Were People in Medieval Times Always Drunk?

Medieval painting

Author Bennett Kleinman

April 3, 2024

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It’s often said that people during the Middle Ages, a period that lasted from roughly the end of the fifth century through the 15th century, drank beer instead of water because the drinking water at the time was dirty and unsafe. It would beg the question: Were people in medieval times always drunk? While it’s true that beer was free-flowing in the Middle Ages, a lack of clean drinking water is one of the most common misconceptions about the time period. We took a look at the history to get to the truth behind the myth.

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Water Was Safe and Plentiful

Despite the myth that’s been perpetuated in the centuries since, there was plenty of clean water during the Middle Ages, and people rarely relied on alcoholic beverages as a substitute. That isn’t to say people steered clear of the stuff — boozy beverages were widely enjoyed by everyone from members of the working class to those in high society. But it’s not actually true that unclean water led to the widespread consumption of ale as an alternative.

People in medieval times had an understanding about the health benefits of drinking water, even if the science wasn’t fully understood. This was based in part on the early medical findings of ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, who recommended boiled and strained water as an important ingredient for overall health. There was, of course, medical misinformation as well, including some 15th-century texts that encouraged pregnant mothers to drink wine instead of cold water for the health of the baby. But generally, fresh water was understood to be good for you.

Indeed, fresh, running water was so coveted that many medieval villages were built along rivers and streams so that residents could have access to a constant supply of water for drinking, cleaning, farming, and other daily chores that required clean water. Many people also collected rainwater in barrels, which was safe to drink at the time given the lack of air pollution. Freshwater wells were quite common, too, and were built to ensure the purity of the water. People in the Middle Ages were aware of the fact that the best water was clear, cold, and odorless, and people often lined their wells with wood to ensure that the water wouldn’t get contaminated with murky mud. Some people also understood that if water looked or smelled impure, boiling it could remove impurities and make it safer to drink.

How Medieval Cities Got Their Water

Clean water wasn’t always as easy to come by in densely populated urban environments that were further removed from natural sources. There was also a high risk of contamination due to runoff from local businesses such as tanneries and butchers. With these concerns in mind, many cities instituted ordinances and imposed fines on anyone who polluted the local water supply.

Over time, cities began constructing intricate networks of pipes to bring fresh water into the city center from nearby water sources. In 1237, the city of London was given the authority to build a system of underground pipes connected with springs in nearby Tyburn (a manor located in Middlesex county) in order to supply residents with a fresh supply of water. Known as the “Great Conduit,” it was among the first major plumbing projects of its kind. The pipes were made of wood and lead, and safely transported water into London for people to enjoy at no charge. The system was expanded throughout the 14th and 15th centuries before being damaged beyond repair by the Great Fire of London in 1666.

Those who were wealthy enough could actually pay to have private pipes installed that brought water directly to their homes. These were known as “quills,” and anyone who illegally tapped into the pipes was subject to a sizable fine. Many wealthy Londoners also paid water delivery people, known as “cobs,” to bring them 3-gallon tubs of water each day. However, these perks were difficult for the majority of people to afford, and most folks relied on the communal water supply instead.

Where Did the Beer Myth Come From?

Given the plentiful amount of clean drinking water available during the Middle Ages, it’s natural to wonder how the myth of beer-guzzling medieval folk formed to begin with. One theory is that it stemmed from various written works at the time that highlighted excessive drinking as a popular activity — William Shakespeare’s plays, for instance, are full of inebriated characters, none so famous as Sir John Falstaff. But the myth was also likely perpetuated by the fact that people often drank beer along with water, as the former was a staple in many medieval diets.

Ales were frequently consumed by farmers and other workers as a type of energy drink. The ales brewed at the time often had a lower alcoholic content than modern-day beers, with an average ABV as low as 1%, versus an average around 5% today. (There were stronger beers, too, but they were harder to come by.) These low-alcohol ales still contained plentiful amounts of calories, though, especially compared to water. That’s why at the end of a long shift, it was common for workers to enjoy several glasses of ale not only to quench their thirst but also to provide them with caloric fuel to recoup the energy they lost that day.

