9 Myths About the Middle Ages That Everyone Still Believes In – Number 4 is UNBELIEVABLE

5. People thought the earth was flat

A common misconception is that during the Dark Ages, everyone considered the Earth flat. People from way back in the sixth century BC were already theorizing that our planet was not a flat disc.

6. The right of the first night was commonplace

Prima nocta or “the right of the first night” is a messed up tradition that granted an influential person or a representative of power the right to deprive the newlywed bride of her virginity. Or at least that’s what we were told. Apparently, there is no evidence of this tradition in any documents, and it was first seen in the Sumerian tales of Gilgamesh, written somewhere around 1800 BC.

7. Women were baby factories and had to stay at home

In many movies about the Middle Ages, women only give birth, cook, and die young. But the archives tell us a different story. There are documents proving that lovely ladies were full members of our society. They took up harvesting, worked in confectionery stores, ran family shops, taverns, and hotels.

8. Life expectancy was only 30 years

Life in the Dark Ages was much more dangerous than it is today. The life expectancy was only 30 years due to high infant mortality. Imagine a family of four: two adults, two children.

The first child dies shortly after birth, the second survives to 70, and parents pass away at 35 and 60 years old. Thus, the average life expectancy in this family is 41 years. But this does not mean that everyone was dying after 40. The hardest part was surviving childhood.

9. Because of the dirty water, everyone drank wine and beer

We have been fooled by movies and fantasy novels. It turns out that medieval people did not drink as much alcohol as we think. Most cities were then built near large bodies of freshwater, and only industrial facilities that worked with dyes were dangerous. Beer was much weaker than today’s IPA’s and porters, so the workers would drink it to quench their thirst after or during hard work.

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