The medieval period was racked with epidemics, plagues, and disease, but none were as merciless as the Bubonic Plague, or what we know as the Black Death. Between 1328 and 1351, it tracked trading routes, wiping out a full 50 percent of Europe’s population, killing 200 million people. That is equivalent to the entire U.S. population in 1967. Life expectancy plummeted to age 17.
The pandemic brought symptoms that included high fever, delirium, vomiting, bleeding in the lungs, and, most notably, painful swelling in the lymph nodes. The painful swollen boils in the neck turned red and eventually black—large black boils oozing with pus and blood—hence the name. It was transmitted by fleas on vermin to humans.
The Canopy Bed was Invented in the Middle Ages
The first canopy beds were suspended from the ceiling, with the canopy and drapes covering and surrounding a bed for privacy and warmth. In the 15th century, four-post beds were coveted and the curtains, sometimes embroidered of fine heavy cloths, were very expensive. We know they were valuable because wealthy landowners often included these beds in their wills.
Since roofs were thatched in these days, it is assumed that canopy beds served an additional purpose which was to protect the sleeper from droppings from the ceilings, ranging from water to pest excrement. It was a useful invention, no doubt, and nowadays we can enjoy canopy beds for the aesthetic, and thankfully not the practical use.
Lice Thrived in the Dark Ages
Lice were so prevalent and so ubiquitous in Medieval times that people could not escape it. What they called “worms with feet” were a part of life, so much so that medical experts believed lice and other parasites were produced by the body at certain times. Lice were everywhere, not just in hair. Some swarmed around eyes.
Far from lice only afflicting the peasantry, Pope Clement V was reported to have a cavity in his tooth where a louse tossed about. King Henry IV’s head was found squirming with lice by Adam of Usk who crowned him in 1399.
When it Rained it Reeked
Since the first municipal sewage systems were not built until the 1840s, waste removal of human and animal excrement in medieval towns was abysmal. As we’ve said, it was nonexistent. Of course, castles had moats, others had the Thames, but peasants in fields dumped their chamber pots out in the pathways.
As disgusting as that was, the rain made it worse. Dirt and cobblestone streets became rivers of sludge and urine, washing the filthy stench through town. It really was as bad as it sounds. And we don't mean it took light flooding to cause this; any amount of moisture on the ground exacerbated the issue.
The Stench of the Thames
In all of Medieval England, few places were as rancid and smelly as the banks of the Thames near “Butcher’s Bridge.” Butchers of the day would take bundles of refuge and carcasses to the bridge and dump it in the river. Animal entrails, stinky, diseased animal parts and blood littered the bridge. For 500 years this practice continued.
Complaints in 1369 had little effect, a law against it changed nothing. And the stench of rotting flesh made it so that no one could live there. However, not only butchers fouled the waters of the Thames, every Englishman in proximity would dump sewage and waste into the river.