The upper classes, meanwhile, often turned to fancy wines and liquor as their beverages of choice, as they believed water to be the drink of the common folk. While everyone could easily acquire water for free, only those of a higher status could afford the most expensive and decadent wines. Members of high society who chose to drink water often added ingredients that only the wealthy could afford, such as ice, honey, fruit, and spices. Nevertheless, it’s likely that people in medieval times weren’t inebriated any more frequently than people in any other era of history, and when they were, it wasn’t for a lack of safe drinking water.

How People Practiced Magic in the Middle Ages

Engraving of an Alchemist

Author Tony Dunnell

January 25, 2024

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Magic — the wielding of supernatural forces — was a part of everyday life in the Middle Ages, although some forms were considered far more insidious than others. At one end of the spectrum were forces seen as natural and helpful. This kind of white magic was even practiced by monks and priests, despite Christianity’s increasingly hostile attitude toward such practices. And then there was black magic, a harmful and unnatural practice otherwise known as sorcery.

The distinction between magic and religion during this time was sometimes hard to define. Churches in medieval Europe had both appropriated and Christianized native pagan practices and beliefs, and so elements of what could be seen as magic existed within the now-dominant religion. By the late Middle Ages (around 1350 to 1450), however, Christianity took a far stauncher attitude to what it saw as the worryingly widespread and dangerous remnants of pagan culture.

During this period, people were increasingly put on trial for maleficium, the term used to define sorcery or dark magic. In the 14th century, the accusation of maleficium was mostly aimed at men. It was not until later, with the publication of clergyman Heinrich Kramer’s Malleus Maleficarum in 1487, that dark magic was associated more directly with women, at which point there was a sharp rise in witches (both accused and self-proclaimed) and witch trials.

Practitioners of black magic, including wizards, sorcerers and, later, witches, had a number of tools to call upon to perform their dark arts. Here are some of the practices they might have used during the magical times of the Middle Ages.

The Grimoire

No self-respecting sorcerer would be seen without a grimoire. Practitioners of black magic needed a way to learn and advance their craft, and these instructions were found in grimoires, which served as a kind of textbook, giving sorcerers all the necessary instructions for casting spells, raising spirits, and various other dark wizardry. Grimoires were of little use to the common person, however, simply because they required a certain level of education to use — primarily the ability to read.

Spellcasting

A typical grimoire could contain all manner of instructions for casting spells. Once learned and perfected by a sorcerer, these spells could be used for crafting magical objects, finding lost items, healing sick people, curing impotence, and numerous other acts both benevolent and malevolent. The casting of spells was widely accepted during the early Middle Ages, except for spells with obviously devious, dangerous, or demonic intentions. With the rise of witchcraft during the late Middle Ages and the start of the early modern age, a far stronger stance was taken by the church against spells, and people accused of witchcraft could find themselves facing an inquisitor — and possible execution.

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Herbology

Herbology, using plants to make magic potions and healing medicines, was a fundamental part of what was considered medicinal magic. This, on the surface, would seem like a fairly innocuous, if not altogether positive, practice. But herbology could spill over into areas frowned upon by the church, despite the use of herbal medicine by medieval monks. The influential medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas wrote that he saw nothing wrong in “employing natural things” for their useful effects, but warned that “if in addition there be employed certain characters, words, or any other vain observances which clearly have no efficacy by nature, it will be superstitious and unlawful.” In other words, practitioners of herbology had to be careful, as their actions could easily be seen as the acts of a malevolent sorcerer if they took things even slightly too far.

Alchemy

Medieval scrolls reveal how alchemy was a fundamental part of magic during the Middle Ages. This is perhaps unsurprising, as alchemy has been a part of occult tradition for millennia, handed down from ancient Egypt and Arabia to Greece and Rome and throughout much of Europe in the Middle Ages. Through alchemy, practitioners sought the key to the transmutation of metals (allowing them to turn common materials into gold) as well as a path to eternal youth. This potential power was naturally of interest to sorcerers, as well as intellectuals not otherwise involved with the dark arts. Both, however, could find themselves in trouble with the law for practicing alchemy. Making gold out of nothing was a potential threat to the power of the ruling classes, and so some governments made alchemy illegal and publishable. King Henry IV of England, for example, signed the Act Against Multiplication in 1404, making alchemy a felony.

