The Middle Ages

During most of the Middle Ages, few people, including kings and emperors, were able to read or write. The clergy were virtually the only ones who possessed those skills. (source)

Slavery ended in Western Europe in the 7^th century, when a British girl, Bathilde, was taken as a slave and sold to Clovis II, King of the Franks (638–655). Clovis fell in love with and married her. After the king died, Bathilde, acting as regent for their three young sons, outlawed slavery. She was later canonized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. [ Saints | Slavery | The Middle Ages ] (source)

The "Athens of the West"—the Moorish capital of Cordoba, in Andalusia, Spain's southernmost region—had, in the year 900, a library of 400,000 books, miles of paved streets, and a population of perhaps half a million. To the north, Paris was a bastioned island and London was a stockade maintained in defence of Viking raiders. (source)

Perhaps the worst pope in history was Octavian, Count of Tusculum, who was consecrated Pope John XII on December 16^th, 955. On November 6^th, 963, Holy Roman Emperor Otto I summoned a council, levelling charges that John had ordained a deacon in a stable, consecrated a 10-year-old boy as bishop of Todi, converted the Lateran Palace into a brothel, raped female pilgrims in St. Peter's, stolen church offerings, drank toasts to the devil, and invoked the aid of Jove, Venus, and other pagan gods when playing dice. He was deposed, but returned as pope when Otto left Rome, maiming and mutilating all who had opposed him. On May 11^th, 964, he was apparently beaten by the husband of a woman with which he was having an affair, dying three days later without receiving confession or the sacraments. [ The Middle Ages | Popes ] (source)

Various gatherings of bishops in southern France in 990 A.D. tried to set up a "Truce of God," a subjection of warfare to rules. The chief rule called for converting all ecclesiastical property and persons into a kind of neutral territory that was not to be touched. Eventually, this was extended to a total prohibition of warfare from Wednesday evening to Monday morning of each week, and on numerous fast and feast days as well. In the end, as much as three-fourths of the year was put off limits to fighting - in theory. (source)

Gerbert of Aurillac, who became Pope Sylvester II (999-1003), attempted to introduce Arabic numerals into Christian Europe. These numerals facilitate calculations much easier than the Roman numerals in use at the time, but their use never caught on for a few more centuries. [ Mathematics and Mathematicians | Popes ]

Gerbert of Aurillac, who became Pope Sylvester II, was the greatest Latin scholar of his age. In his youth he went to Muslim Spain to study philosophy and mathematics. The education he received from his Arabic teachers made him so intellectually superior to his Christian contemporaries that for many centuries Gerbert was regarded as the possessor of mysterious powers of sorcery and black magic. [ Popes | The Middle Ages | Philosophy ]

St. Cuthbert's death shroud, in Durham Cathedral, reads "There is no God but Allah". In the Middle Ages, much of Europe's silk was imported from Islamic lands, and Arabic inscriptions on the silk were often ignored. [ Saints | The Middle Ages ] (source)

In the eleventh century, Robert the Devil, the father of William the Conqueror, claimed that the opal gave him magical evil powers. Robert also maintained that he was the son of the devil, who had bought his mother's favours with an opal stone. (source)

One of the most unusual military maneuvers ever was performed in 1191, during the third Crusade, when Richard the Lion-Hearted captured the city of Acre. The inhabitants were barricaded inside, so King Richard had his soldiers throw 100 beehives over the walls. The people in the fortress surrendered immediately. [ The Middle Ages | The Crusades | Weapons ] (source)

Relics of saints and holy people were so valued in the Middle Ages that when Elisabeth of Thuringia, a very holy woman, died in 1231, a crowd quickly dismembered her body for holy relics. [ The Middle Ages | Saints ]

Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, who died in 1250, was an open atheist. He set up a cultured court to which learned Jews and Muslims were welcomed on an equal basis with Christians. He found Muslim mercenaries to be useful in his struggles against the Pope. (source)

Many European advances during the Middle Ages were made possible by the Moorish occupation of Spain. The most important was the use of Arabic numerals. The Moors also brought other discoveries to Europe, which is reflected by the fact that words such as "algebra", "lute", and "magazine" are of Arabic origin. The Moors also introduced to Europe the game of chess. [ The Middle Ages | English Words | Numbers and Measurement ]

Margaret, "Maid of Norway", was nominally declared Queen of Scotland in 1286 but it was not until 1290 that the seven-year-old Queen sailed from Norway to claim her new kingdom. Unfortunately, on the journey across the North Sea, she suffered terrible sea-sickness and died in the Orkneys before ever setting foot on the Scottish mainland.

