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50 Of The Funniest Memes That Explain The Middle Ages In A Way That Books Probably Never Will
The Middle Ages was a time in Europe from the collapse of Roman civilization to the start of the Renaissance. Society was deeply influenced by the Church, and most people lived rural, agricultural lives. The era is famous for knights, castles, and plagues but is so much more than just a collection of quirky legends.
The subreddit r/MedievalHistoryMemes, although silly in form, provides a nuanced picture of the period, highlighting everything from rigid class systems to political intrigues, all while making the peasants and nobles unexpectedly relatable.
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#1
Nailed It
WindySwede 5 months ago
Or Leo, a lion stuffed in 1700s.. https://www.kungligaslotten.se/artiklar-film-360/gripsholms-slott/2018-07-22-legenden-leo.html gripsholm-...mifran.jpg 
Janissary35680 5 months ago (edited)
I love this image. It's from an illuminated book titled "L'estoire de Merlin", a medieval French poem about Merlin from the early 1300s. Some details (no images) here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin_(Robert_de_Boron_poem)
Lost Penny 5 months ago
So the horse drawn from the side... Is that a part of the leg or is this horse anatomically semi-correct?
Senjo Krane 5 months ago
anatmically correct if not accurate stallion as seen from the right, The front facing one must be a mare,
Anthony Elmore 5 months ago
I don't know if that's true. The front one is definitely an egg.
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#2
Don't Treat Me Like A Princess
Ugh, do I have to? 4 months ago
Yeah... I like when he calls me princess, that's all. No marriage alliances required. (I did in fact specify this to him, just in case (he likes history).
#3
Horse Has A Point
Lady Eowyn 5 months ago
However...dogs did not help humans traverse long distances, carry those humans and their possessions, enable communication over long distances, and so forth.
Michael Largey 5 months ago
I could stay reasonably calm if I saw a dog stampede headed my way.
#4
She Fancy
Herr Bastich 5 months ago
I think it's a tarot card but from a much later century. Maybe 18 or 19 hundreds
Bill Swallow 5 months ago
"Stoking the fires"??? Really? That is CLEARLY a Toasting Fork! Now - Bring Forth The MARSHMALLOWS!!!
#5
The Customer Is Always Right
#6
This Is Actually My Two Kids Last Name LOL
Bruce Mardle 5 months ago
I used to have a classmate at school called "Lance Boyle"... or did I just dream it?
#7
Seriously…
Phantom Phoenix 5 months ago
Did you go with George because he's not bald, he's balding?
Load More Replies... #8
Take What You Can, Give Nothing Back
CP 5 months ago (edited)
The monks took it from the peasants then the Vikings took it from the monks. The peasants are the only innocent ones.
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Lee Gilliland 5 months ago
To quote John Dillenger, "I rob banks because that's where the money is."
Yrral Spavit 5 months ago
Back in the good simple days. If you needed something you only had to axe for it.
#9
Viking Meme
Brody Garrard 5 months ago
A cool lesson that my history teacher did was separate us into groups then give us all different evidence on why a certain group of people were first to America (besides native Americans of course) and at the end we just proved that every group had been to America just traded then left. But those white dudes were the only to stay and actually write it down that they had been.
#10
This Is What A Cat Looks Like, Right?
DennyS (denzoren) 5 months ago
I need to remind myself this every time I try my hobby and get upset cause I can't build things I see people building online.
Uncle Panda 5 months ago
I remain convinced that if psychologists could draw, we would have been artists.
Rachel Reynolds 5 months ago
whenever I feel bad about my art, I look at medieval animals and immediately feel better
#11
This Does But A Smile On My Face
#12
Cat
Abel 5 months ago
Why this abomination is not in the Scotland flag? "The mythical Scattish Piper"!
tee-lena 5 months ago
We lost our baby on Sunday. It's too quiet so next month we are filling up the house with a bonded pair, hopefully
Riley Quinn 5 months ago
My cats would get the zoomies in the middle of the night - right across my sleeping body.
