According to a 2017 research paper, that running gag in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” where the characters keep running around the countryside banging coconuts together... that could’ve happened.
There was a really interesting piece on J-STOR recently that washes away the widespread idea that the Middle Ages in Europe was just unbelievably filthy. Why is it that we think the Middle Ages WAS so dirty?
In the 12th and 13th Centuries, monks were tracking the looks of the moon, including lunar eclipses. Modern-day researchers took another look to see if some of those eclipses were actually volcanic eruptions.
Today in 1816, the US military awarded to built a contract for a fort next to Lake Champlain, near the border with Canada. For years crews worked to make the fort strong, until one day when they realized there was a big problem.
If you were a royal several hundred years ago, this might be a time when you’d pack up and leave the castle for one of your other castles, so the staff could clean out all the filth!
