The Middle Ages spanned
from roughly 500 to 1500 CE. For much of that time,
the people of England lived under a feudal
system in which both the laws, and the
penalties for breaking them, were significantly more
bizarre than the ones we are familiar with today. So today, we're
going to take a look at 10 ludicrous laws
from the Middle Ages that we still break today. But before we get started,
be sure to subscribe to the Weird History channel. After that, leave
a comment and let us know what other legal topics
you would like to hear about. OK, time to bone up for
the medieval bar exam. [DRUMS PLAYING] Today's football players,
or soccer players for the Americans among us, have
a reputation of being dramatic over the smallest of injuries,
but their predecessors were the exact opposite. Medieval football was an
extremely violent game. There weren't
nearly as many rules and there was a hell of
a lot more bloodshed. First off, rather than a ball,
an inflated pig's bladder was kicked up and down the
entire length of a village and the goals could
sometimes be miles apart. Players could kick and
punch both the bladder and their opponents, and
presumably, their opponents bladders. This made fouls
virtually non-existent and predictably resulted
in many injuries and the occasional death. Football was banned
in 1349 by Edward III, but not because he was concerned
about players getting hurt. It was a matter of
national security. You see in 1349, England
was at war with France. Edward needed
soldiers for his army, but the country
was also suffering the loss of many lives
due to the Black Death. That's the plague, not
a rival football team. Edward wanted his
remaining healthy men to be focused on
their archery practice rather than getting
distracted by football. And he wasn't messing
around, the punishment for playing football
was six days in prison. [MUSIC PLAYING] Football wasn't the only sport
banned in the Middle Ages. In 1485, it became
illegal for anyone but nobles to play tennis,
with the only exception being on Christmas Day, because,
hey, it's Christmas. But why ban tennis? Well, medieval
tennis was believed to disrupt labor and
encourage gambling. The banning of tennis
in the lower classes helped to maintain
the feudal hierarchy. Tennis began to be seen as an
exclusively upper class sport because it needed
expensive equipment and required an understanding
of complex rules and social etiquette. This is one of the reasons
tennis eventually became known as the sport of kings. Although that title is sometimes
afforded to things like horse racing and dodgeball, probably. Kings liked a lot of sports. But it is true that
both Henry VII and Henry VIII were very into tennis and
Henry VIII was allegedly pretty good at it. A Venetian ambassador who
watched him play in his youth said, "It was the prettiest
thing in the world to see him play. His fair skin glowing through
a shirt of the finest texture." Apparently, old Hank
was an absolute vision in a crisp white Izod polo. [MUSIC PLAYING] The English town of Newmarket
is known as the birthplace of horse racing. The sport actually dates
back to the 12th century. But James I popularized it after
building a palace in Newmarket in 1606. Over time, horse
racing in Newmarket grew into a large
business and the town was forced to establish
laws to protect the horses, including one that made
it illegal for people to blow their noses
in the street. The idea was to reduce the
risk of the horses getting sick from the public's
leaky schnozes. It's unclear how effective
this strategy was, but it must have been a
challenge for people who are allergic to horse dander. Blowing one's nose wasn't
the only thing that could get a person in trouble. Anyone walking around with
a head cold or temperature had to pay a fine. Huh, how could they tell? Maybe they set up
DUI checkpoints-- driving under influenza. [MUSIC PLAYING] Today, it's daunting enough
to propose to someone. You're never completely sure
of what their answer will be, which runs you the
risk of being rejected on the jumbotron in front of
thousands of Steelers fans. However, the process
was much more nerve racking in the Middle Ages. Societal rank played a
large role in medieval life, especially for those
on the bottom rung of the social ladder. Peasants and serfs working
and living under landowners essentially had no freedom. A man wanting to
get married not only had to ask the father of
the bride's permission, but also that of
their landowners. Imagine having to get
your boss or landlord's OK to get hitched. No, really. Imagine it. And the situation was even
worse if you were a woman. If your husband
died, the landowner could force you to marry
another man in a relatively short amount of time. If you refused, you would
be subject to punishment. [MUSIC PLAYING] Throughout the
Middle Ages, there were a number of
religious laws that tried to restrict when
people could have sex. Although, if we're being
honest, some people probably didn't need the laws
help to stay abstinent. Have you seen
medieval portraits? For instance, a married
couple could only have sex on four
days of the week. Thursday and Friday were out
because people were supposed to prepare for Holy Communion. And don't even think about
bumping uglies on Sunday. That is the Lord's day. But those weren't the only days
where smashing was prohibited. There were many
other sexless periods throughout the year, including
47 to 62 days during Lent, the 35 days before
Christmas, and the time around the Feast of Pentecost,
which could be anywhere from 40 to 60 days. Women were also discouraged
from making eye contact with men during these dry spells, so
as to not stimulate desire in the observer
and the observed. [MUSIC PLAYING] 15th century Britain was
a time of flamboyance. Along with short shirts,
