A few years back I listed Ten Things the Romans Didn’t Have, a collection of common misconceptions about the ancient world. More recently I’ve been reading about and researching the Middle Ages in England. This was new territory for me, and I soon realised that many of my assumptions and preconceptions were far from accurate.

Medieval people, of course, lacked many of the things we take for granted today – they wore shoes without heels and clothes without pockets, knew nothing of tomatoes or potatoes, and until the very end of the era had to copy out all of their books by hand.

Such is well known. But certain other things or concepts that we might associate with the era are likewise absent from the medieval scene. The list below outlines ten of the more interesting missing aspects or misconceptions that I’ve come across, with a focus on England in the 12th-14th Centuries in particular. Some of them, of course, are more debatable than others: while the past remains unchanging, our idea of past – history, in other words – is always being rewritten…

1. Constant Warfare

Nowadays the word medieval is often considered synonymous with brutality, violence and war. Sure enough, England in the Middle Ages could be a dangerous place, as the frequent legal records of murders and violent crimes attest. But these very records also show that the kingdom during this period was not a lawless place either. And open warfare was far from a common occurrence.

Between the Norman Conquest and the Wars of the Roses, England was largely at peace; the kings of England preferred to export their military endeavours to Wales, Ireland, Scotland or France instead. The few outbreaks of actual warfare – the ‘Anarchy’ of the mid 12th Century, the Barons’ Wars of the 13th and the various rebellions against the king in the 14th-15th Centuries, among others – tended to be relatively small in scale and limited in duration. Pitched battles were very rare, lasted only a few hours at most, and seldom involved more than a few thousand men.

The majority of the population of Medieval England, then, would probably never see a battle or encounter an army on campaign. They were more likely to die of disease or by accident – by falling down a latrine, perhaps, which was a surprisingly common form of death – than to meet their end on a battlefield.

Medieval warfare - not such a common occurence. From the Life of Edward the Confessor, c.1250-60.

2. Unrelenting Filth

To the modern mind, medieval also connotes dirt. Again, there is some truth in this: the people of the Middle Ages lived much closer to the soil, to animals and natural functions, and to each other, than we do today. Conditions for the majority could be fairly unsavoury: a royal letter of April 1345 states that “in the city of Carlisle the air is so corrupted and tainted by dung and manure heaps and much other filth put in the streets and lanes that the men dwelling there… are stricken with a dreadful horror.” But, like the legal references to violence, descriptions like these are the exception, not the rule. In this case, the Bishop of Carlisle was being ordered to have the mayor and bailiffs remove the dirt from the streets!

Medieval bathtime. From Aldobrandino of Siena’s *Le Régime du Corps*, c.1265.

For the most part, medieval people were quite capable of washing and keeping themselves, their clothes and their surroundings clean. While they may not have known about germs, they believed that dirt – or rather miasmas, the bad smells produced by filth and decay – caused disease. Medieval physicians extolled the health benefits of regular bathing – in a heated tub for those who could afford, it, or a river or stream for those who could not – while the prevalence of laundresses in towns, noble households and accompanying armies on campaign attests to the frequent washing of underclothes.

Larger towns and cities (of which London was the only one of any real size) would surely have had a repertoire of stinks and sights to offend the eye, but it would not be until the early modern period, when the old medieval drains and sewers were overwhelmed by a massively expanded population, that London became truly noisome. Even then, it was no match for the reeks and pongs that accompanied the Industrial Revolution. Anyone hoping for a dose of Historical Filth would be better off setting their time machine for the 18th or 19th Century than the medieval era!

3. Undrinkable Water

Medieval people drank a surprising quantity of wine and ale (and later beer, first brewed in the 15th Century). This was because they liked it, and they believed it was good for them – ale in particular was a good source of nutrients, and wine was believed to strengthen the blood. But this did not mean that they did not drink water too, or that water was avoided or thought to be unhealthy or dangerous.

In fact water was drunk widely, by all parts of society. Medieval people understood when rivers and streams were stagnant, and knew where to find good drinking water. Monasteries, many towns, and the city of London, had conduits to bring fresh clean water for drinking and washing.

The chronicler Orderic Vitalis relates that the soldiers of William the Conqueror fell victim to dysentery after drinking the water in England. But this was more probably the result of deliberate poisoning of their water supply, or the unsanitary conditions of an army on campaign in a foreign land, than any problem with the water itself!

Meanwhile, there is some evidence that drinking water on its own might be seen as penitential. Hermits and anchorites, and the religiously abstemious, might chose a diet of bread and water as a demonstration of asceticism. One royal household injunction from the late 15th Century even punished defaulting servants by relegating them to the ‘water board’, or ewery – a table in the hall where only water was served, instead of wine or ale.

