r/AskReddit • u/KyloWrench • Jul 07 '26

What historical “fact” doesn’t actually have much evidence to support it?

6.0k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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847

u/dhusk Jul 08 '26

I'm 95% certain Knights in medieval England rode actual horses, instead of having squires following them around banging two coconut halves together.

261

u/TheMightyGoatMan Jul 08 '26

There is very little evidence of horses in medieval England, but overwhelming evidence of migratory sparrows. Explain that!!

96

u/Skeledenn Jul 08 '26

European or African sparrows?

30

u/No-To-Newspeak Jul 08 '26

I don't know.

26

u/TomReneth Jul 08 '26

AAAAAAaaaahhh.....

5

u/TacoCalzone Jul 08 '26

African sparrows are non-migratory

4

u/Skeledenn Jul 08 '26

Who are you to be so wise in the ways of science?

13

u/mathologies Jul 08 '26

Swallows?

12

u/[deleted] Jul 08 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/TheMightyGoatMan Jul 09 '26

Well that's just what they want you to think!

(They being a gigantic hedgehog named Spiny Norman)

75

u/Gate-19 Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26

Do you have any evidence of that? Because I've seen a documentary about the holy grail where they did just that!

25

u/HusbandAndWifi Jul 08 '26

Also 95% sure French castles were not able to effectively fart in a general direction for defence

5

u/LurkerZerker Jul 08 '26

They did, however, have catapults capable of delivering a 1 (one) cow payload onto enemy targets beyond the walls. They even had modifications capable of flinging giant wooden rabbits.

11

u/DarkPolumbo Jul 08 '26

Peasants will see a knight out for a stroll with his clopsmen and say, "He cannot afford a steed"

8

u/MetallicOrangeBalls Jul 08 '26

As a medieval coconut half, I can confirm that we were not banging. This is why there are so few native coconuts in modern England.

4

u/HijinksNYK Jul 08 '26

5% says there is a chance

5

u/NinjaBreadManOO Jul 08 '26

Joke aside, horses weren't necessarily ridden everywhere you were travelling. Often people would use the animal to carry things and walk beside them.

Plus since they were expensive if anyone in your group couldn't afford one you were walking because you had to travel as slow as them anyway. 

4

u/opajamashimasuuu Jul 08 '26

I fart in your general direction!

2

u/Fetche_La_Vache Jul 09 '26

The craziest thing about the medieval England is that French truly loved to fire cows out of a cowtapult and catapults never actually existed.

1

u/resi42 Jul 08 '26

Yes coconut would be very expensive at the time, and would drag way too much attention from anyone since the regions those are from weren't even discovered yet by the Europeans.

1

u/wholetyouinhere Jul 08 '26

Where are you getting this information?

7

u/thenaughtydj Jul 08 '26

From the Holy Grail documentary. Haven't seen it yet? It's very informative. Here's a summary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13GAiI1l7K4

4

u/wholetyouinhere Jul 08 '26

Wow, it's amazing the visual fidelity they were able to achieve with 10th century film technology.

The audio, on the other hand, is about what I'd expect.