What Was Life Really Like In The Middle Ages?
By: Duru Narlı
Tags: History, Medieval History, Facts, Medieval, Middle Age

You are watching your favourite historical shows and movies; You see the blood red wine, the giant turkey on the table and all the potatoes,of course, under romantic candle light . Your mouth watery, you wonder what it would feel like to experience all that royalty. Oh, if only you could wear those pretty lacy dresses and drop your hankerchief for a handsome knight to return it.

But, wait a minute. What would you even be in the Middle Ages? Surely you are special but what if you really aren’t? Or let’s say you are; Would it really be all rainbows and butterflies? Let’s take a lookt both scenarios in comparison

Clothing

Peasants generally wore tunics that could be easily made by folding a long fabric. For men it generally fell to their thighs while women wore it like a dress, with slits up the sides for better movement. Blue tunics made by the woad plants were the most common; I doubt it was royal blue though…

Undergarments weren’t really popular until the 14th century but definitely weren’t unheard of. To them, this was a luxury, to the point of passing down undergarments when a ‘richer’ peasant died.

But wait! At least they have those cool hoodies right?

Well, unfortunately they were mostly at chin length. Cause to them that would have been unnecessary expense.

But hey, it wasn’t always boring and practical; Italian men rocked sock thights. Practical, yet fun!

As for the servants in the palace, the colour of their clothes would signify a rank. The King would wear a well made tunic with gold thread and also a surcoat with their emblem on it.

While peasants spiced things up with a linen undergarnments, the royals used the most expensive material in their clothing from the finest silk to the rarest jewelery. However this was mostly towards the end of the Middle Ages because the kings were busy figthing at wars in the beginning. Thus, practicality was the key.

During the High Middle Ages, as royals got more wealthy, it got more and more visible in their clothing. The Queen even wore certain clothing items that only she was allowed to wear.

Food

Thanks to pots being examined with the help of chemical analysis, certain food items were identified by researchers of the University of Bristol for the first time; Including even butchery techniques! The pottery covers 500 years of Middle Ages.

Appearently, these were some of the food peasants ate:

Unfortunately, not much is known about what peasants usuallyt ate; But i doubt there was a huge variety anyways…

It is also known that salt was expensive at the time, so people would buy salt in big quantities every year.

People ate with their hands at the time and when forks were introduced towards the end of the Middle Ages, it seemed silly to many. Seems like people didn’t care about being hygenic, yikes. The royals on the other hand had many rules on how to behave at the table. Which also sounds tough but at least you would look fancier.

As for the royals, feasts were quite important since there wouldn’t be much to eat during the war. Oddly enough, they thought having breakfast was for the weak. Chicken, geese, pork, beef (less common), venison, duck and even cats and hedgehogs were liked; And to make it extra special, swan and peacock were preferred. Weird flex, but okay…

The royals also enjoyed dipping their bread in sauces, mustard was a favourite. Honey was the only way to sweeten food since spices were expensive as spices came from Far East. So maybe, that delicious looking turkey was actually pretty bland.

Almonds were pretty popular as a thickener in soups, stews and sauces.

Now, i am sure all of you are wondering about wine. While the royals had their quality wine, the commoners would have poor quality ones and mostly beer.

Now now, you wouldn’t expect it to be all normal right? (Not including the feasts of course…)There were also some quite bizarre food options back then :

To entertain the guests, very questionable choices were made; Like a meal called ‘singing chicken’ which was made by tying its neck with quicksilver and ground sulphur, which, when it was reheated, made it sound like it was singing. Another style of ‘entertainment’ was hiding alive frogs in pastries. When the pastries were cut open, the frogs would jump out and surprise the guests. Another brutal form of ‘entertainment’ was an alive chicken boiled and plucked, appearing to be dead at first on the table. The chicken would then wake up in horror and run, which was funny appearently. Opposed to that, there would also be animals made to look alive. Better i guess…

During the meatless days, Lamprey was another choice. Which, if you didn’t know, is a fish that sucks blood. Sounds gross and dangerous, huh? Not for King Henry of England; He enjoyed it a lot… Until he died because of it. There was another ‘spicy’ meal called sheep penis. Wait, you thought i made a sexual joke? It was actually served with ginger, cinnamon and pepper.You perv.

Another food with a great name was called ‘Garbage’. Which served its name quite well, it was stew consisting of chicken head, feet, livers and gizzard. But don’t get too grossed out, it was seasoned.

As a drink to chug down all that deliciousness, you could have some cock ale; Which consisted of crushed boiled cock, raisins, nutmeg, mace, dates.

Now let’s see what’s for dessert…A pie! You can guess it was a real treat. It is hard to make a pie as it is, and on top of that, catching wild animals and making a meat pie out of it? Yum!

Hygiene

The thing is, we cannot talk about hygiene without generalizing. Hygiene varied depending on the time and status. So please keep that in mind. But here are some gross facts!

When people were done with their business, they would throw their waste out of the window or the balcony. Thanks to that, the smell of the streets would be so lovely that people had nosebags filled with scents, for when the smell got exceptionally lovely.

Oh, look who that is! It is your business partner. You sit next to him and share business ideas. The atmosphere is friendly, you smile and shake hands. You offer leaves for them to wipe their butt and get off your bench toilet with a hole, but with a fulfilled soul.

If that wasn’t intimate enough, worry not! Join some strangers for a public bath. Now you will get rid of your bacteria and get out with new ones, yay! Oh, and maybe a disease. But hey, no complaning. Even the royals could bathe every other month; And let’s say you are a commoner, you still have 3 chances of bathing for the whole year!

Now that you are all ‘clean’, it is time to wear your clothes that were washed with urine. Now your clothes will have no stain, but a smell!