Tag: Middle Ages

Book Review-Britain Begins, by Barry Cunliffe

Britain Begins, by Barry Cunliffe

The author tells the story here of both England and Ireland because they cannot be separated easily.  Since the very beginning of humans’ time in that part of the world, both lands and cultures were connected.  It is that united history that leads the way in this incredible story of the sometimes icy, sometimes verdant northern reaches of civilization.

The reader will find here exciting and revealing chapters in the history of movements throughout the pre-historic, Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Norman, and modern times of the isles.  There are clear and helpful illustrations, and there is enough information here to fill any semester-long course on the history of England, or rather Albion, as it was first called by those who were using formal language.

The author paints rich stories onto a canvas of what was once a chilly ice-covered region and which came to be a world power.  The author makes use of language, tools, science, history, and other major fields to tell about the different eras of the isles.

            The years of the Celts are very intriguing ones, indeed.  Cunliffe speaks of the idea that there were two entirely distinct waves of movement among them—including Iberia, Britain, Ireland, Scotland, Brittany, and Wales (pp. 248-249).  He also speaks to the idea that the Celts started in the north and later in one era migrated as a large group southward to Brittany (p. 428).  He has a number of additional theories related to this and other good examples of “movement.”

            Another very interesting idea is that language, culture, and tools were shared up and down the west coast of Europe and up between the isles—a sort of “Atlantic” civilization (p. 344) emerging over time among the Celts.  This explains linguistic and other hints pointing to migrations and movements up and down the coast—as opposed to some earlier notions of “Spanish” Celts trudging only northward to the further reaches of what came to be the UK.

            Cunliffe talks about the notion of Celts moving southward—starting in Scotland and Ireland and coming down into Europe along the Atlantic.  The author uses many different sorts of proof to advance this theory, at the same time he asks additional questions.    

Teachers will be able to use this big book in a variety of ways.  First and foremost, it is important personal reading for any teacher interested in social studies in general and in the history of English-speaking people specifically.  Understanding the history of northwest Europe is helpful in understanding the intricate connections among the Celts and Europeans, the British and the Irish, and the Scandinavian and Germanic stock among the English.

Another important use is for helping students understand the power of “movement” among peoples, the conflicts created and agreements forged, and the resulting cultural and linguistic differences and similarities resulting from peoples coming into contact.  The notion of movement relates also to the travelling ideas, tools, traditions, names, weapons, foods, trades, and books, later.  Any standards and benchmarks related to movement are connected through teacher use of this book as a reference and resource.

Yet another good use of this volume is a textbook for a college-level course in history, of course.  Because it covers so very much information, it could also be used as a summer reading project for advanced rising college freshman students needing timely non-fiction reading. 

Those four uses of the book can be joined by another one I propose here: coffee table teaser.  It would be interesting to set this in plain view and see who would pick it up and want to start reading it.  It has a beautiful green cover.  There are in fact many photos, drawings, and illustrations inside.  The cover just might draw in some unsuspecting readers.

Teaching the Black Death: Using Medieval Medical Treatments to Develop Historical Thinking

Teaching the Black Death: Using Medieval Medical Treatments to Develop Historical Thinking

Katelin Hornsby

Few historical events capture students’ attention as immediately as the Black Death. The scale of devastation, the drama of symptoms, and the rapid spread of disease all make it an inherently compelling topic. But beyond the shock value, medieval responses to the plague open the door to something far more important for social studies education: historical thinking. When students first encounter medieval cures like bloodletting, vinegar-soaked sponges, herbal compounds like theriac, or even the infamous “live chicken treatment”, their instinct is often to laugh or dismiss the past as ignorant. Yet these remedies, when studied carefully, reveal a medical system that was logical, coherent, and deeply rooted in the scientific frameworks of its time. Teaching plague medicine provides teachers with a powerful opportunity to challenge presentism, develop students’ contextual understanding, and foster empathy for people whose worldview differed radically from our own. Drawing on research into plague treatments during the Black Death, this article offers teachers accessible background knowledge, addresses common misconceptions, and provides practical strategies and primary-source approaches that use medieval medicine to strengthen disciplinary literacy and historical reasoning in the social studies classroom.

Understanding medieval plague medicine begins with understanding humoral theory, the dominant medical framework of the period. Medieval Europeans believed that the body’s health depended on maintaining balance among the four humors: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile (Leong, 2017). Illness occurred when these fluids fell out of proportion, making the plague less a foreign invader and more a catastrophic imbalance. Bloodletting was one of the most common responses, meant to “draw off the poisoned blood” and reduce fever. Other strategies included induced vomiting or purging, both intended to remove corrupted humors from the body. Treatises such as Bengt Knutsson’s The Dangers of Corrupt Air emphasized both prevention and treatment through the regulation of sensory experiences, most famously through the use of vinegar (Knuttson, 1994). Its sharp and purifying qualities made it useful for cleansing internal humors or blocking the inhalation of dangerous air. Though these methods seem foreign to modern readers, they reflect a rational system built upon centuries of inherited medical theory, offering students a clear example of how people in the past interpreted disease through the frameworks available to them.

Herbal and compound remedies were equally important in medieval plague treatment and worked in tandem with humoral correction. One of the most famous was theriac, a complex blend of dozens of ingredients including myrrh, cinnamon, opiates, and various roots (Fabbri, 2007). Practitioners believed that theriac fortified the heart and expelled harmful humors, with its complexity symbolizing the combined power of nature’s properties. Other remedies included ginger-infused ale, used to stimulate internal heat, or cupping, which involved applying heated horns or glasses to the skin in order to draw corrupted blood toward the surface. These treatments show the synthesis of classical medical texts, practical experimentation, and local knowledge. When teachers present these treatments in the classroom, students will begin to see medieval medicine not as random or superstitious, but as a sophisticated system shaped by observation, tradition, and reason.

Medieval healing also extended into the emotional and spiritual realms, reflecting the belief that physical and internal states were interconnected. Chroniclers described how fear and melancholy could hasten death, leading many to encourage celebrations, laughter, and community gatherings even during outbreaks. A monastic account from Austria advised people to “cheer each other up,” suggesting that joy strengthened the heart’s resilience. At the same time, religious writers like Dom Theophilus framed plague as both a physical and spiritual crisis, prescribing prayer, confession, and communion as essential components of healing. These practices did not replace medical treatment but complemented it, emphasizing the medieval tendency to view health holistically. Introducing students to these lifestyle-based treatments helps them recognize the complexity of medieval worldviews, where spirituality, emotion, and physical health were deeply intertwined.

Because plague remedies can appear unusual or ineffective to modern students, several misconceptions tend to arise in the classroom. Many students initially view medieval people as ignorant or irrational, evaluating the past through the lens of modern scientific understanding. When teachers contextualize treatments within humoral theory and medieval medical logic, students begin to appreciate the internal coherence of these ideas. Another misconception is that medieval treatments never worked. While these remedies could not cure the plague itself, many offered symptom relief, soothed discomfort, or prevented secondary infections, revealing that medieval medicine was neither wholly ineffective nor devoid of empirical reasoning (Archambeu, 2011). Students also often assume that religious explanations dominated all responses to disease. Examining both medical treatises and spiritual writings demonstrates that medieval responses were multifaceted, blending empirical, experiential, and religious approaches simultaneously. These insights naturally support classroom strategies that promote historical thinking.

