Latest / Ridiculous History / The Age of the Crakow, Part 1: Medieval Europe Went Nuts For Pointy Shoes

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The Age of the Crakow, Part 1: Medieval Europe Went Nuts For Pointy Shoes · Ridiculous History

0:00
Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
0:27
Speaker 1: back to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always
0:31
Speaker 1: so much for tuning in. As we begin today's episode,
0:36
Speaker 1: which is a very special episode, by the way, one
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Speaker 1: I'm quite excited about. Why don't why don't all our
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Speaker 1: fellow ridiculous historians just take a gander at our feet?
0:46
Speaker 1: What are you wearing? Uh? You know, are you? Are
0:48
Speaker 1: you going more barefoot on natural in these our days
0:52
Speaker 1: of pandemic? Maybe you got some house sandals. Maybe you
0:54
Speaker 1: have some l A lights or other kind of uh,
0:57
Speaker 1: they might be called gimmicky shoes. We'll we'll update you
1:02
Speaker 1: on what our super producer Casey Pegram and our producer
1:06
Speaker 1: Max Williams are wearing at some point in the future.
1:12
Speaker 1: But today's episode is about shoes, maybe not the way
1:15
Speaker 1: you think. And in today's episode, I am joined, I'm ben.
1:21
Speaker 1: I'm joined by a very special guest. You've heard him
1:24
Speaker 1: on the show before, you've heard us talk about him
1:27
Speaker 1: on the show before. Fellow Ridiculous Historians, please join me
1:32
Speaker 1: and welcoming the one the Only Mr Matt Frederick. Oh wow,
1:38
Speaker 1: you messed up. You messed up, And let me back
1:41
Speaker 1: in Oh, and the crowd goes wild. Not since that
1:46
Speaker 1: terribly recorded hotel episode, have you seen or heard of
1:50
Speaker 1: me on this show? Well? That was you were in
1:54
Speaker 1: character for much of that episode as well, weren't you. Yeah?
1:57
Speaker 1: I just remember I was trying to engineer it and
2:00
Speaker 1: figure out how to get my voice on it, and
2:02
Speaker 1: it was in a hotel. That's right, we had We
2:06
Speaker 1: have been through. Uh, We've been through some weird trenches
2:09
Speaker 1: in this In these careers of ours, Matt, We've recorded
2:13
Speaker 1: in hotels, We've been stuck in airports and cars together.
2:19
Speaker 1: There are some pretty neat stories that we can maybe
2:22
Speaker 1: share along the way. My first question for you, Matt,
2:25
Speaker 1: dear dear friend, kind of shoes are you wearing? Bro? Oh,
2:29
Speaker 1: let me check the old feet here. I've got on
2:33
Speaker 1: some Columbia like water resistant hiking shoes right now, hiking
2:38
Speaker 1: shoes on. Okay, I like it. Uh, Folks, you may
2:41
Speaker 1: not know this, but Matt and I are are somewhat
2:43
Speaker 1: similar in that we both were both weirdly prepared for things.
2:47
Speaker 1: So are you weirdly prepared to take a hike? Under
2:51
Speaker 1: my desk where I'm recording right now, there's a go bag.
2:54
Speaker 1: So there's one in my car, and there's one immediately
2:57
Speaker 1: here where I can reach down and grab it. Have
2:59
Speaker 1: got I'm hiking books already. We're ready to go, throw
3:02
Speaker 1: the kid on my shoulder, get out of here, just
3:05
Speaker 1: in case the zoom meeting goes wrong. Go yeah, and
3:09
Speaker 1: they can go very wrong, as we have all learned,
3:12
Speaker 1: but nothing yet. So well, we'll see. It's funny. We're
3:16
Speaker 1: we're sitting here chatting about something going wrong and an
3:19
Speaker 1: ambulance literally went by or a police officer. I'm not
3:21
Speaker 1: sure which siren that was, but it immediately went off
3:24
Speaker 1: on in Ben's zoom. Yes, that's true. I am. I
3:30
Speaker 1: live in a somewhat infamous part of town here in Atlanta,
3:34
Speaker 1: as do you, Matt. Actually, now I think about it,
3:36
Speaker 1: and you know, as a recordings sometimes this will be
3:39
Speaker 1: the street I live on as a main artery for
3:42
Speaker 1: the city, so we'll hear what I sometimes call non
3:45
Speaker 1: consensual ubers that are that are taking people to and fro.
3:50
Speaker 1: But today's episode is something that Matt, I had specifically
3:56
Speaker 1: asked you to hang out with and talk about with
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Speaker 1: me here because there's a little bit of background. Um
4:02
Speaker 1: to say it in a sentence today we're talking about
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Speaker 1: this weird tendency for people to where very very pointy shoes.