#13
I Like Metal Music
#14
Large Snails Were Oftentimes A Concern For The Medieval Man Or Woman
Multa Nocte 5 months ago
"According to the late, great art historian Michael Camille (in his book "Image on the Edge"), there have been a number of theories behind the iconographic motif of the snail in 13th, 14th, and early 15th century marginalia. Citing other historians and art historians, he mentions parallels with the story of the Raising of Lazarus, individuals cloistered away in the safety of fortified castles, the Lombards, social climbers, and more lewd, sexual interpretations. For more, see "Image on the Edge", pp. 31-36." From mhfc, Reddit.
Joe Reaves 5 months ago
Or - monks were the ones doing the illustrating and they were also responsible for growing their own food for the abbey and they really hated snails destroying their crops. Most gardeners aren't big fans of snails.
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Lara Verne 5 months ago
To be honest, I would be startled too if a met a snail the size of a dog.....
Remi (He/Him) 5 months ago
Maybe today he would have a noxiously large and loud car instead
Load More Replies... Lee Gilliland 5 months ago
There actually were outbreaks of snails in the Middle Ages when it got wet. They ate crops and left slime trails all over, and the mucus can attract insects.
Arthur Waite 5 months ago
Could this be related to the fact that in Europe, snails are on the menu?
Tropical Tarot 5 months ago
No that's people in Florida killing the African snails that have invaded.
Bruce Mardle 5 months ago (edited)
That "murderous" snail has a friendly expression. I say we should give it the benefit of the doubt.
#15
Love Me Some Blue Filter. It's The Dark Ages, After All
and_a_touch_of_the_’tism 5 months ago
There’s a bit in a comic I like where one of the characters buys tinted glasses when they visit Mexico. It’s all the beige filter and then her companion goes “why are you wearing those” and it pans out.
nut nibbler 5 months ago
I so wish Hollywood would stop with the filters, especially blue ones.
#16
Smooth…
Mel in Georgia 5 months ago
This makes me sad! The evil thing is taking away this homeless person's only reasons for living!
David Paterson 5 months ago
That's just the man's excuse to his daughter for why her dog is missing.
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Andrew Read 5 months ago
So…you don’t see a man starving almost to death stealing a dog (food) because he is literally starving to death?
#17
Ottomans
#18
Which One Are You ?
Rafael 5 months ago
As someone with zero interest in astrology (and no patience for those who insist in asking me my birth sign) I throughly approve this message.
Agfox 5 months ago
My August one looks like something rejected when considering options for Dr Who
Mreoww 5 months ago (edited)
Hey I was born in December and am Indian too, which is where that helmet is from.
Lady Eowyn 5 months ago
I'm December, too. Not Indian, but that is one cool helmet.
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Ece Cenker 5 months ago
As a taurean I am disappointed that there are no horns on my month's helmet!
#19
*the Invention Of The Ballista* “Just A Little Further…”
Nils Skirnir 5 months ago
A lot of these are dumb, but this is the stupidest. Archery, as a sport, for hunting, and for war, existed for thousands of years before the Middle Aged
#20
When People Say They Wish They Had A Time Machine
Lee Gilliland 5 months ago
Not just medieval, the idea of living before vaccines is horrifying.
XenoMurph 5 months ago
90s and 00s were the pinnacle of human society. In my opinion
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Rick Murray 5 months ago
Medieval? If I had a time machine I'd go back a few million years. A world without people but after the dinosaurs had gone. Sounds like bliss. And I'd spend my days carving intricate things that look like UFOs and The Predator out of pieces of rock to leave around just to mess with whatever human eventually finds them. 😂
CP 5 months ago
If I had a time machine, I would go in the future. We know way more about the past.
XenoMurph 5 months ago
We'll know a lot more about the future, if we just wait.
Load More Replies... #21
It Do Be Super Slow Doe
Uncle Panda 5 months ago
When your opponent has sealed himself in an impregnable fort, keep him there ~ General Tacitus
#22
People In Medieval Times Drank Beer Because It Was Safer Than Water
UKGrandad 5 months ago
The alcohol didn't kíll the bacteria, it was boiling water in the brewing process that disinfected it.
Heffalump 5 months ago
They did drink water. They knew enough to drink clear, non-odorous, water from a stream or a well that gave good water. Occasionally they got sick from it, mostly they didn't. Just like people do today in places where they have no access to treated water, except in those days they didn't have to worry about industrial pollutants.
F S 5 months ago
Thank you! This prejudice of medieval people only drinking alcohol because they had no access to clean water is tiring.
