A Day in the Life of a Medieval Prostitute: Els von Eystett

[Music] it is known as the oldest profession in the world in ancient mesopotamia and egypt there were temples dedicated to sacred prostitution there are ancient sumerian records dating back to 2400 bce that refer to prostitution as an occupation in this video we continue our day in the life series and travel back to 15th century germany to see what life was like for one particular prostitute in the exploitative and abusive world inside a medieval brothel welcome to medieval madness an evil necessity in most of europe the church was without doubt the most complex establishment in medieval

society it shaped their attitudes and dictated their daily actions at every level following the teachings of saint jerome quote a prostitute was available for the lust of many men and during the 12th century gracie and the monk used jerome's words to define promiscuity as the main feature of determining who was a prostitute a century later the italian cardinal hostiensis agreed and added that there was an element of deceitfulness involved because a hor feigns love and intimacy between herself and her customer despite the obvious disgust from the clergy prostitutes were deemed essential because men were thought

to have a natural but sinful sex drive a need that could corrupt the most respectable of women even their own wives if prostitutes were not available as an outlet for men's sexual urges then they might even turn to that most vile of sins namely sodomy so without these ladies of the night social order would become disturbed and there would be anarchy sadly this meant that these women of the night were not held in high esteem as they had been in antiquity they were regarded as a necessary evil and the very worst of sinners [Music] the

brothel business for the medievals the brothel became the focus for all of that unpleasantness a sort of outlet for male lust this meant that many city authorities licensed their body houses and some were even actually owned by the municipality itself if bordellos were kept as unobtrusive as possible then there was no need to abolish prostitution completely and anyway as far as the church were concerned it prevented adultery masturbation homosexuality and rape it's also important to note that especially in england a lot of the clergy were also politicians and businessmen as well as churchmen in london

in particular several brothels were used to gain revenue for the church and there was a lot of money to be made from sin many body houses were pushed out into the fringes of the city such as the ones in bolzano and northern italy which were located near to the hangman's home another person that was ostracized by medieval society each house had around a dozen sex workers and with an annual rent of 70 pounds for the city it was quite a lucrative industry in an ideal world working out of a body house rather than walking the

streets should have given the women some form of protection but in reality some brothel keepers were a little better than modern-day pimps and brutalized the females in their care most of them had been sold to the keeper in the first place usually by their own families lease agreements between brothel keepers and the governing authority were set out keepers had to swear oaths of loyalty and obedience there were also rules that forbade drunkenness and blasphemy in the brothel itself and policies to govern the relationship between a prostitute and her procurer for example in some cities such

as vienna rules meant that keepers had to be female sexploitation els von estet started working at the municipal brothel in nordlingen germany late in the 15th century she was initially employed as a kitchen maid and it's thought that she was probably forced into selling her body for money by the brothel keeper lionheart freyamat and his partner barbara tarshenfeiden els became pregnant by one of her clients when barbara found out she mixed together a potion of periwinkle wild carrot cloves and wine in order to induce an abortion then she forced elves to drink the concoction elves

did indeed miscarry and lost a male fetus who was said to have been about 20 weeks old given no time to recover from her ordeal ells was forced to go back to work immediately and told that she would be beaten if she told anyone about the abortion however barbell von esslingen a fellow prostitute to witness the child's body laid out on a bench in elle's room she had taken a pail of water to her friend who was lying on her bed in agony barbell began to speak about what she had seen to the other women

so she was sent away by lionheart and barbara to another brothel in ulm but it was too late the clients of the brothel also became suspicious when they realized that els quote who had been big was now small when the council heard the gossip they decided to send two officials to visit the brothel they told the brothel keeper and his partner that talk had reached senior council members and an investigation would soon begin as soon as the men had left lionheart infuriated rushed to where elves and the other women were eating and gave elves a

severe beating but refusing to be cowed bravely she screamed back at lionheart that he would have to chop off her arms and legs to keep her from testifying against him later lionheart and barbara realized that the game was up so they decided to try and reach an arrangement with elves if she agreed to keep quiet they would wipe her depth and she could leave the brothel quietly the next day else accepted and as agreed when it came time to leave barbara smuggled her out quietly then she made a show of asking the other women where

