Though wigs were all the rage back in the Middle Ages, this doesn’t mean that no one cared about natural hair. One group of people who cared a lot about their hair was the French royalty. In fact, in a life-or-death situation, the French valued their hair over their lives.
In 6th century Paris, two princes were kidnapped. The terms of their ransom were either for the queen consort to agree to cut their hair or to let them die with their tresses untouched. The queen chose the latter. One of the princes wasn’t having this. He escaped, cut his locks, and became a monk. This prince clearly valued his life over his hair but not everyone was ready to make the same deal.
Uncomfortable Shoes
Most of us take for granted the importance of shoes. For the most part, shoes are for keeping our feet warm and clean and making fashion statements. For medieval folk, shoes, too, helped them to keep their feet warm and clean, but they also helped them to stop parasitic worms from entering their feet – especially in marshy lands. That said, the shoes weren’t exactly comfy.
Shoes were made of cloth, leather, or wood (known as clogs). We’re guessing the clogs weren’t exactly made for long-distance running. Of course, some medieval people were trying to make a fashion statement. It was quite commonplace for men to wear shoes with thin long, pointed tips. Except, these weren’t only uncomfortable, but many men developed bunions from wearing them.
Nosebags
Considering that people used to empty chamber pots onto walkways, it’s unsurprising that town centers had a particularly nasty stench. And, of course, not everyone could stomach the smell. If you belonged to a more fortunate social class, then, perhaps, you’d own a nosebag. While nosebags were generally used for horses in the modern period, back then, a nosebag was a canvas or leather bag that was filled with pleasant-smelling herbs and flowers.
Whenever you got to a particularly foul-smelling alley, you could just pop your head into your nosebag. It’s certainly a sign of the times that the only place you’re likely to find a nosebag in modern times is in a stable, around a horse’s snout.
Black Plague Quarantines
We may have heard of the Black Plague, but few of us know how it broke out in Europe. During the 14th century, Genoa was a powerful trading city, and it had a port in Caffa (now Feodosia) in Crimea. After an unsuccessful siege of Caffa, the Mongolian leader Janibeg ordered infected corpses carrying the plague to be catapulted into the city.
The disease soon spread among the Genovese traders, and they hurried back to Genoa. The only problem was that now they were carrying the disease – and they spread it to each port on their return journey. Naturally, medieval people soon became suspicious of travelers. When merchants returned from sea voyages, they needed to go into isolation for 30 days. This was later raised to 40 days of isolation.
Urine for Bleach
It’s hard to believe that urine has so many uses – uses in the Middle Ages, that is. While no one’s collecting their urine after visiting the WC, back then, urine wasn’t only used as medieval laundry detergent, but it was also used for medieval bleach. It seems like getting rid of stains was just as important to medieval folk as it is to contemporary people.
Just back then, you had limited options for getting rid of stains. One option was to use urine. Interestingly, urine was used to get rid of stains. It also helped to make faded garments or materials look white again. In the minds of medieval folk, urine was some pretty magical stuff. Nowadays, we prefer bleach or stain removers.