4. Enormous Horses

Horses were everywhere in the Middle Ages. They were the most common form of transport, and were being used in plough teams for the first time in the period too. Most significantly, the horse was the mount of the knight; the spurs were almost as much a symbol of knighthood as the sword. English knights may have preferred to fight on foot in the later 14th and 15th Centuries, but otherwise the knight was a mounted warrior, trained and exercised in horseback combat, and battles were usually fought from the saddle.

We might assume, therefore, that the knight’s warhorse (charger, or destrier) was a massive beast, something like a modern carthorse. Recent archaeological excavations, however, have turned up hundreds of remains of horse bones from the medieval era, and these suggest that the horse of the period was rather smaller than those we are familiar with today. 13-14 hands appears to have been the most common size for a medieval horse, about 4ft 8 inches to the withers: in modern terms, these would be classed as ponies.

13th Century mounted retinue, from The Book of St Albans, c.1250

However, we should not imagine knights riding miniature chargers either. Medieval illustrations suggest that the size of a ‘horse’ could vary considerably, and doubtless the warhorse would have been at the upper end of the size range.

A modern breed like the Andalusian or Lusitano, of 14-15 hands, might appear similar to the medieval destrier. These horses would not have been tall, but they were powerfully muscled, fast, and (most importantly in a battle situation) very agile. We should remember, too, that such things are relative; anyone living in a world where the average horse was 13-14 hands tall would consider an animal of 15 hands, standing 5ft to the withers, to be very large indeed.

5. Unnatural Ageing

People in the past tended not to live as long as people today. Average life expectancy in medieval England, for boys of the landowning class, was only 31.3 years. However, statistics like this are highly misleading; life expectancy at birth is distorted by very high levels of infant mortality. If someone managed to survive infancy, and avoid fatal diseases, accidents, or death in childbirth, their chances of a long life were very much greater. And many people in the Middle Ages lived into their 60s and 70s, or beyond.

So medieval people did not expect to drop down dead at the age of 32. They aged at a normal and natural rate too; while a medieval farm labourer of 30 might have appeared rather more weathered than the average 30-something in Britain today, they would not have looked, or been considered, ‘old’. Women in their 30s and 40s were still having children, and men were liable to be summoned for military service by their lord or king until the age of 60. The average tournament combatant in the early 14th Century was just over 30, while the age range went up to the 50s.

In fact, some medieval people lived very long lives, and continued an active career until the end. The famous William Marshall, reputedly the greatest knight of his age, fought in the Battle of Lincoln in full armour at the age of 70. John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, remained an active campaigner into his late 60s, while Sir John de Sully maintained that he had fought at the Battle of Najera aged 87. But perhaps we should take this last claim rather more lightly – few people of the era had their date or even year of birth recorded, and many were unsure of their exact age: de Sully was supposedly 105 years old in 1386!

6. Perfect Privacy

No privacy, even for kings… Merlin and the barons address King Uther Pendragon, from *L'estoire de Merlin*, in the Lancelot-Grail of 1316.

Today we regard privacy as a basic human right. In the medieval period, however, being alone was seldom considered valuable or desirable. Until the later medieval period even the grandest palaces and castles had relatively few rooms, and those rooms often had multiple functions. Halls were used for dining, entertaining and also for sleeping, bedchambers were also meeting rooms, living areas and audience chambers. Those of even the highest rank shared beds with friends, servants and family members, with no sexual connotation at all. Private space was almost unknown.

The medieval nobility in particular were seldom alone; servants and retinue members followed them everywhere, as a sign of their status and prestige. The greatest lords were even accompanied to the toilet by a servant: one late 12th Century etiquette book instructs the servant to stand and not kneel while engaged in this task!

One occasion on which people of the Middle Ages might have found themselves in uncomfortable solitude was while they were at prayer, although even then they may have had others sharing their silent vigil. The few people that chose remain apart from others for extended periods usually did so as a religious penance or while in mourning. The solitary hermit or anchorite was a recognised medieval figure, but their solitude was seen as a gesture of unworldly denial, not a desire for privacy.

7. Universal Piety

The majority of people in medieval England were religious to a degree most of us today would consider extraordinary. Aside from a small Jewish community between the 11th and late 13th Century, everyone in the kingdom was supposed to be a Christian, to attend church on Sundays and to confess and receive Holy Communion at least once a year, usually during the period of Lent preceding Easter. Christianity permeated every moment of life from birth to death. The time of day was told by the canonical hours, and the date by reference to the nearest saint’s day or religious festival. Belief in miracles and the power of prayer was commonplace, and held to be self evident.

However, we should not assume that everyone believed equally or without question, or that all were pious in exactly the same way. “There are many today who do not believe that God exists, nor do they think that a human soul lives on after the death of the body,” wrote Peter of Cornwall, Prior of Holy Trinity Aldgate, in his Book of Revelations (c.1200); “They consider that the universe has always been as it is now and is ruled by chance rather than by Providence.”

