Dan Snow's History Hit - How to Survive in Medieval England
Episode Date: May 12, 2022If you travelled back in time to the Medieval period this very second, do you think you would survive? The short answer is probably not. If you weren't wearing a hat, wore glasses on the street, or ev...en laced your corset in the wrong way, things would go south for you very quickly. Luckily, in this episode Matt is joined by Toni Mount, author of the book 'How to Survive in Medieval England' who provides an insight on what it would take to avoid beatings, homelessness, and hunger in Medieval times.If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.
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Hi, History Hit listeners. Now, for all you medievalists out there, I understand there
are some. Me, I'm an early modernist. Personally, I like the whiff of gunpowder. I like the
uneven, groping shuffle towards human rights, towards the Industrial Revolution, towards
equality. But I understand. If you want your medieval stuff, we've got a podcast for you.
Gone Medieval with Dr. Kat Jarman and Matt Lewis. It's
the dream team. They go from the fall of Rome to the fall of Rome. One in the 5th century and the
other in the 16th century. It's a big chunk of time. That's the medieval period, folks. They've
got a broad canvas. They get out on location. They do explainers. They know medieval history
off the back of their hands. You've got to listen to Gone Medieval with Dr Kat Jarman and Matt Lewis wherever you get your pods.
Welcome to this episode of Gone Medieval from History Hit. I'm Matt Lewis. It's probably no
surprise that I've thought about being able to travel back in time to the medieval period.
I'd probably want to be fairly rich, mind you, if I had the choice. If it ever happened though,
how would I actually cope?
There's a myriad of ways in which the medieval world was different to the one that we live in
today. No internet or smartphones for one thing, and I'm old enough to remember that horror kids.
Fortunately, the wonderful Tony Mount has produced a new book entitled How to Survive
in Medieval England, and Tony joins me now to give us some pointers on surviving there.
medieval England and Tony joins me now to give us some pointers on surviving there.
Thank you very much for joining us Tony. It's good to be with you Matt. It's great to talk to you again. So I've landed in medieval England, something I've always thought would be pretty
cool and I guess the first thing is that my clothes will stick out like a sore thumb if I
arrive dressed like this. So what would I have to get hold of in terms of clothing to be able to blend in a bit better?
Well, definitely no jeans, t-shirts and trainers.
I would suggest you do a little bit of research before you go.
Basically, girls, it's long skirts, trousers sorry about that for the boys you might want
to borrow your sister's tights because they could look quite good again so it's Dublin hose for the boys, which is a kind of belted jacket with your sister's tights.
And for the girls, long skirts. Cover your arms.
And if you're a married woman, I'm afraid you've got to cover your hair as well.
It would probably be safest to do a bit of research before you go.
But as soon as you get to your medieval period I suggest you go and visit
someone called a fripperer. Fripperers deal in second-hand clothes.
There's nothing grubby and dirty about it.
Everyone but the rich wears second-hand clothes.
It's also a lot quicker in an emergency because if you have your clothes made for you,
it's a very long process and you could have to wait a couple of
weeks for your new outfit so definitely visit the fripper they might not have the absolute
up-to-date fashion but you will definitely blend in because most other people are also wearing stuff
bought from the fripper or hand-me-downs so I suggest that's what you do. It's a good place
to start so how easy would I find it to get myself dressed in the clothes of the medieval period so
I think a lot of dresses are laced up at the back,
not that I would necessarily be wearing a dress.
And the men's clothes are quite often sort of,
they're kind of sewn, like stitched together, aren't they?
Sort of tied together.
Well, they can be a bit tricky. But basically, once you're dressed in the morning,
you can stay dressed.
So for the men, your hose those things which look a bit like
tights are normally laced to your shirt but if you need to go to the loo you've got flaps front
and back so you don't have to unlace and if it's cold you probably keep it on at night as well because
they don't wear night shirts if it's warm enough you sleep in the nude and if it's not you can keep
your undergarments on your nether clouts so for the men yes everything laces or buckles no zips no velcro no poppers you do get
hooks and eyes or especially on things like cloaks that fasten at the neck and you do get buttons but buttons tend to be for decoration not for fastening and the lacing down
the back of the dress that you mentioned that's for people with servants it's their way of showing
that they're wealthy enough to have a servant get them dressed. So ordinary women
tend to lace their gowns down the front so you can see what you're doing. But you do have to be
careful with your lacing. The sort of cross lacing where you start at the bottom and keep crossing it up to the top.
Respectable women do not do that.
The idea is that cross lacing is very quick to do up and undo.
So it's prostitutes who have to get their clothes on and off in a rush who cross lace but other people use one long thread and go over
in some spiral lacing which gives an effect of straight lines across the front of the lacing
and that's straight laced or respectable ah so that's being a straight lace person that's straight-laced or respectable. Ah, so that's being a straight-laced person.
