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Así era Sobrevivir una Noche en una Taberna Medieval (No como en las películas) — Transcript

by Pasajero del Tiempo · 2,705 words · 392 segments · language es · Watch on YouTube

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0:00What was a night in a medieval tavern
0:02really like? It's getting dark and
0:05you've been on the road all day. Your
0:08feet hurt, there's dust even on your
0:10eyelashes and your mules are as
0:12exhausted as you are. Your name is
0:15Martin, you're a muleteer, transporting
0:17goods from one town to another along
0:19the roads of Castile. It's the year
0:221350 and in the distance you finally
0:24see a light, an inn by the roadside. If
0:28you get there before nightfall, you'll
0:30have a fire, wine, something to eat and
0:33a place to sleep. If you don't, you'll
0:36sleep in the open with wolves and
0:38bandits. But there's a problem. You're
0:41carrying all the money you've been paid
0:43for the trip and in a night inn between
0:46strangers, wine and dice, that money
0:48could disappear before the sun comes up
0:50. Today we're going to experience an
0:54entire night in a medieval tavern, not
0:57the one in the movies, with mugs of
0:59foamy beer, lively music and a fat and
1:02friendly innkeeper. The real one. What
1:05did people drink? What did they eat?
1:07What did they play? Who did they sleep
1:09with? Why were fights so dangerous? And
1:12what did the law do to control all of
1:13this? At some point in this video, I'm
1:16going to tell you how a simple argument
1:19over a glass of wine in an English
1:21tavern ended in a three-day battle with
1:23dozens of deaths and a punishment that
1:26lasted almost 500 years. But first, the
1:29myth. When we imagine a medieval tavern
1:33, we think of a fantasy place, a large
1:35wooden room, a huge fire, adventurers
1:38with swords, and a waitress serving
1:40everyone mugs of beer. The reality was
1:44much more varied and much smaller. Many
1:47taverns were just someone's home, where
1:49they sold wine or beer out of their
1:51very own front room. a dark,
1:54smoke-filled room with a few benches, a
1:57table, and a barrel. And not all the
2:00places were the same. In Castile, for
2:02example, there were inns in the middle
2:04of the roads and far from the towns.
2:07There were inns and inns inside the
2:09cities where you could also sleep. And
2:12there were taverns where people went,
2:14above all, to drink. Each had its own
2:17public, its own rules, and its fame.
2:20And now for a fact that changes
2:21everything. You've probably heard that
2:24in the Middle Ages people drank wine
2:26and beer at all hours because the water
2:29was so dirty that it was undrinkable.
2:31That's a myth. Or at least a huge
2:34exaggeration. Medieval people drank
2:37water. They knew perfectly well how to
2:40tell the difference between clean water
2:42from a spring or a well and dirty water
2:44from a river near a city. There are
2:47medieval laws, chronicles, and recipes
2:49that speak of drinking water as
2:51completely normal. So why did people
2:54drink so much wine and beer? Because
2:57they were food. Medieval beer was thick
3:00and high in calories, just what someone
3:03who worked in the fields from sunrise
3:05to sunset needed. Wine was part of the
3:08daily diet throughout southern Europe.
3:11And of course, because getting a little
3:14drunk at the end of the day was, like
3:16today, one of the few pleasures
3:18available to almost everyone. And
3:20before we go into the tavern with
3:22Martín, a question. There's a word
3:25you've probably used this week that
3:28originated at medieval gaming tables
3:30amidst dice, bets, and fights. I'll
3:33tell you what it is halfway through the
3:35video. Now, push the door open. The
3:38first thing that hits you when you
3:39enter is the smoke. There are no
3:41chimneys like those in many of these
3:43places today, and the fire fills the
3:45room with smoke. The light is poor. The
3:48fire, the occasional oil lamp, and
3:50tallow candles made with animal fat
3:52that give off a yellowish light and
3:54smell awful. Second, the noise.
