Life in medieval times was far more brutal, bizarre, and disease-ridden than any movie portrays.

Daily Horrors

1. The average life expectancy in medieval Europe was just 30-35 years. Infant mortality was approximately 30-50%, meaning nearly half of all children did not live to see their fifth birthday.

2. Medieval medicine was often more dangerous than the disease itself. Bloodletting with leeches was a common treatment for almost everything, and surgeons used the same unwashed tools on multiple patients.

3. The Black Death (1347-1351) killed an estimated 75-200 million people across Europe and Asia —between 30-60% of Europe entire population died within just four years.

Justice and Punishment

4. Animals were put on trial in medieval courts. Pigs, rats, and even insects were formally tried and sometimes executed for crimes such as damaging crops or killing people.

5. Trial by ordeal was common: accused criminals might be forced to carry a red-hot iron bar or walk over hot coals. If the wounds healed cleanly, they were considered innocent (by divine intervention). If infected, guilty.

6. The Iron Maiden —a coffin-like device with internal spikes —is largely a Victorian invention, not a medieval torture device. But breaking on the wheel, drawing and quartering, and flaying were all too real.

Squalor and Filth

7. Medieval streets were essentially open sewers. People threw chamber pot contents out of windows into the street below with a warning cry of gardyloo —derived from French gardez leau (watch out for the water).

8. Bathing was considered dangerous in much of medieval Europe —people believed that opening the pores would let in disease. Some monarchs bragged about never bathing in their entire lives.

9. Most peasants lived in one-room houses shared with their livestock. Animals body heat provided warmth in winter, but the arrangement spread disease and parasites constantly.

Food and Survival

10. Famines were common —the Great Famine of 1315-1317 killed approximately 10-25% of many regions populations. People ate bark, grass, and even resorted to cannibalism in extreme cases.

11. Beer was safer to drink than water in medieval cities because the fermentation process killed bacteria. Even children drank small beer (low-alcohol beer) as their primary beverage.

12. Medieval bread often contained ergot —a fungus that grows on rye —which could cause hallucinations, convulsions, and gangrene. Some historians believe ergot poisoning contributed to witch-hunt hysteria.