That's similar to how we would lace up shoes these days.
There's sort of two different ways of doing it with the crossover or the sort of spiral.
Right, so we need to stick to the spiral and all be very straight-laced and careful.
Yes, yes, if you want to be respectable.
And is it true that people tended to change their underclothes
more often than their outer clothes, and that was what got washed?
It was the linen underwear that gets washed
rather than the outer clothes very often?
Very much so.
All but the poorest of the poor would have a couple of changes
of leather clouts, your undergarments,
which for the men would be a shirt and drawstring pants,
and for the women was a shift, which was just like a very long loose shirt.
These would be made of easily washed linen, and the idea was linen soaks up the sweat so your outer garments which could be made of wool
which is difficult to wash and keep nice or if you're wealthy velvet or silk you can't have it
dry cleaned so it's best not to wash your outer garments but if you keep washing the
other garments and put them on clean it's amazing how fresh your outer garments will stay it's the
humans inside that are dirty rather than the world's outside yes exactly that. There is some discussion about whether women wore knickers,
and I think they did.
Knickers were actually found in amongst rags,
found underneath 15th century floorboards in a castle in Austria and these were sort of tied each
side on the hip briefs and they also found bras which are mentioned both are
mentioned in medieval manuscripts not so much in this country but various continental sources
talk about breast bags which prostitutes tended to pad out to make themselves
more voluptuous and there are also a couple of French court cases in which girls were raped
and it described how the man ripped off the girls' nether bridges, which have got to be knickers.
So the evidence is gradually building for medieval women wearing knickers,
which is great because when I do reenactments in costume,
I do like to keep my nether breeches on.
So if I manage to get myself properly dressed,
I might be wondering where in England I could have landed.
So how might I go about finding out where I am,
given that I can't get maps on my phone or anything like that?
Well, this is a big difficulty.
You must be a traveller.
Otherwise, you'd know where you were.
And any traveller asking the way is suspicious.
You're an outsider and nobody trusts people they don't know. Also there
are no signposts mainly because most people can't read so there's no point and it is a very difficult
problem. You could well ask which way is London and the locals if they don't like
the look of you will probably point you in the wrong direction. Always supposing
they can even understand what you say. Local accents are going to be far more pronounced than they are today.
I still have trouble understanding Geordies and Glaswegians,
but back in the day, for example,
a merchant from Hull was travelling abroad by ship.
This is a story told by William Caxton, William tells us how Merchant from Hull,
his ship was caught in bad weather and they landed in Kent and he asked a local woman
if she had any eggs because he fancied eggs for breakfast and she looked at him and shook her head and said
don't speak French and this was a man from Hull so he had to rely on a friend who understood
Kentish to ask for eggs which the Kentish people called iron so the words could be very different and in
his book Caxton says so which word should I use in my printed text so
everyone understands. Regional variations are one thing but even your received pronunciation might well have been very different.
Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London and lived in Kent but his writing is Middle English but using what was called a Mercian accent and Mercian is the Midlands
that's what they spoke in London so for all I know a London accent could have sounded more like
Derbyshire and some people say it sounded more like Somerset with the S's pronounced as Z, as in Somerset rather than Somerset.
So it's difficult for us to know what the language sounded like anyway.
I would tell you was to listen and keep your mouth shut because it will mark you out as a foreigner a foreigner was anyone not from the village so and if you're really really foreign you're called
an alien so if you don't want to be remarkable, it's a foreigner or an alien. Keep quiet.
I mean, keep my mouth shut and just listen is advice that I get quite a lot, actually, to be
fair. And so accents were very different then. And you mentioned the word for egg could be quite
different. But how different would the general language have been in conversation? Even assuming
I could pick up someone's accent, would they use words and language that was very different to what I would use?
They might well use some familiar words that don't actually mean what you think they mean
one word that youngsters love to use today is amazing everything's so amazing but that didn't mean fantastic and wonderful
that meant totally bewildering a maze as in the maze at Hampton Court say is a place to get lost in and that word actually comes from her maze meaning to bewilder and
confuse someone what other words do we have things like nice never tell a woman she's nice
it means fussy scolding nitpicking the the sort who would be taken to court by her husband and tried for
being a scold. So you could take your wife to court and try her for being too nice? Yes exactly
yes nitpicking and being generally a pain. That's what nice meant.
And naughty is a good one.
Naughty was what you would call a toddler who was misbehaving.
Naughty was the word to describe a murderer
or someone who was so bad they were not even human they were not so
that was a very bad thing but you could very well call a child silly that's
perfectly acceptable silly means sweet and. So you do have to watch even the words you think you know what they mean.