Inquiry-based questioning works particularly well with plague treatments. Asking students, “Why would this treatment make sense within medieval beliefs about the body?” encourages them to reason from evidence rather than impose modern judgments. Primary-source stations using texts such as The Arrival of the Plague or The Treatise of John of Burgundy allow students to compare remedies, analyze explanations of disease, and evaluate the reliability and purpose of each author (Horrox, 1994). A creative but historically grounded activity involves inviting students to “design” a medieval plague remedy using humoral principles, requiring them to justify their choices based on qualities such as hot, cold, wet, and dry. Such exercises not only build understanding of the medieval worldview but also reinforce core social studies skills like sourcing, contextualization, and corroboration. Even broader reflections, such as comparing medieval interpretations of disease to modern debates about public health, can help students think critically about how societies make sense of crisis.

Teaching plague medicine carries powerful instructional implications. It fosters historical empathy by encouraging students to see past actions within their cultural context. It strengthens disciplinary literacy through close reading of primary sources and evaluation of evidence. It challenges misconceptions and reduces presentism, helping students develop a mature understanding of the past. The topic also naturally lends itself to interdisciplinary thinking, drawing connections between science, history, culture, and religion. Ultimately, medieval plague treatments offer teachers a rich opportunity to show students how historical interpretations develop through careful analysis of belief systems, available knowledge, and environmental conditions.

The Black Death will always capture students’ imaginations, but its true educational value lies in what it allows them to practice: empathy, critical thinking, and contextual reasoning. By reframing medieval treatments not as bizarre relics but as rational responses grounded in their own scientific traditions, teachers can transform a sensational topic into a meaningful lens for understanding how people in the past made sense of the world. In doing so, plague medicine becomes more than an engaging subject; it becomes a model for how historical study can illuminate the logic, resilience, and humanity of societies long removed from our own.

References

A fifteenth-century treatise on pestilence. (1994). In R. Horrox (Ed. & Trans.), The Black Death (pp. 193–194). Manchester University Press.

Archambeau, N. (2011). Healing options during the plague: Survivor stories from a fourteenth century canonization inquest. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 85(4), 531–559. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44452234 

Fabbri, C. N. (2007). Treating medieval plague: The wonderful virtues of theriac. Early

Science and Medicine, 12(3), 247–283. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20617676 

Knutsson, B. (1994). The dangers of corrupt air. In R. Horrox (Ed. & Trans.), The Black Death (pp. 175–177). Manchester University Press.

Paris Medical Faculty. (1994). The report of the Paris medical faculty, October 1348. In R. Horrox (Ed. & Trans.), The Black Death (pp. 158–163). Manchester University Press.

Heinrichs, E. A. (2017). The live chicken treatment for buboes: Trying a plague cure in medieval and early modern Europe. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 91(2), 210–232. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26311051 

Leong, E., & Rankin, A. (2017). Testing drugs and trying cures: Experiment and medicine in medieval and early modern Europe. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 91(2), 157–182. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26311049 

The Plague in Central Europe. (1994). In R. Horrox (Ed. & Trans.), The Black Death (pp. 193–194). Manchester University Press. de’ Mussis, G. (1994). The arrival of the plague. In R. Horrox (Ed. & Trans.), The Black Death  (p. 25). Manchester University Press.

The treatise of John of Burgundy. (1994). In R. Horrox (Ed. & Trans.), The Black Death (pp. 184–192). Manchester University Press.

Theophilus, D. (1994). A wholesome medicine against the plague. In R. Horrox (Ed. & Trans.), The Black Death (pp. 149–153). Manchester University Press.

The transmission of plague. (1994). In R. Horrox (Ed. & Trans.), The Black Death (pp. 182–184). Manchester University Press.

Combating and Treating the Black Death

Combating and Treating the Black Death

Annabell Farr

Imagine a deadly disease ripping through your town and the only hope of survival is in the hands of health workers who rely on established medical knowledge and practical methods in desperate attempts to save your lives. During the late Medieval period between 1347 and 1351, the Black Death stirred chaos across Europe including cities in France and Italy, killing millions of people who were in its deadly path. It brought out great fear and uncertainty in surviving resulting in the use of a variety of treatment methods, blending these practices with religious beliefs and supernatural beliefs. These different approaches reveal just how much medical knowledge at the time was shaped by pre-established knowledge, traditional theories, and practical methods from the past, raising the question: How did health workers attempt to treat and combat the plague during the Medieval period? During the medieval period, health workers attempted to combat and treat the Black Death by mixing established medical knowledge and practical methods together. Methods like theriac, bloodletting, air purifications and experimental treatments from the past like imperial powder, put together traditional healing treatments with evolving practices. This approach will show how past medical knowledge and evolving practices were used by health workers to treat and combat the Black Death. This will also show both the intellectual growth and evolution of medical treatments and methods. 

These health workers were very diverse in their levels of medical knowledge; some were volunteers, nuns, inexperienced physicians and barber surgeons. Even though they had diverse levels of expertise, they all played the biggest role in the plague, giving treatments to those who fell victim to the Black Death. This approach highlights the play between practical methods, established medical knowledge, adaptation, and preventive measures in combating the plague. 

Historiography 

Health workers were trying to fight back at the Black Death using practical methods like bloodletting, which was brought up from past medical knowledge and public health rules growing at the time. As health workers were desperately trying to deal with the crisis the Black Death was bringing, the use of practical and hygienic measures were used as an attempt to help those falling ill. One attempt that was seen in treating the plague was the process of bloodletting. Neil Murphy’s article, “Plague Ordinances and the Management of Infectious Diseases in Northern French Towns, c.1450-c.1560,” goes into detail of the developments of public health systems and the ordinances that shaped the responses to the plague.[1] Murphy is arguing that these ordinances emerged from evolving strategies like those in Italy, were connected to cultural and intellectual contexts bringing together medical theories with practical actions. Murphy in this emphasizes the practice of bloodletting, which was performed by barber surgeons or surgeons. This procedure was aimed at removing contaminated blood, slowing down the disease in the body.2 This method shows the connection between the medical theories at the time and practical actions taken, which were shaped by the intellectual contexts of this time.

Past strategies were seen greatly in these attempts along with bloodletting, another we see is attempts in changing emotional and medical practices through survival stories. From survivors’ stories, we can understand attempts made during this time to stop the plague, especially through health workers trying to help based on past medical knowledge and practical treatments similarly to past knowledge on bloodletting. Nicole Archambeau in “Healing Options during the Plague: Survivor Stories from a Fourteenth-Century Canonization Inquest”, shows great emphasis in the intellectual context of medicines and its “miracles” on those it healed, showing how beliefs and medical practices intersected to shape the responses to the plague.[2] At this time, some people wanted healing methods combining religious and practical approaches, including methods of emotional changes. Archambeau argued that “Witnesses had healing options’… their testimonies reveal a willingness to try many different methods of healing, often all at once”[3] This shows how survivors were relying on any type of resources from family, friends and health workers connecting their beliefs and intellectual medical practices at this time. Health workers adapted their methods of helping based on the resources that were available as well as on the patients’ wants and needs. This highlights the adaptability and flexibility these health workers had for their patients and their commitment to help treat those suffering during this time of horror and devastation.

