Some people think of medieval days with a kind of halo around it that speaks of romance, purity, courage, sweetness and light.
It was the era of the knight in shining armor who defended and fought for his lady-love. It was the time of evil barons, epic battles, and desperate last-stand defense of castles and lands. Yet if you scratch the surface only a little, you will see a different picture.
What would life be like if you lived in England in 1202 AD?
Fear. Superstition. Darkness. Wars, mass murders, injustice, slavery. Hunger. Ignorance. Filth. Disease and plagues that kill thousands. Powerful politicians abusing and oppressing the poor. The Word of God suppressed, forgotten, and prohibited by law.
What strikes me is the similarities between what happened then and what is happening now in America 2015! Are we moving more and more into the darkness? Is it possible?
Yes, we are; and yes, it is. It’s a scary thought, but I won’t leave you in the dark, I promise.
I set my medieval series, which are the Keys to the Kingdom books, (Sirocco Wind from the East, Mistral Wind from the West, and Zephyr Wind from the West, with one more to come) in that time frame because I have always been fascinated with the Middle Ages, and particularly, the medieval times. I loved the idea of knights and horses and swords shining in the sun.
My research for the novels led me to uncover a shocking fact.
After King Richard conquered the city of Acre on his quest to free the Holy Lands from the infidel Arabs (as they were known at that time), he slaughtered 7,000 Arab hostages just because Saladin, the Muslim warrior chief at the time, did not arrive on the agreed-upon date when they were going to exchange captives. This massacre included women and children.
Not nice, huh. But it gets even juicier than that! King Richard came out smelling like roses and is lauded today as one of the greatest kings and heroes of the English people. Yet I wouldn’t want to meet him in a dark alley!
I discovered a feudal system that kept the majority of the people in virtual slavery and ignorance, a religious system and church that encouraged the feudal system because the leaders could exploit the people, and an economic condition where most of the wealth was in the hands of very few people.
There were two sets of laws in the land during those days.
One for the rich and powerful, another for the poor and powerless. There was no middle class until later in time when the craft guilds began to organize. No one voted a king into power. No one voted on what laws governed them. The evil that sprang from the feudal system almost boggle the mind.
There were three classes of people that made up the lower strata of the society. At the bottom of the heap, we find the serfs or slaves. These people were held against their will, received no salary, and had no more rights than the master’s dogs. Some of the men wore iron collars that could be attached to chains which would keep them from running away. If they did run away, they were usually killed.
The second class were the indentured servants or villeins who were owned by the lord of the estate and had little freedom. They were given a home and a small tract of land on which they could grow some of their food. They were, by law, required to work a certain number of days for their master, planting and harvesting his crops. When they got home, if they had the energy, they could tend their own plots of ground. But they did not own it. They owned nothing, and like the slaves, could be bought and sold and moved at the whim of their master.
Freemen made up the higher class of serfs during the middle ages. These men had gained enough money somehow to buy their freedom. They could own land and move about as they wished. Many of these went into the craft guilds. Yet even as freedmen, they could be called upon by the baron in their district to serve in the army in case of war.
Land ownership made all the difference in the world. If someone of that era had a choice between being free and owning land, they would chose to own land. With land, you could rise above your present situation and become one of the “landed gentry,” even if you weren’t titled or of the nobility.
The Catholic church made up another segment of society.
The priests, monks, laymen and others who served in the church were exempt from any laws of the land until much later when this status was changed. The Catholic church ruled their own people, and this power corrupted many of the church leaders. Instead of easing the burden of taxes and poverty on the people, the church increased it.
It is interesting that some of the phrases and sayings we use today came from medieval times.
Here are some I’ve collected and thought you’d enjoy.
- Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it.
Hence the saying, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water!”
- Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof.
Hence the saying, “It’s raining cats and dogs.”
- There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection.
That’s how canopy beds came into existence.
- The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, “Dirt poor.” The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way.
Hence: a thresh hold.
- Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, “bring home the bacon.” They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat (literally!).
- Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.
- Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.
Hence the saying: They are of the upper crust, meaning rich and wealthy … or special.
- Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up.
Hence the custom of holding a wake.
- England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell to ring if the person in the coffin woke up.
Hence, someone could be saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer.
Why were the Dark Ages dark?
I believe that the reason the Dark Ages were dark was because the light of the Word of God was forbidden to the people. There was no education beyond what the church would give those who served in the church, and so the people could not read. Even many of the nobility could not read. Services were held in Latin, not in the common language of the people.
Don’t mistake me — the people loved the church that sat on the village green.
They loved the mystery, rituals, feast days, and pageantry. Yet it was this that caused their spiritual blindness, for they were kept from the knowledge of God’s Word.
Without the Word of God being available to the common people, they lived in superstition and darkness.
Everything suffered as a result. They did not know about cleanliness, about navigation, about gravity, about geography, about germs, the planets and stars, about God’s design in the natural world or about His will in the spiritual world. The Bible is not a science textbook, or even a geography book. But it leads to us know God, and God enlightens our minds and hearts to understand the world we live in.