It's amazing how many of those words have really flipped their meaning all the way around.
You know, naughty goes from being the one end of absolutely diabolical to something that we call someone who's being a little bit mischievous.
And, you know, some of the words there just meant the exact opposite
of the way that we use them today.
I can imagine you'd get yourself into trouble quite easily.
You could, yes.
So keep quiet and go and listen.
We're back to shutting up and listening.
I'm Matt Lewis. And I'm Dr Alan Orjanaga. To be continued... kings, Normans, kings and popes, who were rarely the best of friends, murder, rebellions, and crusades. Find out who we really were by subscribing to Gone Medieval from History Hit,
wherever you get your podcasts.
OK, so I'm never very far from being hungry, if I'm perfectly honest, but I'm also a pretty picky eater.
So what might I be able to expect to get my hands on in medieval England when I get a bit peckish? Well, it's going to be seasonal.
Well, it's going to be seasonal. There's none of this importing red peppers from America and tomatoes from Spain.
You can only have what grows locally and what's in season unless it can be stored.
So also for the poorer people, it's going to be 95% vegetables. So if you're a vegetarian
you're probably going to do okay. If you like your meat then you've definitely got to be rich.
I'm afraid you've also got to like fish. Fish is on the menu at least twice a week and every
day throughout Lent and Advent and the eve of every important feast. So while the
rich are eating salmon and trout and cod and all the really nice fish, you could well be
living on eels, which were cheap, and whitebait and that sort of thing, or even crab, shrimps,
whatever could be caught locally. So you were luckier if you lived on the coast,
there would be more choice. It is possible just to buy a snack. Most towns have cook shops of
some sort which were surprisingly sophisticated. There's a super 15th century poem called The London Lickpenny
It was probably originally The London Lackpenny
It comes up from Kent, you know, miles away
He's a country bumpkin and he wants to bring a court case to the King's notice. Well the first thing he finds is that
you can't sneeze in London without paying for it and he hasn't got any money but he goes to
Westminster and it's dinner time and every sort of cook shop puts a table outside, puts tablecloth on it,
offs him a stool, gives him a spoon,
until he says, well, I can't pay for this.
And then suddenly it's all taken away.
And the same thing happens everywhere.
The real sad thing is that early on someone steals his hat.
And later on, when he's given up, he's walking back through London
to cross London Bridge back into Kent.
And he sees his own hat for sale in a fripper at shop
and he can't afford to buy it back.
Oh, that's a pretty sad story.
Yes, it is.
But everything he wants to do costs money.
But if you had money, you could dine quite well outside,
al fresco if the weather's nice, or buy something from a cook shop.
Pig's trotters were a very popular takeaway snack.
In season, in the summer, peas cots, which sort of mange to, fried in butter, were a very popular takeaway.
So it sounds like I'm going to be needing some money if I'm here in the Middle Ages for any more than a day trip.
So how might I go about making some money what kind of jobs were available and would
I understand the kind of money that I was getting given and how much that was worth? Well it's pounds
shillings and pence so you'd understand that but you'd probably only ever see pennies and grunts
and a penny was silver quite small about as big as your thumbnail, and you could
actually cut that in half, then it would be a half penny. Cutting quarters, that would be a
four thing, or farthings as they came to be known, which was a quarter of a penny coin right up until 1950s.
A groat is four pence, and again that can be cut into four equal parts
to make four separate pennies, which would actually sort of be
a triangle shaped like a slice of cake.
And that's probably all you'd ever see six pennies were a week's wages
for some people but skilled people carpenter or someone like that might get paid six pence a day
but you could buy a jug of ale for a farthing or a halfpenny for the better quality.
What was called a household loaf which was meant to last a whole household of about up to 12 people
for every meal of the day cost a penny so a few pence would go quite a long way.
But you'd have to find a job that you could do
and I'm afraid it would probably be labouring
because even if you were a skilled jeweller or a leather worker
you would either have to work out in the country
or if you came into town you'd have to pay to be a member of the guild, otherwise they
wouldn't let you work. And of course how many country communities need a skilled jeweller?
Not many of them, or fancy shoes or something like that so guessing a job will be difficult
and about the only thing you can do without retraining and buying your membership of a guild
is hard work probably hard work in the fields is that seasonal as well would that depend on what
season i'd landed in well it would be seasonal but there's nearly always a job to be done.
So you've got ploughing and kids used to run behind the plough picking out the stones,
which they then threw at the crows when they were planting the seed corn to keep them off. You could get paid a farthing a day as a crow scarer,
and that's real human crow scarers, not scarecrows.
And then you've got planting.
Once a crop begins to grow, you've got weeding.
