In most cases they weren’t that bad, the population wasn’t high enough for it to get too dirty and most people had plenty of living space. Only in later era do cities become dirty and extremely overpopulated. The exception would be sieges, but in them all people would suffer to some extent.
Regarding the first, homelessness was illegal, and you could be in a lot of trouble (including execution) for being out after curfew. People lived in catacombs and tunnels to avoid detection, and if they were half as bad as described, it was a hellish life.
The second, if I recall correctly, there was a tax to enter the city. Even for “citizens” going out for the day or whatever
So if you were desperately poor, you couldn’t even hunt for work outside the city without commiting to stay away until you could pay to reenter. So there became a trap where people were too poor to leave, too poor to get a legal residence, and had to find somewhere the guards wouldn’t hassle them.
I’m sure some of this is a bit different, but if it’s even close, it’s a brutal trap to be stuck in
That’s because the idea of the middle ages attend from the imagination of people in the nineteenth century. This is when people started theorizing about history.
Cities in the nineteenth century were absolutely filthy, because of industrialization and were busting at the seams.
Now they learned about this ‘dark ages’ when people were backwards and uneducated. For sure conditions were worse and more filthy collar to our current enlightened society, no?
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