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Description:
Time to take a closer look at the Middle Ages. And no, you can't go to your parents for help on this one. They may be middle-aged, but they're not that old.
Transcript
- 00:04
[Dino and Coop singing]
- 00:13
Time to take a closer look at the Middle Ages.
- 00:16
Uh – no – not middle age – the Middle Ages. [Magnifying glass on a middle aged man]
- 00:20
Sorry…
- 00:21
The Middle Ages refers to a time period spanning roughly from the 5th to the mid-15th Centuries. [Coop pointing at a blackboard]
Full Transcript
- 00:27
And, trust us, even though knights and castles seem super cool – you really weren’t missing [Suit of armour with sunglasses]
- 00:31
anything.
- 00:32
For starters, there wasn’t much chance for social advancement.
- 00:35
If you were born a peasant, you were most definitely going to die a peasant. [Worker collapses]
- 00:39
And chances were pretty good you'd be born a peasant, since most of the population in
- 00:43
Europe during the Middle Ages was made up of peasants.
- 00:45
They spent most of their time working for the Man – which in the Middle Ages was the [Worker moving barrels of apples]
- 00:49
royalty, including Kings, Queens, Lord and Ladies.
- 00:52
If the royals decided to start a war, guess who was forced to go off to fight for them? [King looking angry]
- 00:56
That’s right, the hard-working, used-and-abused peasants. [Guy is hit by an arrow]
- 00:59
Oh, and it's not like war was a rarity back then.
- 01:02
Oh no, the Middle Ages saw wars a-plenty.
- 01:05
See what we mean? [People keep getting hit by arrows]
- 01:07
Definitely not missing much.
- 01:08
Oh, and if all those wars didn’t kill you, chances are the bubonic plague probably would.
- 01:12
The bubonic plague, aka the “black plague” or “black death”, killed around 25 million [Dino pointing at a blackboard]
- 01:17
people – somewhere between 30 and 60 percent of Europe’s entire population.
- 01:22
Seriously.
- 01:23
Not a fun time!
- 01:24
Unless you happened to be in the mortuary business.
- 01:25
Then we guess business was always booming!
- 01:27
But if you had the misfortune to be born in the Middle Ages, hopefully you were born as [King at his throne]
- 01:31
the King.
- 01:32
Monarchs ruled by “divine right” – claiming that they sat on the throne because, hey,
- 01:35
that’s what God wanted.
- 01:37
That meant government and religion went hand-in-hand.
- 01:39
As a result, the Middle Ages were a time of religious intolerance! [Angry looking priest]
- 01:42
Basically, if you didn’t believe in the rulers’ religion, things generally weren’t [Guy holding a protest sign is shot with an arrow]
- 01:46
going to go well for you.
- 01:47
Have we stressed this enough?
- 01:48
This is a garbage time.
- 01:49
It's actual garbage. [Middles ages package in a bin]
- 01:51
In case you're still like, "but jousting looks fun…" here's another fact! [Man is hit whilst jousting]
- 01:55
In 1492, the two monarchs of Spain officially expelled – or kicked out of the country
- 01:59
– all of the Jewish people who refused to become Christians.
- 02:02
People in the Middle Ages were a superstitious lot.
- 02:05
For example, houses were left unlocked after someone died, so that their souls had a way [Ghost walking out a house]
- 02:10
to escape the garbage that was the Middle Ages and go to heaven.
- 02:13
Which was convenient for souls… [Woman crying]
- 02:15
….and for robbers.
- 02:16
The Middle Ages also gave us a lot of the superstitions we still have today.
- 02:20
For example, saying “bless you” when someone sneezes…
- 02:22
… comes from the belief that a sneeze was the start of the plague... [Guy sneezes and collapses]
- 02:25
…black cats were thought to be demons and the
- 02:27
pets of witches, so it was definitely bad luck if one crossed your path… [Guy sees a black cat and is shot by an arrow]
- 02:30
…and crossing your fingers also became popular around this time.
- 02:33
Why?
- 02:34
It's connection to the cross was believed to ward off evil spirits and bad luck.
- 02:37
And considering how much could go wrong in the terrible Middle Ages… [Guy crosses his fingers and the arrow misses]
- 02:41
People needed all the luck they could get.
- 02:43
Man…next time, we're sticking with a video about middle age.
- 02:45
It'd be more uplifting. [Guy in his car full of bingo prizes]
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