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Divination

Divination, or the power to predict or see the future, has long been a staple of sorcerers and other practitioners of magic. During the 12th and 13th centuries, classical Greek and Arabic texts on divination were translated into Latin, and soon this new magical knowledge spread throughout France, Italy, Germany, and England. Numerous methods of divination existed, from astronomical observations to the casting of dice and reading the flight patterns of birds. Toward the end of the Middle Ages, various types of divination were banned by church law, including hydromancy (divination by water), pyromancy (fire), chiromancy (palm reading), and scapulimancy (divination using an animal’s scapula).

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Summoning

Summoning was one of the more powerful types of magic common in the Middle Ages. Practitioners of white magic would try to summon angels or spirits to help them with problems or provide information. But those involved in black magic — the malefici evildoers — tried to summon demons to do their bidding. This was considered dangerous for both the potential targets of the sorcerers and the sorcerers themselves. The complicated rituals often involved creating a protective circle to keep the summoner safe from the demons they invoked, but many cautionary tales told of instances in which these circles failed, and the demons killed the summoner.

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Necromancy

Few acts of magic struck more fear into the hearts of the common folk during the medieval period than necromancy. This form of magic shared some traits with both divination and summoning, but more specifically, it involved conjuring the dead. By communicating with the dead, the sorcerer sought to obtain insight into the future or help with some impossible or otherworldly task such as magical transportation or illusion. Necromancy was considered one of the higher and more dangerous forms of magic. It was the antithesis to natural magic, and therefore something very much frowned upon by the church. But for a sorcerer with the education and ability to learn from books of necromancy, it offered some of the most powerful black magic available to devotees of dark magic.

The 6 Wives of Henry VIII

Marriage of Henry VIII

Author Kristina Wright

December 14, 2023

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Henry VIII left an indelible mark on British history, though he is remembered as much for his insatiable appetite for women and food as for his shrewd political maneuvers. Born in 1491, Henry ascended the throne at the young age of 17, succeeding his father, Henry VII. His youth was marked by interests in the arts, sports, and education, making him the embodiment of a Renaissance man, as well as a promising and charismatic ruler. It was the monarch’s matrimonial escapades, however, that came to define his legacy.

Henry’s reign, spanning from 1509 to 1547, was characterized by a series of tumultuous marriages entwined in Tudor politics. You may be familiar with the old rhyme, “Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived,” but here’s a closer look at the six women who became the wives of Henry VIII.

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Catherine of Aragon (queen consort: 1509-1533)

Henry VIII had been on the throne for only a few weeks when he married Catherine of Aragon. The daughter of Spanish rulers Ferdinand and Isabella, Catherine was six years older than Henry and was seen as a good match for the young monarch. Beautiful, well educated, and devoted to Henry, Catherine was also the king’s sister-in-law, having married his older brother Arthur in 1501, only to be widowed five months later at the age of 16. Her marriage to Henry lasted 24 years, but ended in divorce.

By all accounts, Henry had loved Catherine, but when she failed to give him a male heir, he asked Pope Clement VII to declare their marriage invalid, asserting that her marriage to Arthur made their union illegitimate in the eyes of God. When the pope refused, Henry divorced Catherine so he could marry his pregnant mistress (and Catherine’s lady-in-waiting), the French-educated Anne Boleyn, setting in motion his break from the Catholic Church and the establishment of the Church of England. Despite being divorced, dismissed from court, and kept from her only living child, Mary, Catherine’s devotion to Henry lasted until her death by cancer in 1536. The last line of the last letter she wrote him read, “Lastly, I make this vow, that mine eyes desire you above all things.”

Anne Boleyn (queen consort: 1533-1536)

Remembered as “Anne of a Thousand Days,” Anne Boleyn is perhaps the most famous of Henry’s wives, in part because of the grisly end she met just three short years after marrying the king. Anne gave birth to Henry’s second daughter, Elizabeth, just three months after she was crowned queen consort, and because Mary, Henry’s daughter with Katherine, had been declared illegitimate following their divorce, Elizabeth was named the heir to the throne. (She was crowned Queen Elizabeth I in 1559, and became one of the most famous monarchs in English history.)

After Anne suffered a series of miscarriages, including the stillborn birth of the son Henry so desperately wanted, Henry turned his attention to one of Anne’s ladies-in-waiting, Jane Seymour. Meanwhile, the king’s adviser Thomas Cromwell, who had once been an ally of Anne’s, built a case against her, accusing her of numerous crimes including adultery, treason, witchcraft, and incest. With little evidence presented to support any of her so-called crimes, Anne was nonetheless beheaded at the Tower of London in May 1536.

