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Fashion victimsMedieval shoes were an orthopedic nightmare

Fashion victimsMedieval shoes were an orthopedic nightmare

Fashion victimsMedieval shoes were an orthopedic nightmare

©stefan m. / photocase.de

Have you ever ruined your feet in a pair of incredibly modern, but unfortunately totally uncomfortable shoes?

ModeopferMittelalterliche Schuhe waren orthopädischer Albtraum

Don't worry, you're not the first to experience this. Even in the Middle Ages, people put up with a lot for stylish shoes. This is shown by studies of foot bones carried out by researchers in England.

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They noticed that skeletons showed significantly more signs of hallux valgus from about the mid-14th century. This is a deformity where the big toe points more outward toward the others. Wrong footwear can promote this misalignment. And that apparently happened in the Middle Ages, because in the 14th century a new shoe fashion emerged in England: flat shoes with an extremely long toe were worn - in some cases they were so long that you could only walk in them could if tied to the shin. The researchers suspect that these narrow toes were not a good idea for people with a predisposition to hallux valgus. Incidentally, the new shoes also caused a lot of trouble in other ways - and in 1463 King Edward IV restricted the length of the toes for all subjects under the Rank of Lord to a good two inches.

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