, huh?"

[jared_deraj]

23:36 "you guys probably don't want me to slow down the whole video" no, that is exactly what I want, I literally cannot get enough of this type of content

[Hunteromega]

I'm glad you mentioned pilgrimage tattoos! You can actually go to Jerusalem today and get a tattoo from the Razzouk family, the same family who was tattooing in Egypt in the 1300s. They still have some of the wooden blocks they used in the 1500s to tattoo pilgrims and crusaders

[johnferris]

Citations throughout (and at the end of) the video, researching a topic thoroughly before releasing a video, clearly distinguishing your opinions, a peer-recognized expert on a subject articulating concepts in clear terms to a naive audience, following up with a Q&A commentary... this is how information should be propagated on the internet! Well done! Even if these videos are infrequent, the broad and lasting impact is undeniable. Thank you

[googlesucks]

"They're just going to think you're wielding a piece of metal". Couldn't stop laughing. Please keep posting these, probably the most interesting history content I've seen on YouTube. I wish I had you as a professor.

[kadmii]

the stock footage of tourists with cameras in front of paintings of medieval battles was extremely funny

Im absolutely loving these videos. They do a great job of conveying how the past is another country in specific to Medieval Europe

[shadetreesurgeon]

My man’s confused exasperation with the YouTube comment section is the most wholesome thing I’ve seen all week.

Found the channel yesterday and been binging the content. Thanks for the entertainment!

[christ.]

These videos are crezy good, it feels like my cool uncle is a history PhD and is answering my dumb memey questions seriously, please never stop