Let's say I am a peasant in Medieval times called off to war, and in combat my arm gets hacked off. Assuming I survive my injuries, what is my life like afterwards?

by Rafthobo
November19

If you are otherwise healthy, you would likely continue to live in your community and try to contribute to the workload, supported by your family and neighbors. Physical disability (only having one arm, for example) would be a hardship, but wouldn't necessitate your removal from the life and community you were a part of before conscription.

If you are disabled such that work and contributing to your community is impossible -- or if you simply didn't have adequate community support -- you might make your way to either a monastery or holy site (where hospitals started to emerge in the 11th and 12th centuries, associated with religious institutions) or to a city where you might make a living as a beggar or join an almshouse (or leper house, deaf house, or whatever "specialty" is pertinent to your disability).

In your scenario, your disability may be obviously the result of an accident or combat -- but keep in mind the medieval mind often viewed the disabled as being born into an unfavorable position with God, that disabilities might be punishments for sins, or a host of other religious, spiritual, and astrological ideas about why the disabled came to be so. Also, mutilation was sometimes meted out as a legal punishment, so there is the possibility of being viewed as a criminal.

If you're interested in more detail, look at Disability in Medieval Europe by Irina Metzler

400-Rabbits

The joke answers need to stop. Please respect the OP by seriously trying to answer their question in a manner appropriate to /r/AskHistorians.

yoyo701

As a follow-up question: I'm curious what the overall rates of such physical disabilities were in medieval times. I remember another post stating that battlefield medicine, particularly that of the roman empire, was surprisingly effective in stemming mortality rates from combat. That fact in mind, would there be a surprising number of limbless individuals carrying on their lives during the pre-firearms era of combat?