Similarly, through the past medical knowledge, health workers relied on giving treatments that blended intellectual medical knowledge with practical methods to attempt treating the plague. Another piece to these treatments we see is a compound called theriac. Christiane Nockels Fabbri’s article “Treating Medieval Plague: The Wonderful Virtues of Theriac,” shows the use of Theriac, a compound that has been used as an antidote since ancient times, being a crucial treatment during the Black Death. Fabbri argues that the use of Theriac in these treatments demonstrates how health workers applied this traditional remedy to this new disease showing conservatism of these medical practices. Fabbri states how “In plague medicine, theriac was used as both a preventive and therapeutic drug and was most likely beneficial for a variety of disease complaints.”[4] This shows how health workers relied on this because of its practical efficiency and its intellectual and cultural significance in the past.

From these three sources, it is clear to see how they all were similar in how health workers tended to link past medical knowledge with their practical methods to help suffering, showing how they attempted to go about treating the plague. Treatments like bloodletting, personal wanted miracle methods and theriac were just a few of the ways they attempted to help those who got sick. My analysis highlights how these treatments were based on public health measures that were put into cities to help maintain and stop the spreading of the plague. Ordinances aimed to help isolate the disease and keep calm over the chaos that the plague was bringing into town. These helped to create a framework that helped health workers approach how they would attempt to treat those who fell sick.

Practical Methods

One of the main and well-known treatments given by health workers during this time was a drug called theriac. This type of medicine was extremely popular in its effectiveness and was wanted by victims once they fell ill or were scared that they would fall ill. In “The real Theriac – panacea, poisonous drug or quackery?” by Raj, Danuta, Katarzyna Pękacka-Falkowska, Maciej Włodarczyk and Jakub Węglorz, talks about this compound and its ability to remove diseases and poison from the body and how it was a well-known and used drug during the medieval period; “Consequently, Theriac was being prepared during epidemics, especially the plague  (Black Death), in large quantities as a form of emergency medicine (Griffin, 2004).”[5] Relying on theriac as a direct treatment, health workers showed their commitment to using this accessible great drug that was well known, to make people confident that this treatment would work during a time of uncertainty and devastation.

Correspondingly, we see another direct form of treatment that health workers used to treat those who had the plague, bloodletting. Health workers would prick veins to do this.  This was a way of extracting bad blood from the body to restore its balance. We see this in document 62 “The Treatise of John of Burgundy, 1365” written by John Burgundy. It projects the practical medical knowledge at the time that health workers were applying to treat those who have been hit with the Black Death. Burgundy continues to talk about the use of bloodletting, informing that “If, however, the patient feels prickings in the region of the liver, blood should be let immediately from the basilic vein of the right arm (that is the vein belonging to the liver, which is immediately below the vein belonging to the heart)”[6]. He is giving a specific technique to address this issue, giving us a practical method of treatment that shows how health workers used these hands-on treatments to combat the plague

These two methods were greatly known during the medieval period. They both offered hope to those who were desperate and wanting treatment so they would not die. These treatments at this time offered the feeling of control to the scary situation for its victims and gave a sense of hope to get better. Knowing theriac and bloodletting were used as treatment for victims, it helped to feel less overwhelmed and made it seem like health workers would be the redeeming feature to their deadly crisis.

Established Medical Knowledge

During the medieval period, health workers were able to recognize and understand that miasma, contaminated air, was the main causing factor of why the Black Death was spreading so much and killing everyone in its path. Due to this understanding, they implemented environmental purification strategies to end exposure of miasma. “The dangers of corrupted air” by Bengt Knutsson, shows great emphasis on this fear of the contaminated air and goes into methods that were used and done to cleanse the space and environment people were living in. A practice that health workers implemented to stop the miasma from taking over was to “Therefore let your house be clean and make clear fire of wood flaming. Let your house be made with fumigation of herbs, that is to say with leaves of bay tree, juniper…”[7] while also explaining opening windows at certain times and remedies if you feel sick.[8] These techniques reflect how established medical knowledge can be used in order to come up with ways to treat and combat the plague. Including the purification methods into the plague’s prevention by health workers, they were able to adapt with their knowledge on air quality and turn that into strategies to combat the Black Death. 

Through the fears of the Black Death, health workers were relying on past medical knowledge, practices and strategies to manage the spread of this disease and to treat those who have been infected. The “Ordinances against the spread of plague, Pistoia, 1348” elaborates on how these workers used their past medical knowledge to reduce the spread and create a safer environment to go about treatments. This chronicler explains limiting your exposure to those who are ill by completely restricting people and patients’ interactions.[9] This will provide health  workers with the safest opportunity to apply these treatments, like bloodletting or giving theriac, in a more controlled environment. This approach further reflects the combination of traditional medical knowledge and practical adaptations so then health workers could attempt to combat the plague’s destruction.

Health workers relied heavily on past medical knowledge and theories during this time of uncertainty to combat the Black Death, bringing together adaptations with established knowledge. The understanding of bad air being the cause helped them greatly in purification techniques like burning the herbs to mask the miasma. The ordinances stressing the need for isolation and restriction for interactions to give a safer environment for the health workers showed their adaptability to meet the demands of the plague as well as their preservation of historical medical theories of those in the past doing it. This shows the continuity and innovation that came during this period when trying to understand and combat the plague. 

Adaptation and Preventative Measures

One way that health workers attempted to treat and combat the plague was through the development of treatments that were adapted from past medical knowledge. An example of this was imperial powder, in John Burgundy’s “The Treatise of Burgundy, 1365” being known as a “powerful preventative” that was thought of to be stronger than theriac. Burgundy explains how “gentile emperors used it against epidemic illness, poison and venom, and against the bite of serpents and other poisonous animals”[10] This powder was made from some herbs like St John’s wort, medicinal earth from Lemnos and dittany which shows us the diverse ingredients to kill off poison that were believed from the past and venoms that were inside the body. To use this powder, they would either apply it directly to the skin or by mixing it with a drink like wine for ingestion purposes. This shows the health workers willingness to experiment with past medical treatments to adapt it to the current plague they were going through, to find a better treatment for the Black Death. 

Looking past medical treatments, to do them, health workers were implementing strict isolation strategies in order to combat and limit the spread of plague while also keeping the environment safe in order to treat those who fell ill. “The plague in Avignon” by Louis Heyligen shows emphasis on this isolation of staying away from neighboring areas and people so then health workers can do what they needed to do to help. This was an attempt made to manage the spreading of the disease through the town.  It states how “…avoid getting cold, and refrain from any excess, and above all mix little with people – unless it be with few who have healthy breath; but it is best to stay at home until the epidemic has passed”[11].  Having this advising gives the reflection of the public health strategies that were employed in the cities being tied to medical treatments, because limiting the exposure would directly allow more health workers to safely treat those who were sick and in need of treatments. Trying to minimize contact with one another was a great strategy in controlling the transmission to get the disease to slow down in spreading. From the emotions brought on from the Black Death, it shows the willingness people were taking, to make it safer conditions outside for families and health workers.