Sadly there is no way of telling how many people Peter was talking about. But his complaint was not as unique as we might think, and there are several other anecdotal accounts of medieval parishioners deriding saints and miracles and refusing to believe in hell. Trials of people accused of heresy in the 14th Century exposed several whose beliefs seem closer to atheism by modern standards. Medieval people may have been very religious on the whole, but they were not stupid, and were as capable of scepticism, doubt and enquiry as we are today.

8. Powerless Women

The image of the medieval damsel sitting placidly at a tower window awaiting the arrival of a handsome knight owes much to the imagination of 19th century romantic novelists – inspired, to be fair, by writers of chivalric romances, who were also keen to stress feminine passivity. In reality, however, women of the Middle Ages were often considerably more active and assertive than we might think. Medieval England, of course, was a place of extreme inequality: women were subject both to oppressive legislation and wildly misogynistic popular notions, many of them derived from church teachings or classical traditions. For many, life could be hard and unpleasant. Legally, socially and even spiritually, however, women often had influence and authority, both direct and indirect, and were quite capable of using it.

Women of the rural lower classes, when not pregnant or raising children, were expected to work alongside men in the fields. Many held land or took up trades, whether assisting husbands or fathers, or independently; women seem to have had a near monopoly on brewing ale, and appear in our sources as millers, carters, musicians and even blacksmiths. In towns, women could engage in trade, and own and manage businesses and workshops. Court records show considerable litigation by and on behalf of female clients, and many cases involving disputes between women too, some of them violent.

Medieval woman defending castle. — Woman defending a castle, *Smithfield Decretals*, c.1300-40.

While women of the upper classes were often married very young, surrendering all their property to their husbands, and derived their status from the male members of their family, they too could exercise independent power and authority. As widows, or in the absence of their husbands, they could give and receive homage for their estates. In times of war they could hold more active posts as well: the formidable Nicholaa de la Haye was constable of Lincoln castle, and led its defence for King John in the first Baron’s War. Margaret de Ferrers, dowager Countess of Derby, also held the hereditary title of Constable of Scotland, while her aunt Margaret de Lacy, Countess of Lincoln, was one of the wealthiest landowners of her age; she was fiercely litigious as well, showing a keen determination to hold on to all that she possessed. If she spent any time sitting placidly at a tower window, she was more likely awaiting the arrival of her lawyer.

9. Burning Witches

Contrary to popular belief, nobody was ever burned simply for being a witch in medieval England. The practice of hunting down and executing supposed witches was largely a product of the early modern period: the first English law against witchcraft dates to 1542, and the ‘witch hunting’ mania peaked during the Elizabethan and Jacobean era of the 16th-17th Century. During the Middle Ages, by contrast, many churchmen were not even sure that ‘witchcraft’ existed.

There were cases of ‘sorcerers’ being tried and executed in medieval England, although these were criminal trials for the malign effects of the alleged black magic. In all cases, the punishment was death by hanging – as it remained throughout the early modern period as well. Burning was reserved, under English law at least, solely for the crimes of treason and heresy.

So while there were occasions in continental Europe, particularly France and the Rhineland, of supposed witches being burned at the stake, the only similar incident in medieval England was the execution of Margery Jourdemayne in 1441. She had been accused of plotting with the Duchess of Gloucester to kill the king by magical means, and was burned on a pyre at Smithfield on a charge of ‘treasonable witchcraft’ and heresy.

10. Dragons

Dragons are so much a part of the fantasy version of the Middle Ages that it seems a shame that they existed only in imaginary tales and chivalric romances, and in the pages of medieval bestiaries. Sadly, however, there were indeed no dragons in medieval England…

Or were there?

Around 1307, a monstrous reptile emerged from the River Stour and began terrorising the town of Bures in Suffolk. Described by Benedictine monk John de Trokelowe as “a dragon, vast in body, with a crested head, teeth like a saw and a tail extending to an enormous length,” the terrible beast killed and devoured a flock of sheep and a shepherd, before it was assailed by local men armed with bows. Their arrows bounced off its scaly hide “just as if they had hit a brazen plate”, but eventually the monster was forced to retreat into a nearby swamp.

Dragon from Li livres dou trésor, early 14th Century.

Was the Bures Dragon merely a crocodile that had escaped from a royal menagerie? Perhaps so. Less easy to explain would be the fire-breathing dragon which allegedly attacked the Essex village of St Osyth in 1170, burning the surrounding area. Or the flying dragon which passed over Leicester in 1389, breathing fire as it flew. Or, indeed, the five-headed monster witnessed by an abbot from Tournai in 1113, which apparently rose from the sea off Christchurch in Dorset and flew over the town, destroying the church, many houses, and even attacking a clergyman who was trying to escape in a boat.

The people of medieval England were, it seems, often as fascinated by the idea of dragons as their distant descendants of the 21st Century - and just as capable of making up stories about them.

Ten Things Medieval England did not have...