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Bill Swallow 5 months ago
"In Wine, there is Truth. In Beer, there is Strength. In Water, there is Disease." -- Benjamin Franklin
Rick Murray 5 months ago
Beer? JFC. Mead, in a dimly lit tavern, merrily emptying an entire flagon, or you're just not doing medieval correctly.
Cuppa tea? 5 months ago
Also beer has much less alcohol content than nowadays, as did wine. Medieval wine was as much strong as beer these days.
Lee Gilliland 5 months ago
Actually, that was wine. Beer doesn't have enough alcohol to k**l what was in European water.
Apatheist Account2 5 months ago
Not entirely a myth - beer was brewed and was often safer than the local water.
Load More Replies... #23
Great Scott!
UKGrandad 5 months ago (edited)
The picture represents the Old Testament prophet, Elijah, ascending to Heaven in a flaming chariot. In his book, Chariots of the Gods, Erich Von Daniken used the story of Elijah as evidence that aliens visited Earth, the flaming chariot being the ancients' way of describing the jet exhaust emissions from spacecraft, thus creating one fiction from another, and both claimed as fact by too many people.
Uncle Panda 5 months ago
Swing low, sweet chariot, coming down to carry me home...!
Load More Replies... DennyS (denzoren) 5 months ago
"How are you flying my lord?" "Anything is possible Perseus once you believe" My lord, I think you've had too much mead again" Come Perseus, let's ride!"
Bill Swallow 5 months ago
"Shove a little ginger up the horses' bums, and you'd be *amazed* where you can go!"
#24
Not Yeet
setsuriseikou 5 months ago
Awww, thanks! Love it when people make me feel like I'm one of their own
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BarfyCat 5 months ago
When we were in England my friend got called "pet" AND "poppet" and I didn't 😭
#25
Fun Fact, That Is A Real Fighting Technique Called “Mordschlag”
Anthony Elmore 5 months ago
Huh. For the clueless on what Mordschlag is, looked this one up: It's a tactic used in sword fighting and the man using it correctly. Blunt weapons are more effective against plate-mail than blades, so if you have a longsword and no mace, what do you do? You flip the sword around and use it as a blunt weapon. It's funny to think about, but really it's not like a knight can carry a weapon around for every armor type, so if you find yourself against a plated-up opponent, it's a death sentence if you have only a blade. I suppose it's why you see so many medieval weapons with dual-uses, like pikes for pushing down ladders or warpicks with both a blunt and piercing end.
Antoinette the Red 5 months ago
But how they do it with out slicing their fingers off?
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Tom Hutcherson 4 months ago
In the German school of swordsmanship, Mordhau, alternatively Mordstreich or Mordschlag (in German literally "murder-stroke" or "murder-strike" or "murder-blow"), is a half-sword technique of holding the sword inverted, with both hands gripping the blade, and hitting the opponent with the pommel or crossguard.
#26
With Small Exceptions
Maggie Fulton 5 months ago
Learning about history and living through history while everyone else ignores it or claims it never happened…
#27
Is Loving Jesus Legal Yet?
Corvus 5 months ago
"Oh, and we may have to burn those of you who reject this Jesus... but hey, nothing personal."
Novlette Williams 5 months ago
"Hi, would you like to accept Jesus the Prince of Peace as your Lord and Saviour?" "Oh no thank you we already got one" "Well in that case I will burn you, rend you in half, grape and murrderr you and your babies too"
Rick Murray 5 months ago
Between 1% and 2% (depending on source). That's a pretty poor conversion rate.
#28
Barber
Helen Edwards 5 months ago
I assume this image depicts the biblical story of Sampson and Delilah?
Anthony Elmore 5 months ago
That army reminds me of One Eye's Army from "Thief and the Cobbler" (Must be the completely black armor) which works out REALLY well for this image.
#29
How Are Y’all?
Remi (He/Him) 5 months ago
Right now 4. Being annoyed because I need to do a thing I enjoy doing, but I'm procrastinating on it which annoys me. I really should have taken the adhd test when they offered. Le sigh
Antoinette the Red 5 months ago
You're being picked at by and angry crane?