3:57Muleteers like you, pilgrims on the
3:59road to Santiago, peasants from the
4:01neighboring town, the occasional
4:03soldier, a cleric who shouldn't be
4:05there. All talking at once. And third,
4:07the innkeeper. And here you have to be
4:09careful because medieval innkeepers had
4:11a terrible reputation. To give you an
4:14idea, an 11 th-century guide for
4:16pilgrims, included in the famous Codex
4:19Caltino, dedicates a sermon to
4:20denouncing the trickery of innkeepers
4:22on the road to Santiago. It says more
4:26or less that some people would let
4:28people try good wine and then serve
4:30worse wine, that they would use rigged
4:32measures to give less than they charged
4:34, that they would sell bad food and
4:36that sometimes they would even rob
4:38pilgrims while they slept. Centuries
4:41later, in Don Quixote, Cervantes still
4:43makes fun of rogue innkeepers. He was
4:45almost a typical character in Spanish
4:47literature, the innkeeper who smiles at
4:49you while he empties your bag. So
4:52Martin sits down with his bag firmly in
4:54hand and asks for food. And what was
4:57there for dinner? Well, it depended on
4:59where you were and how much you could
5:00pay. In many inns, the usual thing was
5:03a pot on the stove with vegetables and
5:06some meat or bacon, bread, cheese and
5:08wine. Sometimes the offer was so poor
5:11that many travelers brought their own
5:13food and only paid for the fire, the
5:15bed and the wine. And wine was, of
5:17course, the main protagonist. In
5:20southern Europe, wine was drunk, in the
5:22north, above all beer. And in both
5:25cases, the authorities kept a very
5:26close eye on whoever was selling it. In
5:29England, an 11 th-century law regulated
5:32the price and quality of beer, and
5:34inspectors would go from tavern to
5:37tavern tasting it. If a brewer sold it
5:40watered down or with false measurements
5:42, he could end up fined or sitting on
5:44the stool of shame. A kind of
5:47punishment chair where the offender was
5:49exposed so that the whole town could
5:51laugh at him. And here's another myth.
5:54Surely you've read at some point that
5:56these inspectors tested the beer by
5:58spilling it on a bench and sitting on
6:00it while wearing leather trousers? If
6:03they stuck, the beer had too much sugar
6:06. It's a very funny story. But
6:09historians have found no evidence that
6:11it was actually done. It's most likely
6:14a legend invented centuries later. And
6:17while Martin is eating dinner, he looks
6:19around. In a corner by the fire there
6:22is a lonely pilgrim. He carries his
6:24staff, his cloak, and a shell in his
6:26hat. He is very thin and coughs
6:28incessantly. Many pilgrims on the
6:31Camino de Santiago left home knowing
6:33that they might not return. They walked
6:35for months, sometimes from the other
6:37side of Europe. And some died along the
6:40way, in an inn or in a pilgrims '
6:42hospital far from their families. They
6:45were buried right there in a foreign
6:48land, and their family thousands of
6:50miles away only knew that one day they
6:52had set out for Santiago and had never
6:54returned. For people like that, an inn
6:57was not a place to party. It was the
7:00only warm place on a cold night, far
7:02from home. That's the part of medieval
7:06taverns that movies don't show. Not
7:08just the partying, but also the
7:10loneliness. And that's the story I like
7:12to tell on this channel, the one about
7:14real people, not the ones in the movies
7:16. If you're interested in it, subscribe
7:19now. It's just a click away and it
7:21helps me keep going. Thank you. Now go
7:23back to the table because someone has
7:25just taken out some dice. Gambling was
7:27the lifeblood of the tavern and also
7:29its greatest danger. People played dice
7:32, board games similar to Baggamon,
7:34alquerque, an ancestor of checkers, and
7:37almost always with money involved. And
7:40here is the answer to what I promised
7:42you. What is the word that was born at
7:44medieval gaming tables? Chance comes
7:47from Arabic, from a word used for the
7:49die or the face of the die. Through the
7:53Iberian Peninsula it passed into
7:55Spanish as azar, an unlucky roll of the
7:57dice, and from there it traveled to
7:59other languages. In English, for
8:02example, Hazard was originally the name
8:05of a dice game and ended up meaning
8:07danger. So whenever you say that
8:10something happened by chance, you are
8:12using a word that was born among dice,
8:15bets, and fights in the Middle Ages.
