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1st Answerthey didn't, they just worked 2nd AnswerClearly there are people who believe no one in all of Europe had any fun between the years of 476 and 1453 AD, but there are records showing that there were at least some people who had quite a lot of fun, and, fortunately, there are no records to the contrary.

There were circuses, and the medieval circuses seem to have been just a continuation of what was going on since ancient times, with wild animals and acts of daring. They changed with time, because lions and elephants became unavailable, so they had to switch to bears and bulls.

There were plays that people went to. We know of the morality plays, mystery plays, and mystery plays that were sanctioned by the Church. We also know that there were plays called mummings, early on, which were not sanctioned, and probably not particularly holy. Later, there were manners plays, which were secular in nature.

There were tournaments, and these included jousts and all sorts of other events.

Medieval Europe is famous for having bards. Minstrels, troubadours, minnesingers, jongleurs and all sorts of other entertainers were in abundance, playing and singing for people lf all stations. In addition, there were jesters, referred to as licenced fools at the time, meaning they had licence to do whatever they wanted. And they ran roasts in which the king himself was the object of attention. We have a record of at least one jester being chastised for being to easy on the monarch, and therefore insufficiently funny.

Of course, people did not have to wait for professionals to have fun. Gerald of Wales has a description in his writings of Welsh people getting together and singing, not as the people of the rest of Europe do, in a single voice, but in many voices, as many as there are people. This is clearly an early form of improvised counterpoint, and could only have been done if the people, all of them, practiced a lot. But we are, after all, speaking of the Welsh.

We know of young ladies who loved to read or kept diaries, as Anna Comnena did. We know of young ladies who loved to write music. Eleanor of Aquitaine loved to flirt with kings and ran a Court of Love. Her grandfather is known to history as Duke William the Troubadour, and some of his songs still exist.

Bards were not the only people who travelled about having fun. One of the greatest books written in English is the Canterbury Tales, which is entirely about a bunch of people who decided to mix fun with their pilgrimage, and did it by telling stories to each other.

Later in the Middle Ages, people went to tournaments. Jousts were among the military arts performances of the time, but they were not the only ones. People also played other games. Tennis was certainly one of these.

Fairs could be fun. And fairs attracted minstrels, so we are back to music, but this time with pies and pastries.

People hunted, men and women, high and low, legally and not.

I have never read of a single medieval woman who loved to cook. Maybe there was never such a person, but I doubt it. A lot is lost to history.

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14y ago

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