Life in the Middle Ages

And the origin of some of today’s sayings

Anne Hathaway, for example, was the wife of William Shakespeare. She married at the age of 26, which is really unusual for the time for most people married young; usually around the ages of 11 to 14. Life was also not as romantic as we may picture it. Here are some examples:

Before she was married, Anne Hathaway’s home was a three-bedroom house with a small parlor, (which was seldom used, and only for company), a kitchen, and no bathroom.

Mother and Father shared a bedroom. Anne had a queen sized bed, but she did not sleep alone. She also had two other sisters and they shared the bed, also with six servant girls. They didn’t sleep like we do lengthwise, but they all lay on the bed crosswise. At least they had a bed.

Her six brothers and ten field workers shared the other bedroom. They didn’t have a bed; they just wrapped up in their blanket and slept on the floor. They had no indoor heating so all the extra bodies are what kept them warm. Within their house they had twenty-seven people living.

They were also small people. The men only grew to be about five foot six inches tall, and the women were four foot eight inches tall.

Tradition shows that June is the most popular month for weddings. Why? Most people took their yearly bath in May, so they still smelled pretty good by June, although they were starting to smell. The brides would carry a bouquet of flowers to help hide their body odor.

Baths equaled 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, the children, and last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually loose someone in it. Hence the saying, “Don't throw the baby out with the bath water.”

Commonly, thatch was used for the roofs of most houses. Thick straw piled high, with no wood underneath. This was a great place for all the little animals to get warm. So all the pets; dogs, cats, and other small animals; mice, rats, bugs; all lived in the roof. When it rained it would become so slippery that sometimes the animals would slip and fall from the roof. Thus the saying “It’s raining cats and dogs”.

There was nothing to stop things falling from the roof into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom, where bugs and other animal droppings could really mess up your bed. They found that making beds with big posts to hang sheets from would prevent that problem; and that’s where those beautiful big canopy beds come from.

When you entered a house you would notice that the floor was usually just dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, which is where the saying “dirt poor” came from.

The wealthy would usually have beautiful slate floors. In the winter they would get wet and slippery. So they started to spread thresh on the floor to help keep their footing (thresh is the remaining straw after beating your grains to remove the grains or seeds). As the winter wore on they would just keep adding more thresh. Eventually, when you opened the door it would all start to work it’s way outside, so a piece of wood or stone was added at the door to keep it from slipping outside. It was called a “thresh hold”.

They cooked in the kitchen in a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. This stew, or “pottage”, was made of vegetables that they grew in their fields. Since human excrement was used as fertilizer, the pottage was boiled for at least two hours. Vegetables, like cabbage, were the primary ingredient, and they didn't get much meat. They would eat this pottage leaving the leftovers in the pot overnight, starting over again the next day. Sometimes the pottage had food in it that had been in there for a month. The origin of the rhyme: peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old" comes from this.

Sometimes the field workers would carry a dried version of the pottage them. When they got hungry, they would break it up in a bowl, add some moisture to it and eat it. Of course they didn’t use water for this, it was too dirty. They used beer to mix with the pottage.

Sometimes they could get a hold of some pork. They really felt special when that happened, and when company came over they would bring out some bacon and hang it on a rack in the parlor to show it off. That was a sign of wealth; that a man “could really bring home the bacon.” They would cut off a little bit to share with guests, and they would all sit around and “chew the fat”.

In many countries, people drank from shallow bowls or trenchers rather than stemmed goblets. The idea of the latter came from contact with the Eastern world through the crusades. When Eleanor of Aquitaine visited her uncle in Jerusalem , she brought back many “new” ideas to France first, and later (with her marriage to King Henry II) to England . Among these new ideas were taking tapestries from the walls putting them on the floors (becoming rugs), and stemmed drinking goblets.

If you had money your plates were often made out of pewter. As you may know, pewter of the period had a high lead content. Sometimes some their food had a high acid content, which would cause some of the lead to leach out into the food. They really noticed it that it happened with tomatoes, so they stopped eating tomatoes for four hundred years.

Most people didn’t have pewter plates though, they all had trenchers. That was a piece of wood or a board with the middle scooped out like a bowl. They rarely washed their boards or trenchers, and a lot of times worms would get into the wood. People that would get cold sores and such would be said to have “trench mouth”, especially if they ate from infested trenchers or boards.

“Room and Board”. If you were going traveling and wanted to stay at an Inn they usually provided the bed, but not the board to eat off of.

The bread was divided according to status, not sliced, as we know it today. The workers would get the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family would get the middle and guests would the top, or the “upper crust”.

Since England is so old and small they started running out of places to bury people, so they started digging up some graves relocating the bones, and reuse the grave. When they started opening the coffins they found that some had scratch marks on the inside! One out of twenty five coffins were that way and they realized that they had still been burying people alive! One solution was to tie a string to the wrist of the deceased and lead it through the coffin, up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night to listen for the bell, and the person that did this was said to work the “graveyard shift”. If the bell would ring they would know that someone was “saved by the bell”, or that he was a “dead ringer”.

They also had lead pewter cups and when they would drink their ale or whiskey the combination of liquor and lead would sometimes knock them out for a couple of days. They would be found by someone walking along the road, and thought to be dead. So they would be picked up and taken home, where they were prepared to be buried. It was realized however that not all of the people that were buried in the past were actually dead. If they were too slow about preparing someone for burial, the “dead” person would sometimes wake up! So the suspected dead would be laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days while the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait to see if they would wake up. That’s where the custom of serving food and holding a “wake” came from.