8:18And there's more. Cards arrived in
8:20Europe at the end of the 14th century
8:22and some of the oldest mentions we know
8:24of appear in documents from Catalonia,
8:27where they were already called naips.
8:30That's where our word naipes comes from
8:32. Shortly after their arrival, they
8:34were already being banned in many
8:36cities because people were going
8:38bankrupt gambling, because gambling was
8:40a very serious problem. Men would lose
8:43weeks' worth of money in one night,
8:45their mule, their clothes, and even the
8:47cape they were wearing. And where
8:50there's lost money, there's arguments.
8:52And where there's arguments and wine,
8:54there's knives. And what did the kings
8:57do? Some banned them. But King Alfonso
9:00X the Wise in Castile had a much more
9:02practical idea. Instead of banning
9:05gambling dens, which were called
9:07tafurerías, he regulated them. He
9:09ordered a set of rules to be drawn up
9:11regarding what could be done in them.
9:14Which traps were punished? How much did
9:16you have to pay? What happened if
9:18someone swore when losing? And the
9:20crown would also keep part of the
9:23winnings. A medieval king who, instead
9:26of fighting against gambling, decided
9:28to tax it. There are things that
9:30haven't changed that much. And here we
9:32come to the uncomfortable truth about
9:35taverns: fights. In the Middle Ages,
9:37almost everyone carried a knife with
9:40them to eat, to work, to defend
9:42themselves on the road. And that, mixed
9:45with wine, gambling and pride, was very
9:47dangerous. An argument over a throw of
9:51the dice, an insult, a woman or a debt
9:54could end in a stabbing in a matter of
9:56seconds. We know that this happened a
9:59lot thanks to the records of judges who
10:02investigated violent deaths. In England
10:04, for example, lists of deaths from the
10:06Middle Ages have been preserved and
10:08many of them begin the same way. Two
10:11men drinking together in a tavern, an
10:14argument and hours later one of them is
10:17dead. But taverns were not only
10:19dangerous inside, they were also
10:21dangerous on the way home. Those same
10:24records are full of people who went out
10:25drunk at night and never came back. Men
10:28who fell into a well, a river or a
10:31ditch in the dark. And the medieval
10:34night was something else. In many
10:36cities, at nightfall a bell would ring,
10:40the curfew. The French word for it,
10:43cubrefe, which means cover the fire,
10:45was a reminder that fires in homes had
10:47to be put out or covered to prevent
10:49fires. From that hour on, the city
10:53gates were closed, the taverns had to
10:55shut down, and anyone walking the
10:57streets without good reason could be
10:59arrested by the night watch. So in the
11:03city, revelry had to close, but at a
11:05roadside tavern, far from any authority
11:08, the night could go on for much longer
11:10. And the tavern wasn’t just a place
11:14for men. Often the business was run by
11:17a woman. In much of Europe, brewing and
11:20selling beer was a very common job for
11:22women who did it from their own homes.
11:25Widows, wives, single women. The tavern
11:29was one of the few ways they had to
11:31earn an independent living. In addition
11:35to gambling and drinking, taverns
11:37featured music and words, minstrels
11:39playing, singing, and telling stories
11:41of knights, saints, and love affairs.
11:45People gathered to listen to the news
11:46brought by travelers because there were
11:48no newspapers. The tavern was the place
11:51where you found out what was happening
11:53in the world and it was also a place
11:55that the church looked very askance at.