4:11
Speaker 1: Like not, when we say pointy, we're not talking about
4:15
Speaker 1: high heels that come to a point, or maybe pointy
4:19
Speaker 1: dress shoes. We're talking about something that you have actually
4:22
Speaker 1: seen in the modern day matt in your neck of
4:25
Speaker 1: the Atlanta woods, right, Yes, it's it's very true. We
4:28
Speaker 1: are talking about shoes that you may imagine only seeing
4:33
Speaker 1: in ancient medieval paintings, maybe seeing gosh, where else would
4:39
Speaker 1: you see something like this, Maybe if you've been to
4:42
Speaker 1: a museum at some point and you've seen armor that
4:45
Speaker 1: soldiers would wear, very specific soldiers from specific places. But yes,
4:51
Speaker 1: in my neck of the woods there exists these types
4:54
Speaker 1: of extremely pointy shoes. I cannot stress how extreme the
4:59
Speaker 1: point is. I live on Beufford Highway in Atlanta, which
5:04
Speaker 1: is an extremely ethnically diverse area, and there is a
5:08
Speaker 1: place close to where I live where there are a
5:12
Speaker 1: lot of dance clubs and music clubs that primarily are
5:17
Speaker 1: for Spanish speaking clientele and audience, and lots of music
5:22
Speaker 1: that comes directly out of Mexico and around these clubs.
5:26
Speaker 1: Let's say at a q T that is somewhat close
5:29
Speaker 1: to one of these clubs. If you're there at a
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Speaker 1: certain time on the weekend, on a certain night, you
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Speaker 1: will see shoes that defy both gravity and generally practical.
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Speaker 1: Yes that it just doesn't make any sense until you
5:48
Speaker 1: begin to look into it, And that's what this whole
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Speaker 1: episode is all about. Right, That's that's a great way
5:54
Speaker 1: to kick us off, because the story of weirdly elongated
5:59
Speaker 1: point to shoe is much much older than some of
6:02
Speaker 1: us might think today. We're talking about something that if
6:06
Speaker 1: your fancy is known as crack Ow or Poulaye, these
6:11
Speaker 1: are a kind of shoe with these dr Seussi and
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Speaker 1: like pointy tips, and they take their name and what
6:18
Speaker 1: most people believe is their origin from the actual Crackow,
6:22
Speaker 1: the capital of Poland. And like Matt said, if you've
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Speaker 1: ever been reading through an historical book about medieval Europe,
6:31
Speaker 1: or you've looked closely at medieval art, then you've probably
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Speaker 1: seen these shoes before. You might not know that they
6:37
Speaker 1: have a story, but visually they're they're pretty hard to miss.
6:41
Speaker 1: They look bizarre, they look impractical, they look weird, and
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Speaker 1: they were They were super duper popular, not just in Poland,
6:50
Speaker 1: but in England, all kinds of other parts of Europe.
6:53
Speaker 1: Can we can we talk a little bit about what
6:55
Speaker 1: the crack ow just in general looked like. Oh yeah,
7:00
Speaker 1: imagine a shoe that is largely leather. It doesn't have
7:04
Speaker 1: the soul the way you'd imagine maybe your shoes do
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Speaker 1: right now, doesn't have the kind of support that your
7:11
Speaker 1: shoes have. It's almost like a a leather wrap that's
7:15
Speaker 1: very hardy. Now imagine that at the end of that
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Speaker 1: leather wrap that's around your foot, right by your toes,
7:21
Speaker 1: it extends out anywhere from six to fifteen inches, maybe
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Speaker 1: even twenty inches twenty four inches if you're real nasty,
7:32
Speaker 1: uh and Weirdly, this is one of those fashion trends
7:39
Speaker 1: that has occurred throughout history, because there there are moments
7:42
Speaker 1: in trends where and I hate to separate it this way,
7:44
Speaker 1: but it is very much separated this way in books
7:47
Speaker 1: and in the research that we've got about this topic,
7:50
Speaker 1: separating men's fashion and women's fashion. This is one of
7:53
Speaker 1: those cases where it was mostly men, young men who
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Speaker 1: were wearing these shoes. Yea, and in the europe in case,
8:00
Speaker 1: they were often a little more wealthy. They were the
8:03
Speaker 1: leisure class, because, as you can imagine just hearing that
8:06
Speaker 1: description these shoes, you couldn't get a lot of work
8:11
Speaker 1: done do it wearing these? You know. Uh people the
8:15
Speaker 1: people wore these were often considered gentlemen. They would stuff
8:18
Speaker 1: those pointy toes with hay or whale bone support. It
8:23
Speaker 1: was very important to them that they had perky points
