36 Things You Didn’t Know About Middle Ages – Part 2

In the Middle Ages, onions were such an important food that people would pay their rent with onions, and even give them as gifts.

2. In the medieval ages, book owners would chain their books to the shelves and curse them to prevent theft.

3. When Medieval monks would fast for religious reasons they would sometimes drink lots of beer instead of eating food since drinking did not count as "food."

4. In the Middle Ages, Knights in full harness (full plate armor) could contrary to popular belief, move quite well and were still agile enough to climb, run, roll, and wrestle with little difficulty.

5. In medieval times, there was a real fear that some people would kill holy men and women to sell off their body parts as relics. Guards even had had to watch over mortally ill holy men and women to prevent their body parts being sold soon as they died.

Middle Age courts sometimes called on a "fool", or court jester, to criticize masters/mistresses. In a court composed largely of yesmen, the fool was the only one who could criticize without fear of reprisals.

7. A medieval salve made out of wine, garlic, onion, and oxgall was put in a brass vessel for nine nights to become an antibiotic. The resulting solution has been found to be potent against MRSA.

8. Virtually all Middle Age scholars believed that the Earth is spherical. The myth that people in the Middle Ages thought the earth is flat appears to date from the 17th century as part of the campaign by Protestants against Catholic teaching.

9. In the Middle Ages, a psychiatric disorder existed among the upper class causing people to fear that they were made of glass “and therefore likely to shatter into pieces.” One famous sufferer was King Charles VI of France, who wore reinforced clothing to protect himself from “shattering.”

10. The average male medieval peasant ate between 160% to 200% more calories than the average male now.

During the Middle Ages, wild wolves lived in forests near Paris. During the harsh winter of 1450, a pack of hungry wolves managed to enter the city and ate 40 people.

12. In the middle ages, some people used to "clip" coins as coins in the Medieval Europe were based on gold or silver. The purpose of clipping was to remove slivers of this material from the edge of the coin. Do this enough times and you have enough for a new coin. If caught punishment was death.

13. Many people in the Middle Ages attributed toothaches to a mysterious "tooth worm", a small, maggot-like creature that bored holes in their teeth and caused all kinds of dental disorders. Some doctors at the time believed that people's nerves were the worms themselves, and thus removed them.

14. In Medieval times, "quintessence" was referred to as the fifth element, the most powerful element that binds the four other elements of nature-- earth, air, fire, and water. It is considered as the place where the Gods dwelt and pertained to the sky and the heavenly bodies in the Greek language.

15. Physicians in the middle ages would drink their patient's urine to diagnose medical conditions. They were able to accurately diagnose diabetes because the urine tasted sweet.

In medieval Germany, married couples could legally settle their disputes by fighting a Marital Duel. To even the field, the man had to fight from inside a hole with one arm tied behind his back. The woman was free to move and was armed with a sack filled with rocks.

17. There was a form of medieval torture, where the victim’s feet were covered in saltwater and then a goat would start licking them. Sometimes the laughter and stress from the intense tickling resulted in a heart attack or a brain hemorrhage.

18. There was an Order of Temperance in the Middle Ages whose members pledged to drink no more than 7 glasses of wine with each meal.

19. Medieval royal courts had professional farters that were rewarded with houses and land. The most famous was the 12th Century Roland the Farter. Another professional farter named Pujol could shoot water up to 5 feet.

20. In medieval times clothes were stored close to the toilet shaft (Garderobe), as the ammonia fumes would kill any fleas.

It was common belief in Medieval Europe that a magnet would lose its strength when in the presence of- among other things - garlic, goats' blood and diamonds. This was disproved by surrounding a lodestone with 75 diamonds, then picking it up with a lump of iron.

22. In medieval times, all fruit and vegetables were cooked as it was believed that raw fruit and vegetables caused disease. One book from 1500 even warns: “Beware of green salads and raw fruits, for they will make your master sick.”

23. Medieval blue dye was made by soaking the leaves of the woad plant in human urine. Urine from men who had been drinking a great deal of alcohol was said to improve the color.

24. In the middle ages, it was an accepted political act for two kings to sleep in the same bed as a symbol of unity between their two countries; much like the modern-day photo-op.

25. In medieval England, pregnancy was considered impossible without orgasm. Therefore, if a woman was raped and didn't conceive, there was no evidence, but if she did conceive, it was assumed she enjoyed it. Either way, the rapist would not be convicted.