If you think things are bad now, go through this: What It Was Like To Live In A Medieval Castle. This is part of the story and hardly even the worst.

Plague And Disease Was Rampant

Considering that the people living in the medieval era weren’t knowledgeable about how a lack of hygiene greatly affected one’s health, plagues and epidemics were common and devastating. Living in constant filth, poor food preparation and storage, among countless other things gave way to constant sicknesses.Henry Guttmann Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

One of the most devastating, however, was the Black Death, which was rampant between 1347 and 1351, killing a vast amount of the medieval European population. Of course, this was just one of the many illnesses that swept across Europe due to poor hygiene, false medical practices, and deplorable living standards.