8:26
Speaker 1: on their shoes. Nobody wanted floppity points, which I'm sure
8:30
Speaker 1: is the technical terms. Well, imagine the imagine the exactly
8:33
Speaker 1: imagine the materials you're you're talking about mostly leather and
8:36
Speaker 1: maybe a couple of other materials in there, So that
8:39
Speaker 1: would be crazy floppy if it was just some leather
8:42
Speaker 1: at the end. So yeah, the whale bone and also,
8:45
Speaker 1: well that's pretty that's like, that's not the thing the
8:49
Speaker 1: average peasant would have. Yes, they wouldn't. It wouldn't be
8:52
Speaker 1: like your rid old is whalebone. Gee, But who would
8:55
Speaker 1: have whalebone? The tailors who are making corsets right around
9:00
Speaker 1: that time and other pieces of clothing material that used
9:04
Speaker 1: whalebone quite often and was sold to people who are
9:07
Speaker 1: wealthy enough to buy the majority of their clothes. So,
9:11
Speaker 1: of course, the more conservative aspects of society, the rulers
9:16
Speaker 1: of society at the time, they hated this stuff. Of course,
9:20
Speaker 1: it had a silly name given by its opponents, these
9:23
Speaker 1: crack ow We're called devil's fingers, which is maybe I'm
9:29
Speaker 1: thinking of ladies fingers, but today that sounds like it
9:31
Speaker 1: would be the name of a snack made by hostess
9:34
Speaker 1: or something. You know what I mean, Devil's fingers, But that,
9:39
Speaker 1: you know, anything that's out of the ordinary, you can
9:43
Speaker 1: imagine a large religious institution such as the Church of
9:46
Speaker 1: England would take issue with it, because if it's different
9:50
Speaker 1: and strange, it probably has something the fare us going
9:53
Speaker 1: on in your mind, as the Church of England. So
10:03
Speaker 1: let's say you're back in this time. He got your
10:07
Speaker 1: first pair of pikes, as they might have also been called,
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Speaker 1: and you're thinking, who do I need to thank for
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Speaker 1: these amazing shoes? I am officially ankled down like one
10:18
Speaker 1: of the coolest people on the planet. Who should I
10:21
Speaker 1: send the thank you card? Too? Well, that would be
10:23
Speaker 1: count Folk of Andrew. At least that's what a lot
10:27
Speaker 1: of historians say that he is the source of this
10:31
Speaker 1: in Europe, and the story about why he's the source
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Speaker 1: of this in Europe is speculative, but sad. The idea
10:38
Speaker 1: is that he started poo lanes as a trend because
10:42
Speaker 1: he had some sort of foot deformity. Yeah, and that's
10:46
Speaker 1: kind of the right. That's like maybe the origins of it.
10:51
Speaker 1: But we can't tell for sure, because we do know
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Speaker 1: that pointed toad shoes were a thing well before this.
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Speaker 1: It was it was something that was happening prior to
11:02
Speaker 1: count Folk. Count FULK. I really like count FULK. It
11:07
Speaker 1: sounds like a villain. Just the name Folk sounds sort
11:10
Speaker 1: of like if he were in the Marvel universe, he
11:13
Speaker 1: would be a villain. Yes, yes, yes, but so so
11:18
Speaker 1: before we count FULK. In the in what would be
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Speaker 1: considered the Middle East or the Near Middle East, there
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Speaker 1: has been a tradition of somewhat pointed shoes since good
11:29
Speaker 1: Lord with three thousand b C. Three excuse me, excuse me,
11:34
Speaker 1: not BC anymore? What is it? D c E. There
11:40
Speaker 1: we go before a common era, the Istanbul not Constantinople,
11:44
Speaker 1: kind of kind of situation going on BC and b C. Yeah,
11:49
Speaker 1: you're right. It was around for millennia literally, and Folk,
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Speaker 1: it was also sometimes known as Folk of Jerusalem, went
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Speaker 1: on a crusade in eleven twenty and he stayed in
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Speaker 1: the Middle East until his death twenty three years later
12:04
Speaker 1: in three So this leads historians to conjecture it's possible
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Speaker 1: that crusaders in the twelfth century were influenced by the
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Speaker 1: trends they saw in the Middle East, and then when
12:16
Speaker 1: they came back to the West, they carried some of
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Speaker 1: these fashions with them, which is pretty common during those
12:24
Speaker 1: sorts of regional conflicts. Oh yeah, what do you bring back?
12:28
Speaker 1: Spices for sure, because if you control the spice, you
12:31
Speaker 1: know how it goes. Then, um, fabrics of any kind.