What are some lessons we can learn from the Dark Ages?
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1– We need the Word of God to light our path.
“Thy Word is a light unto my path and a lamp unto my feet.” (Psalm 119:105) It is foolish to stumble around in the darkness when we have God’s Word so available to us. I am so thankful I had God’s Word programmed into my life from the time I was a small child!
Look at how much our freedom in this country is tied to the foundation we had as a nation. We began America by studying, reading, and believing God’s Word, but we have strayed far from that today. We often forget the great gift God has given us in the written, eternal Word which is our Bible.
2–Oppression of any kind is a great evil.
I deplore the slavery and exploitation that went on in medieval times, yet there are many times I use people for my own ends, and that amounts to the same thing. The glory belongs to God. I have to search my heart and change my actions so I am not micro-controlling things and oppressing people when I should be setting them free to serve God with their gifts.
3–We need to gather together regularly.
We do this to encourage one another, listen to God’s Word being taught, and to combine our efforts to reach the lost. Community, the body of Christ, is found in our local church. What would we do without the organized church? We need our churches today. Desperately.
Is there hope for America as we see her slide more and more into what we call the Dark Ages? What can you do to help?
Stay in the Word. Study it. Memorize it. Share it with others. It is light. Walk in it today.
I’m heading back to the Dark Ages as I study for Lavento Wind from the South, the next medieval series book, and I am carrying the light of God’s love and Word in my heart.
God Bless!
Any comments or questions you might have, please feel free to write them to me! Thanks and God bless!
Virginia Ann Work says
First of all, you should learn to spell. Secondly, I am glad I am naive. In my innocence (and I suppose a degree of ignorance), I enjoy life to the fullest, much more than a person who snubs their intellectual noses at me. I disagree that I see medieval times through myopic glasses. There are as many interpretations of those times as there are people who study them. After having spent many years in dusty books on the topic of medieval times, I don’t feel I am an expert. I am still a child, still learning. But I am happy in my journey. I hope you can say the same. Thank you for your comments. Sorry you didn’t like my post, but I didn’t write it to be liked. I wrote it to make people think, and in that, I succeeded.
Medieval Girl says
I also disagree with equating serfdom with slavery. A useful book to look at on this subject is ‘Those Terrible Middle Ages’ by Regine Pernoud. She drew some very important distinctions between serfdom and slavery in the ancient Roman Empire. Roman slaves were not free to marry or to have families- Medieval serfs could, albeit with consent- and lords were just as much tied to their land as peasants- they could not abandon it and they could not desert it.
…and I have to say, the thing about lead poisoning and tomatoes is also incorrect. Tomatoes originate from the Americas- there weren’t any in Europe before the 1500s when they were introduced from the Americas. The notion that Medieval people thought they were poisonous is this a myth, the same as the idea that they thought the earth was flat is a myth- and one that has been thoroughly debunked by historians.
So I believe Medieval people didn’t think anything about tomatoes, as they had never seen them and probably didn’t know they existed….
I apologize if I sound arrogant or confrontational, I do not mean to, but I hate to see inaccurate historical information being presented like this.
Medieval Girl says
I disagree about slavery. Slavery was phased out in England after the Norman Conquest, the Saxons had it but it pretty much ended after 1100- and I also question the idea that the massacre at Acre included the killing of women and children.
I read up on that event a while ago, and not one contemporary source- Muslim or Crusader, mentions that women and children were killed.
Nil. One does metion women and children in the vicinity, if I recall, but most historians seem to agree that the people killed were the fighting men- the garrison.
Somehow though, modern movie-makers have got the idea that women and children were killed, and this has become the ‘accepted wisdom’ when in reality there is little or no evidence for this.
Also, the massace itself was more to do with Saladin not keeping the the terms of the negotiated surrender, and deliberately stalling for time. Its noteworthy that even many Muslim writers did not condemn Richard’s actions in that context…….
Virginia Ann Work says
Sorry, but even a mediocre degree of research tells you that slavery existed in England until 1807 in various forms, all of which answered to the basic definition of slavery as forced labor without pay and loss of all basic human freedoms. I don’t know where you got the information that “slavery was phased out in England after the Norman Conquest.” Really? What about the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 that passed into law the prohibition of the slave trade in the colonies. You can’t tell me that English businessmen who made a lot of money on the slave trade did not have their own slaves at home. Serfs were literally slaves. Many of them wore iron collars.
I would agree with you that possibly women and children were not murdered in the massacre at Acre. But I don’t condone Richard’s actions that just because he had to wait for Saladin that he should have killed the men, even if they were fighting men.
I would also agree with you that they didn’t have tomatoes back then. That comment might have been true of a later time.
Thanks for your comments. I appreciate them, and, no, you don’t sound confrontational or arrogant.