I love how people today say "but why would medieval artists lie when painting/describing war" while we have movies like rambo or countless american war films which disregard military gear, protocol and so on just for the cool factor

The whole ‘Napoleon is short’ thing was exacerbated by his insitance on all of his personal guards being over 5’10, which means most of the time he was seen he was surrounded by what for the time were really tall men making him look even shorter

When Lady Godiva rode through the town she had a horned helmet on. So technically she wasn't completely naked.

Gray: "5 ft 7 is short by today's standards." Me: :(

The french may have made the metric system but they failed at making words for the numbers 70-99

Why would Vikings need to worry about the dangers of horns on helmets when they have dragons?

TLDR: Writers and poets, England being England and the metric system

3:29 For those curious about the map, in order to understand it better: "Cippangu" is Japan, "Cathay" is northern China, "Mangi" is southern China, "Quinsay" is Hangzhou, "Zaiton" is Quanzhou.

I believe Napoleon also had a habit of stocking his personal bodyguard with really tall soldiers, which could sometimes make him look smaller by perspective...

Little addition to #5: Horned helmets actually existed, but were propably only used on ritual occasions, not in fight. But then Richard Wagner put them on his Valkyries, and the rest was history...

"5'7" which is short by today's standards..." *cries in short asian*

3:19 This is actually a 6th Historical misconception. Columbus didn't think the world was smaller, but he and most cartographers at the time thought Asia was much, much larger.

What if the only reason there aren't horned helmets on Viking battlefields is because the only ones who died there were the ones without horned helmets.

“If you know Latin”, Displays “Romanes Eunt Domus”, Translation: “People called Romans, they go the house.” Brian was a good guy.

In the lady godiva story all the townsfolk looked away in respect but a man named tom was the only one to look giving us the phrase 'peeping tom'

1:06 that creeper is literally being a creeper

Of course lady Godivas ride didn't happan, if a beautiful rich woman decided to ride down the street naked then there'd probably be more photos of it

“Like lady Godiva, I’m gonna go go go there’s no stopping me”

1:57 "And thankfully, the whole world now uses metric" he said after saying Napoleon's height in English inches and not even converting to any normal unit

Another reason Napoleon was thought to be short is because his Old Guard had minimum height requirements that were taller than him. (to look more intimidating)

Latin is a dead language, As dead as dead can be! First it killed the Romans, And, now, it's killing me!

"french inches are longer than english inches" Not only inches.

"the whole wolrd uses metric!" Does'nt use metric to describe Napoleones stature

1:05 Lady Godiva! Look out! There's a creeper right in front of you! Oh shit she has airpods in, she can't here us!

Wait one fucking second... 5'7'' is short?

"first European ever to discover America" was about to comment saying it was bull, then I heard the next comment.

1:08 Wait what does..... OOHH A CREEPER I GET IT!

Here for the new thumbnail

Anyone notice the Creeper at 1:06?

One minor note on the Columbus thing. While he does not appear to have been the first European to land on some land associated with the American continent, he WAS the first one to bring that knowledge back to Europe as a whole so that it could be acted upon (often bloodily). While the Norse did land on some portions of America and did bring some vague aspects of that knowledge back to their people, that knowledge never reached the rest of Europe and was eventually largely lost to the Norse themselves.

Perfect timing! I was just explaining the other night to my daughter how Columbus was trying to circumnavigate the globe and wondered how he could have made the mistake of thinking it would be faster when the circumference was already well-calculated so long before. This explains my question and I will have to pass it on to her.

CGPGrey: "Columbus was the one who set sail and discovered America as long as you ignore the vikings that beat him by 500 years." America: "OK"

SO WHY DONT YOU PUT THE HEIGHT OF NAPOLEON IN METERS IN YOUR VIDEO

Columbus messed up his math, then thought he was in india, then thought he was the first to discover America. What a failure :P

1:05 Sneaky Creeper being a peeper trying to see Lady Godiva's lady parts lol! Nice easter egg. :)

To be fair, all the arguments against Viking horned helmets can be applied to Japanese samurai armor, and some of that had pretty funky helmet decorations. There's only one slight difference: those actually exist.

Surprised it didn't mention anything about the inquisition, such as how it had evidence based trials that considered the defendant innocent until proven guilty, or that it had a lower conviction rate than the secular courts (including lower death penalty rates).

You really did mention that almost the whole world is using metric and still just used imperial units for napoleon's height. Terrific.