12:35
Speaker 1: We know the history of silk and how it ended
12:37
Speaker 1: up going across the world, and really other types of
12:40
Speaker 1: clothing that were just would be considered highly unique, somewhat
12:45
Speaker 1: bizarre to the rest of society in a different part
12:48
Speaker 1: of the world. Yeah, and this happens during, of course,
12:51
Speaker 1: the many branches of international trade over history to games
12:56
Speaker 1: like what we would recognize his chess today, migrate along
13:00
Speaker 1: trade patterns. I love that you point out spices and
13:03
Speaker 1: food that kind of stuff, especially I would say spices
13:06
Speaker 1: or more commodity at this point than they are considered
13:10
Speaker 1: a food stuff, right, Like this is a species that
13:14
Speaker 1: used peppercorns for currency once upon a time. It's true
13:17
Speaker 1: we dig spices. I mean you think about the first
13:20
Speaker 1: time something like Gara Massala made its way across. I
13:25
Speaker 1: remember the first time it made its way across to
13:27
Speaker 1: my palate. I haven't been the same since. Yes, it's
13:32
Speaker 1: a very specific change. We had a meeting about it
13:34
Speaker 1: at work. Uh so, yeah, I I know exactly what
13:39
Speaker 1: you mean there. And this is something that people still
13:43
Speaker 1: experience today. It's a very common part of human psychology.
13:47
Speaker 1: You want to be unique, you want to make a statement,
13:50
Speaker 1: and you also want to be up on the newest
13:53
Speaker 1: cool thing, whether it's the modern era or the Middle Ages.
13:56
Speaker 1: Everybody kind of wants to keep up with the Joneses
14:00
Speaker 1: and stay in front of the other, whomever the not
14:02
Speaker 1: Joneses are or the count folks in his in his crew. Yeah,
14:09
Speaker 1: and so there's an issue here of exaggeration that occurs
14:14
Speaker 1: because even the longest pointy toad shoes in the Middle
14:20
Speaker 1: East had nothing on what was happening in Europe once
14:24
Speaker 1: they found out about this pattern. Because the Middle Eastern
14:28
Speaker 1: shoes didn't have points that were more than half of
14:31
Speaker 1: the length of the foot they were, they were usually
14:33
Speaker 1: they were just like a modest point about two inches
14:37
Speaker 1: beyond the longest toe. That's it. That's it. So they
14:40
Speaker 1: look they look cool, they look distinctive, but you can
14:44
Speaker 1: also do stuff in them. Yeah, for sure, for sure.
14:49
Speaker 1: And and it's it's something we should point out that
14:54
Speaker 1: the style of shoe was pretty dang popular until century.
15:02
Speaker 1: And it's not like it just showed up, made a
15:05
Speaker 1: huge splash everybody wore and then it went away. It's
15:07
Speaker 1: just one of those trends that it became popular and
15:10
Speaker 1: it continued on and around that time, kind of early
15:13
Speaker 1: on in the trend in the Western world with these
15:15
Speaker 1: pointed shoes. It wasn't like they were going ham in
15:19
Speaker 1: the West either about this. They weren't trying to go
15:22
Speaker 1: two feet out from the foot like some of the
15:25
Speaker 1: craziness we mentioned at the top of this episode. They were.
15:28
Speaker 1: There was a pretty standard thing. It was just okay,
15:30
Speaker 1: well there's a pointed shoe and it looks pretty good.
15:32
Speaker 1: But it never really went away. It just kind of
15:34
Speaker 1: stuck around for a while until the fourteenth century. Okay,
15:39
Speaker 1: the fourteenth century. They are these Western merchants who were
15:43
Speaker 1: trading in the Baltic region. They travel to areas of
15:48
Speaker 1: the Baltics where these shoes are quite popular, and they say, oh,
15:52
Speaker 1: we've discovered these, and so they call it the Poland
15:56
Speaker 1: fashion or poo lane to style, and they take it
15:59
Speaker 1: back to Western Europe. According to the Museum of London,
16:03
Speaker 1: the term Polane evolves from French term that just means
16:08
Speaker 1: from Poland. So they were basically calling them Poland shoes
16:13
Speaker 1: or later Krackow shoes. That's right. And as it became
16:16
Speaker 1: more and more popular. How this as the trend grew,
16:20
Speaker 1: so did there we go, Yes, there's a toe based
16:26
Speaker 1: arms race here to be the coolest kid. You could
16:30
Speaker 1: literally say that with the foolish lengths for fashion, the Polanes,
16:36
Speaker 1: we think, oh and shout out to our research associate Gabe.
16:39
Speaker 1: That's that's that's one of the things he really wanted
16:42
Speaker 1: to hit. So they have a Gabe. If Gabe ever
16:45
Speaker 1: puts in a pun or writes writes a cool turner phrase,
16:50
Speaker 1: we're very quick to platform and we were at no
16:52
Speaker 1: pun left behind show. You know, sometimes that doesn't always
16:56
Speaker 1: work out, but it's about the principle. So so the
17:01
Speaker 1: ones we think of today when we think of point
17:04
Speaker 1: issues in in historical documents and in illustrations from the time.