Combining both the experimental treatments like imperial powder with the isolation policies, it opened the view of just how much health workers were combining the preexisting medical knowledge with their preventative measures to successfully combat the plague while treating it. Having this adaptability further influences medical practices and lays a greater foundation for future prevention strategies for diseases that come. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, we have explored several ways in which health workers attempted to treat the plague and combat it through pre-stablished medical knowledge and practical methods. These health workers, being remarkably diverse in who they were, applied many strategies and methods that were used including enforcing strict public health ordinances, the practice of bloodletting by barber surgeons, air purifications, use of Theriac and experimenting with the use of the imperial powder to attempt treating the plague. These health workers showed great standing adaptability to what was going on while building off the existing knowledge of medical treatments to address the deadliest crisis in history. This analysis gives a deeper understanding of medical knowledge and how they used their past resources to understand and try to save those who contracted this disease. Also, this shows how these attempts were deeply rooted into the intellectual history of these times through health workers drawing information from past medical scholars and past knowledge to gain a better understanding in how to perform their practices and methods. Involving themselves in this intellectual history, they were putting a building block on top of centuries of their medical knowledge through experimenting with it and adding new responses to how they attempted to treat their new disease. These contributions to the Black Death only strengthens our understanding of past medical history during the Black Death and past centuries. 

References

Archambeau, Nicole. “Healing Options during the Plague: Survivor Stories from a Fourteenth-Century Canonization Inquest.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 85, no. 4 (2011):  531–59. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44452234.

Burgundy, “The Treatise of Burgundy, 1365” pp.184-193

Chiappelli, A. “Ordinances against the Spread of Plague, Pistoia, 1348.” pp 194- 203

Fabbri, Christiane Nockels. “Treating Medieval Plague: The Wonderful Virtues of Theriac.” Early Science and Medicine 12, no. 3 (2007): 247–83. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20617676. Heyligen, “The Plague in Avignon.” pp.41-45

Horrox, R., ed. The Black Death (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994).

Knutsson, “The dangers of corrupted air” pp.173-177  

 Murphy, Neil. “Plague Ordinances and the Management of Infectious Diseases in Northern French Towns, c.1450–c.1560.” In The Fifteenth Century XII: Society in an Age of Plague, edited by Linda Clark and Carole Rawcliffe, 139-160. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2013

Raj, Danuta, Katarzyna Pękacka-Falkowska, Maciej Włodarczyk, and Jakub Węglorz. 2021.  “The Real Theriac – Panacea, Poisonous Drug or Quackery?” Journal of          Ethnopharmacology 281 (December): N.PAG. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2021.114535.   

[1] Murphy, Neil. “Plague Ordinances and the Management of Infectious Diseases in Northern French Towns, c.1450–c.1560.” In The Fifteenth Century XII: Society in an Age of Plague, edited by Linda Clark and Carole Rawcliffe, 139-160. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2013 2 Murphy, 146.

[2] Archambeau, Nicole. “Healing Options during the Plague: Survivor Stories from a Fourteenth Century Canonization Inquest.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 85, no. 4 (2011): 531–59. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44452234.

[3] Archambeau, 537.

[4] Fabbri, Christiane Nockels. “Treating Medieval Plague: The Wonderful Virtues of Theriac.” Early Science and Medicine 12, no. 3 (2007): 247–83. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20617676.  

[5] Raj, Danuta, Katarzyna Pękacka-Falkowska, Maciej Włodarczyk, and Jakub Węglorz. 2021. “The Real Theriac – Panacea, Poisonous Drug or Quackery?” Journal of Ethnopharmacology 281 (December): N.PAG.

[6] Burgundy, “The Treatise of Burgundy, 1365” in The Black Death, ed. And trans. Rosemary Horrox (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994), 189.

[7] Knutsson, “The dangers of corrupted air” p.176

[8] Knutsson, “The dangers of corrupted air,” p.176

[9] Chiappelli, “Ordinances against the spread of plague, Pistoia, 1348,” p. 195 

[10] Burgundy, “The Treatise of Burgundy, 1365” p.190

[11] Heyligen, “The Plague in Avignon” p. 45

Death Transformed: How the Black Death Impacted the Dying in the 14th Century

Death Transformed: How the Black Death Impacted the Dying in the 14th Century

Tyler Klinsky

            From 1348 to 1350, Europe was consumed by a deadly plague that left one-third to one-half of the population dead. All aspects of society at the time were impacted in some way by a large number of deaths. People lived in fear of this invisible foe, bodies littered the streets, resulting from the overwhelming amount of death all at once. Cemeteries and churches could not continue traditional ways of burying the dead and death was no longer celebrated as a community event with friends and family. Bodies were collected from houses and from the streets and buried in mass graves, with no bells, no singing, and no one to accompany the dead as they were buried in their final resting place. Sometimes bodies remained at the place of death for days until the body collector eventually reached that part of town, the smell of rotting corpses could be smelled across the city. The dying suffered alone, friends, family, and even doctors were too afraid to be in contact with the infected, no priests would visit for last confessions and the infected would die with no one at their side. How did the Black Death impact the practices and experiences surrounding death? This essay will argue the Black Death dehumanized the traditional funerary practices, methods of handling the dead, and the experiences of the dying in society. The Black Death disrupted the normal functions surrounding death by no longer allowing for funerary traditions and as a result, new methods of handling and burying the dead were practiced. The abandonment of friends and family as the dying suffered added to the dehumanization of society’s experience as a whole. The term dehumanizing is used in this context to show how the infected were treated like animals and their bodies were disposed of in inhuman ways that would be considered criminal in the present time.    

Historiography

The Black Death, also known as the bubonic plague, was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history. It is estimated that the disease killed one-third to half of the population in Europe during the 14th century (Horrox) from 1348-1350, and its impact on the population and treatment of the dead was significant and important to be researched. The historiography of the Black Death has been shaped by various factors, including the availability of primary sources, and the methodological approaches of historians from secondary sources. Although these sources have various points and information they come together for supporting information. 

The first article that explores the gruesome realities of the Black Death is “The Black Death in English Towns” by author Richard Britnell. This article offers a glimpse into the horrors of the Black Death, from the mass graves that were used to dispose of the bodies of the dead to the role of “body collectors” who were tasked with gathering the corpses and disposing of them. The author explains the dangers the “body collectors” faced and the horrific jobs they were expected to complete. In this article, the methodologies of archeology and social history, are shown from the included examples of how the dead were collected and buried and how society adapted to a large number of dead. In the second source “The Politics of Burial in Late Medieval Hereford” written by Ian Forrest, the author expands on how the social and cultural development of burials was impacted because of the Black Death. The religious practices that impacted how bodies were buried during this time of great death are also included in the article.   The author includes information on how the large number of bodies piled in the cities and families abandoning each other became the new normalcy in cities.

