The Company Ecorcheur Medieval Society

Medieval Misconceptions
An FAQ of the 15th Century

As re-enactors, we strive to educate our audience. Often, the reality of life in the 15th century is far more interesting than the Hollywood myths. In this article, I hope to briefly deal with some of the more common misconceptions! For the purposes of this article, you can take "Medieval" to mean the latter half of the 15th century - in reality "Medieval" covers a period of around about 150 - 400 years from C12th to C16th depending upon whose definition you use!

The most popular questions we get asked don't really make a good basis for an article. The questions are usually variations on the following:
"Is that real?" - we do not use 400-year old artifacts in our combat or living history displays. Items of this age are irreplacable and it would not only be expensive, but irresponsible of us to fight with genuine weapons and armour. Our articles are genrally all authentic reproductions.
"Is that heavy?" - a look at our article on armour should give you a better idea of how and why armour was used.
"Aren't you hot in that?" - a soldier wearing armour over a thick, padded jack and standing in the sun is likely to be hot, yes. Our clothing is generally wool and linen, which is a breathable, natural fibre - but steel plate holds the heat well!

The Myth	The Reality
Ordinary Medieval people grubbed around in the dirt, wearing rags, whilst their Lords lived in splendour.	After the Black Death swept Europe in the mid-14th century, the population had been thoroughly decimated: It is estimated that somewhere between a quarter and a half of the population died. This created a labour vacuum in Europe, England included. A labour shortage meant that landowners now had to compete for a workforce - without whom no land could be worked and therefore no money made. This meant that landowners needed to encourage people to stay on their land, produce food and goods, pay rent and maintain other resources such as forests: Fair rents, subsidised housing, free legal representation and healthcare schemes were some of the incentives offered. Even (perhaps especially) "gong-farmers" (toilet cleaners) earned a respectable wage. If a "peasant" wasn't being treated well, he could simply move on to the next county and was vitrually guaranteed a job with a more caring employer. Merchants and Artisans, in great demand, became the "middle classes" of late Medieval Europe, and suprisingly few members of the population lived in the sort of abject poverty some sources would have you believe.
Medieval people were dirty and unsanitary.	Smelly, perhaps, but not dirty: Although deodorant had yet to be invented, in general people were tidy, clean and washed regularly. Soap was cheaper than salt, and it the expression "cleanliness is next to Godliness" has it's origins in Medieval times. Garderobes and earth-closets provided the Medieval equivalent of toilets, and larger houses would pay for the removal of "nightsoil" by professionals (the "gong farmers" mentioned above) who would take their cargo far away from the town or village for disposal. Most households would have used a hand shower - a device much like a bottle with hundreds of holes in the bottom - which was filled in a bowl of water to enable hands to be washed. It was only really later, as cities expanded and suburbs grew, that sanitation could not cope with the population and a new wave of hygeine issues swept the country. The image of chamber-pots being emptied in the street comes from this later time, and would never have happened in the late 15th century.
Medieval people were uneducated.	The majority of the emerging middle classes, and certainly all of the middle-class & nobility, would have required the ability to read & write. Anyone running their own household needed to keep accounts and send messages to their suppliers or landlords. All but the lowliest social classes would have had a rudimentary "three R's". Some estimates conclude that anything up to two-thirds of the polulation could read & write to some degree. Most of the population was familiar with basic Latin, too - Church services were still conducted in Latin. Almost everyone would have been familiar with mental arithmetic - you need to know if you're getting paid the right amount at least! There were also many gambling games involving dice and cards, which required some mathematical skill. Imagine trying to design, build and decorate cathedrals, universities and castles with a population of idiots!
Medieval people were short.	This could more accurately be stated as "Medieval doorways were low". Indeed, due to the nature of the diet, Medieval people were probably a little shorter than we are now on average. However, they would have been healthy, strong and vigorous - a low sugar, high protein diet coupled with frequent and regular exercise was the order of the day. There was no television to lounge in front of, or cars to drive a mile or two down the road to the shops. Many ordinary people would have worked a smallholding as well as doing a "day job". Many of the "short" Medieval doorways that we see today can be explained in a number of ways: The ground rising from in-fill being the most common. Lower doorways are also easier to construct, retaining the maximum strength in the supporting wall. Some castle doorways are deliberately low to prevent mounted troops from riding through, or to make the carrying of pole-arms difficult. The nobility, with a much better diet, would have had a build not dissimilar to today (but probably healthier). Emperor Maximillian of the Holy Roman Empire, for example, stood 7' 2" (almost 2.2m) in his armour!
And they lived in mud huts.	Most ordinary buildings of the period were timber framed structures which we would immediately recognise as a house today. The walls were mainly constructed of wattle & daub and "newer" late-C15th houses would almost certainly have had a stone or brick chimeny. Roofs of thatch were common, and the better sort of house would have been tiled with slate, stone or clay tiles. Mud huts weren't really practical, given England's weather.