17:08
Speaker 1: They probably did come about in forty or roundabouts in
17:13
Speaker 1: Poland and crack out. And then Polish nobles came to
17:18
Speaker 1: visit the Polish wife of the British King Richard the second.
17:23
Speaker 1: And when these nobles came, of course they showed out.
17:26
Speaker 1: They're wearing their best, their coolest gear, right, you know,
17:30
Speaker 1: the good cloak, the clean breaches, and of course they're
17:35
Speaker 1: going to rock the crackhouse. What are you talking about? Yeah, dude,
17:38
Speaker 1: they show up in court and you know how English
17:41
Speaker 1: court went at that time, you know, like and we're
17:44
Speaker 1: not talking about a court like with a judge. They're
17:45
Speaker 1: just in these massive rooms where everyone is just displaying
17:49
Speaker 1: and hanging out. And one they're just having so much
17:52
Speaker 1: merriment because they don't have to do anything. All of
17:55
Speaker 1: their servants are doing everything for them. They just get
17:58
Speaker 1: to have a good old time. And you, oh, there
18:00
Speaker 1: were some English dudes over they're going good. God, do
18:04
Speaker 1: you see the points on those shoes? The audacity audacity
18:10
Speaker 1: do not have a power for us? What what what?
18:13
Speaker 1: What would be? What's the reason for this? But certainly
18:17
Speaker 1: they're doing something with those points, right, I know, it's not,
18:21
Speaker 1: but they have flexed too hard. You're right, You're right.
18:27
Speaker 1: We must make we must make our own and much
18:31
Speaker 1: more pointy. Yeah, indeed, and that is a that is
18:36
Speaker 1: a you know, obviously a historical, accurate, historical reenactment. We
18:44
Speaker 1: translated that from the dialect of the time. It's true.
18:49
Speaker 1: And the thing is, they would have known a little
18:52
Speaker 1: bit about slightly pointy shoes, just that ridiculously pointy shoes,
18:57
Speaker 1: because they've they had that. Um, do you remember I
19:04
Speaker 1: Like Big Butts by Serve Mix a Lot. No, I
19:07
Speaker 1: can't remember that song at all. It's just my mantra
19:10
Speaker 1: for every day, right, because you're never constantly singing that
19:15
Speaker 1: whenever we're not on air. Yeah, the I've picked her.
19:19
Speaker 1: Maybe those two, those two folks in court are like
19:22
Speaker 1: the two women at the beginning of I Like Big Butts.
19:25
Speaker 1: Oh my god, Becky, look at her, Oh my god, Becky,
19:29
Speaker 1: look at his shoes. They're so pointing and they are big.
19:35
Speaker 1: So you know, I guess it really does mesh up.
19:38
Speaker 1: Do you think he's one of those Polish nobles boyfriends.
19:43
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do the whole thing. No, No, we're not
19:45
Speaker 1: gonna get to the verse but uh, but maybe right,
19:50
Speaker 1: write the lyrics if you'd like, we'd love to hear
19:52
Speaker 1: from you. You can post them at Ridiculous Historians on Facebook. So, yeah,
19:57
Speaker 1: this is something they've never seen it taken to this level.
20:00
Speaker 1: And so for over a century, actually a ton of
20:05
Speaker 1: mainly as you said earlier, Matt, a ton of male
20:07
Speaker 1: nobles were wearing these in Europe, and it became such
20:12
Speaker 1: a craze that every person who could afford shoes wore
20:16
Speaker 1: some form of polis. Though in general we're talking about
20:21
Speaker 1: the big tippers. They really are the realm of nobility
20:25
Speaker 1: because those folks can just walk around. I'll say it.
20:29
Speaker 1: I'll say it clown shoes there when they get to
20:34
Speaker 1: that point, and not a comment on any current trends,
20:37
Speaker 1: but when they get to that point in medieval Europe,
20:40
Speaker 1: they are like clown shoes. They're hard to walk it.
20:43
Speaker 1: It almost seems as though they are purposely designed to
20:46
Speaker 1: have comedic effect. There's the perfect time to talk about
20:56
Speaker 1: the walking styles of people's before the advent of shoes,
21:03
Speaker 1: modern shoes, with the types of heels that we have,
21:07
Speaker 1: even even with the you know, the most lowly of
21:10
Speaker 1: the shoe. Right now that you can find anywhere to
21:13
Speaker 1: the fanciest of shoe. There is a style that we
21:16
Speaker 1: really have, and it affects the way humans walk because
21:20
Speaker 1: these shoes make us walk on the heel of our
21:22
Speaker 1: foot a lot of times. But if you're wearing the
21:24
Speaker 1: types of shoes that a lot of the folks will
21:28
Speaker 1: be wearing back then you're going to be walking on
21:30
Speaker 1: the ball of your foot right up there by your toes.