Then you've got harvesting crops,
and it goes right the way through.
crops and it goes right the way through so it's only sort of Christmas up until what was called Plough Monday it's the first Monday after Epiphany ploughs are taken to church and blessed
and then it's back to the fields and so if I've arrived in winter and it's probably getting quite dark quite early
I might need to think about where I'm going to stay and where I might get some sleep.
So what accommodation might be available for a traveller given that I'm going to be under
suspicion if I'm a traveller? Is anyone going to want to put me up for the night?
Oh yes I'll be very willing so long as you've got some money. If you haven't got any money, there are so many abbeys, priories, hostels, which were
often called hospitals, but they were actually places where you could be put up for the night.
It was basically one night, but you'd also get food. You'd have to share a
communal dormitory. You might even have to share a bed with a complete stranger but if you didn't
have money to pay the monastery or whatever in the morning you could always do some
labor for them that you know do the washing up or help with the laundry or cut the
grass in the meadow or something and that'll be a way of paying for your
board and lodging. Board by the way board, the table you eat your food off. So board refers to the
food and drink. Fascinating. So is there anything that we do day to day today, something that we
might consider a habit or that we do routinely that would be considered bad behaviour in medieval England that might get me into trouble? Oh certainly if you think of crowds
in shops maybe getting on commuting you know those millions of people barging along the pavement
that is just so so bad that would be considered riotous behaviour. There's no elbowing your neighbour to get
in front of the queue. This is just so bad. Everybody had their place in society and this
was shown by how you were dressed. And one thing you must have, Matthew, a hat.
That was why that poor boy from Kent who had his hat pinched was in a bad way.
Because you must have a hat in order to doff your hat to everybody who's above you in the social system.
And you can tell that by the way they're dressed.
So if you see a person with a fur collar,
you have to step aside and bow your head and touch your cap
and let them go by.
But people lower down the scale than you
so a beggar with no shoes
has to step off the sidewalk
as it would have been called
to let you go by
and if the king goes by
or anybody on the horseback
who's bound to be above you
you have to get out of their way
it's not a case they're minding you
you've got to mind them and if they look like a lord you've got to bend the knee and actually
remove your headwear so it's all very polite i think it's one of my pet peeves people barging
on the pavement so that's one area I'd probably be quite happy in
medieval England although I guess I'm probably I'm walking everywhere aren't I I'm not having a horse
unless I'm a very wealthy nobleman or something not less so rich so one last thing from an entirely
selfish point of view from me I am horrendously short-sighted how would I cope in medieval
England would I be able to get new glasses how far advanced was that kind of thing in those days? Or would I literally be struggling to see anything and work and all of those kinds of things because how bad my eyesight is?
Well, Matt, you and I have been in the same boat because I'm also very short-sighted. I suggest you take your contact lenses or your glasses with you and take the greatest care of them.
Nobody will be shocked at you wearing glasses because glasses were invented at the end of the 13th century.
What they will think is strange is when you wear them in the street because all glasses are reading glasses
not what we need to see whether there's a horse charging down the street so take great care of
your glasses but detail might might not be that important to you. You can probably pick stones out of the field,
whether you can see them brilliantly or not.
But you could come proper with the manners
if you can't identify someone who's dressed posher than you are.
So that could be...
Would I get in trouble for that?
Could I potentially get into trouble for that could i potentially get into
trouble for not showing someone proper respect well if it's a horseman he can take his whip to
you to knock you out of the way or he can send his servant to shove you aside that sort of thing
or he could just barge you with his horse and run you down. Lords tended not to go on
foot but just someone like the alderman of your ward if you were in London, if you didn't recognise
him coming towards you could take offence at your lack of manners.
And it wouldn't be so much punishment as your reputation would take a dive
as that ill-mannered wretch who doesn't show respect.
And it was all about respect really it's your good name is perhaps the most important thing you've got in medieval England
so it sounds like if I lost my glasses even if I managed to shut up and listen I could still get
myself into trouble if I can't see anything very well yes yes you could I don't know what really short sighted people did. I think the idea of glasses for short sighted people
starts to come in at the very beginning of the 17th century. I think it was someone like Kepler
who came up with the idea that if you could make lenses for long-sighted people. Maybe you could make them for short-sighted people.
I guess he was short-sighted himself
and so he fiddled around with lenses
and came up with something that works.
But yes, we could be at a disadvantage.
We could get into some big trouble.
Well, thank you so much for sharing all of those insights with us, Tony.
Tony's new book is entitled How to Survive in Medieval England
and will now be firmly tucked under my arm
if the TARDIS ever comes calling with a medieval mission for me.
You can join Dr Kat Jarman on Tuesday for another brand new episode.
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Anyway, I'd better let you go.
I've been Matt Lewis,
and we've just gone medieval with History Hits. Thank you.