Five Historical Misconceptions Debunked

Viking hel­mets had horns, Napoleon was quite short and Lady Godi­va rode through Coven­try naked. Most of us accept these tales as facts because they’ve been told for many gen­er­a­tions. But C.G.P. Grey took a clos­er look and com­piled this short video in which he debunks not only these his­tor­i­cal mis­con­cep­tions but also two myths sur­round­ing the Roman “Vom­i­to­ri­um” and Colum­bus.

Bonus mate­r­i­al:

• 10 more his­tor­i­cal mis­con­cep­tions
• A sci­en­tif­ic paper called “The Inven­tion of the Viking Horned Hel­met”

By pro­fes­sion, Matthias Rasch­er teach­es Eng­lish and His­to­ry at a High School in north­ern Bavaria, Ger­many. In his free time he scours the web for good links and posts the best finds on Twit­ter.