21:33
Speaker 1: So it's a very different walking style. And you can
21:36
Speaker 1: see some videos online, by the way, like Historical Body
21:39
Speaker 1: Mechanics by Roland. I don't know how to say it correctly,
21:42
Speaker 1: but cha, I think brilliant stuff really shows you the
21:47
Speaker 1: difference in the way people walked back then as opposed
21:52
Speaker 1: to the way they walk now. And these giant pointed
21:54
Speaker 1: shoes really would have had an effect on your ability
21:57
Speaker 1: to walk around. Yeah, you're a slowly right. It's strange
22:01
Speaker 1: because there are so many things in the history of
22:05
Speaker 1: fashion that seemed purposely designed two exhibit the fact, or
22:11
Speaker 1: to draw attention to the fact that the person rocking
22:14
Speaker 1: these fashions does not have to work the same way
22:17
Speaker 1: that other people do, you know what I mean. And
22:20
Speaker 1: some of those traditions can be quite horrific, like the
22:23
Speaker 1: practice of foot binding right in China. So this this
22:27
Speaker 1: isn't to that level. But it's clearly it's just silly.
22:34
Speaker 1: It's clear like your fleet. You clearly want people to
22:36
Speaker 1: know that you are, you know, like you're down with
22:40
Speaker 1: polish shoes. And you also don't have to have a
22:43
Speaker 1: job almost but well, yeah, it's pretty much that you don't.
22:48
Speaker 1: You at least don't have to walk in in any distance.
22:51
Speaker 1: You can go from one side of the room to
22:53
Speaker 1: the other. And if you shuffle a little bit, if
22:55
Speaker 1: you you don't have to move your feet a little differently,
22:57
Speaker 1: that's fine. But you're not going down to the market ever.
23:00
Speaker 1: In those carriage, right right right, it better be a
23:06
Speaker 1: good carriage, and in the driver of the carriage must
23:09
Speaker 1: also have plains, but they can't be as big as mine,
23:12
Speaker 1: says the noble. And that's actually that's the next thing
23:15
Speaker 1: that's really weird about this. So we know that fashion
23:18
Speaker 1: trends often not always, They evolve the number of different
23:21
Speaker 1: ways through societies. But fashion trends can often or trends
23:25
Speaker 1: of any sort can often start in the upper echelons
23:28
Speaker 1: of society and then they filter down and as they
23:31
Speaker 1: filter down increasingly toward whatever the you would think of
23:34
Speaker 1: as the commoner. At that point in that society, they
23:38
Speaker 1: become less important and less prestigious to the people who
23:41
Speaker 1: are there in the first place. This happens today with
23:44
Speaker 1: all sorts of things. We do have one important difference
23:48
Speaker 1: though here in the modern day in the US, as
23:53
Speaker 1: no one is going to make a law that's like
23:58
Speaker 1: if if for some reason, silly hats very particularly, what
24:02
Speaker 1: are those hats that like go on the back of
24:04
Speaker 1: your head. Kids wear them and they have a little
24:06
Speaker 1: propeller you know I'm talking about. I have no idea
24:08
Speaker 1: what those are called? Um de bops spinning hats, Yeah,
24:13
Speaker 1: deally bops. Okay, so what so like let's say, uh,
24:18
Speaker 1: let's say the current president and La Musk and like
24:22
Speaker 1: Dame Judy Dench Angela Merkel, they all just start wearing
24:26
Speaker 1: those deily bops and no one says anything. It's just
24:29
Speaker 1: super cool. Is it called a propeller hat or know
24:34
Speaker 1: what it's called? I honestly have no idea spinner hat,
24:38
Speaker 1: spinner hat. So so just for this example, which I
24:42
Speaker 1: think I might have paid us into a quarter here, okay,
24:46
Speaker 1: we'll try to sew it up. So imagine that happened
24:49
Speaker 1: in one and then other people for some reason also
24:52
Speaker 1: thought it was cool and they were like, I want
24:54
Speaker 1: to be like the Titans of industry. Queen Elizabeth's got
24:57
Speaker 1: one too, why not? And they're like, I want to
24:59
Speaker 1: wear one in these Well, then now you totally could.
25:02
Speaker 1: There would probably still be that same pattern where it's
25:05
Speaker 1: where in the the well to do like these hats,
25:09
Speaker 1: less and less is more and more people rock them,
25:12
Speaker 1: and the spinners get larger and larger and larger and longer,
25:17
Speaker 1: and soon we don't need cars or helicopters. Thousands die.