Medieval banquets were rowdy affairs, with quaffing, wenching and bawdy songs.	A typical "Medieval banquet" conjures up images of gnawing chicken legs served by buxom wenches, casting the bones over your shoulder to the dogs that are running around. Nothing could be further from the truth. If fact, Medieval meals were fairly formal affairs governed by the "Sumptuary Laws". Much of the good practice we have today was actually written down in Medieval times and is a large enough subject for an article in it's own right: Not speaking with your mouth full; not putting elbows on the table; and coming to the table with your hands & face washed are all expected at a Medieval meal. Most people ate in groups (either family or household) and it was expected that you would respect the "rules" for the sake of everyone else. There certainly wouldn't be any animals allowed at the table. Larger households rich enough to afford musicians might have some gentle background music, but for your ordinary folks, mealtimes were fairly well behaved affairs, with time for quiet conversation. Oh, and "wench", by the way, is a term usually applied to prostitutes.
The food was boring.	If Gilded Peacock and Honey-glazed Pork with Juniper Berries is boring, then so be it. Obviously, the quality of your food was dependent upon your station - the larger noble households prepared fantastic and unusual dishes (the gilded peacock mentioned above may have consisted of a whole peacock, skinned and roasted, then reskinned with the magnificent tail and gilded with real gold leaf). Ordinary households, too, ate reasonably well. Everyone, however, was dependent upon the seasons. There were no strawberries in December, and cheeses would generally be kept in storage for the winter. The staple diet of the common man would have been a "pottage" or stew. Both "standing pottage" (very thick stews) and "running pottage" (more like a stock or broth) were popular and contained whatever was available: Vegetables, dairy products, any available meat and home-grown herbs - making a tasty and filling souplike dish. The Medieval palate was subtler, as sugar and especially salt were quite expensive. Therefore, small amounts of herbs and spices would have made huge taste-differences to the food. Medieval man had sausages, pork scratchings, steaks, pies and paté - much as we do today. In the C15th, English cookery had the sort of premium reputation that French or Italian cuisine has today. Some sources even claim that it was us that tought the French how to cook. Click here for more detail about ordinary, everyday food.
Armoured Knights couldn't move around and had to be helped up if they fell over.	Wrong. A knight in armour was a terrifying and effective killing machine on the battlefield. Far from the lumbering "tin can" most people perceive, armoured men were mobile and deadly. A fuller explanation can be found here!
Everyone ran round burning witches.	Wrong on several counts, I'm afraid. The "Witch Burning" myth stems from a much later period - the 17th century. In the 15th century, the midwives and herbalists persecuted in the C17th were respected members of the community. Those later "witch trials" were generally instigated by doctors, in collaboration with the church: Midwives and herbalists were usually local people who did a lot of good (and cheap) work in and for the community in which they lived. Doctors, and their newly established scientific community, who charged comparatively large sums of money for their services, despised these traditional healing methods and so arose the whole "witch" culture of that period. During the C17th, witches were actually hanged in England, although in Scotland and much of Europe, burning was the accepted method. In the 15th century, many people would have a reasonable working knowledge of natural healing methods.
They thought the earth was flat.	By the time of the late fifteenth century, it was becoming accepted that we lived on a sphere - although theories of how we stayed on it were still under debate! Regular trade with the continent & the East had seen advances in navigation that proved the earth was indeed round. There is even evidence to suggest that many fishermen were following the ancient Viking routes accross the Atlantic and fishing in the rich waters off the east coast of North America (they would want to keep these rich waters to themselves, mind you, which is probably why there is so little documentary evidence to support this theory). Most scholars, however, favoured the theory that Earth was at the centre of the whole affair. These seeds of scientific reasoning provided the foundation for the scientific explosion of the burgeoning Rennaisance. Most ordinary people probably didn't care less as long as it didn't effect them. This cutting-edge scientific reasoning had as much relevance to ordinary people as room-temerpature fusion does to us today: It's staggeringly important, but isn't widely understood and probably won't benefit us for decades.
They had no healthcare.	Picture this: A soldier gets hit in the face with a weapon. The wound breaks the orbit of his eye above the cheekbone, smashes through his upper jaw, dislocates & breaks his lower jaw and exits through the chin. A horrifying injury, and one which even today may be fatal. If the soldier received the right care in good time, he would survive and even fight again one day. This tale of survival happened to a soldier who took part in the battle of Towton in 1461. Some 15 years before his demise at Towton, this soldier had received the injury described above. The wound had been dressed and cleaned and forensic archeology has determined, using the pattern of bone regrowth, that our soldier survived for at least 15 years after his injury. He obviously carried on "working", too, as he was still soldiering when he died of massive head trauma at Towton. He must have made a terrifying sight for his opponents on the battlefield. Medieval healthcare also covered surgery, dentistry and midwifery. Their knowledge of natural remedies and cures was broad and practical. Although many relatively severe injuries could be "repaired" they understood little of infection and the most common cause of death would have been septicemia or related issues. However, Medieval medicine was suprisingly advanced and is a fascinating enough subject for an article in it's own right.