The Middle Ages - Television Tropes & Idioms

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The Middle Ages

alt title(s): Middle Ages

This is the Fourteenth Century?

Era of the crusades, Robin Hood, and fat, lecherous (but good hearted) friars. Also home to dragons, beautiful princesses with big headdresses and tall, spirally gothic architecture. Expect to see a Corrupt Churchman or two wandering the landscape burning witches, heretics, and pretty much anyone who doesn't agree with them. Also expect to see people comically dropping left and right from the Black Death. ("Bring out your deeeeaaaaa——" *Fall* *Splut!*)

If the story does not take place in some unspecified kingdom, the setting is likely to be a mythologized Britain or France, though Jerusalem, which had pretty much been ignored since Biblical Times will now also be used as the stage for all sorts of flashy battles involving cutlass-wielding Turks and ruggedly handsome Knights Templar.

For the (slightly) more historically accurate version of this trope, check out its constituent periods:

Contrast with Ye Goode Olde Days for the highly romanticized version, and The Dung Ages for the depressingly bleak version. When history has been abandoned altogether, you have probably made the epic voyage to The Time Of Myths.

Popular tropes from this time period are:

Black Knight
Christianity Is Catholic: Though it was throughout most of Central and Western Europe, in Eastern Europe and the Near East, Orthodoxy was more prevalent; yet is much less common in fictional works. (And officially, the final split came as late as 1081.)
Courtly Love
The Crusades
The Dung Ages
Ermine Cape Effect
Everythings Better With Princesses: There weren’t really many more then than now.
Feudal Overlord
Gorgeous Period Dress: Except for (ugh!) Ye Peasants and one or two of the more self-denying Churchmen. Look for puffy, slashed sleeves and trunk-hose among the men, though these were really Renaissance fashions.
Historical Domain Character: Even when they happen to be talking lions.
Horny Vikings
Knight In Shining Armor
The Knights Hospitallers
The Knights Templar (The originals Knight Templar characters came from this era.)
Medieval Morons
Nice Hat: When the tall headdresses, including the famous steeple headdress (or hennin), were in vogue.
Pimped Out Dress: Lots of fur, silk, and velvet for the nobility (though the last was not actually invented until very late in the period).
The Plague
Ye Goode Olde Days
Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe Though actually rarer than one might expect in most serious modern works, ’tis more common in older ones. (“ ‘By the light of Heaven!’ said Prince John to Hubert, ‘an thou suffer that runagate knave to overcome thee, thou art worthy of the gallows!’ ”)