Con Artists in the Middle Ages: How They Fooled Everyone...
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- Опубликовано: 26 июл 2024
- Most people know what it means when someone is described as a conman. It’s short for confidence man: what we would know today as a scammer. People who use deceit, cleverness and lies for their own ends. The scam is usually about greed and is a way of defrauding someone to get their money. Although we associate scams today with phones and modern technology they have been around for hundreds of years. Let's travel back in time to the Middle Ages and hear about some of those swindlers. There we will meet a fake cursed prince, dodgy government inspectors and some naughty bakers.
Welcome to Medieval Madness...
0:00 Introduction
0:47 Bad Bakers
3:09 Absolutely
Potty
4:01 Gone Begging
5:07 Sham Shandy
Scammers
6:47 Aping Around
🎶🎶 Music by CO.AG: / @co.agmusic
Narrated by James Wade
Written by Lisa E Rawcliffe
Thank you for watching.
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Copyright © 2023 Top5s All rights reserved. In this video, we've compiled information from a variety of sources, including documentaries, books, and websites, all with the aim of providing an engaging viewing experience. While we strive to ensure accuracy, we acknowledge that there may be variations in the authenticity of the content. We encourage viewers to delve deeper and conduct their own research to corroborate the information presented.
The ape deserved the money just for being so well trained.
The ape story has so many problems so clearly its become extremely exaggerated if it was not just made up!
One of my favorite books on Con Men (not from Medieval times)was written by Joseph Weil: “Yellow Kid" Weil: The Autobiography of America's Master Swindler. A master con artist from the early 1900’s, “The Kid” dressed in a yellow suit and bowler hat complete with a walking cane. He tells all his tricks and how he made a fortune off the greedy rich people he met. One interesting anecdote: A wealthy man will typically refuse to loan out small amounts of money, but if he thinks he can make a good profit on you, he’ll loan out tens of thousands without a fuss. Man’s weakness is his Greed. The book is in public domain (available for free in PDF format).
I'm definitely going to check it out, thanks😊
ala the fictional, 'Flashman". 😆
Just fyi, this is my favorite YT channel. Your narration, humor, the editing, graphics, etc are all so perfect. I just love this channel so, so much!
Yes same here!!
It is pretty much believed now that PT Barnum did not originate this quote but it is still,and always was,so true.
"There's a sucker born ever minute"
every*
Said by the jokers who wrote the buybull!
especially if i had never seen an ape up close i would definitely be convinced by the trained ape, they already look and act similarly enough to humans so seeing one dressed up doing his prayers would be wild
In the 18th Century novel "The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker," Tobias Smollet gives us a litany of these nauseating London food scams. One of these involved sewing up the cloacas of chickens so they would fatten on their own poo. I was hoping he'd made these things up, but apparently he did not.
🤮
Poulet à la merde 👌
Claiming you’re the rightful heir to a throne in Europe in the medieval times is a hilarious and wild claim. That must have taken brass balls.
I love your content! I only wish it was longer.
It was originally an hour, but scammers with a sob story made off with 45 minutes.
I am SO STOKED on this topic, I have an accounting background and I find fraud fascinating. Also a huge medieval history nerd, it's like the perfect topic as far as I'm concerned. Thanks for the great videos!
Con artists, somethings never change.
These topics are the gaps in my knowledge I'm looking for, and didn't even know it.
Well said
You don’t know what you don’t know .
If anything, in some ways people are easier to trick because many assume if it were a con man, these days he would be easier to reveal. So then they don't because they assumed someone else would have by now.
And then there are those people who don't care about facts and choose to believe wrong things. But that's always.
Is that why money is sometimes called "dough"?
The ape story is like something straight out of Karl Pilkington's monkey news
People are still that gullible.
Awesome
if that was the case...the king of nigeria would have already been able to transfer his money to a different country with some 90 year old lady's help.....🤣
theres only a few things that we can absolutely guarentee in this world: gravity affects us, we need air to breath, water to drink, and anyone who believes they can never be tricked by a conartist has been tricked by a con artist. 😅
Art collectors are mostly conned. They pay exaubitant price at the auction believing the price is right. Even some of the art objects are fake.
You should do Medieval hairstyles & beards!
Realistically we all would have fallen for these because most of us would have been illiterate peasants, which is the main type of person who fell for these things.
