An Aussie Mug's Guide to - England's Medieval Kings of the Middle Ages.

Intro

Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.
Ed Prentice

Is it of any real consequence if we were born into the opulence of Royalty or the struggles of poverty? When that last grain of sand cascades to the bottom of our virtual life-glass we all bite the dust, no matter who we are. Of course I'm talking about the end of life and not what happens in between, because being poor in The Middle Ages would have really sucked!
.....the thing is no one knows how much sand they started with or have left at any stage in life.

One advantage nobility had in the Middle Ages was that they could afford to see a doctor or physician if they could find one, because there weren't too many around. Medical knowledge in this period was  downright .....Medieval, as you'd expect ;), and so the treatment may not have achieved a great deal anyway. People were quite superstitious too and held strong religious beliefs or perhaps they were too scared not to. How else could you explain the likes a famine, extreme weather events or other misfortune? I'm sure those convictions caused plenty of stress and health issues of their own.

So if medical expertise was fairly basic then just how did they treat health issues? To understand that you have to know how they thought in the Middle Age. The health of a person was based on the balance of The Four Humors. Yes the spelling is correct, because body secretions weren't really that funny!

Put simply humors were the principal bodily fluids, that is; blood, urine, black bile and yellow bile. These relatively vulgar liquids in turn were thought to be influenced by four other factors; the Four Elements, the Four Temperaments, the Four Seasons and the Four Organs.
.....I noticed Frankie Vali doesn't get a mention, but his band does?

You may or may not be surprised that each of those factors also contained four components
The Elements; Earth, Air, Fire and Water.
The Temperaments; Phlegmatic, Choleric, Melancholy and Sanguine.
The Seasons; Summer, Autumn, Spring and Winter.
The Organs; The Head, Lungs, Spleen and Gall Bladder.
.....that sounds fair enough, but if 666 was the devil's number then surely 444 was the medieval doctor's?

The doctor or physician would take all these things into account when dealing with the victim, sorry I meant the patient. The treatment may have included one or more of the following; herbal remedies, a laxative, an enema, checking the patient's urine or having it tasted, making the person sweat profusely, inducing them to vomit or undergo bloodletting....you beauty!!
......thinking about all those treatments the only question I have is....who tastes the urine?

As I highlighted a persons beliefs were also part of the cure, so none of those remedies would work without copious amount of prayer, consultation with the zodiacs and penance for the sins the patient had obviously committed! If the treatment was unsuccessful, that is if miracle didn't happen, the last resort may have been an operation. That would have been a little scary considering the physician probably didn't have much of a clue and that anaesthetic hadn't been invented.
.....apparently one thing they were good at and practised often were amputations, yikes!

If like most of the population you couldn't afford to see a doctor, then perhaps there were other options within your community. The local church or monastery might be a good place to start, as they could certainly deal with any issues with your soul. If ecclesiastical folk weren't available (or interested) there may have been a healer in the village, someone whose reputation was built on the fact that someone actually got better after they saw them? As with most families your saviour and first port of call was probably your mother, particularly for children.
....but if or when the treatment failed I'm sure there were plenty of people around that could dig you a nice grave.