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#30
Vlad The Impaler Meme
Forrest Hobbs 5 months ago
We only know about the supposed cruelty because of the stories told about him. The truth? Who knows? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_the_Impaler#Reputation_for_cruelty
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michael reid 5 months ago
Except for the disabled and sick ones he invited to a feast then locked them in and set the whole place on fire.
#31
Hope They Didn't Try That Again
#32
Let's Let Bygones Be Bygones. Also, Marry My Daughter Please
Rachel Reynolds 5 months ago
marry your 14 year old daughter to the 59 year old king of the other kingdom.
#33
Damn They Fell Low
#34
June 21: Niccolo Machiavelli, The Founder Of Modern Political Science, Dies In 1527
Forrest Hobbs 5 months ago (edited)
Yeah, but nah: married with 7 children, despite his near total absence of chin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niccolò_Machiavelli
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SchadenFreudian Psychology 5 months ago
The real title of the book: “The Prince: A Handbook for Sociopaths.”
Forrest Hobbs 5 months ago
Oh boy - someone makes a joke - which would have been totally understood by Machiavelli and his contemporaries, and gets downvoted? Downvotes on BP exists to hide comments from view. Sheesh. 🙄
Load More Replies... #35
Titanic Iceberg vs. White Ship Rock
Bruce Mardle 5 months ago
Just read the Wikipedia page on the White Ship disaster. It says the Latin name of the ship was "Candida navis". I'm not sure I'd travel on a ship which sounds like it's named after a fungal infection.
Joe Reaves 5 months ago
You would if you'd been partying as hard as the heir and his buddies were. They wouldn't have cared if it's name was 'hey you're all going to die'. They were mostly between the ages of 15 and 25 (generally the younger end) and they were partying *hard*.
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Trisec Tebeakesse 5 months ago
Shipbuilder magazine called Titanic "Virtually Unsinkable" in a 1911 edition. White Star Line never said it was, but they didn't discourage the idea either.
Load More Replies... #36
Food: Peasants vs. Nobles
Antoinette the Red 5 months ago
with a beautiful mixture on stones, dirt and ergot.
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Bill Swallow 5 months ago
"Why did medieval paintings make their beautiful women so fat?" "Because *they* were starving."
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Grm Moore 5 months ago
Wrong. The nobles were bigger and stronger. That peasants died working the fields didn't bother them, there were plenty more.
Alex Boyd 5 months ago
You're right that we should be wary of romanticizing the lives of medieval peasants, but a peasant wasn't *automatically* poor. The definition historians use is someone who worked a farm they didn't own. Across times and places, there were several different legal relationships that a peasant could have to the land & the landowner, and some of them could produce relatively wealthy peasants. if the peasant was both lucky to get a good parcel of land, and smart about managing It, *and* their lord wasn't a jerk, *and* the system of land tenure allowed them to expand the amount of land they farmed, *and* the legal relationship to that land was passed down through the family, peasants could end up with a very comfortable and prosperous life, with landless peasants in their employ, and a nice up-to-date (for the time) house that a cash-poor minor noble would envy. Of course, that didn't happen often, and a *lot* if peasants did have a miserable, hand-to-mouth existence.
Load More Replies... #37
Poor English
#38
F For Medieval Knights
Multa Nocte 5 months ago
I know - it's a shocker, right? Don't you feel so much worse for having read THAT word?
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#39
Roman Toilets Be Like
cecilia kilian 5 months ago
Too much garum, or maybe the stuffed doormice.
Load More Replies... Antoinette the Red 5 months ago
When "Buddy can you pass me the butt sponge when you're done"? is equivalent to "Can you spare a square".
Anthony Elmore 5 months ago
People don't like it when it be like it is, but it do. (I'm sorry, every time I see 'be like' the first thing that comes to mind is the black science man meme with Neil Degrasse on it.) Does get a BIT old, though. Very overused.
Load More Replies... #40
By The Pope
#41
The Bouillon
Anthony Elmore 5 months ago
Because the person in charge of deciding what gets censored on BP is mentally ill, and that's being very charitable.
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#42
Longbows Meme
#43
Red Rose Bouquets Are Lancastrian Propaganda
Nikole 5 months ago
I think it’s a still from Rocky and he’s actually saying not to ask him to stop being a boxer.
