To people who cling to the myth of an all-white Middle Ages, anything to the contrary is “revisionist” or the work of “social justice war-riors.”

The punishment for raping a woman also varied quite a bit: it might be castration, execution, or a simple fine.

Medieval chronicles are filled with examples of knights and lords ignoring royal dictates, or even pledging their loyalty to more than one ruler, which caused difficulties when these rulers went to war with each other.

By the way, the flat-earth story promoted by Columbus fans is a flat-out lie.

Life in the Middle Ages just seems harder: plagues swept the world, dramatic climate change led to food shortages, unstable political power created unpredictable violence, religious prejudice and superstitions were common, and no one had invented a single iPhone. Terrible.