I guess this is a multi stage question so first, how common were musical instruments on warships in the 15-17th century, and second if they had them what would they be?

So, long unanswered question: where did people in olden times have sex? The reason I ask is that I’ve always been taught that in the past many families might live communally together in one house, possibly even one room. Socially, this makes sense if you only need the indoors to sleep and eat, plus limited resources to make houses etc. However, people also had a lot of kids, which means a lot of sex. It ALSO means a lot of kids in your bedroom at night, and quite possibly your parents, siblings, and grandparents as well. Most human societies are uncomfortable with sex in front of other people, so how did this work? Did people have more daytime sex, and if so was it on a schedule? I understand the old “out in the field/barn/ etc works in some places and in the summer, but what about in the winter? Did people just have sex in front of family members? Bugged me for years

I know today's April Fool's day but I would appreciate a serious answer if anyone has one. (I would appreciate joke answers too though.)

If, like me, you've played a lot of RTS games such as the Total War series you've probably noticed that they tend towards a certain pattern: Cavalry beats archers, archers beat infantry, spearmen beat cavalry, sword- / axe-armed infantry beat spearmen.

While I appreciate that this is a huge question, is this something that can generally be said to be true? Would, all other things being equal, we expect a Roman or Medieval general to attempt to use spears to stop a cavalry charge? And would we expect his counterpart to pepper the line of spears with arrows (or other missile weapons) and then attempt to break it with swordsmen or spearmen?

Were they saving the others for snacks or something?

I know. It may sound like I just emptied an entire Jack Daniel's bottle in one sip, but this is a real question. My philosophy teacher just told us today that "maybe" Socrates wasn't real at all and only existed in Plato's writings. I can't stop thinking about this idea as it actually makes sense (somehow) becuase Socrates didn't write anything.

What are the odds, uh? :")

How did people get food? How did they get clothing? Why does it seem like the king mattered at all if he wasn't right down the street? How the hell does a society even work without electricity?

Pretty much the title. What actually sets what is counted as what? My initial thought was size but states like the Duchy of Burgundy, Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Archduchy of Austria where geographically large and in the case of Lithuania, encompassed multiple different cultures. Why where states like these not classified as kingdoms?

Sorry for formatting and wording, English isn't my first language.

Edit: wow so many responses. I haven't gotten around to reading them all just yet as I have a flight to catch but thank you all so much for sharing your knowledge <3

Given that with overuse injuries are generally treated by resting the limb or strapping it up; I can’t imagine resting was something most of these people were able to do.

What would happen to a slave who was incapable of doing their work, but had no obvious injury to account for it? Were there any cases of people faking injuries?

Today there was a map posted on r/mapporn that showed the oldest universities in Europe and the year that they were founded. I found it very interesting that 6 were founded in the 12th century (years weren’t given for these universities) and then we see almost 20 universities created in the next century around all of Europe. Doing some research, Bologna and Oxford were both founded in the late 11th century. Why were these universities created at this time and what allowed them to be successful at this time?

I imagine the people of Britannia were divided on the issue, but I'd love to know more!