25:22
Speaker 1: But but the difference here is that at this time
25:25
Speaker 1: in Europe, the authorities were capable of making things called
25:29
Speaker 1: some story laws, which meant that if they didn't like
25:33
Speaker 1: other people rocking their style, they could make laws that
25:38
Speaker 1: told certain classes of society, based upon where they were
25:41
Speaker 1: in a larger hierarchy, what they were allowed to wear
25:44
Speaker 1: or do or say often as well or eat. That's
25:48
Speaker 1: a good one based right, yeah, yeah, exactly, So we
25:51
Speaker 1: have the breakdown, right, Yes, if you're a commoner, you
25:54
Speaker 1: must you can wear a pool, but it must be short,
25:57
Speaker 1: very short. I think you go up to how off
26:00
Speaker 1: of a foot for a commoner? Now that's all you get,
26:04
Speaker 1: that's correct. Now, if you've leveled up and you are
26:07
Speaker 1: a bourgeoisie, you may have a round of foot, let's
26:11
Speaker 1: say one foot. Now if you are a night oh goodness,
26:17
Speaker 1: well you may have one and a half feet. Now
26:21
Speaker 1: that's great. One and a half feet for a night,
26:23
Speaker 1: really functional, really great for the battlefield, really good for
26:26
Speaker 1: just everything. Jousting, sword battles, even archery. Has really helped
26:33
Speaker 1: out with the old poutine, poutine and then let's do
26:39
Speaker 1: it the hats. The shoes were also often stuffed with
26:45
Speaker 1: with kurds and grady and can you imagine the smell?
26:49
Speaker 1: Not only is it old leather, but all that stuff
26:52
Speaker 1: in it. Have you ever you've ever smelled poutine and thought,
26:55
Speaker 1: I wish this smelled a little bit more like feet,
26:57
Speaker 1: like unwashed feet. You know, I really have just add
27:00
Speaker 1: some blue cheese in there, like you know, get a
27:04
Speaker 1: little off the road and do that. But we're not
27:06
Speaker 1: done here. So nights are great. Nights are awesome. But
27:10
Speaker 1: what if you're a noble, Oh my god, you may
27:12
Speaker 1: have all the way up to two feet. But if
27:16
Speaker 1: you're here hanging out with the royalty, and maybe you're
27:19
Speaker 1: a prince two and a half for you, pal, guess
27:22
Speaker 1: what you win? You win the crack owl game. You've
27:25
Speaker 1: got two and a half feet of extra leather just
27:29
Speaker 1: flopping around unless you get that great whalebone in. In
27:32
Speaker 1: this case, you're noble, so you've definitely got the bones
27:35
Speaker 1: two and a half feet straight up. Points son, that's
27:39
Speaker 1: how they talk. No, you're right like that at that point.
27:42
Speaker 1: Just physically structurally, those whalebone inserts might not be the
27:46
Speaker 1: best choice. So some of these princes these top of
27:50
Speaker 1: the top of the shoe game, they had to use
27:53
Speaker 1: these gold or silver chains attached from the tip of
27:57
Speaker 1: the shoe to their knees in order to walk. This
28:00
Speaker 1: looks even more clownish, but it's the origin of this
28:03
Speaker 1: French expression. And my French is terrible. I'll have to
28:07
Speaker 1: ask Casey later. But it means they're very to live
28:11
Speaker 1: on a large foot. So it's literally it's very on
28:16
Speaker 1: the nose, are very on the toe. It is referring
28:18
Speaker 1: to that, and and people knew it was extravagant, and
28:22
Speaker 1: they knew it wasn't practical, and that was part of
28:25
Speaker 1: the peel you would. You would also want to this
28:29
Speaker 1: is so weird. So we okay, we know about novelty
28:34
Speaker 1: footwear in the modern day. Like I had Rebot pumps,
28:37
Speaker 1: I had l a lights when I was a kid.
28:40
Speaker 1: I like that. They did this too, but these were
28:43
Speaker 1: grown ups. They had like a little bell on the
28:47
Speaker 1: on the shoes sometimes when they were you know, at
28:50
Speaker 1: a party, at a soiree, or they would even make
28:54
Speaker 1: an ornament in the shape of a bird beak and
28:56
Speaker 1: the's a dangle from the tip of the shoe. So
28:58
Speaker 1: everywhere they were walking, they were not only flopping he
29:01
Speaker 1: flopping around, but it was also like a coming throughs. Yeah, sorry, sorry,
29:10
Speaker 1: that's perfect. I really really wish we had our friend
29:15
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickling on the show right now because he has
29:18
Speaker 1: so much experience just in the Middle Ages. Uh man,
29:22
Speaker 1: He's just been around everywhere he goes. He goes out
29:24
Speaker 1: in the middle of Georgia and just time travels at
29:27
Speaker 1: least once a year. Careful, careful, men. It's it's like
29:32
Speaker 1: beetlejuice rules, you know. Yeah, we just have to be careful,
29:37
Speaker 1: that's all I'm saying. It's he's always listening. Is the issue.
