If there’s one thing that drives people nuts, it’s a bunch of other people – or like, basically everyone – believing something about their field that’s just not true. Who even knows how these myths begin, honestly, but before you know it literally everyone in the world is making short jokes about Napoleon.
Who was actually an average height for his time, thank you very much.
Here are 10 other common beliefs about history that history buffs say are 100% wrong.
10. No one was marrying for love.
“That if you were a Peasant you could marry whoever you wanted for love and if you were a noble, royal or the like you could only marry for power During the Medieval period.
Higher class people could and did (though it wasn’t common) marry for love and most of the time
Peasant marriages were arranged for the same reason as noble ones were, to link two families together, you very rarely got to marry who you liked it was usually who your parents liked.
Also, Prima nocta has, as far as I know, was never actually being recorded as a thing.”
9. He was actually good at math.
“Even Einstein was bad at math”
No, his grades were disclosed multiple times and showed very high marks in math.”
8. Most of the time, anyway.
“There is no record of Queen Victoria ever saying ‘We are not amused’.
And Roman gladiator fights usually weren’t just pointless, bloody, fights to the death for scumbag convicts. The gladiators themselves were very highly trained celebrities who were very well looked after.
It was entertainment done for show, much like WWE or similar today.”
7. Nice ladies don’t make history.
“That Rosa Parks was just some nice old lady who wouldn’t give up a bus seat.
She was a political activist who meticulously planned that specific instance of civil protest.”
6. No supporting evidence.
“The fact that Shah Jahan cut off hands of his workers after they completed Taj Mahal.
There’s literally no evidence except for tell tales. Many monuments were built after the Taj Mahal under the reign of Shah Jahan.
Just think, who would work for you knowing that they’re going to lose their hands if they did a good job.”
5. Dudes can be witches too.
“That witches could only be women. There were plenty of male ‘witches’ over hundreds of years.
In fact, there are a lot of misconceptions about witchcraft in general.”
4. All people can suck.
“That white people were the only ones that traded in slavery. Forgetting about north and east africa where natives sold others mostly to the middle east.
White women brought high prices and were often shipped great distances. Women in russia were also traded to the middle east.”
3. It’s Latin. Don’t make me look it up.
“That AD means after death.”
2. It might be petty…
“It’s petty, but I hate it when people say that Marilyn Monroe was a size 12/14/16. This may have been true in the 1950s, but clothes sizes have changed A LOT since then.
Reports of Marilyn’s measurements by her costumers noted that she was 5 ft. 5.5 inches tall; 35-inch bust; 22-inch waist; and 35-inch hips and 118 pounds.
Of course, her weight fluctuated, but it is simply dishonest to think that in modern times, she would have been considered “plus-size.”
In today’s sizing, depending on where she’d shop at, she would be a size 00-4.”
1. The other way is more fun, for sure.
“The myth about the Vomitorium. The story goes that Roman nobility would go there to eat so much till they puked and would then continue eating.
It was just the name for the Colosseum entrance.”
Let’s spread the good and true word, shall we?
If you love history, what’s something else you wish people would stop believing is true? Leave it in the comments!