The third secondary source “Plague Violence and Abandonment from the Black Death to the Early Modern Period,” by author Sam Cohen, examines the ways in which the sick and dying were abandoned as the fear of the plague grew and the violence created between family members tore society apart from within. The article also includes social methodology examples, of the violence in society, the refusal by doctors to treat the sick, and the abandonment of loved ones caused no hope of traditional burials and funerary practices. The final article, “The Black Death, 1348”, written by John Carey on Eyewitness to History, provides a variety of information on the topics surrounding the responses to the Plague. Further information on the ways bodies were disposed of and the social responses to the impending danger, inform the readers why there was no concern for the health status of neighbors, friends, and sometimes family members as well. Again like the other articles this one contains archeological and social methodologies are included in this article.

All four secondary sources contribute to the overall thesis of the paper, providing information that the plague impacted the ways in which society dealt with death during the plague and how it affected the many principles that contributed to death. These principles include the new methods of burying the dead, and how the experiences of the dying were no longer peaceful because they were suffering alone and believed to be dying with sin. I agree with the author’s overall thesis and points because it contributes to the thesis of this paper however, the only holes I have found were small the amount of information on the experiences of the dying moments before death and how the stress of giving confession before death was so important to the citizens, along with the hopes of a “good death” not being possible during this time. Although they are secondary sources rather than primary sources it is unrealistic to expect first-hand experiences to be included, however, It would have been helpful to have more general information on how the victims came to terms with the inevitable death and help reinforce the overall thesis. Instead of continuing where they left off, I will fill the holes of important points and information that each article did not include and will reinforce their information with the completed research from the primary sources included in this essay. 

Funerary traditions

The Black Death impacted traditional funerary practices in society, as a result of a large number of people dying, no longer were services held in the households of the dead for people to come to say their final goodbyes. Traditional gifts were not able to be sent because of fear of transmission through the gifts “No one shall dare or presume to give or send any gift to the house of the deceased,” (Chiappelli, P.197).  No longer were family members attending funerals because of the ordinances preventing them, however, they were too afraid to risk attending, one source noted, “It was rare for bodies of the dead to be accompanied by more than 10 or 12 neighbors to church” (Boccaccio, p. 31). As the death toll started to increase the more the traditional funerary activities changed, no longer mourners or criers to honor the dead. No longer could the sounds of bells be heard or prayer groups be seen, the fear of death had traditional practices in a chokehold, as one author describes the experience, “No prayer, trumpet or bell summoned friends or neighbors to the funeral, nor was massed performed” (Boccaccio, P. 23). The fear of death played a great role in disrupting the normal religious and community traditions.

Regardless, if someone was too scared to leave their house no longer was there any notification that a person has passed, without any bells, tolled, invitations sent, posters hung, or chairs set up in the streets there was no way to know when someone had died as one author points out, “mourners should not gather in the houses of the dead, nor should banners or seats be placed in the streets, nor should other customary observances be present,” no longer was there any way of honoring the death of a friend or family member, even the customary religious practices were also provoked, instead “crowds should not be invited, but instead, people should pray for the dead and attend vigil and mass”(Muisis, P. 53). The religious practices surrounding death also broke down as a result and other activities were done by living members of society to fill the time normally spend doing religious works.

 Members of society quarantine themselves and blocked out all the death-related obligations of attending funerals, ringing bells, and partaking in mourning groups that they were previously held. The Black Death was impactful on traditional funerary practices that normally brought friends and family together to honor the dead, instead, the accustomed practices were altered as a result of the epidemic, and these experiences as a whole were dehumanizing to all cities struck by the plague across Europe. 

Impact on Burial Practices

The great plague in Europe during the 14th century resulted in one-third to half the population dead, the traditional methods of burial were unable to keep up with the large number of people dying on a daily basis, and a change in the way of burial was needed. The known tradition of burying loved ones as a family event with friends in attendance was no longer a possibility considering the dangerous circumstances and the great fear of contracting the disease. The conventional way in which bodies were buried was substituted with a more efficient way to account for the dramatically large amount of death. No longer were the dead buried in single graves with other dead family members, instead, mass graves were dug and the bodies of the dead were placed with strangers. Also, as a result, bodies were disposed of in inhumane ways without receiving blessings or last goodbyes from family members. One way of disposal as described by Horrox was, “the townspeople dumped as many of the bodies they could in the sea” (Mussis, P.17). Eventually, of all the people dying the bodies could not be disposed of as quickly because not as many people were working. This caused rotting bodies to be in the streets for days and rather than the corpses of the dead being taken from their houses by a hearse with their families, the bodies were left on the streets until a body collector reached them for pick up. One author explains how the long time between death and burial caused “movement of the bones within the corpse” (Forrest, 1117). This movement was referred to as “Bone Float” and was another side effect of the bodies not being buried in a timely matter.  

Experiencing the large number of bodies in the streets is described by the author Boccaccio, “the bodies of the dead were extracted from their houses and left lying outside their front doors” and “Funeral biers would be sent for and it was by no means rare for one of these biers to be seen with two or three bodies at a time” (Boccaccio, P.32). By the time the body collectors reached the rotting bodies they were not in good shape, Buboes might burst, leaking rancid pus. Flea bites that transmitted the deadly bacteria Yersinia pestis could become infected. The terrible stench of rotting flesh was unable to be blocked out from the nostrils of the collectors. Instead of bodies being buried in caskets like today’s standards, the bodies were exposed to mud and bugs in the soil. One author included, “a third of all burials, whether in one of the trenches or in an ordinary grave was in a coffin”(Britnell, 205). Buried like animals with no “Grave Markers” as the author also mentions, no way of identifying where loved ones were laid to rest. The job was disgusting and dangerous for these body collectors, they knew the risks, however, someone needed to complete the job. Clothing and any belongings from a diseased person could transfer the disease to one of these body collectors, which increased the risk of the job. After the bodies were collected no longer was single graves a possibility because of the sheer amount of bodies needed to be disposed of.

A new way of burying bodies in large trenches rather than singular graves was called “mass graves”. This was described by the chronicler Bocaccio, “when all the graves were full, huge trenches were excavated in the churchyards, new arrivals were placed by the hundreds, each layer of corpses being covered by a thin layer of soil till the trench was filled to the top” (Boccaccio, P. 33). There was also new regulations referred to as ordinances in some cities in Europe, such as Pistoia in 1348. Some of these ordinances were created to affect the way in which people were buried and handled, in Pistoia, “The bodies of the dead should not be removed from the place of death until enclosed in a wooden box” (Chiapelli, P.196). These ordinances were created to stop the stench of the dead to contaminate or infect the person handling them. Other regulations were created in Pistoia regarding the requirements for burials. One requirement created was that “each grave shall be dug two and a half armlengths deep” (Chiapelli, P.196). This was done to stop the stench of the rotting bodies to reach the surface of the ground. The Black Death caused many inhuman ways of transporting and burying bodies to be seen during the 14th-century plague.

