Untold History

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In 1387, a French executioner sent the town a bill for hanging a pig. The receipt is real. Much of the famous story built around it is not. For centuries, European courts arrested, jailed and executed pigs, gave weevils their own lawyers, cursed slugs and burned a rooster for laying an egg. In this episode we go back to the original records to separate what is documented from what grew into legend, and we look at what modern science says about the strange things people saw. Then we travel east, into the villages of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, where folklore gave a different answer: the animal was only a mask. A cat on a sleeper's chest, a black chicken that brings stolen grain, a cow that gives blood instead of milk. And in 1678, one cow that stopped giving milk set off one of the deadliest witch hunts in Central Europe.

Where the sources disagree or a story is legend, the video says so. If you enjoy forgotten stories from the Middle Ages, subscribe to Untold History. #MedievalHistory #AnimalTrials #Folklore

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Castles are the most recognizable symbols of the Middle Ages, but the people who actually raised them are almost never remembered. In this documentary, we follow a medieval castle from the first decision about where to build it, through quarrying, lime kilns, scaffolding and treadwheel cranes, all the way to the day the lord moved in, and what became of castles in the centuries that followed. You'll meet the master builder who planned an entire fortress without technical drawings, the stonemasons, carpenters, blacksmiths and lime burners who did the skilled work, and the serfs forced to haul stone for their lord. You'll see the defensive tricks built into every wall, gate and staircase, what everyday life inside a finished castle was really like, and why so many of these "impregnable" strongholds ended up as ruins. Featuring: Karlštejn, Loket Castle, Spiš Castle, Carcassonne and Guédelon, the castle in France still being built today using only medieval techniques.

Subscribe to UNTOLD HISTORY for the stories history usually leaves out. Illustrations in this video are AI-generated in the style of medieval illuminated manuscripts. #MedievalHistory #Castles #MiddleAges