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No Trivial Matter
by Melissa Snell
Who can resist historical trivia? Those tasty little tidbits about life in the "olden days" are just too delicious to pass up. But when it comes to medieval trivia, beware. Many of the stray "interesting facts" you'll encounter about the Middle Ages cannot be considered at all accurate.
Medieval studies, much like ancient history, is fraught with common misconceptions. When dealing with a historical period about which more is unknown than known, it's easy for an unsubstantiated theory to work its way into the lore of our past and become entrenched in popular culture. Disproving some of these so-called "facts" can be exceedingly difficult -- even impossible; and while the theories themselves cannot be substantiated, they die hard.
Erroneous trivia comes in all flavors. Sometimes, it's a generalization or imprecise factoid that can lead people to make assumptions about the entire Middle Ages. For example:
In medieval times, silver was once considered more precious than gold because of its scarcity.1
Anyone reading this might think that silver was scarce throughout medieval Europe. Yet, while the Byzantine gold standard influenced other coinage systems in Europe for centuries, standards for various economies in Europe varied from region to region and from era to era. Silver was generally considered inferior to gold, and silver coins were almost always less valuable than gold coins of the same size or smaller.
In the eighth century, thanks in part to a gold shortage, Charlemagne's father Pepin replaced gold by silver in the Carolingian economy when he introduced the denier coin. The silver-based system, later reorganized by Charlemagne, would serve as the basis for most medieval coinage in northern Europe.
There were definitely gold shortages in parts of Europe at various times, and there may once have been a silver shortage that lasted long enough for silver to be considered rare, and therefore more valuable than gold. But if so, this little tidbit of info does nothing to shed light on where or when the shortage took place.
A Scandalous Queen?
In some cases, eyebrow-raising facts are accompanied by one scandal too many. Take this remarkable woman:
Eleanor of Aquitaine accompanied her first husband, Louis, King of France on the second Crusade. At one point she dressed her ladies as Amazons and rode barebreasted.2
It's true that Eleanor rode on Crusade with Louis; she did indeed dress to resemble an Amazon, or so it is recorded in the chronicle of an eyewitness. And knowing what we know about the indomitable Eleanor, it's not inconceivable that she should have tried something as brazen as showing some skin. Yet if there is any contemporary documentation about Eleanor going bare-breasted, it remains obscure to the point of nonexistence.
This lovely little legend may be impossible to kill. Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor in The Lion in Winter delivered a delightful quote about the alleged incident ("Louis had a seizure and I damn near died of windburn... but the troops were dazzled."). Rumor has it that the item appears in a biography of Eleanor, though I have yet to find it. But even if it was printed in a history book, it's not necessarily the truth. Unless there is an opportunity to examine the sources this alleged biography used, the rumor can only remain a rumor.
Obviously, it's impossible to prove a negative; just because we can't find any evidence that Eleanor rode bare-chested doesn't mean she didn't do so. But such a scandalous act would have been extremely difficult to suppress, especially when those who chronicled events were not under the thumb of the pious Louis, or of anyone else who would not want the event recorded. Until someone shows you a 12th-century chronicle or letter that mentions Eleanor risking serious sunburn, it's probably safest to consider this a fable and nothing more.
The Unwashed Dark Ages?
Some medieval trivia is nothing more than nonsense designed to make the people of the Middle Ages look ignorant and slovenly:
Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and were still smelling pretty good by June. But they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor.3
Soap was invented by the Gauls sometime before Christ, and by the end of the ninth century it was in widespread use in Europe. It was soft, much like today's liquid soap, until hard (cake) soap came into use in the twelfth century.
Going without bathing was considered a penance, even in the early Middle Ages. Public bathhouses were not uncommon, and many were closed down during the Black Death in the mid-fourteenth century due to fear of contagion. (They were also popular spots for assignations.) At home, folks were known to take baths by the fire in the winter and out in the garden in the summer.
This is not to say that everyone in the Middle Ages smelled as fresh as a daisy on a daily basis. But it is extremely doubtful that bathing only once a year was acceptable, let alone common, and absolutely ludicrous to think that the reason brides carried bouquets was to hide their stench.
Flowers had many symbolic meanings; in the Church, roses symbolized the Virgin Mary, and in chivalric romances they symbolized passionate love. Bridal bouquets may have been carried for either of these reasons. And, since it was uncommon for gardens in northern medieval Europe to produce flowers past June, it's conceivable that June was a popular month for weddings because brides could still take advantage of fresh flowers when it was at last warm enough to celebrate a wedding outdoors.
Keeping it Real
It has been my experience that when you burst someone's bubble about a fondly-held fallacy, he will not thank you for it. Why, then, should you bother? If you can tell your girlfriend she doesn't look fat in that dress, why can't she go on believing medieval people never bathed?
Put simply, the answer is that truth, even the truth about trivia, is important. We look to details for a clearer picture of life in the Middle Ages; if the details are inaccurate, how clear can the picture be?
There's more to it, of course. The bulk of inaccurate info concerning medieval life serves to paint a dark, degraded, even ridiculous picture of the era. People are represented as ignorant brutes leading lives governed by greed, superstition and fear. This simplistic view of the Middle Ages allows those of us in the modern era to think of ourselves as morally, intellectually and socially superior, without really examining the medieval world or our own.
But if we choose to, we can take a closer look at the people, events and customs of the Middle Ages and compare them a little more reasonably with the world today. Yes, many people were superstitious in medieval times. But as a modern sports drink commercial illustrates, lucky charms and rituals are not at all uncommon today. Yes, there was violence in medieval society. Have we eradicated it from our own? Yes, the world was a very different place then, but the reasons why have more to do with the evolution of technology and the advantages of living in a later age than they have with any superiority on our part or inferiority on theirs.
Through research, extensive reading, and a constant willingness to learn, we can begin to understand what medieval society was like, how and why it changed, and what it means for us today. And trivia? Those fascinating details of the past are important, especially when they're accurate. They bring the larger picture more clearly into focus, and bring the reality of the past more powerfully home.
And that is no trivial matter.
Notes
1 This trivia bit was found through a search of the FunTrivia.com website.
2 This came up in a discussion on our forum.
3 This tidbit is part of a large list, varieties of which have been circulating around the Internet for some time. I've seen it on two medieval mailing lists and it was sent me by three different visitors. It was probably started as a joke; unfortunately, some people seem unaware of the humor and consider its contents factual.
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