Yeah... That flat earth part really puts me off when there are a lot of texts found prior to Columbus. I even remember there was text found, written in 11th century (Ifrc) stating that only spherical earth could explain time zones (small ones +-1-2 hours).

1:34 "Mine is bigger than yours." IYKWIM

1:09 ...... Why the creeper? xD Great video as well, I absolutely love all of them! So much to learn in such a short amount of time...

I like how you said sort of with Canada and the UK. And in Canada it's true, we measure objects with the metric system and math with the metric system, but weigh and measure ourselves with the imperial system (at least for my family)

wait so i would be tall in france during the Napoleon times

I love how the end ties back to the beginning. Well done!

I've heard about the Vikings misconception so many times that I think it's a misconception that it's a misconception

5'7" is considered short now?!?! *sobs* I'm so short. I'm 5'3"

I’m binging your channel because I just discovered it and it’s SUPER GOOD

1:43 also pretty much anyone who saw napoleon saw him around his guard which was made of the biggest and strongest men so someone who was slightly below average would look alot shorter

The Oseberg tapestry is where a lot of this myth of Viking helmets comes from, so I think it is more accurate to say that it was not worn in battle but was possible as a use in ceremonies.

3:10 "first" people on youtube in a nutshell

1:08, those dang creepers get me every time!

Columbus didn’t think the world was smaller than it is (at least not much). He, as everyone else at the time, thought Asia was bigger than it is, as is showcased in the map you showed!!

I love how you make history and geography understandable. Thank you!

Look at poor Isabela shes sitting through this like “ oh my god he’s an idiot but I’m desperate for some pepper on my chicken so”

Hi Grey, I'm watching your videos in a row for a few days. Something about them makes it addictive to me. anyway, thank you for the good videos I have some video requests. Can you please make a video about African countries who are still under the power of European countries and how France and other countries still influence them? Also, can you make a video of the effects of the British and American empire on the Middle-eastern countries (especially Iran)?

We have begin oddly cheated 😅😂😂😂 Great video man. We need more of this 👌👌👌👏👏

another one: Stalin was not Russian, he was born in Georgia from a Georgian family.

AS far as the Viking thing goes, got news for you buddy they did wear horned helms just not into battle. It was more a formal head dress worn at Hagarroth(mead hall). And worn only by clan leaders and the Jarl, much like native American, or African chiefs and shaman, to name two. It was a means to know who you were talking to and carry respect accordingly. Some wore horns, some antlers, it all depended.

"5' 7" is short by today's standards" Me who's 5' 8": *I'm 4 parallel universes ahead of you!*

i love how the video made full circle with the vikings(they were talked about in the beginning and popped up at the end)

One historical misconception that nobody seems to care about is seeing camels in films like The Ten Commandments (1956) set in ancient Egypt, i.e. the Bronze Age (3300 B.C.--1150 B.C.) when camels didn't come to Egypt until after the time of Jesus in the A.D. era. At that time horses were the primary means of conveyance on land, but people think of Egypt and camels together, especially in the 1950s partly because of the tobacco industry with camel cigarettes. Cecil B. DeMille knew that his audience wouldn't accept it if they didn't see camels in the film so as historically authentic as that film was based on their research in the 50s that was one nobody seems to mind.

Funny thing: Columbus never realized he ended up in america.

my grandfather went on a 30-minute lecture about how they used to consider being 'naked' as not wearing and of her jewels so maybe it did happen but she was just not wearing any of her fancy sparklies also in the story, none of the townspeople looked at her out of respect except for a blacksmith or something named tom and that's where the phrase 'peeping tom' came from. if anyone reads this take it with a grain of salt cause he wasn't there and it's just a legend and knowing my luck I'm probably wrong on the internet

another great video....proving you dont need alot of words and fancy video to get a whole bunch of info. across...i love that about your videos..you visually rep. what your saying in such an easy to follow way

Learning Latin was not a waste of my time. It was brilliant.

Columbus actually landed on islands off the mainland of the Americas, although I suppose that could still count. Also, the Romans did force themselves to vomit, even if they didn't use a "vomitorium."

1:27 Has Napoleon got the teacher’s pointer?

1:20 Napoleon got so mad by being called short that he published the metric system such mad lad

Fun fact: Napoleon (5" 7 as mentioned in the video) was taller than Stalin (5" 2).

