To wonder which ‘history facts’ aren’t true.

[LeslieKnopefan]

I understand that history isn’t always true and the further we go back in time the harder it is know what the truth is and what is simply made up.

However I recently posted that I thought it was true that Marie Antoinette hair turned white overnight after her best friends head was paraded in front of her and that I only realised it wasn’t when I told a mate who pointed out it couldn’t be true.

So which history facts that people think are true are known to be lies?

No wonder Napoleon introduced the metric system of measurement (I think that one is true...).

That's Richard the third killed the princes in the tower. Henry the 7th had far more to gain.

Or were they killed at all? There are many theories that they survived and were smuggled to safety in Burgundy, where there great aunt lived. Possibly one of them came back as Perkin Warbeck? So many questions about the fate of the Princes but no proof of anything, least of all that Richard murdered them.

The fact that Shakespeare died on his birthday is dubious.

Lots of sex ones.

Chastity belts that medieval lords used to keep their wives from having sex - that's a Victorian myth. Likewise 'iux prima nocte' (the law that the lord of the land could have sex with any bride on her wedding night). And likewise the one that 'fuck' comes from 'fornication under consent of king' or any similar acronym.

Women in medieval England mostly didn't start having babies in their early teens after very early marriages. The average age of first marriage was late teens for women and early 20s for men - much less shocking.

I was looking at the titanic data recently, although more 1st class passangers survived, women of all classes were more likely to survive than men of all classes, they really did prioritise women and children.

@Buggeritimgettingup I've just read the Tay's daughter of time, and have started Alison Weir's princes in the tower, which claims to support the opposite view. To be fair, I am not very far through it, yet but cannot imagine that it will change my mind, #TeamRichard

I don't know a lot about Vikings- butg there's lots of horned helmets for their home learning at school!!

If you are interested in History and don't already know there are a couple of Podcasts that are amazing -

1. Hardcore History by Dan Carlin

1. History on Fire by Daniele Bollelli

Id Particularly recommend Dans Episodes on Ghengis Khan - Wrath of the Khans and his Take on the cuban missile crisis - Blueprint for Armageddon. They are long almost audiobooks but excellent.

Re Marie Antoinette: I read somewhere, years ago, tha she said something along the lines of let them eat brioche. To the rest of France brioche was a fancy cake bread they couldn't afford, but to Marie, that WAS her bread. So she was sympathising in her own way. But so privileged had no conception that her tasty sweet bread was so far removed from the lives of normal people.

Perhaps a better explanation of Celtic identity

www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/celts/history.aspx

Wow that's really interesting about the titanic - both that they got the women and children out and that it wasn't really bad care of the lower class passengers.

That the 'Dark Ages' were dark. This is a myth. It was a vibrant time that saw many changes that still exist today. It was also a period of climate change when the earth warmed. The term, dark ages, may have derived from a brief interruption in the warmth when it rained constantly for about three years, but this may have been due to an asteroid hit or a volcanic eruption.

This gives a brief overview.

I went through years of thinking Richard III couldn't possibly have killed the princes (thanks to Ricardian novels) but looking at what we know now, I think they died during his reign and on his orders. Margaret Beaufort killing them is an invention of the notorious Philippa Gregory as there's no evidence to suggest she did!

That’s interesting Elendon. I thought it was the dark ages as all knowledge and advancement by the Romans was lost / forgotten and we made little advancement in this time.

BBC iplayer + horrible histories isn't just for the kids - debunking historic myths is its main thrust & it does it very well

The idea that the barbarians were violent, uncivilised and, well, barbarians. Apparently they were pretty much just like the Romans, with the only difference being that they didn't speak Latin. And that's why the Romans called them barbarians.

The idea that the barbarians were violent, uncivilised and, well, barbarians. Apparently they were pretty much just like the Romans, with the only difference being that they didn't speak Latin. And that's why the Romans called them barbarians.

well, the Romans were pretty violent, uncivilised and barbaric themselves....

Turning white over night isn't far fetched at all. I know an elderly lady whose house Was bombed in the war. Her poor mum turned white immediately.

Yes i thought the dark ages were so called because of the loss of writing as a common skill so there aren't many documents to 'shed light' on what was happening

leslie, medievalists will cheerfully kill you for using the term 'dark ages'.

It's anti-Catholic propaganda by later historians who didn't like to believe that any Catholic culture could be anything except oppressive and stupid. There's actually a period people call the 'twelfth-century Renaissance' because so much cross-cultural learning took place. It's when a lot of universities were founded and a huge amount of translation between Arabic, Hebrew and Latin happened.

Nobody knows - or will know - if Richard III killed the princes. He might have. There were other people who had the ability to organise their murder. They might also have been spirited away for their own safety. We certainly know that he was nowhere near the hunchback that Shakespeare so memorably described and people seem to have forgotten that history is written by the victors, so it was in Henry VII's best interests to paint Richard as a monster. Pity that very few people actually bother to look into things for themselves, rather than just accept the watered-down stuff taught in school.

I had extremely long hair, it started going grey all over, not just at the roots. It goes grey or white when it loses pigment.

Turning white over night isn't far fetched at all. I know an elderly lady whose house Was bombed in the war. Her poor mum turned white immediately.

I've seen it once in a man who's wife died unexpectedly

not overnight, but within a few days

We certainly know that he was nowhere near the hunchback that Shakespeare so memorably described

well, his bones disagree with you!