This is just some interesting stuff that we don't always realize about life in the past. Sources for this data include, but are not limited to website publications, radio and television broadcasts, and community faxes.

This is a Hoax, check out this site for more information:

http://www.snopes2.com/language/phrases/1500.htm

and another site:  http://www.traditioninaction.org/History/A_005_Myths1500s.shtml

Most of the information is about 1/4 of the way down.

In a nutshell, this whole thing is a hoax, someone's idea of an amusing leg-pull. It began its Internet life in April 1999.

As for a specific debunking:

"Most people married young, like at the age of 11 or 12."

• Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, illegitimate son of Henry VIII, was married off to Lady Mary Howard when he was fourteen. The marriage remained unconsummated at his death at age 17.
• Thomas, Earl of Surrey (Mary Howard's brother) lived with Lady Frances Vere for three years after they were wed before consummating matters when they were both 15.

"Anne Hathaway's home was a 3 bedroom house with a small parlor, which was seldom used (only for company), kitchen, and no bathroom."

"They had no indoor heating so all the extra bodies kept them warm."

However does one explain, then, the chimneys on the house?

"Everyone just wrapped up in their blanket and slept on the floor. They had no indoor heating so all the extra bodies kept them warm."

"Most people got married in June. Why? They took their yearly bath in May, so they were till smelling pretty good by June, although they were starting to smell, so the brides would carry a bouquet of flowers to hide their b.o."

"Like I said, they took their yearly bath in May, but it was just a big tub that they would fill with hot water. The man of the house would get 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 pretty thick. Thus, the saying, "don't throw the baby out with the bath water," it was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it."

"I'll describe their houses a little. You've heard of thatch roofs, well that's all they were. Thick straw, piled high, with no wood underneath. They were the only place for the little animals to get warm. So all the pets; dogs, cats and other small animals, mice, rats, bugs, all lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery so sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Thus the saying, 'it's raining cats and dogs,'"

• By evoking the image of cats and dogs fighting in a riotous, all-out manner, it expresses the fury of a sudden downpour.
• Primitive drainage systems in use in the 17th century could be overwhelmed by heavy rainstorms, leading to gutters overflowing with debris that included dead animals.
• In Northern European mythology, it is believed cats influence the weather and dogs represent wind.
• The saying might have derived from the obsolete French word catadoupe, meaning waterfall or cataract.
• It might have come from a similar-sounding Greek phrase meaning "an unlikely occurrence."

"Since there was nothing to stop things from falling into the house they would just try to clean up a lot. But this posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings from animals could really mess up your nice clean bed, so they found if they would make beds with big posts and hang a sheet over the top it would prevent that problem. That's where those beautiful big 4 poster beds with canopies came from."

"When you came into the house you would notice most times that the floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, that's where the saying 'dirt poor' came from."

"The wealthy would have slate floors. That was fine but in the winter they would get slippery when they got wet. So they started to spread thresh on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on they would just keep adding it and adding it until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. So they put a piece of wood at the entry way, a 'thresh hold'".

"In the kitchen they would cook over the fire, they had a fireplace in the kitchen/parlor, that was seldom used and sometimes in the master bedroom. They had a big kettle that always hung over the fire and every day they would light the fire and start adding things to the pot.

Mostly they ate vegetables, they didn't get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner then leave the leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes the stew would have food in it that had been in there for a month! Thus the rhyme: 'peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.'"

"Sometimes they could get a hold on some pork. They really felt special when that happened and when company came over they even had a rack in the parlor where they would bring out some bacon and hang it to show it off. That was a sign of wealth and that a man 'could really bring home the bacon.'"

Surprisingly, one authority states the saying predates the 16th century, asserting it comes from the 12th and refers to a time when a slab of bacon was awarded to the happiest married couple. A man who therefore "brought home the bacon" wasn't showing how good a provider he was but rather the success of his marriage.

Another authority believes the "bacon" refers to the pig used in the greased pig chase common to many local fairs. The winner's prize was the pig itself, thus the skilled pig catcher got to "bring home the bacon."

"They would cut off a little to share with guests and they would all sit around and 'chew the fat.'"

"If you had money your plates were made out of pewter. Sometimes some of their food had a high acid content and some of the lead would leach out into the food. They really noticed it happened with tomatoes. So they stopped eating tomatoes, for 400 years."

"Most people didn't have pewter plates though, they all had trenchers, that was a piece of wood with the middle scooped out like a bowl."

"They never washed their boards and a lot of times worms would get into the wood."

"After eating off the trencher with worms they would get 'trench mouth'".

"If you were going traveling and wanted to stay at an Inn they usually provided the bed but not the board."

"The bread was divided according to status. The workers would get the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family would get the middle and guests would get the top, or the 'upper crust'."

"They also had lead cups and when they would drink their ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock them out for a couple of days. They would be walking along the road and here would be someone knocked out and they thought they were dead. So they would pick them up and take them home and get them ready to bury. They realized if they were too slow about it, the person would wake up. Also, maybe not all of the people they were burying were dead. So they would lay them out on the kitchen table for a couple of days, the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. That's where the custom of holding a "wake" came from."

"Since England is so old and small they started running out of places to bury people. So they started digging up some coffins and would take their bones to a house and re-use the grave."

"They started opening these coffins and found some had scratch marks on the inside. One out of 25 coffins were that way . . ."

". . . and they realized they had still been burying people alive. So they thought they would tie a string on their wrist and 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 to listen for the bell."

"That is how the saying "graveyard shift" was made."

"If the bell would ring they would know that someone was "saved by the bell" or he was a 'dead ringer'."