11:58Many preachers saw it as the home of
12:00the devil. The book of Good Love,
12:04written in the 14th century by the
12:06archpriest of Aegita, tells the story
12:08of a very holy hermit who, after
12:10getting drunk just once, ended up
12:12falling into the worst sins. A very
12:15clear warning of what could happen if
12:17you overdid it with wine, although the
12:19book itself is full of humor, mischief
12:21and zest for life, just like the
12:23taverns. And when the night is finally
12:26over, it's time to sleep. And here's
12:28another surprise. Don't even dream of
12:31having a room to yourself. In many
12:33medieval inns and taverns, travelers
12:35would all sleep together in a common
12:37room, sometimes with straw on the floor
12:40. And in those that had beds, it was
12:42normal to share a bed with strangers,
12:45two, three or more people who had never
12:47met before, sleeping together to save
12:50space and money. So Martin lies down
12:53with his bag of money under his head,
12:56next to a snoring merchant, a coughing
12:58pilgrim and a few fleas having their
13:00own feast, and he closes his eyes
13:02knowing that tomorrow before dawn he
13:04has to get back on the road. And now,
13:08the story I promised you at the
13:10beginning. It is February 10, 1355,
13:15Oxford, England. Some university
13:18students are drinking in a tavern. They
13:20order wine and don't like it. They say
13:23it is bad and tell the tavern keeper
13:25rudely. The tavern keeper responds in
13:27kind and one of the students, according
13:30to the stories, throws the wine in his
13:32face or throws the jug at him. What
13:34happened next was a real war. The
13:36townspeople took to the streets against
13:39the students. The students against the
13:41townspeople. People from the
13:43surrounding towns joined the fight. For
13:45three days there was fighting in the
13:47streets, houses were stormed and looted
13:49. And when it was all over, dozens of
13:52people had died, many of them students.
13:55It became known as the St.
13:57Scholastica’s Day Riot. And the
13:59punishment for the city was incredible.
14:02The king sided with the university, and
14:04as penance each year on the anniversary
14:06of the riot, the mayor and councilors
14:09of Oxford were required to attend a
14:11mass for the dead and pay a token fine
14:14to the university. This penance lasted
14:17for almost 500 years, until 1825. All
14:22because of a glass of wine that a
14:23student didn’t like. So let’s recap
14:26your night as Martin. You arrive at an
14:28inn at dusk, your money clutched
14:30tightly. You enter a room filled with
14:33smoke and candles that smell of grease.
14:35You are wary of the innkeeper because
14:37even the guidebooks warn of his tricks.
14:40You dine on stew, bread, and wine,
14:42which you drink not because the water
14:44is dirty, but because it nourishes and
14:45cheers you. You see a pilgrim who may
14:48never return home. You sit down to play
14:51dice in a gambling den that the king
14:53collects in taxes and you lose by pure
14:55chance. You dodge a fight for a throw,
14:59listen to a minstrel and the news of
15:01other travelers and lie down in a bed
15:03shared with strangers, with a bag under
15:05your head and fleas for company. And
15:08what impresses me the most is this.
15:11Medieval taverns were the social
15:13networks of their time, the place where
15:16you got the news, where you did
15:18business, where you flirted, where you
15:20lost money, where you argued and where
15:22sometimes you risked your life. Kings
15:27tried to control them, the church
15:29condemned them, writers laughed at them
15:31, but no one managed to close them
15:33because at the end of the day medieval
15:35people wanted exactly the same thing we
15:38do. A warm place, something to drink, a
15:41bit of luck and someone to talk to. And
15:44if you want to know what it was really
15:46like to travel along medieval roads,
15:48with bandits, rivers without bridges
15:50and other dangers of the roads of the
15:52Middle Ages, I'll tell you about it in
15:54the next video. And if you haven't
15:56already, subscribe. See you on the next
15:59trip through time.

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