How ridiculous medieval fashion sent a man to the next world

2023 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 13:10

At all times, the concept of a victim of fashion has existed. The Middle Ages were no exception. Not only the ladies suffered from ridiculous fashion whims, but also the men. Experts studied the remains of almost two hundred men from the period of the 14-15th centuries and came to very disappointing conclusions. Negative changes were discovered, caused by the strange pointed shoes of those times. She was incredibly expensive, uncomfortable, but extremely high status. Why these shoes were exactly the same and how they sent the owners to the next world, further in the review.

Popular shoes are the cause of illness

Experts have proven that such shoes became the cause of the development of bursitis in the wearer. In the period from the 11th to the 13th century, about 6% of the population suffered from this ailment, and at the peak of the craze for sharp-toed shoes, almost 30%!

From this, experts concluded that the reason lies in the pointed fashionable shoes of that period - the bullet. Translated, it meant "The Nose of the Ship". They began to gain popularity in the middle of the 14th century.

In addition to the disease itself, which is already very unpleasant, there were other negative consequences. Because of this disease, the deformity of the big toe occurred. Painful growths began to develop. As a result, people were more likely to fall and receive fractures. In addition, when trying to remove the growths, other unpleasant things happened, up to and including death. Bullets are killer shoes.

Men more often wore medieval pointed shoes and suffered as a result

Most of those who suffered from bursitis and callus growth were middle-aged men. This happened as a result of prolonged wearing of uncomfortable sharp-toed shoes. The disease developed over decades and made you suffer.

As part of this study, experts examined more than 400 remains found at St. John's Hospital. These were people representing the urban poor, the most impoverished, who ended their lives in a charitable institution. In these people, such deformities of the foot were not identified. For some reason, the disease struck only the wealthy. The conclusion is simple: pulleins were extremely expensive shoes, ordinary ordinary people, poor people, could not afford them.

Religious leaders couldn't resist fashion too

How are wearers of pointed shoes distributed? The experts published their findings in the International Journal of Paleopathology. The highest percentage of bursitis was found in a monastery (43%), in a hospital (23%), in a village parish cemetery (10%) and in a rural parish cemetery (3%). That is, in other words, the closer to the outskirts, the less deformations of the foot.

The most interesting thing is that the clergy became fans of the bullet. The popularity of this shoe is strange. These absurdly long socks are the maximum inconvenience! That is, the issue of comfort of the owners was not very worried. In addition, these shoes were very expensive. Not everyone could afford it. Pouleins were a status symbol and a sign of wealth. Speech about the convenience of movement, apparently, did not play any role.

Pointed toe shoes - an addition to historical fashion

Shoemakers created a point by stuffing the sock with material such as wool or moss. Whalebone was sometimes used. This shoe originally appeared in Poland. Another name for pulen was "krakow", presumably in honor of the country's capital.

Uncomfortable shoes were brought into fashion by the knights. With the help of bullets, they wanted to emphasize their complete innocence to ordinary work. The length of the noses was strictly regulated for each class. Princes could wear bullet with socks in 2, 5 feet, aristocrats in 2 feet, knights in 1, 5 feet, rich townspeople in 1 foot, and commoners in half a foot. It was this strange fashion that gave the world the expression "living in a big way."

Officially, the church condemned the fashion for pulleins. They were seen as a challenge to decency and real debauchery. In addition, it was extremely inconvenient to kneel while praying while wearing pullens, which naturally could not find approval among the clergy. The bullets were branded with the formidable name "Satan's Claw", the shoes were cursed by the Vatican itself. The black plague that swept Europe at that time was declared a punishment for addiction to bullets.

The death of the bullets

In order to correct the deformity of the foot, people often went under the knife. In those days, this often became the cause of disability or even death. Seeing the dire consequences of the ridiculous fashion, at the end of the 14th century, a special royal decree was issued by Edward IV, prohibiting the wearing of bullets with socks longer than five centimeters. This put an end to the extravagant fashion that crippled people.

Now in the 21st century, women of fashion also often deliberately harm their health in pursuit of fashion. So people have a lot to learn from the medieval victims of fashion. Looking modern doesn't have to mean harming yourself.

Read more about the Middle Ages in our other article 6 reasons why the Middle Ages was not as dark as it is commonly believed.