Dying alone

The plague during the 14th century caused a wave of fear to encompass all of Europe, the disease was an invisible enemy that could not be seen but, was very much felt. With no one at the bedside of the infected moments before death, the desire for a painless sin-free “good death” was no longer possible for the victims of the Black Death. The hope of the last confession as an attempt to clear the sins of the infected was no longer possible in Europe during the 14th-century Black Death. The fear caused the abandonment of dying friends and family as people search for a safe place to escape the disease. The hope to be cleared of sin was no longer a possibility many of the priests were too afraid to visit the dying, but in some cases, “the priests, panic-stricken, administered the sacraments with fear and trembling” (Mussis, P.22). Not everyone was so lucky, in some parts of Europe many people died without giving a confession, in hopes of having a clean slate while entering the afterlife.

Not only were priests abandoning the sick and their duties, family, and friends no longer cared for their loved ones, “when one person lay sick in a house no one would come near, even dear friends would hide themselves away” and the children’s cries were loud as one author describes, “Oh father, why have you abandoned me? Mother where have you gone? Do you forget I am your child?” (Mussis, P. 22). Instead of people caring for their neighbors like they once did, they avoided them at all cost. Instead of hiding some people, “formed small communities, living entirely separate from everybody else. They shut themselves up in houses where there were no sick, eating the finest food and drinking the best wine very temperately, avoiding all excess, allowing no news or discussion of death and sickness, and passing the time in music and suchlike pleasures” (Carey, 2020). The ways in which society interacted with one another were altered. In some cases people would have survived if they received some type of help or care from another person, whether it be food or water brought to them, the abandonment aided in the cause of death in some cases. The dying suffered alone with no one at their bedside, and the hope of a “good death” was no longer possible, without family members surrounding the dying members to be made comfortable, the sick often were treated terribly by loved ones who at one time promised to always be there for them, one author described the experience, “the sick are treated like dogs by their families-they give them food and drink, then flee the house” (Heyligen, P. 44). It was a dehumanizing experience for those infected. 

The fear caused by The Black Death increased the abandonment of the dying, the social construct continued to collapse and doctors and physicians would no longer visit the infected and let the disease run its course. Author Sam Cohen includes information on the social breakdown of medical care during the plague, “the same connection between ferocious contagion and the social consequences, causing physicians not to visit the stricken” (Cohen, 2017). Living and dying were the same thing during the Black Death, everyone suffered regardless of being infected or not, the fear caused abandonment from loved ones, and the chances of receiving a final confession in hopes of a traditional “good death” was unlikely, the social breakdown of no one caring for other and medical personal abandoning their duties of helping the sick aided in the death toll being so tremendous. The abandonment added to the inhumanity of the experiences caused by The Black Death in all parts of society.

Conclusion

The period of the Black Death in the 14th century was a dehumanizing experience for all members of society. The traditional funerary practices and methods of handling the dead were no longer a possibility. The great number of people sick and dying prevented community get-togethers to honor the lives of those who passed, instead, people were buried without friends or family in attendance. A large number of dying caused “mass graves” to be the new method for burial because it was a faster way of burying a large number of corpses at once and was more space efficient, now three to four bodies could fit the same space of one traditional grave. The fear of the plague caused the abandonment of friends and family in society, the infected died alone without doctors tending to them or priests present to clear their sins before death. The main points contribute to the argument that the Black Death was a dehumanizing experience for those who lived in Europe during the epidemic.   

References

Britnell, R. (1994). The black death in English towns. Urban history, 21(2), 195–210. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44613912

Carey, J. “the black death, 1348.” eyewitness to history. Last modified august 25, 2020.  http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/plague.htm

Cohn, S. (2017). Plague violence and abandonment from the black death to the early modern period. Annales de démographie historique, 2 (134), 39–61. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26627248

Forrest, I. (2010). The politics of burial in late medieval hereford. The english historical review, 125(516), 1110–1138. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40963124

Book Review: Britain Begins by Barry Cunliffe

Britain Begins by Barry Cunliffe (London: Oxford University Press.  2013)

Reviewed by Dr. Thomas Hansen, Ph.D

The author tells the story here of both England and Ireland because they cannot be separated easily.  Since the very beginning of humans’ time in that part of the world, both lands and cultures were connected.  It is that united history that leads the way in this incredible story of the sometimes icy, sometimes verdant northern reaches of civilization.

The reader will find here exciting and revealing chapters in the history of movements throughout the pre-historic, Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Norman, and modern times of the isles.  There are clear and helpful illustrations, and there is enough information here to fill any semester-long course on the history of England, or rather Albion, as it was first called by those who were using formal language.

The author paints rich stories onto a canvas of what was once a chilly ice-covered region and which came to be a world power.  The author makes use of language, tools, science, history, and other major fields to tell about the different eras of the isles.

The years of the Celts are very intriguing ones, indeed.  Cunliffe speaks of the idea that there were two entirely distinct waves of movement among them—including Iberia, Britain, Ireland, Scotland, Brittany, and Wales (pp. 248-249).  He also speaks to the idea that the Celts started in the north and later in one era migrated as a large group southward to Brittany (p. 428).  He has a number of additional theories related to this and other good examples of “movement.”

Another very interesting idea is that language, culture, and tools were shared up and down the west coast of Europe and up between the isles—a sort of “Atlantic” civilization (p. 344) emerging over time among the Celts.  This explains linguistic and other hints pointing to migrations and movements up and down the coast—as opposed to some earlier notions of “Spanish” Celts trudging only northward to the further reaches of what came to be the UK.

Cunliffe talks about the notion of Celts moving southward—starting in Scotland and Ireland and coming down into Europe along the Atlantic.  The author uses many different sorts of proof to advance this theory, at the same time he asks additional questions.    

Teachers will be able to use this big book in a variety of ways.  First and foremost, it is important personal reading for any teacher interested in social studies in general and in the history of English-speaking people specifically.  Understanding the history of northwest Europe is helpful in understanding the intricate connections among the Celts and Europeans, the British and the Irish, and the Scandinavian and Germanic stock among the English.

Another important use is for helping students understand the power of “movement” among peoples, the conflicts created and agreements forged, and the resulting cultural and linguistic differences and similarities resulting from peoples coming into contact.  The notion of movement relates also to the traveling ideas, tools, traditions, names, weapons, foods, trades, and books, later.  Any standards and benchmarks related to movement are connected through teacher use of this book as a reference and resource.

Yet another good use of this volume is a textbook for a college-level course in history, of course.  Because it covers so very much information, it could also be used as a summer reading project for advanced rising college freshman students needing timely non-fiction reading. 

Those four uses of the book can be joined by another one I propose here: coffee table teaser.  It would be interesting to set this in plain view and see who would pick it up and want to start reading it.  It has a beautiful green cover.  There are in fact many photos, drawings, and illustrations inside.  The cover just might draw in some unsuspecting readers.