You were there, right ?!?
@@mellifergold Uh...most people WERE illiterate peasants. That is a fact. Read a book.
Illiterate doesn’t necessarily mean stupid, especially in a largely illiterate society
Brilliantly done 😅😊 thank you for your effort i really appreciate your work 🙏
No one ever lost money betting on the stupidity of others.
Brilliant as always, thank you
"Greetings my Lord, would thou like to speak about thous horse and cart's extended warranty?"
I love your channel! I’m an aspiring medieval warfare historian and your vids mean a lot. Keep it up!
I would aspire to something else. There is no money in history 😂
@@gerardjagroo Only if you don’t know where to look. Books and Historical Non-Profit Societies have money in them
It's not about the money but if you can find a way to support yourself by it then why not
@@gerardjagroo Can you imagine how boring and inane a world it would be if we all based our career decisions on the purpose of maximising the bank balance
@@coconutsmarties He may want to marry and women and children need money, especially the children what with college expenses and all.
History is something you can do on the side while you have a proper career in another field.
I'm not knocking history (I'm here after all) it's just that times are getting harder and it's best to build the future on a firm footing rather than on fantasy
Love knowing quirky topics like this.
Great content. I wish your channel hits 1M.
I love how insteed of them showing people how they trained their ape they created entire fake story about him to take money from people.
great video !!!
The biggest con came from the dark ages and its called God. The more you know
I mean, religion pre-dated the dark ages by millennia..
@@coconutsmarties true, but I meant Christianity in general.
Damn right! I’m glad to see someone using their brain.
Would the monkey have fooled me with his kinglyness? I don’t have to answer anything… King Monkey, pfft, fool me 3 times, shame on you.
Scammers in the earlier days had to have gotten away with so much 😭😭 way less awareness back then
Can we just appreciate the genius of the monkey king scam 😂😂😂😂
And there was a lot of con artistry in the Middle Ages when it came down to religious relic.
All religions are cons.
That doesn't work anymore, so they replaced it with by putting the science and experts say in front of everything and Voila, works like a charm every single time.
Are you saying one of the 3 heads, 7 thumbs, 5 hands of jesus ALL certified by the vatican not real?
@@Stevie-J People on leashes aren’t good people. You’d have a hard time finding someone who does a kindness out of goodness of their heart rather than it being a front since they believe they’ll go to heaven for doing good things
@@Stevie-J You would have a point if religion didn’t prove itself to be vastly more destructive and harmful to many minority groups throughout history. It’s fine though you can cope by claiming “strong morals” and making comparisons that aren’t remotely related. Hungry man eating from vendor isn’t a religious family rejecting a child because God doesn’t like homosexuality or it’s a sin to do this, that, and the third
Very entertaining and interesting video! I'd like to see a video about religious con artists who sold fake relic
... you mean all relics.
😂
@@mortalclown3812 I guess I mean ADMITTED fakes! 😆
ever since the days of old Methuselah everybody loves a great bamboozler
Vice officers state that one of the hardest part of their jobs is convincing marks that they have been conned.
Good stuff
I wanna party with the guy that just said to put the keg of beer he stole on the king’s bill.
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein
Let's see:
Fake bread = Fast food
Holy images in relics = NFTs
Alchemical base metals to gold = cryptocurrency
Fake royalty = Today's actors and actresses
I think that covers them all.
fake royalty would be politicians
Fascinating video! As long as there's been human nature, there's been people trying to take advantage of it since at least the time of Jacob and Esau. Interesting to learn of the original dishonest talking head.
I NEED THAT BOOK!
Con artists have just upped their game. You don’t even have to see the con man in person anymore for them to get over on you.
Bad baker kinda like "Shrinkflation"
Where do you find your illustrations?
dealers are the modern everyday con artists
I really really love these lil documentaries about life in these times!!! So I have started to slowly buy n collect gold. I started at 1 gram about 3 months ago. Now have 8 grams gold and 1 ounce silver with two lil extra bars one 5gram one 10gram. So one and a half ounces of silver and only 8 grams gold. What would this be worth in these times please? Can I buy a loaf of bread or a house? Maybe a horse? It would be super cool to know please mate
7:47 Even for the middle ages, people believing this seems ridiculous
Actually tall tales and crazy beliefs were quite common all the way up until the 1800s. You might consider it ridiculous but scratch the surface and you see people today that believe all sort of crazy things about aliens and such things and I wonder would a far fetched scam really not work on some people even today. The ape con just happened to be adjusted to the crazy idea's and beliefs of the times, while a alien con would probably be harder to do. People have probably fallen for crazy cons even in our days look at all the charlatans making money off of things like magic items ect. You should not look up to the past or look down on it, look straight at it and you'll see people today are not so different as one might believe.
