Americans like certain aspects of the European Middle Ages, such as chivalry and castles. But a new YouGov poll finds many Americans have a dim overall view of the Middle Ages and associate it with terms such as "violent," "dark," "dirty," and "poor."
The poll follows a similar survey last year on views about the Roman Empire, which found broadly positive sentiment.
Overall, 34% of U.S. adult citizens have very or somewhat favorable views of "the Middle Ages", while another 34% have very or somewhat unfavorable views. That's more hostility toward the Middle Ages than to four of the other five historical eras YouGov asked about. The exception is "the Dark Ages," viewed unfavorably by 52% and with some overlap with the Middle Ages in popular perceptions.
This poll also shows the way framing can shape public view of a historical period. The Dark Ages is a term often used for the period from roughly the 5th Century to the 10th Century. That overlaps considerably with a more recently coined term, "Late Antiquity," but 40% of Americans have a favorable opinion about Late Antiquity while just 17% view the Dark Ages favorably.
Darkness is a concept that many Americans associate with the broader Middle Ages. YouGov asked Americans whether they thought any of 15 different terms described the European Middle Ages; "violent" (chosen by 54%), "dark" (48%), "religious" (41%), and "dirty" (37%) are the most commonly chosen terms, while less than 10% of Americans associate the Middle Ages with each of "wealthy," "boring," "bright," or "peaceful."
Asked to choose between two views of the Middle Ages — neither of them particularly positive — 48% of Americans say "it was a dark age and things were objectively worse in this period than what came before and what came after," while 52% say "it was a complicated, messy period neither better nor worse than any other."
Younger Americans and those who say they know more about the Middle Ages were more likely to say it was neither better nor worse than any other period, while older Americans and those who know less about the Middle Ages were more likely to call them a dark age.
Similar shares of liberals (47%), moderates (47%), and conservatives (50%) consider the Middle Ages to have been a dark age.
What Americans like and dislike about the Middle Ages
Out of 10 different medieval topics, Americans are most likely to have favorable views of castles (75% favorable), chivalry (63%), and Gothic architecture (61%). The Black Plague, unsurprisingly for a disease that killed millions of people, is unpopular: 9% are favorable and 74% unfavorable. Other topics with more Americans unfavorable than favorable include two conflicts — the Crusades (32% favorable, 41% unfavorable) and the Hundred Years War (13% favorable, 52% unfavorable) — and the Inquisition (16% favorable, 49% unfavorable).
Only one topic exhibits a major political divide: the Crusades. Among liberals, 23% have a favorable view of the Crusades while 61% have an unfavorable view. Among conservatives, 45% view the Crusades favorably and 31% view it unfavorably.
Conservatives are somewhat more likely than liberals to have favorable views of chivalry, monasteries, and the Inquisition, while liberals are more likely to have favorable views of Gothic architecture and Gregorian chant. But all those gaps are minor.
When it comes to medieval people, majorities of Americans view Joan of Arc and Marco Polo favorably. Both are better liked than the most popular ancient figure YouGov asked about last year, Cleopatra (55% favorable).
Richard the Lionheart, Thomas Aquinas, and Charlemagne also have considerably more favorable than unfavorable views. Majorities of Americans have no opinion about Aquinas, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Moses Mainonides, Hildegard of Bingen, and Saladin. The most divisive medieval figure of the 10 is William the Conqueror, with 33% favorable and 23% unfavorable.
Thinking medieval
The large shares of Americans with no opinion about prominent medieval figures reflects the reality that most Americans don't think about the Middle Ages very often. 11% of Americans say they think about the European Middle Ages weekly or more, and another 12% say they think about it monthly. But 42% of Americans say they never think about the Middle Ages, and another 24% think about it only occasionally.
These figures are similar to how often Americans say they think about the Roman Empire. Americans are slightly more likely to say they think regularly about the Middle Ages than to say they think about Rome.
Only 2% of Americans say they know "a lot" about the European Middle Ages, while another 21% say they know "a fair amount" about them. Americans are most likely to say they know "a little" about the Middle Ages (45%); 27% say they know nothing at all about the Middle Ages.
The most common ways Americans who know at least a little about the Middle Ages learned about the period are school (62%) and movies or TV shows (51%). Those percentages are similar for both Americans who know just a little about the Middle Ages, and for those who know a fair amount or a lot about them.
Americans who know at least a fair amount about the Middle Ages are much more likely to say they've learned about the period from sources other than school or movies and TV. For example, 34% of Americans who know a little about the Middle Ages have learned about the period from nonfiction books or documentaries, while 59% of those who know a fair amount or a lot about the Middle Ages have learned through nonfiction reading.
To be medieval or not to be medieval
There's no single broadly accepted definition of what constituted the "Middle Ages" as a period. YouGov asked Americans about a series of years and events and whether they think those years and events were or were not during the Middle Ages.
Many respondents don't have an opinion about each year asked about, but those who do show a broad consensus that 1100 AD and 1400 AD were part of the Middle Ages: 16% of Americans say each year wasn't medieval, while 49% say 1100 was medieval and 48% say 1400 was. 1500 AD is also widely considered to fall in the Middle Ages (45% yes, 22% no).
There is a weaker consensus about earlier years. More Americans than not say 900 AD (35% yes, 27% no), 800 AD (34% yes, 29% no), and 700 AD (34% yes, 28% no) were medieval. All years asked about before 700 AD and after 1500 AD are more likely to be seen as not in the Middle Ages than in them.
YouGov also asked whether Americans think each of 26 different historical events occurred during the Middle Ages. The events were presented in a random order, without the years in which the events occurred.
Some events are widely seen as medieval, none more so than the Black Plague, which hit Europe starting around 1347. 62% of Americans say the Black Plague was in the Middle Ages, and 7% say it wasn't. Other events also are much more likely to be seen as medieval than not, including the First Crusade (1096), the suppression of the Knights Templar (1312), and the burning at the stake of Joan of Arc (1431).
Overall, each event asked about between the deposition of the last Western Roman Emperor (476) and the printing of the Gutenberg Bible (1455) has more Americans saying it was during the Middle Ages than not.
Americans are more likely to say two earlier events — the Visigothic sack of Rome (410) and Christianity becoming the official religion of the Roman Empire (380) — are not medieval. And Americans say Julius Caesar's assassination (44 BC) was not medieval by a margin of more than two to one.
Opinions are more divided about when the Middle Ages ended. Americans are more likely to say Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage to the New World and Martin Luther writing his Ninety-five Theses in 1517 were not medieval than that they were — but more likely than not to say that King Henry VIII's annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon in 1533 was in the Middle Ages. 31% of Americans say William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet (circa 1600) in the Middle Ages, and 32% say this was not during the Middle Ages.
Later events in the 17th and 18th Centuries are strongly seen as not medieval, including the 1620 voyage of the Mayflower, the 1692 Salem Witch Trials, and the 1789 French Revolution.
— Carl Bialik contributed to this article
Methodology: The poll was conducted among 2,230 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of U.S. adult citizens. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 3%.
Image: Getty (John Elk III)
What do you think about the election, American politics in general, and everything else? Have your say, join the YouGov panel, and get paid to share your thoughts. Sign up here.