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#45
Mongols And Religion In A Nutshell
Anthony Elmore 5 months ago
No, no. When your subjects openly submit to you. First you give them the carrot, and if that doesn't work, you give them the rod. The Mongols (wisely) realized that a spiritually-content populace is an agreeable populace... but if you weren't they were going to light you on fire.
Antoinette the Red 5 months ago
So, are we waiting for the capybaras to start doing the Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tune version) tornado twirl?
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#46
Viking Conversion To Christians In A Nutshell
Virgil Blue 5 months ago
Ours had his eye poked iut and was lashed upside down to a big tree to achieve enlightenment. Oh and he was friends with a prophetic living head and had spy ravens.
Forrest Hobbs 5 months ago
Which god? Odin's got one eye and a pair of ravens. Thor's the guy with the hammer - which suffered an infamous manufacturing defect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mj%C3%B6lnir#Sk%C3%A1ldskaparm%C3%A1l
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#47
The Different Crusades
Edda Kamphues 5 months ago
The Albigensian C*****e. Effectively the French Catholics being bastards.
Load More Replies... Janissary35680 5 months ago
Testing: crusades, crusader, crusaders, crusading, crusaded
Load More Replies... Cuppa tea? 5 months ago
There was more crusades against the Husites in Bohemia that to Holly land.
#50
Idk About This Gal
Edda Kamphues 5 months ago
Methinks it might be Joan of Arc and that didn't end too well. For Joan.
#51
Guys, You Liked Previous Meme With Medieval Cat, So Here Is Another! These Rocket Cats Were Weapons For Castle Sieges
#52
*squeaks In Bubonic Plague*
Eastendbird 5 months ago
Except that bubonic plague is generally accepted to have originated in Asia...
David Paterson 5 months ago
Bubonic plague, Yersinia pestis, is still with us and still killing people in Madagascar, sub-Saharan Africa, and Arizona.
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#53
K
Michael Largey 5 months ago
The Catholic Church never stopped being medieval.
Load More Replies... Bill Swallow 5 months ago
... Anybody else getting George Carlin off of the top picture? Or John Goodman from the lower pic?
#54
The Best Job If You Don't Mind Not Being Allowed To Bust A Nut
#56
Man Making Medieval Memes Is Hard. Not That I Made This
Marianne 5 months ago
In Germany, we like to say that Luther's theses were the end of the middle ages and the beginning of modernity. So no, not wayyyyy later.
Load More Replies... Janissary35680 5 months ago
"99 theses nailed to the door / 99 nailed to the door / Take one down and pass it around / 98 theses nailed to the door...
Michael Largey 5 months ago
Well, if you're really keeping score - World-wide Lutheran membership: 78 million. World-wide Catholic membership: 1.4 billion. But religion isn't supposed to be about anyone winning anyway.
#57
Why Charles? Why?
Bruce Mardle 5 months ago
I used to work in the building where he was kept prisoner 🙂 (not at the same time).
#59
Agincourt Be Like
#60
Vlad The Impaler Meme
Virgil Blue 5 months ago
"Vlad, what in blazes are you doing?" Vlad: "I think I'm going to call it a stake out. Like if you don't wanna get staked, get out."
#63
There, I Fixed It
#64
Jews In A Nutshell Since The First Century
Anthony Elmore 5 months ago
Ironically, AC is sometimes used to refer to BC, as it's the abbreviation for 'ante Christum', but it's rarely used because it's ridiculously confusing and hard to differentiate if it's a typo for BC or AD when we're used to the two. The only reason I know this one is a typo is because it seems unlikely that the Christians were a problem before the birth of Christ.
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#66
Charles V Is Informed About The Soccer World Cup
Laugh or not 5 months ago
It does. They were both under the rules of the Habsburg. The king was Charles V of the German Empire and I of Spain. Also Charles II of Napoles.
Load More Replies... #67
The West And The Byzantines
Anthony Elmore 5 months ago
I mean, what did you expect, did you see the cannon they used on Constantinople? How could you not topple an empire with that thing.
#69
Just Throw A Dead Animal Over His Shoulders, It'll Make Him Look Authentic!
#70
The Problem Of Two Emperors In A Nutshell
Michael Largey 5 months ago
"The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, Roman, nor an empire." - Voltaire
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