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Jane Seymour (queen consort: 1536-1537)

Having served as a lady-in-waiting to both Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour was well aware of Henry’s desire for a male heir. Her virtuous nature caught the Tudor king’s interest and, when she rejected a letter and purse of money from Henry on the grounds that her honor was more important than riches, he became even more besotted. Just days after Anne Boleyn’s death, the newly single Henry married Jane, making her his third wife.

Jane went on to do what Henry’s two previous wives had not: She bore him a living son. Her pregnancy was announced in March 1537 and Henry vowed to stay close to his wife. She gave birth to their son, Edward, on October 12, only to die 12 days later. Their marriage lasted just 17 months, but Jane was Henry’s only wife to die as queen and receive a royal funeral. At his death, Henry was buried near her in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.

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Anne of Cleves (queen consort: 1540)

Having lost Jane to complications from childbirth, Henry sought to form a political alliance with William, Duke of Cleves, the ruler of a Protestant territory in Germany, by marrying one of his sisters. Henry’s political motivations were only part of his reason for deciding to wed again — he also wanted a second son. He chose Anne of Cleves as his bride-to-be based on her portrait, and was bitterly disappointed by his betrothed’s appearance when they finally met, saying, “I see nothing in this woman as men report of her.”

Henry was no longer interested in marrying plain, innocent Anne, but there was no way to back out of the wedding, despite Thomas Cromwell’s attempts. Wanting to be free of his betrothed, Henry blamed her physical appearance on his inability to consummate their marriage and had their union annulled just six months later. Anne and Henry maintained an affectionate bond, however, and Anne outlived Henry and all of his other wives.

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Catherine Howard (queen consort: 1540-1542)

Having served as a lady-in-waiting to Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard was likely still a teenager when she caught Henry’s eye — but she was also far more experienced than her predecessor. Historians theorize that Catherine might have been sexually abused by her music teacher when she was a young teen, and she had relationships with both her grandmother’s secretary and one of Henry’s courtiers before marrying the aging monarch just a few weeks after his marriage to Anne of Cleves was annulled. Henry seemed happy with his young new bride, but when the truth about Catherine’s past relationships came to light, as well as accusations of an affair with Thomas Culpeper, a friend of the king’s, Henry had her stripped of her title and imprisoned. A few months later, she was beheaded for treason and adultery.

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Catherine Parr (queen consort: 1543-1547)

Henry VIII’s last wife was Catherine Parr, a widow and scholar known as the “lucky queen,” as she survived the death of the fickle king. Married and widowed twice, Catherine met Henry while serving as a lady-in-waiting to his eldest daughter, Mary Tudor. Catherine’s mother, Maud, had been a lady-in-waiting for Catherine of Aragon, and Maud named her daughter in honor of Henry’s first wife. Catherine Parr resisted Henry’s marriage appeals at first, in part because she was in love with someone else in the king’s circle: Thomas Seymour, the brother of Henry’s third wife, Jane, and uncle to his son Edward.

But Henry was not deterred, and he married Catherine in 1543 at age 52. After their marriage, Catherine proved to be a unifying force as stepmother to Henry’s three children. A religious reformer and the first woman in England to publish a book in her own name, Catherine was widowed for a third time when Henry died on January 28, 1547. The king’s death made it possible for Catherine to marry Thomas Seymour, but she died from complications of childbirth shortly after, in September 1548.

5 Facts About England’s Elizabethan Era

Elizabeth at Tilbury

Author Adam Levine

July 25, 2023

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In 1558, Elizabeth Tudor assumed the throne of England and Ireland and began her reign as Queen Elizabeth I. From the moment she was crowned, Elizabeth was an unconventional ruler. She was only the second queen in England’s history to reign as the sole head of state, which made her a rarity not only in her own country, but throughout Europe in an era in which female monarchs were few and far between. Her lifelong refusal to marry also broke with tradition, and earned her the nickname “the Virgin Queen” (the state of Virginia is named in her honor). As a Protestant monarch, Elizabeth also had to withstand multiple assassination attempts from radical Catholic factions throughout her reign. Yet despite the challenges she faced, her reign is considered a golden age of English history.