long pointy-ended shoes, known as crakows or
pikes, had become the height of men's fashion. It was believed that
the longer the toe, the more masculine
and rich the wearer. It was like wearing a
muscular Ferrari on your foot. Shoes sometimes extended up
to 5 inches beyond the toe. This led to the
ends occasionally having to be tied around
the wearer's ankles. Randomly falling on your face
was apparently also considered a sign of extreme masculinity. Those are clown shoes, fellas. You've just invented
clown shoes. As the fashion continued
growing and peasants began wearing more
extravagant clothing, the crown finally
decided to step in and it wasn't
because they worried that a nation full of people
wearing Ronald McDonald shoes would make England
look ridiculous. No, they just wanted to
preserve the feudal hierarchy and stop people from dressing
above their social rank. Between 1463 and 1604, a law
went into effect that said, "No Knight under the rank of
Lord, Esquire, or Gentleman, nor any other person, shall
wear any shoes or boots having spikes or
points which exceed the length of two inches." The punishment was a fine of
three shillings and four pence, which is the modern
equivalent of about $135 USD. [MUSIC PLAYING] In the Middle Ages,
there were many laws that restricted what
people could eat and drink, but they weren't necessarily in
the interest of Public Health. These laws were mostly intended
to prevent lower class people from matching the binge eating
lifestyle of the nobility. Apparently, demolishing
the Golden Corral buffet isn't nearly as
fun unless you can watch people starve to
death while you do it. That being said, some
of the dietary laws applied to everyone. For instance, in
1336, a law was passed which banned all people,
regardless of status, from being served a meal
with more than two courses. And just so no one
got clever, the law made sure to specify that soup
counted as a full course meal and not just a sauce. The exception to the law
was on certain festivals, such as Christmas, where
three courses were allowed. Did ketchup count as
a vegetable course? Asking for Ronald Reagan. [MUSIC PLAYING] In medieval England,
the peasants greatly outnumbered the nobility. So to maintain their grip on
power and prevent revolts, the upper class
authorities made it so that even the smallest of
crimes had harsh penalties. The idea was to keep the
poor perpetually terrified of stepping even
slightly out of line and it was generally a
pretty successful strategy. Even petty crimes like
theft, disturbing the peace, or even vagrancy
sometimes resulted in extremely harsh
punishments, from flogging to the removal of body parts. For example, lopping
off one or both hands was an abiding favorite. In fact, until 1215, even
being accused of a crime resulted in the
enduring of an ordeal to reveal your
innocence or guilt. There were three such ordeals. The ordeal by fire
had the accused hold a red hot iron bar in
their hands and walk 3 meters. After three days of
being bandaged up, if the wound wasn't
healing they were guilty. Considering the general lack of
Bactine during the Middle Ages, most people probably
failed this ordeal. The second was the
ordeal by water. Here the accused was
bound with a knotted rope and thrown into a body
of water, if they floated it meant that the water
had not accepted them and therefore they were guilty. For many, their only crime
was being naturally buoyant. Finally, there was
the ordeal by combat in which the accused had
to battle their accuser. It was believed that
God would grant victory to the innocent party
because the fight generally resulted in the loser's death. The Pope canceled the
practice of ordeals in 1215 and it was replaced
by a jury process. Hooray for progress. [MUSIC PLAYING] In the Middle Ages,
people had to watch their tongues, both
metaphorically and literally. This was to avoid breaking
the religious laws regarding blasphemy, which is the action
of speaking ill about God or other sacred things, such
as church doctrine or Evel Knievel. The law was put in place
by the Catholic Church to maintain control
and order, two things they were pretty big on. Blasphemy was considered
a serious crime and it carried an equally
severe punishment. Offenders would
regularly be tied down while their tongue was
removed with hot pliers. If you were lucky, you'd just
get hanged or maybe stoned. And not the fun kind of
stoned, the bad kind, you know, with rocks. [MUSIC PLAYING] Science was still in its
infancy in medieval Europe, so much of the workings
of the natural world were a big, fat mystery. Usually, the will of God
was the answer to anything that could not be explained. However, when it came to
unfortunate developments such as sickness, bad harvests,
and the death of livestock, the blame was placed squarely on
the bony shoulders of witches, because it was believed that God
would never inflict such harm on his loyal followers. Witches were believed to be
able to summon evil spirits and demons. But in reality, they were just
usually poor, elderly women who owned a cat. Odd or different
women were frequently ostracized and punished. In 1542, the Witchcraft Act
was passed by Parliament and established
that witchcraft was a crime punishable by death. Witch hunting became all the
rage after that, especially in Southeast England. It is believed that
over 500 people were executed for witchcraft
between the 15th and 18th centuries. On the other hand, the hysteria
over suspected witchcraft did eventually lead to
the Vin Diesel masterpiece The Last Witch Hunter, so
we'll call it a mixed bag. So what do you think? Which of these laws do you
think was the most ridiculous? Let us know in the
comments below. And while you're at it, check
out some of these other videos from our Weird History.