Teaching and Learning Medievalism in Popular Culture as History Education

Mark Helmsing and Andrew Vardas-Doane
George Mason University, Fairfax VA

Although the period in human history we call the medieval period ended around the year 1500 CE, we are surrounded by medievalism in our lives today. For most history and social studies educators, a claim such as this does not make sense. We accept the end of the medieval period with the Renaissance, ushering in what we teach our students as the early modern period in our human history. Historians and educators position the medieval period, as a “middle” period used to demarcate Western history, occurs after the end of ancient history and before the period in which we currently live (Arnold, 2008). And yet, as we explain in this paper, medievalism—the icons, images, tropes, and representations of how humans think of that time period—permeates our lives today. Learning to understand medievalism in relation to the broadly defined medieval period and from the specific construct of the European Middle Ages enables our students to develop a sharper sense of periodization and significance within their broader historical thinking.

Because of the elision between fact and fiction, reality and fantasy, history and social studies educators should take seriously the need to point out medievalism with their students and strive to make more visible and explicit the historical inspiration for such representations. In the first half of this article we provide some ways of thinking about medievalism. In the second half of this article we take these aspects of historical thinking related to medievalism and examine how they work in a popular video game and film franchise, Assassin’s Creed, a form of medieval world building that is popular amongst adolescents and young adults (Gilbert, 2017; Hammar, 2017). Our aim with this article to encourage educators to consider some implications for history and social studies educators related to the intersections of popular culture and medievalism as history education.

Approaching Medievalism for Historical Thinking

To assume that the medieval is irrelevant or antiquated, or to discount how medievalism effects our contemporary thought and shapes so many images and ideas in popular culture, is to neglect the significance of properly understanding and accounting for historical periodization (Cole & Smith, 2010). One may think that historical periodization is cut-and-dry as a commonplace of historical thinking. Say “medieval” and we think of courtly love, knights in shining armor, kings and queens residing in large castles (often with moats and drawbridges). My (Author 1) thinking about medievalism as an issue worthy of considering in relation to historical thinking occurred in early 2017 when I spent a semester away from my university duties teaching 7th graders. The topic of the HBO television series Game of Thrones came up in conversation one day and a student remarked that he thought “it must have been awful living back then.” It took me a few seconds to realize that he was engaging in two aspects of historical thinking. First, he assumed that the time period in which the Game of Thrones world is set was a long time ago, ostensibly linking it to the history of the Middle Ages. Secondly, and more importantly (or pressingly, depending on how you look at it), the student was conflating the imaginary fantasy world of Game of Thrones—and entirely fictional world and text—with ‘actually existing’ medieval history from real life. When I pressed him on the matter he said that of course he knew the dragons and White Walkers were not real, but that he assumed what he saw on the television series was what life was like “back then, with all of the kings and stuff.” This conversation set me about to think about what it is we may need to be more explicit about in our curriculum and pedagogy to help students not only to separate fact from fiction, works of fantasy from works of history, but also to help our students be more perspicacious and attentive to when, how, and why aspects of medievalism appear to us throughout art, literature, music, film, theater, and popular culture at large. In this section we offer some reasons for why history and social studies educators should investigate (both professionally for their own historical thinking and with their students) aspects of medievalism and the medieval world.

Examples of Encountering Medievalism in Popular Culture

            First, we need to help our students see that we engage with medievalism when we consume media about actually existing persons and events from the medieval period, as in Kingdom of Heaven (2005), a feature film about the Crusades in the 12th century, or in Pippin (1972/2013), a Broadway musical about the eldest son of Charlemagne in the 8th and 9th centuries. Yet we also engage with medievalism when we consume media that is speculative fiction and fantasies using icons, images, tropes, and representations of the medieval world, as in Game of Thrones, a massively popular book and television series about feudal royal houses warring with each other, or in King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017), only the latest of several feature films inspired by the Arthurian legends of Camelot, the Round Table, and the Lady in the Lake.

            Secondly, we and our students engage with medievalism when we encounter phrases, concepts, and iconographies that remain embedded in Western thought long after the end of the medieval period. For example, when teaching about torture that occurred in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq or the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, we may describe documented examples of torture as “medieval” in their barbarity, despite the fact that much of what we think of as medieval torture did not actually exist until the Tudor period that began with the end of medievalism in the 1500s (Matthews, 2015). To use another example, our notions of chivalry, courtship, and courtly love are concepts that took on distinctive forms as part of a complex code of rules and conduct in the medieval period (Emery & Utz, 2017). These concepts remain in our thought today, as evidenced by news headlines such as “Chivalry isn’t dead” (Fuller-Hall, 2018) and “Stanford professor puts desire in a medieval context” (Marian, 2013). Educators can select some medieval phrases, concepts, and iconographies for students to identify in our current social and political discourse, helping students map these concepts back to the actually existing historical medieval world. For example, in their edited volume Medievalism: Key Critical Terms, Emery and Utz (2017) survey the significance of terms such as feast, gothic, heresy, humor, love, purity, and troubadour, connecting how these concepts existed within the medieval world and how they have maintained their medieval legacy in our contemporary cultures. In investigating these and other concepts of the medieval, students are able to examine the continuity and change of the history of medieval thought in our world. In some cases, regrettably, medieval concepts, ideas, and iconography are taken up to promote repellant nationalist, racist, and supremacist beliefs, such as the adoption of the Templar Knights and runes with Norse warrior mythology and other medieval marks used to signify racial purity by white supremacists (Devega, 2017; Livingstone, 2017; Weill, 2018). Such uses and abuses should also be interrogated and critiqued in history and social studies education, ranging from how we describe something as violent or regressive as being “medieval” to invoking language and associations to the Crusades as Holy Wars with jihads and ISIS/ISIL.

            Thirdly, educators and students should realize we place ourselves within contemporary medieval worlds that we often visit in the present, such as medieval fairs and Renaissance fairs or “Ren Fests,” which are anachronistic for many reasons, least of which is that they visually blur and blend the High Middle Ages with Elizabethan England and the European Renaissance. I (Author 1) studied the history of the Middle Ages as a sixth-grade student in a project-based social studies unit where I and my fellow classmates created and hosted a “medieval faire” for the entire school (my contribution was learning to walk on stilts and recite ballads and folk poems). A popular choice for some high school history and/or British literature classes, Renaissance fairs allow visitors to dress in robes, boots, and bodices and converse with strolling troubadours and jolly court jesters. When I (Author 1) taught high school social studies and English courses, I chaperoned a number of field trips to such fairs, often cringing at what I perceived as historically inaccurate cross-periodizations of Elizabethan England, medieval France, and 17th century swashbuckling seafarers and pirates. Nonetheless, watching students marvel at medieval blacksmiths and singing troubadours may make up for the lack of precise periodization.

We also consume medievalism when we cheer on jousting knights while feasting on drumsticks and drinking frothy ales at one of the Medieval Times Dinner and TournamentÒ locations throughout Canada and the United States, notable for their scripted performance’s references to the medieval worlds of the Iberian Peninsula in the characters of King Don Carlos, Princes Catalina, and Lord Ulrich. These and other examples of medieval worldbuilding at public events and themed amusement parks offer ample opportunities for educators to have their students challenge the accuracy, veracity, and legibility of medieval representations in these spaces, calling upon students to think critically (and historically) about how such places and spaces evoke and ‘use’ medievalism.