Elizabeth’s rule lasted until 1603, and was marked by a period of relative peace and progress, during which England experienced radical cultural and political transformations that continue to resonate today. Elizabeth ruled over a nation that saw the early plays of William Shakespeare and some of Europe’s first expeditions to the Americas. Yet her time on the throne was also marked by moments of political and military crisis. For a quick look at what made this period of history truly unique, here are five facts about England’s Elizabethan age.

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Elizabeth’s Coronation Date Was Chosen Based on Astrology

Queen Elizabeth I was crowned on January 15, 1559, a date selected by one man: John Dee. Dee was an influential figure at court, and was well known as a mathematician and philosopher. But his interests also veered into the supernatural and occult, and he was known to dabble in astrology and numerology. His prophecy skills must have come highly recommended, because Elizabeth asked him to use an astrological reading to select the date of her coronation, believing that an auspicious date would bring her good fortune during her reign.

The Era Marked the Beginning of British Colonialism in the New World

During the Elizabethan age, England took the first steps toward transforming from a small island nation into a global empire. British navigators made some of the first voyages to the New World during Elizabeth’s reign, and explorer Francis Drake’s voyages to the Americas gave England its first territorial claim in the Americas. Upon his return, Drake was knighted by Elizabeth herself on board his ship the Golden Hind.

The queen also oversaw the establishment of England’s first colonies in the New World. The explorer Humphrey Gilbert claimed Newfoundland for Elizabeth, and Walter Raleigh established a British colony on the island of Roanoke near North Carolina. These early settlements marked the beginning of an era of colonial expansion that gave rise to the mighty British Empire, which at its peak in 1920 covered over 13 million square miles and was the largest empire the world has ever seen.

The Era Was a Time of Great Religious Upheaval

Elizabethan England wasn’t without its problems, and one of the most significant was the riff between English Catholics loyal to the Vatican and English Protestants loyal to the Church of England. As the head of the Church of England, Queen Elizabeth had a vested interest in religious conformity, and made it a legal requirement for all British subjects to attend Church of England services on Sundays, regardless of their religious affiliation. (She also made it a finable offense to attend a Catholic mass.) The tensions between Catholics and Protestants lasted throughout Elizabeth’s reign. The queen withstood four separate plots to overthrow her and replace her with her Catholic cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots; eventually, Elizabeth even had Mary executed for conspiring against her.

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It Was a Golden Age of British Theater

The Elizabethan age is often regarded as one of the high-water marks of English theater, which became a frequent destination for royalty and common English subjects alike. Some of the most celebrated playwrights ever to write in the English language created their best-known works during Elizabeth I’s reign. The most famous of these is, of course, William Shakespeare. Though Shakespeare’s career as a playwright continued after Elizabeth’s reign ended in 1603, many of the Bard’s most famous works were written while Elizabeth was queen, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet. The queen even personally attended performances of The Merry Wives of Windsor and Love’s Labor’s Lost. But England’s dramatic output during Elizabeth’s reign wasn’t just limited to the Bard. Master dramatists such as Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, and Thomas Kyd all produced classic works during this era.

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It Saw England Defeat the Largest Fleet of Warships Ever Assembled (At the Time)

In 1588, Queen Elizabeth I faced the greatest military challenge of her reign: the Spanish Armada. The fearsome naval fleet was launched by King Philip II of Spain in an attempt to convert Protestant England to Catholicism and to neutralize the economic and political threats created by England’s growing power. The Spanish Armada was the largest naval fleet that had ever been assembled, with around 130 ships carrying more than 19,000 soldiers. Its size even earned it the nickname “the Invincible Armada.” Despite being outnumbered, the English were able to defeat the Spanish Armada, in part because of a devastating tactic in which eight ships were set on fire and sent into the midst of the Spanish fleet, forcing the ships of the Armada to scatter and weaken their formation. The English victory over the Spanish Armada signaled to the world that Queen Elizabeth I was a monarch to be reckoned with.

Debunked: 5 Myths About Medieval Europe

Henry III at the Battle of Lewes

Author Darren Orf

June 5, 2023

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Arguably no period in European history is as misunderstood as the Middle Ages, which stretched from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century CE to the rise of the Renaissance roughly 1,000 years later. The myths surrounding this fascinating period of kingdoms and peasants are so prevalent that they led medieval historian Winston Black to write, “The first thing to understand about the Middle Ages… is that they do not actually exist.” The popular perception of life in feudal Europe (exacerbated by Hollywood depictions) is that it was prudish, brutish, and excessively foul, but society was far more advanced than these stereotypes would have us believe. Here, we shine a light on five of the most persistent myths surrounding Europe’s so-called “Dark Ages.”