else had gone and pretended to search the brothel for her but else had already told another prostitute named margaret von bibrak all about the plan the investigation and so the examination began the first part was all about the alleged abortion for the medievals once a fetus resembled an actual human being it was thought to have acquired a soul so abortion at such a late stage in a pregnancy was considered a serious offense elles was never under any suspicion of aborting her baby she testified in the town of weissenberg where she had gone when she left

her brothel in nordling two witnesses margaret and anna von alm corroborated her evidence and told how elves wept inconsolably for the loss of her baby saying that barbara had quote taken her child from her and killed her flesh and blood the second part of the investigation was more of a general inquiry concerning the working conditions in the public brothel and whether linehart the brothel keeper had broken the oath that he took when he started the job in 1469. now nearly all of the women came forward to speak about their cruel treatment the investigation uncovered that

many of them were beaten by lionheart if they tried to refuse a customer sometimes with a rod or belts and other times with a bullwhip on arrival at the bordello anna claimed that all the women had their clothing confiscated meaning that she had to quote go about miserably and almost naked ells agreed saying she had to pay to get her own skirt back the women were kept in depth right from the outset they had to pay for their room and food such as it was and also give one-third of their earnings they were forced to

have sex even when they were menstruating which they referred to as having their womanly sickness and on holy days which was illegal according to the terms of city's contract another legal requirement was that the women had to be given extra food when they were menstruating this was not adhered to in fact they were fed disgusting slob on a daily basis they were charged exorbitant prices for their meal and wine in fact anything that they needed meaning that they were in everlasting debt lionhearts charged clients a fee called sleeping money if they wanted to stay overnight

one of the women described how when a client failed to turn up she was forced to pay the fee herself they were also denied permission to hear mass which was the right of every citizen it was true that once a woman found herself in that line of work it was practically impossible to get out unless she was carried out in a coffin and that usually occurred through malnutrition exhaustion or disease especially sexually transmitted diseases the foreign disease what we now call syphilis no one wanted to take responsibility for during the middle ages the french called

it the neapolitan disease in england italy and germany it was the french disease russia said it was the polish and the turks said it was because of the christians but inevitably the church blamed women because all the evils in the world could be traced back to eve's transgression in the garden of eden the original sin for the medievals just discussing the act of sex was taboo and stds were thought of as a punishment for anyone not living within the teachings of the church their answer to the problem was to encourage abstinence as a way of

life which even in the highly religious middle ages was just never going to work really stds like prostitution have been around since the start of human civilization there is a lot of evidence of venereal disease in ancient society clay tablets from mesopotamia display erotic images of genitalia with signs of infection as do egyptian papyri from 1550 bce syphilis was one of the most widespread venereal diseases of the middle ages and was mostly spread through brothels and prostitutes as many carriers showed no symptoms at any point about a month after contact the disease presents itself with

lesions on the body but they are usually quite painless which is why people think they are harmless later these skin sores often spread to the palms of the hand and the soles of the feet as well as the mouth vagina and anus the list of other symptoms is extensive as the disease progresses and includes fever swollen lymph nodes hair loss weight loss headaches and general fatigue hit it with a hammer without treatment syphilis can penetrate the nervous system and cause blindness paralysis dementia and eventually death children born with congenital syphilis that is passed on during

pregnancy or childbirth can suffer from facial disfigurement and enlargement of the spleen and liver medieval physicians who didn't know any better prescribed poisonous mercury to be rubbed on the sores allowing the chemical to enter the bloodstream and make a sick person much sicker leeches might be used as they were thought to suck out the disease some doctors also recommended that men hit themselves in the genitals with something heavy needless to say none of these so-called cures work and the last one probably just hurt a lot gonorrhea was another disease with a high infection rate however

it was very rarely fatal just very unpleasant medievals called it the burning sickness because of the pain it caused when urinating it was suggested that these areas should be cleaned with urine and vinegar as purification not only didn't this work it was probably also incredibly stinky unseen both lionheart and barbara were barred from ever entering the city again barbara was also branded across the forehead because she was responsible for the abortion of els von istet's child the prostitutes of nordlingen were kept in horrific conditions but it would seem that violence and mistreatment were common in

most medieval brothels throughout europe and it was only the action of a forced abortion that brought the abuse to light elle's story is important because it highlights the history of sex workers a group of people who have been for the most part overlooked but have always been an important part of society from time immemorial nothing is known of the women from nordlingen brothel after the investigation in 1472 but we now know that they were unique complex and their lives mattered thank you for watching this episode of medieval madness please do subscribe if you're enjoying these

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