Why should they have been more stupid ?!?
Never overestimate the intelligence of the average person, in any time period i guess 😂
I think it would be a good idea to bring back the pillory. Fines and jail doesn't seem to work
the only reason I probably wont be conned is because Im so broke lmao
I hope the next part on con men is on royalty and the church.
So the prince trop on scamming isn’t new? 😂
You have to admit that monkey bit was pure genius.
Imagine the time it took to train that monkey.
I see the grift was common in every age.
I love the story about the ape prince
Hundreds of years? People were conning each other since the barter system was established.
7:00 anyone know the painting?
In the 2nd story, What happened to the impostor of the king ?? What ! What.? Man .! Hate Half half a story 😂.. Bet he was cought an lost his head .. 😂 good times. Good times ...😊
Do you mean Perkin Warbeck? Iirc he was captured by King Henry and wasn't executed because he was just a kid who was being used by the nobles who wanted to put him on the throne.
6:50 I think there is a mistake, 613AD is too early for Islam in the area as Islam had not formed into an organised religion at that point.
I have great faith in all of mankind not so sure about unkind men!😂
lmao I'd give money to monkey too
I would really like to know how to make a severed head speak. Just sayin'.
I be the kings ale taker. I shall take your ale and pay you later. Brilliant.
so , like a good example for a con man would be " The Liver King " ? am I right ?
The picture is certainly not mediaval. It is made by Rembrandt
Well humans haven't changed much.
5:21 so no one is going ask about the random person on the top right with a model of a steamboat riveted to their head?! Or is that a hat shaped like the Old Police House in London?
Islam wasn't a thing in the year 613....................
When you show pictures of people as you’re telling stories from medieval lives, are those the pictures of _those_ people? Or are they just random people?
Thanks!
guess... !
@@mellifergold sometimes they seem random sometimes seem to match so I'm asking
Video would have been good if the music was not so loud
🎉😂❤
I can't believe people would be so gullible. Now, if you will excuse me, I must go inspect some copper from the Persian Gulf, sold to me by a very reputable merchant.
..
The FDA being the biggest confidence man of modern America
The first FDA... has anything changed? It seems like every few months the FDA says “ ooops... don’t eat that”. 🙄
You forgot the religious con artists (the Catholic clergy, Muhammad and his minions, etc.). Telling people that they can survive death and live for eternity in heaven in exchange for money can only be seen as a huge con.
All religious leaders are either con artists or mentally ill.
The bible sounds like a bunch of bs when you think "what if it's just a lie"? Like that dude "flew" around the city to prove God was real and we're just supposed to take his word for it even though that sounds like the dumbest shit ever.
God will allow a man to fly to prove he is great but won't do a damn thing today to prove his existence. Because it was all a bunch of lies.
IT IS CALLED A SERVICE. FOR A REASON
Wow, the way that fake beggers were handled...that would clear a massive amount of “homeless” out in the US these days.
Nothing's changed. Millions got conned into taking a clotshot for a sniffle!
In my experience the victims of con men are usually because of their own greed
I am so happy you don't do that slow and creepy / seductive voice and speak normally now
This is how I imagine Jesus started out 😅
Same. He was a fraud and a Cult Leader. If Charlie Manson had went a different way, he might be considered a Saint 2000 years from now.
the tiny dresses the guys wore back then are cute
Tunics the thing back then for both guys 'n gals
"scam have been around for hundreds of years"
I think maybe you need to read some older book bro.
Wouldn't be foolish enough? How many people voted for Trump?
Easy pal, that kook in the White House right now has dementia. I’m no Trump fan, but eventually you guys gotta realize there are worse people in politics, AKA- the Bidens.
how did they swindle bitcoin, back then?
The FDA being the biggest confidence man of modern America