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Myth: Medieval People Thought the World Was Flat

One of the most common myths about medieval society is that people widely believed the Earth was flat, but there’s no evidence that supports this. On the contrary, by the fifth or sixth century BCE, ancient Greeks (specifically Pythagoras) had already begun investigating the planet’s true spherical nature, and by 240 BCE, Greek mathematician Eratosthenes even measured the globe’s circumference (and was pretty dead-on). In fact, the popularity of the flat Earth myth is a considerably more modern development: The myth was perpetuated in 1828 when Washington Irving, who’s known for his inventive short stories, penned The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, which told a tale of the Italian explorer’s mission to prove that the Earth has curves.

Myth: Society in the Middle Ages Was Very Chaste

The attitudes around romance during the Middle Ages can be difficult to discern, in part because so many historical sources from the era come from the Catholic Church, the predominant religion in Europe at the time. While the church deemed physical intimacy as only acceptable for procreation, medical texts described having too much but also too little intimacy as a potential health hazard that could “upset the humors,” a reference to the prevalent medical theory of the day. King Louis VIII of France, for example, insisted on remaining celibate while fighting in a crusade, and the public opinion was that his death in 1226 was due to this abstinence. Women were also more liberated than many myths suggest; indeed, some historians now believe that items such as the chastity belt — an iron padlock supposedly designed to protect a woman’s “virtue” — never actually existed.

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Myth: Knights Were Always Chivalrous

The chivalrous knight — gallant, polite, and virtuous — is one of the most enduring symbols of medieval Europe. It’s also one of the most erroneous. Being the core military warriors in feudal Europe, knights in early medieval times were often disruptive, brutish, and prone to violence, so much so that some church councils prayed to be delivered from their constant barbarism. In an attempt to tame this martial beast, an informal code of chivalry focused around the virtues of honesty, loyalty, respect, and valor, began to take shape in the 10th century CE in France. Many of the modern embellishments about knighthood arrived centuries later during England’s Victorian era, when the romantic literary movement idealized (and often exaggerated) the purity — both culturally and spiritually — of the medieval period.

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Myth: Medieval Women Had No Rights

While medieval Europe is far from a shining example of egalitarianism, women in some ways had more rights than they did centuries later. Although the medieval map was a patchwork of kingdoms and duchies, examples of women owning, inheriting, and sharing ownership of properties with their husbands can be found all over Europe, and many dowries imbued women with considerable power. London letter-books also contain many examples of women working as barbers, apothecaries, armorers, shipwrights, and many other professions up until the early 16th century. The destructive Black Death that swept the continent in the 14th century even opened up opportunities for women to own and run many businesses. Women were influential rulers (Eleanor of Aquitaine), warriors (Joan of Arc), and scholars (Christine de Pisan). Today, some historians suggest that the real trouble for women came with the cultural changes of the Renaissance in the 15th and 16th centuries. For all its intellectual and artistic promise, the era created a wealthy middle class eager to mimic the royal way of life, which often busied itself about how to arrange politically motivated marriage among unmarried aristocratic women. In other words, they began treating women as financial or political assets.

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Myth: Humans Were Uneducated

For years, scholars used the derogatory term “Dark Ages” to describe the supposed intellectual black hole between the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of the Renaissance era. Of course, the truth is never so simple. During the Middle Ages, Europe actually experienced not one but three smaller cultural revivals — the Carolingian Renaissance of the eighth and ninth centuries, which saw increase in literature and architecture during the rule of Charlemagne; the Ottonian Renaissance in Central Europe during the 10th century, which saw a revival of art and luxury coinciding with reform in the church; and a third renaissance in the 12th century that saw, among other advancements, the early beginnings of Gothic art and architecture (see: Notre-Dame). Some of the first European universities were founded during medieval times (including Oxford in the 12th century), and the very foundations of experimental science took shape thanks to the work of natural philosophers such as Roger Bacon (who lived in the 13th century). In their veneration of the later Renaissance and Enlightenment eras, historians in the 18th and 19th centuries unfairly cast the Middle Ages as a period bereft of any intellectual contribution, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

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Anne Boleyn (queen consort: 1533-1536)

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Catherine Howard (queen consort: 1540-1542)

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