People were filthy. No, they weren’t. The great Graeco-Roman bath culture survived well to the Middle Ages, and it was ubiquitous . There were public saunas in towns, and people bathed and swam – they knew well the connection between filth and diseases. Here is the chart of the spread of Western style and Eastern style saunas in the High Middle Ages
Bathing ended almost overnight in the 16th century with spread of syphilis. The following centuries (1500 to 1850) were incredibly filthy. Sauna survived only in the periphery where there was an abundance of firewood – the Finnish sauna is the last remnant of the unbroken bathing culture tradition from Antiquity.
People died young. No, they didn’t. If you lived past five, you were likely to live past fifty. The average age statistics are skewed by the fact child mortality was high, and only approximately half of all children lived past five. But those who survived, were likely to attain 60 to 70 years age, and centenarians were not unknown.
A simple infection meant death. No, it didn’t. While antibiotics were not known, people had this thing called immune system. Actually people have it still. It is true septicemia could mean death, but people usually had strong immune systems and allergies were thus rare.
People were stupid and illiterate. No, they weren’t. They were illiterate because they lacked a writing medium. Once paper was introduced in the 12th century, literacy spread like wildfire. Most people could read and write their mother tongue to some extent; the definition of an illiterate was inability to read and write Latin.
People married young. No, they didn’t. The usual age of marriage was around 25 – people married only when they could afford it and had means of raising a family. Nobility, though, betrothed young – as marriage was a serious business and a pact between families – but the betrothal was not the same as marriage and it could be dissolved if found a bad deal.
Everything was drab, grey or livid. No, it wasn’t. The vegetable and mushroom dyes were well known, and paints existed. Clothes (with exception of linen, which is notoriously hard to dye) were dyed bright, and even poisonous mushrooms could be used on dyeing. Our re-enactment club has prepared dyes and done dyeing, and everyone was astonished on how bright and lively the colours obtained with mushrooms were!
Serfs were slaves. No, they weren’t. Serfs were unfree peasants; it meant they were bound to their land and could not move away without master’s permission and they had to pay rent and tithes to the master. But they were considered as human beings instead of chattel, they had their legal rights and responsibilities, they could not be killed at will, they had right to ownership and they had legitimate right to run away if treated badly. The rent was usually reasonable, and Church acted as social security. There was an incentive for the lord to treat peasants well, as they produced better and paid better rents and would not flee. Slavery disappeared already in the 7th century from most parts.
Gazillions of women were burnt as witches. No, they weren’t. Witchcraft was considered a stupid superstition and old wives’ tales, and usually ignored. Witchcraft was prosecuted only if it had caused someone’s death (usually poisoning). Far worse would be to prosecuted from heresy – it could lead into grave consequences, and most heretics were men. Witch hunts became an issue only during the Renaissance, when the grip of the Catholic church loosened and people’s mind opened to all kinds of beliefs and superstitions like astrology, which had so far been considered as flimflam.
People starved and famines were ubiquitous. No, they didn’t and they weren’t. Crops were usually good – the climate had changed warmer during the 8th century, and people ate well. No wonder why gluttony was considered as the mortal sin of the peasants! Famines became commonplace only during the 15th century and climate change. They were really bad during the Little Ice Age.
People ate no meat. It is true domestic animals were slaughtered only in the wintertime and fresh beef, mutton and pork were available only around Christmas, but most of the meat was processed into sausage and other preserves, and people ate small game and poultry. Rabbits, hares, forest fowl, badgers and foxes were an important source of meat. In addition fish was an important source of proteins.
Women were treated like slaves. No, they weren’t, and they could work and own property. The rights of women were first codified in the Land Law of Magnus Barnlock in Sweden 1280. Some trades, like dyeing and brewing, were dominated by women – to the extent that the surnames ‘Dwyer’ and ‘Brewster’ meant female tradespeople.
The whole Middle Ages were Dark Ages because Church impeded all science. This must be the biggest lie of them all. The term ‘Dark Ages’ has a clear and concise contents – it is the period from collapse of Western Roman Empire to Carolingian Renaissance (476–800 AD) and it is called ‘dark’ because there are very few surviving documents of the era (there was no paper and parchment was horribly expensive). In fact, Church kept the civilization alive, it kept the philosophical tradition alive (the Scholastics, for example, discovered the concepts of infinitely small and infinitely large in the 12th century) and cultivated science and technology – every Cistercian monastery had a factory within. Most people behind the Scientific Revolution were actually clergymen.
Persecution of Jews was ubiquitous. No, it wasn’t. The Catholic Church especially prohibited any pogroms and persecutions by Sicut Judaeis, and while they were treated as ‘outsiders’, outright persecutions were rare. You could live relatively cosy life as a Jew in an European city.
Knights needed to be hoisted with a crane to horseback. No, they didn’t, as the armour would weigh less than modern infantryman’s full kit and the weight was much better distributed. I have witnessed a fully armoured man-at-arms running and catching an unarmoured archer, and I have witnessed re-enactors doing cartwheels, somersaulting and even swimming in armour. The ‘Gothic’ armour was both awesome looking and awesomely functional.
Swords were heavy and clumsy. No, they weren’t. They were thin, usually weighed less than one kilo, and the blob at the other end of the sword, called ‘pommel’, is there to balance the sword, not to prevent grip slipping. Medieval swordplay was swift, quick, awesome – and deadly. A well balanced sword has excellent moment of inertia and is lightning fast to use.