I know I'm about 5 and half years late for this, but thank you for the Crash Course reference at 2:07 lol

Horned helmets were found in ceremonies, which are likely to be better-preserved than battle remains. This is probably what 19th century artists picked up upon. Interesting to see how vids like this have been so popular that just 10 years later most of these myths have vanished from the public consciousness.

3:14 Guy that figured out earth's circumference has a dome bigger than most countries. Conincidence? I THINK NOT

Here's a good one: "I took an arrow to the knee" has never, ever meant anything to do with marriage in any country that has ever existed. The idea of you being tied down by marriage has been around for centuries, but there has never been a norse slang version of that which revolves around someone getting their knee shot with a large piece of wood and metal. The creators of a certain game have fully acknowledged that they just made it up off the top of their heads to give the guards dialogue, and they were not even making a realistic depiction of norse people anyway, as their world is fictional so they can do what they like. Tumblr is a terrible source for historical facts people. These three points are related.

"There's no evidence Lady Godive rode naked, so we can assume she never did"? I seem to remember "the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence"

I feel that the whole Columbus situation is an apt commentary on the state of primary and secondary education in the US.

Reasonable people don’t object to taxation, we object to excessive/unjust taxation and wasteful spending.

Ohhh the sly Monty Python reference

Might be worth mentioning as well that Mr Columbus treatment of the locals where horrendous, what he did would easily give him a place among the many monsters of history. If people just know the extent of his barbarism.

We in Ireland should probably be in the 'sort of' category for the metric system as well. We still use a mix of metric and imperial measurements using imperial for somethings like height and weight.

Then of course, there is the possibility that Columbus had heard of the viking discoveries. The church should have had in its archives notes on the Greenlandic settlements, though they had been abandoned in Columbus' time

Romanes eunt Domines : Romani ite domum. "Now write it out 100 times." Great scene.

In a theater class I took, we toured a theater-in-the-round, which had vomitoriums that the actors used to enter and exit the stage. We were told they got their name because they were where Roman actors would vomit before their performances due to nerves. Either they were joking, or they had it wrong, too.

Extra fact at the end to tie it all up? Bravo

So much win in this video!! Every time you make a long video you need to make 2 short ones to cleanse the mental pallet 😎 (yours and ours!)

My history teacher showed us this and I was like, I watch this guy!!!

Did anyone see the creeper in the no entry sign.

Easter eggs: 1:07 Creeper above the horse 1:21 Key on the right hand side of the clock 1:53 The nail on the horse's backside 2:05 Animated man on the right side 2:30 That is Latin for "Latin is a dead language"

The Viking's helmet-horns misconception bugged me so much that it became one my greatest peeves. IMO, Wagner, the composer, also played a role in perpetuating the helmet-horns myth. It was one of those things, where, with a little research and rational thought, that Vikings in literature where given horns to make them seem demonic, inscrutable, and manically violent. Flat Earth "Science" is just blithering rants by the willfully ignorant. Humans have many deficits that preclude long-term cognitive thought processes. As an alien-mutant I am immune to most human foibles.

The horns archeologists have discovered at viking burial sites are now believed to have been used as disposable drinking vessels. And having anything to grab on a helmet is also an easy handle to give a sharp twist and break their neck. you could literally twist someone's head off with horns.

3:10 *6,500 years later* "FIRST!!!" UKposts comments in a nutshell. How can the 4963rd commenter really believe that they're first!?

Lots of people got to America before Columbus, you can tell because their descendants the locals ( indigenous native tribes ) were still in America when Columbus got there.

2:26 eeerrrmmmm....dude, THIS IS MY OLD SECONDARY SCHOOL!!! This is trippy....

The main reason why Napoleon was said to be small was the fact that he grew up in an age and time were people of different classes had wildly different heights. In his time, thanks to better nutrition the average height of a nobleman was 3 inches higher than that of a peasant, which is why he was considered short. The average height for the time takes everyone into account.

Another good one to add would be that Benjamin Franklin did not "discover" electricity instead he proved that lighting had a electrical charge.

Fantastic, as always 💖

"5'7" is short by today's standards" I feel attacked

And ignore the fact that Columbus thought he had landed in India and that it was Amerigo Vespucci that figured out that America was a new continent, which is why it's called "America".

At 1:13 there's a creeper

2:25 I am so glad you put that in XD

3:17 that guy looks like he just measured his head to find the circumference of the earth 😂