Is today the best time to be alive? Inspired by games and memes, some people yearn for a return to medieval life. But the reality was far from the rosy picture they present.
Seven brutal truths of medieval life
Grim reality: Today, there are effective treatments for leprosy. Medieval sufferers, like this man from a 13th Century Swiss illustration, would not have been so lucky. Glossary
Conclave - The assembly of cardinals in the Catholic Church to elect the new Pope.
Middle Ages - The Middle Ages was the period in European history that came between ancient and modern times. It lasted from about 500 to about 1500.
Prejudices - Ideas about something, especially a group of people, that are not based on reality.
Peasants - A historical term often used to describe poorer people who worked in farming.
Antibiotics - Medicines that fight bacterial infections.
Infant mortality - The death of a baby between its birth and its first birthday.
Fertilisers - Chemicals or natural substances added to the soil to help plants grow.
Famines - Times of great hunger, when there is very little food.
Serfs - A historical term for agricultural labourers who could not leave the land where they worked, and were tied to a particular lord.
Stocks - A historical instrument of punishment. A wooden structure with holes for a person's hands and feet. They were locked in and faced ridicule.
Branded - Marked with a heated branding iron.
Ancestors - The people related to us who lived a long time ago.