             Finally, medievalism and fantasy as a genre for fiction and popular culture is fully entangled. The many dragons, elves, and giants in the fantasy franchise Dungeons & DragonsÒ have no existing evidence in historical fact, but the bards, monks, and paladins of the fantasy role-playing game are based on actually existing classes of people in the medieval period. Indeed, paladins, (with a name that derives from Palantine, a Latin word for servant) were high-ranking warriors in Charlemagne’s court (Freeman, 2017). The paladins did not, however, roll multi-sided dice when engaged in battle to the best of historians’ knowledge. Because representations of fire-breathing dragons often appear in literature and other mass media in landscapes occupied with castles, villages, dense forests, and feudal farms and fields. In the following section, we investigate the play of the medieval in one example: Assassin’s Creed.

Overview of Assassin’s Creed

With a global gaming market of $70.6 billion in 2012 to a soaring $121.7 in 2017, the market for games and gamers is climbing at an exponential rate. Projections for 2021 peak at over $180 billion dollars spent worldwide. Of the games produced and developed, many carry a medieval theme that draws millions of players each year. One game, Assassin’s Creed serves as an example of how our students may confront medievalism in their everyday lives. Operating as a medieval historical and science fiction twist on real-world events, Assassin’s Creed has sparked a franchise that as of September 2016 has sold over 100 million copies (Makuch, 2016). The latest of ten installments, Assassin’s Creed: Origins ranked as the eighth bestselling game of 2017. Therefore, based upon these numbers and our anecdotal experience of having middle and high school students express their fandom for the video games series and its film adaptation, we use it as an example of popular culture primed for some historical thinking about medievalism.

Plot Structure of Assassin’s Creed

            Released in 2007, the first Assassin’s Creed game features a character, Desmond Miles, who is kidnapped by Absergo Industries. This multinational corporate conglomerate forces Desmond to use a device called an animus to (re)live the memories of his ancestors through memories stored in his genes. He is thrown back in time to the twelfth century following the Third Crusade to Masyaf Castle (an actual medieval castle in present-day Syria) where he must live out the life of his ancestor who belongs to the Assassin Order. The plot revolves around a historical conflict between the Assassins and the Knights Templar, suggesting that students actively confront historical markers and significance about the Knights Templar, the Crusades, and Holy Wars in medieval Europe and what we now identify as the Middle East. In the video game, the goal of the Templars is to create world peace by subjugating the human race who they believe are incapable of ruling themselves without barbarism. The assassins fight against this stripping of free will and believe in the progression of new ideas and individuality. As a character in the game, the player progresses the storyline of his forefather, learning more about the history of the world and the conflict between the two factions (IGN, 2012).

As the player continues through the game, Desmond finds out Absergo Industries is the modern face of the Knights Templar who are attempting to have Desmond lead them to ancient objects of power called Pieces of Eden. These artifacts were created by a primeval race of Homo sapiens divinus, a highly advanced humanoid species. This race, termed the Isu, genetically modified the homo genus species in order to create a force of slave-labor. Using the Pieces of Eden, devices interacting with neurotransmitters in the minds of humans, they controlled humans until Adam and Eve escaped and began humanity as it is known today. The epic battle between the Templars and Assassin Order exists as a repercussion to the fall of the Isu and the eventual use of Pieces of Eden by humans against humans. The Templars, believing freedom leads to chaos, hope to use the artifacts to eliminate autonomy. The Assassins exist to prevent that dream from becoming a reality (Assassin’s Creed Wiki, 2018).

Problematizing the Knights Templar in Assassin’s Creed

Using the Assassin’s Creed plotline as a teaching tool for exploring medievalism encourages teachers and students to enact a critical media literacy with existing historical thinking skills and approaches. Throughout the gameplay, many deaths of actually existing historical figures are changed to assassinations to keep in with the themed narrative of the storyline. Acknowledging this plot device as an adaptation of history helps students identify historical errors, but also to be alert to when popular culture gets the history of the Middle Ages right and when it gets it wrong. Shifting students’ historical perspectives to view a real military order, the Knights Templar, portrayed as a power-hungry collection of world dominating fanatics can confuse and inspire conspiracy where no evidence is evident. The disbanding of the Knights Templars in 1312 at the behest of Pope Clement V marks the end of their historical timeline, despite, however, their continued presence in (questionable) usage amongst contemporary subgroups and populations as mentioned earlier in this article. This, unsurprisingly, takes on what we deem to be a concerningly problematic stance within the video game. The assassinations necessary to complete the game are made out to be necessary evils in order to protect the human race from the Templars. The historical record from the Middle Ages informs us that the real ‘assassins’ were a small Muslim Shiite sect, the Nizari Ismailis. Known as heretics by both Sunnis and Shiites, this group’s origin can be traced to immediately preceding the First Crusade during the crisis of the Fatamid Caliphate (Liebel, 2009).

Contextualizing History in Assassin’s Creed

Almost all the historical content in the movie is a complete fabrication. Claims that major players in history such as Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte, Mahatma Gandhi, and Genghis Khan used Pieces of Eden to further their agendas can leave players questioning their understanding of historical reality. There are, however, two accurate representations that can be used in the social studies classroom to help further students’ understanding of medieval times and see medievalism in action.

First, as mentioned previously, students can learn about the real Masyaf Castle. This castle exists in partial ruin and is in modern day Syria near the Mediterranean Sea. It served as a base of operations of sorts for a guild of assassins identified as the Nizari Ismailis during and following the Third Crusade (1189-1192 CE). The game’s developers worked tirelessly to make their depictions of main cities (Jerusalem, Acre, and Damascus) as accurate as possible. Ubisoft hired a team of historians to advise on their gameplay and narrativization to make sure the layout and worldbuilding appear historically suitable. Using the game as an exploration and inquiry tool would be an application of critical media literacy for exploring medievalism in popular culture.

Standing alone without an educator to intervene in offering some historical contextualization, Assassin’s Creed is, unsurprisingly, a weak classroom resource for history and social studies educators. As an example of medievalism for our students in the 21st century, it offers much to consider, deconstruct, and critique. We argue the game can be used as a springboard for students interested in history resulting from their engagement in the game’s fictitious portrayals of historical events through elements of historical fantasy and fiction. We urge educators to be cautious in discounting the game’s appeal to student, suggesting instead that educators become more alert to which aspects of medievalism appeal to our students and to find out how and why. Expanding upon this foundation and using the inaccurate storyline as a method for introducing historical accuracies could be exciting for students. With ten games set in time periods ranging from Ptolemaic Egypt to the American and French Revolutions to the Industrial Revolution and the Russian Revolution, a curriculum created around something akin to “The Truth Behind the Assassin’s Creed Histories” could be an engaging and productive avenue for educators. The curriculum would have the added benefit of exploring historically accurate renditions of cities such as London, Venice, Florence, Alexandria, Memphis, Jerusalem, Spain, Istanbul, and Paris.

In closing, we offer a final thought from medievalist Jeffrey Jerome Cohen. The idea of the medieval and its immortal memorialization and representation across our cultural, political, and experiential encounters in everyday life can cultivate in students the idea that the medieval is “alluringly strange” and also “discomfortingly familiar” (Cohen, 2000, p. 3). It is something we hope will keep our students’ interests in the past alive.

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