The Cathedral of Notre Dame in Amiens, built in the Middle Ages, covers 8,500 square yards and took 137 years to complete. When it was completed, the entire population of the city, around 10,000, could attend the same service. [ Buildings and Monuments | The Middle Ages ]

In 1209, in the bloody Crusade against the Albigenses, a French army took the town of Beziers, near the Mediterranean coast. The town was put to the sack, but the question arose as to how to tell which of the town's inhabitants were heretics and which were good Christians. Simon IV de Montfort (or perhaps a legate of Pope Innocent III) proposed an easy solution. "Kill them all," he said, "for the Lord will know his own." And so several tens of thousands of men, women, and children were killed. [ The Crusades | The Middle Ages ] (source)

All practicing Jews were expelled from England and France in the 1290's. In England, this law was not revoked for several centuries.

If Marco Polo had not been captured by the Genoese and imprisoned for a year, the tales of his historic twenty-two-year adventure in the Far and Middle East (at the end of the thirteenth century) might never have been collected and written down. When he returned to Venice after his odyssey, he became a "gentleman commander" of a war vessel striving to hold of Genoese traders. In a battle of Curzold Island, his galley was captured and Marco was hauled off to Genoa and gaoled. There he met a writer named Rustichello, who, after hearing Marco's yarns, insisted that they be written down. [ Books and Literature | Exploration | The Middle Ages ] (source)

A plague of drunkenness settled over Europe to match the plague of the Black Death in the mid-1300s, and remained after the disease was gone. The theory at the time was that strong drink acted as a preventive against contagion. It didn't, but it made the drinker less concerned, which was something.

The worst college campus riot until relatively recently erupted at mediaeval Oxford - the "town and gown" battle of 1354. Originating in a tavern quarrel, the violence lasted for three days, involved dozens of townsmen and students, and ended with several dead and many injured. (source)

In the Middle Ages, the skulls of saints were used as drinking cups on ceremonial occasions. [ The Middle Ages | Saints ]

A feudal society similar to that of Europe's developed in Japan in the 1100's. A member of the Japanese equestrian class was called a "samurai". Like the knights of Europe, they fought on horseback.

Common in Europe and the British Isles during the Middle Ages and later even in the New World was the practice of trying and condemning animals for injuring or killing a human being. For instance, the French parliament, the highest court in the land, once ordered the execution of a cow. It was hanged, then burned at the stake. [ The Middle Ages | Medieval England ]

During the high Middle Ages, there was, on the average, a church for every 200 people. The areas covered by religious buildings took up a large part of every city. In the English cities of Norwich, Lincoln, and York, which had populations of between 5,000 and 10,000, there were fifty, forty-nine, and forty-one churches, respectively. [ Medieval England | The Middle Ages ] (source)

The ancient feudal system of land ownership, which allowed "feudal superiors" to continue to have rights over "vassals" who own their own houses built on the land, was not abolished in Scotland until the year 2000.

In 582, it rained "blood" on Paris. The terrified population believed this to be a sign of divine displeasure, and responded by indulging in an agony of repentance. The true cause of this weird event was the sirocco, the wind that sometimes blows from the Sahara across the Mediterranean into Europe. It is laden with a fine red dust from the desert interior, and this had dyed the rain that fell on Paris.

Many peasants in the Middle Ages believed that pebbles littering a field actually grew there.

In the small Italian town of San Gimignano during the fourteenth century, a lofty tower was the ultimate status symbol. The first turret was probably constructed for protection against street fighting between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, but soon, for reasons of prestige, other lords began building towers of their own, each trying to outdo his rivals. In a matter of a few years, 72 spires sprang up; fourteen still survive, giving San Gimignano its nickname, "the Manhattan of Tuscany". [ The Middle Ages | Buildings, Structures, and Monuments ] (source)

Thirteenth-century etiquette books cautioned people against actions such as gnawing bones and putting them back in the dish, "falling upon the dish like a swine while eating", and spitting on the table.