29:41
Speaker 1: I don't know how. I'm just saying I think he's
29:43
Speaker 1: played a character before where he had one of those
29:46
Speaker 1: one of one of those pointy shoes and then he
29:49
Speaker 1: had the thing tied around his knee. I'm pretty sure
29:51
Speaker 1: I've seen him in that get up. Yeah, you know,
29:54
Speaker 1: he kills it at Renaissance, at the annual Renaissance Fair
29:58
Speaker 1: Renaissance Festival. Oh yeah, the that's the rural time travel
30:01
Speaker 1: thing I was talking about. Cool. I'm glad they're the
30:05
Speaker 1: same thing. I thought I was picking up what you
30:06
Speaker 1: were putting down, but I didn't want to presume. Oh
30:09
Speaker 1: no worries. So don't say Jonathan Strickland again. You're saying, yeah, seriously,
30:14
Speaker 1: that it happened. This is something that happens on this show.
30:18
Speaker 1: I should have mentioned this earlier. Sometimes we get so
30:22
Speaker 1: into an idea, a strange story that we're exploring that
30:26
Speaker 1: we end up making a two part episode. And that's
30:29
Speaker 1: what you and I have just done. Man, this is
30:32
Speaker 1: this all this right now is just part one. Whoa, whoa, whoa.
30:38
Speaker 1: So somehow we have warped into the first episode of two.
30:44
Speaker 1: I really thought this was all one big thing. Like I.
30:47
Speaker 1: If you would have you know, if you were to
30:49
Speaker 1: just say this to me in the middle of nowhere,
30:51
Speaker 1: like it's happening right now, I'll be so confused. So yeah,
30:55
Speaker 1: that's the that's that's the that's on me. You know, honestly,
30:59
Speaker 1: I can't put on Casey or Max or Andrew. That
31:03
Speaker 1: one's on me. But I can't wait for us to
31:06
Speaker 1: continue on part two. Are you gonna stay for part two?
31:10
Speaker 1: I guess? I mean if if you'll have me, Are
31:13
Speaker 1: you kidding? Please? If we didn't have you on part two,
31:17
Speaker 1: then it would be like a crack owl without without
31:21
Speaker 1: the toe. What's the point? Oh wow, that did not last.
31:26
Speaker 1: That did not last. I think it would be like
31:29
Speaker 1: it would be like the crack owl without the whale bone.
31:32
Speaker 1: It would just be real floppy. Yeah, that is Thank
31:35
Speaker 1: you for saving everyone from a floppity part two. We're
31:39
Speaker 1: gonna call it a day here, folks. Thanks as always
31:42
Speaker 1: to our super producers Casey Pegram, our guest producers Andrew Howard,
31:46
Speaker 1: Max Williams, and Alex Williams, who composed this banging track. Matt,
31:51
Speaker 1: thank you so very much for joining us today. Sir.
31:56
Speaker 1: The last word goes to you. It could be any
32:00
Speaker 1: word you watch and then after that word, if the
32:03
Speaker 1: spirit so moves you maybe could tell the rest of
32:05
Speaker 1: our fellow ridiculous historians where they can find more of
32:08
Speaker 1: your work. Last word, Jonathan, don't don't, don't do do
32:14
Speaker 1: do do it seriously don't? Okay, alright, fine, fine, fine, um.
32:19
Speaker 1: How about strange arrivals. That's it. That's really it. That's
32:27
Speaker 1: all we got. And campell and ephemeral sees it two
32:32
Speaker 1: and stuff they don't want you to know. If you're
32:34
Speaker 1: not listening to stuff they don't want you to know,
32:36
Speaker 1: get ready for something awesome that's about to happen on
32:39
Speaker 1: that feed. So make sure you're over there. That's right, Yes, yes,
32:45
Speaker 1: So Matt and I started stuff they don't want you
32:47
Speaker 1: to know years and years ago, and we've done some
32:49
Speaker 1: very weird things over our time on that show. We
32:53
Speaker 1: have something extra special for you. This is Oh, it's
32:57
Speaker 1: a weird way. Okay, we can't tell. We can't divulge
33:01
Speaker 1: much for about that, other than we hope you tune
33:05
Speaker 1: in for part two of kraw I don't know why
33:09
Speaker 1: I've been saying it in an increasingly stentious accent off air.
33:13
Speaker 1: Uh for pointy shoes. Yep, pointy shoes. Too extra point
33:19
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know. Oh yeah. Just join us. Please,
33:23
Speaker 1: we'll see you ex time. For more podcasts for my
33:32
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
33:35
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.