These facts about the middle ages show exactly why the medieval period is known as the “Dark Ages” and make you glad you were born in the 21st century.
Some believe that the medieval period was a great period for the people with the likes of kings, castles, knights, and damsels. But this period was far more vicious and bizarre than most realize.
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Here are 26 most fascinating and bizarre facts about the middle ages that would make you glad you live in the 21st century and not the medieval period.
26. The Black Death killed approximately half of Europe’s population. However, you would have had only a 50 chance of survival, and that’s not even counting all the other manic stuff that could kill you!
25. If you lived in the 1340s during the epidemic. During the Salem witch trials, there wasn’t a single case of the incriminated witches who were actually burned at the stake. The majority were jailed, and some were hanged or pressed. But out of the 2,000 people accused of witchcraft, none got burned alive.
24. During the Great Depression, people made clothes out of food sacks. People used potato sacks, flour bags, and anything that was made out of burlap. Because of this tendency, food distributors started to make their sacks more colorful to aid people in remaining a little bit fashionable.
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23. One of the most mysterious phenomena of the Middle Ages was the Dancing Plague. Those tormented would dance continuously and in an attuned manner until they dropped dead of heart attack, stroke, fatigue, or dehydration.
One particular outbreak happened in 1518, in France, killing around 400 people. Another outbreak occurred in 1374, which affected entire towns in France, Belgium, and Luxembourg.
22. In Ancient Greece, they believed redheads turn vampires after death! This was partly because redheaded people are authentically pale-skinned and sensitive to sunlight – unlike the Mediterranean Greeks, who had olive skin.
21. In 1644, English statesman Oliver Cromwell prohibited the eating of pie. He declared it a pagan form of delight. For 16 years, pie eating and making forged underground until the Restoration leaders lifted the ban on pie in 1660.
20. During the Victorian period, it was normal to photograph loved ones after they died. People would dress their recently deceased relatives in their tidy clothing and then put them in natural poses and photograph them. They did this to save one last picture of their dead loved one!
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19. Not all medieval punishments were ferocious; some were just crazy. Occasionally, culprits would have to wear scary animal masks around in public or in the stocks.
Some also had to wear badges publicizing their crimes for the rest of their lives. I’m sure it was uncomfortable and all, but I’ll take that over the Iron Chair.
18. Chrysippus, an ancient Greek philosopher, and one of the founders of Stoicism (which taught self-control and moderation) saw a donkey eating a basket of figs.
He yelled that the donkey needed to be given some wine to wash it down and had a laughing fit until he lost consciousness and died of cardiac arrest.
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17. The most notorious female serial killer was a Hungarian Countess, Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed. She was accused of tormenting and killing over 650 young women. Most of the victims were aged between 10 and 14.
16. Between the 11th and 19th centuries, a number of Buddhist monks followed a practice where they successfully mummified themselves.
They embraced a practice called Sokushinbutsu in which they gradually weaned themselves off food and water and elementally starved themselves to death over the course of a thousand days. It was believed that by successfully mummifying themselves, the monks would attain true enlightenment.
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15. In some Asian countries, death by elephants was a popular form of execution during ancient times. The elephants were instructed to slowly break bones, twist off limbs, crush skulls, or even execute people using large blades fitted to their tusks. In some regions of Asia, this methodology of execution was still popular up to the late 19th century.
14. Before the 19th century, dentures were formed from dead soldiers’ teeth. After the Battle of Waterloo, dentists ran to the battleground to seek out teeth from the thousands of dead soldiers. They then took their bounty to their dental trials and composed them into dentures for the toothless nobility.
13. Count Dracula was said to be inspired by a real person. The titular Count was based on a barbaric ruler with a thirst for blood, none other than history’s own Vlad the Impaler.
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As the monarch of Wallachia, a Romanian region of Transylvania, Vlad soon made a terrifying reputation for himself by killing and impaling the still-shuddering bodies of his enemies on long sticks that he planted outside his castle.
12. Fourteen years before the infamous Titanic sank, author Morgan Robertson wrote the novelette Futility. It was about the grand unsinkable ship “Titan” hitting an iceberg in the Northern Atlantic.
What’s indeed uncanny is the Titanic and the fictional Titan didn’t have enough lifeboats for the thousands of passengers on board – coincidence?
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11. While in reign, Pope Gregory IX declared that cats were to be associated with devil worship and had them wiped out. Some believed that the disappearance of those cats aided rats spread of the bubonic plague, aka the Black Death, that killed millions of people in the 1300s.
10. Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs utilized their slaves as flycatchers. They would apply honey on the bodies of their slaves, which would attract flies to their bodies and would eventually trap and kill the flies.
9. The sound produced by the Krakatoa volcanic eruption in 1883 was so loud it ruptured the eardrums of people 40 miles away, traveled around the world on four occasions, and was easily heard 3,000 miles down. That is like standing in New York and hearing a sound from San Francisco.
8. The guillotine was invented to bring “equality in execution.” Until its extensive use, the regular methodologies of execution in France were rather savage.
Punishment like being drawn and quartered was frequent. The idea to utilize the guillotine as the main approach to execution was part of the movement for equality in France that prodded on the revolution.
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7. There was a belief in the Middle Ages that corpses retained a bitsy spark of life and were thus magical, which justified the practice of ‘cruentation‘. For this, they would place an accused killer in contact with the corpse of their purported victim.
However, that proved the killer’s guilt, If the corpse started spontaneously bleeding. Cruentation was a fairly valid practice and was used as late as the 17th century.
6. Where do people go for entertainment in this town? Try the cemetery! In the Middle Ages, cemeteries used to be the social hub of the community, where people would host theater performances, trials, local elections, and lots more. Also, the business stores in cemeteries were exempted from taxes, and hookers would ply their trade among the tombstones.
5. There are numerous medieval facts and ghoulish tales of corpses rising from the dead in the Middle Ages. One 12th-century author, William of Newburgh, recorded several ‘trustworthy’ accounts of revenants (living dead) and even vampires.
In Scotland, Melrose Abbey monks reported being visited by a dead priest who kept “wailing and grunting in an intimidating fashion.”
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4. In the Middle Ages, even the animals were not spared of the punishments. In 1386, a pig was executed in France. Reason? The pig attacked a child who went to die subsequently from their injuries.
The pig was arrested by the authorities, kept in captivity, and also transferred to court where it stood trial for murder, was found guilty, and also executed by hanging!
3. After a great battle, it was oftentimes the job of the local women to assist in counting the bodies of the men killed.
As dead bodies are so heavy, they generally chopped off the hand of the corpse and disposed of it in a large canvas bag which was subsequently vacated for counting. The bag was generally called a ‘handbag’, leading to the name we’ve for women’s bags today.
2. Back in the 16th century, the wealthy upper class used to eat dead bodies. It was rumored the corpses could cure diseases. The loftiest delicacy? Egyptian mummies.
1. In Medieval Europe, mental disorders were perceived as a sign of demonic possession, moral breaking, or sin. Treatments contained exorcisms, lashing, and trepanning – drilling a hole in the patient’s head to let the demons out, that’s using your head!
Which of the medieval facts makes you think that you were lucky enough not to live during the Middle Ages? Comment below.
After reading all of that interesting facts of the medieval times I am blessed and thank God above that I am living in the times of the 20th century unbelievable how people were back then to think of the ways to punish people back then they should have been themselves tortured the way they thought of torture and other people
With all the superstitions proposed down through the centuries, I’m undecided about what century I’m glad that I didn’t live in.
It’s interesting how throughout history we as a people are still not able to cohabitate with one another without some sort of dramatic changes made in order to uphold the status of society.