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Oh, welcome to Medieval Madness, where we try and shed some light on the dark ages of human history.

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Because there are many fascinating things about the medieval times, aren't there?

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Life, well, simply was different back then, not only technologically, I mean, try and imagine living without cat videos, duck face pictures, and Pokemon,

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but it was also different in the matter of social structures, the pursuit of professions, and of course, living conditions in general.

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Many differences can for example be seen between the mostly free population of cities

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and those who lived under the rule of a feudal lord in the country.

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But what was life in a medieval city like?

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Was it all about knights and kings and was the common man bar the mere tool of the nobles,

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as it is mostly portrayed in movies?

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Let's take a look.

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Side note, the contents of this video do not apply to every single medieval city, obviously.

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You won't be able to find two cities that share exactly the same characteristics,

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but it can be said that the features that are to be mentioned here

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could have generally been seen in many cities.

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We will focus on the average Central European city

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in the High Middle Ages and the Late Middle Ages.

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Now, where and how cities developed had many different origins.

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So-called mother cities slowly developed over many hundreds of years,

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for example in the vicinity of the Bishop's Sea.

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Other important landmarks, such as a castle or a monastery,

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could have caused the city to emerge in the surroundings as well.

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Whenever these landmarks were located near a river, ocean or an already existing trade

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route, this increased the chances of urban development massively.

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Just think about playing Age of Empires or a comparable strategy game.

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You usually start your city close to the water, right?

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However, trade routes on land were rare during the early middle ages and in the beginnings

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of the high middle ages.

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In continental Europe, the only existing roads were leftovers from the Romans after all,

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and only in the following centuries a road system was developed.

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The reason for that?

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Well, it was mostly the trading between cities.

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Markets were the backbone of the medieval economy.

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They were of central importance for traveling merchants, artisans and the townspeople who

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bought cloth, tools and of course food, naturally.

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Markets were mostly located in the vicinity of a church, either on a square or in the

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form of a market street, and even for farmers living in the country, a city's market was

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The opportunity to sell grain, animals, and stuff like that.

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At least, well, that part of them belongs, which they weren't forced to hand over to their feudal lord.

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Townspeople and rural inhabitants usually disapproved of one another.

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Rural inhabitants were dumb, and townspeople were just arrogant.

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At least, that's what they thought of each other.

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The pretended arrogance was mostly caused by better education possibilities in the cities.

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Of course, it can't be compared to the public education system we have in industrial countries nowadays.

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But for trading, it was very common for townspeople to have at least basic knowledge,

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like being able to read and do calculations, something that we take for granted nowadays.

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Most townspeople would be craftsmen, like tailors, locksmiths, and tanners.

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Or they would be merchants and buy goods from the craftsmen to sell them on the markets for profit.

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What kind of profession would you choose if you had to?

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Just leave a comment and let us know.

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what what was that no see spencer spencer dragon slayer is not a prophet no just this is not up for

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discussion no it's fine fine be a dragon slayer do whatever dude whatever

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okay however um back to the serious stuff walking around the streets of a medieval town would be

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very different to us than walking through a city nowadays. It kind of stinks that we can't simply

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go back in time and experience it ourselves, but what would stink even more is probably the city

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itself. Feces and waste were mostly thrown into the streets or the rivers, and most of the townspeople

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only owned one or maybe two pieces of clothing. Well, clothing which they rarely washed, so in the

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and they stank too. As a result of the bad, let's call it, waste management, rats were a constant

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plague. To fight them it was not unusual for citizens to have several cats in the household,

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so you see, the internet's favorite animal was pretty popular back then too. But after all this

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I don't want to give you the impression that the townspeople approved of the stinking roads and

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bad general state of public space. In fact they constantly complained about it to the city's

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council, but it remained a lasting problem in most cities. Hygiene was of course a different

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topic for children of wealthy merchants or of noblemen. Also, their chances to enjoy a higher

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education than the common folk were enormously higher. The main source of education was provided

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by the churches and monasteries in which it was possible to learn to read and write in Latin

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and have access to the church's libraries. Being rich sure made things easier that doesn't seem

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to have changed. But it was not impossible for commoners to emerge and become wealthy

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too. However, being noble or a wealthy merchant was extremely important in order to become

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a member of the city council. This council was a committee of townspeople who were elected

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and complicated procedures from among the townspeople. But, well, as it is still custom

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in politics today, it's easier to get in if you know the right people and have resources.

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The city council had many tasks, like granting permits, observing tax collections,

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and they also constantly tried to take steps to gain more independence from the king or the religious leaders,

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like, for example, an archbishop, who had a great influence on the city's politics.

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To gain more independence sometimes even meant throwing a bishop out of the city

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and waging war against the feudal lords, or even the king himself.

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As you might imagine, well, some failed and others succeeded,

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it, and the outcome would change the city for the worse or the better.

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There's so much more interesting to tell about medieval cities, but this should be

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enough to summarize the most important facts of everyday life in a nutshell.

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I do hope you enjoyed this video.

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If you have a question about the Middle Ages, then don't hesitate to leave a comment or

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visit my Facebook page and leave a message on my timeline.