I'm part of the French nobility in the 1300's and I'm getting what we know today as the cold. Assuming I have the resources to get myself treated by a doctor, how would I go about doing that and what would my treatment be like?

Thank /u/mimicofmodes for the notice about the post, sorry for the delay!

I'll make an assumption the French noble is of low/middle peerage, has their own fief and manor in the French countryside.

The bad news is a cold could become very serious and deadly. Limited medical knowledge, unknown and unsolved pre-existing conditions, exposure to hearth smoke, and no germ theory could lead to a high enough fever or pneumonia to be deadly. The other bad news you particularly chose the 1300s, so congratulations on freaking this noble out that he might be coming down the the plague in the latter half of the century. Although humans have always been able to live to 80 and beyond, harsher lifetimes and lack of medical knowledge routinely saw common illnesses prematurely ending lives even in a wealthy person's prime. Malnutrition and lack of sanitary, dry, and warm conditions were big factors in a minor illness today becoming a mortal one back then.

The good news is as a noble would be able to afford to stay on bed-rest, have better overall nutrition and able to eat well, and consistent access to warmth. The noble would also have access to 'healthcare', but being a noble on his fief, it's unlikely going to be a dedicated physician. While it is possible, it is just less common because physicians tended to be in cities, or traveling around curing ailments for pay. The more accessible healthcare would likely be the local learned clergy, abbot (from a monastery), or perhaps even a knightly order. There was also the possibility of hedge apothecaries, midwives, medicine folks, or even folk healers (aka witches). As standards of knowledge varied greatly, it is also entirely possible an abbot could be just was well practiced as a physician as a dedicated one was. On the contrary, the local abbot's solutions might be rudimentary or even counterproductive (bloodletting, leaching, odd folk remedies, extreme fasting) and prayer focused.

Ok, so to the actual question is the noble wants to be treated by a doctor. As I mentioned, there's unlikely to be a physician present. In which case, maybe they live close enough to one they can send a messenger to bring a physician in time. It could be a nearby city or perhaps the physician was known to be traveling. While they wait, they will be treated by the aforementioned professions. When it comes to a cold, it's entirely possible the physician wouldn't even know too much more than the locals. What a physician is likely to do is follow humorism and inspect any fluids they could (erroneously or not) which were yellow bile, phlegm, black bile, and blood. Basically anything the body could produce. Now with a cold, the physician is going to say hmmm...a lot of phlegm from the nose and a fever, and likely diagnose a cold. But again, there's only so much that can directly be done. You may have ready stories about royal physicians or Arab and Jewish physicians routinely going through an ill royal's fluids.

Generally, the type of ailment would often have treatment involved with the afflicted area. So a lung affliction might be treated with inhaling things, for better or worse. The effective or at least neutral treatments (I'll go less into the outright harmful ones mentioned above) would include:

Diet control - although this could be damaging, there were thoughts to avoid foods that were difficult to digest or memorialized as beneficial or not by the theory of humors.

Continuous source of warmth - which would be fire and blankets. The problem here is they may not always recognize due to the construction of the residence (wither it be a manor house or castle), that the smoke may increase difficulties. This would also include boiled then cooled to warm cloth to be placed on their head and face.

Application of oils and sacraments, burning incense, and prayer. This follows the more pre-miasma theory where the air could be considered to have become bad or afflicted with foul spirits. The incense and fire was believed to cleanse the air.

They may also be prescribed to actually bundle up and go outside if it was determined the air inside their quarters was to blame! The harmful part of this is, they could be recommended to do this with minimal or no clothing!

Specific instructions on bathing, which might include folk remedies (like adding a certain plant or burning a specific leaf).

Just like in modern day, there's isn't a whole lot to do with a cold other than eat well, get rest, stay warm and dry. Failing any of those four could lead to death back then.

For example, even if you say this were similar to a cold - say a bacterial sinus infection, they had no antibiotics. The infection could progress and fever could kill the patient. However, again as it is a cold, they were likely to be prescribe to inhale steam, which could help! There are historian arguments wither or not nasal irrigation techniques were ever used in Europe, but the evidence is weak.

So as you have it, different healers would have different sources of why they are healing the way they do. A priest might lean a lot towards more religious infused miasma theory - keep the air clean. Or an abbot that has done a pilgrimage to the holy land and treated many sick might have very practical solutions with little pseudo-philosophical ideology behind it. However, then a physician might prescribe the correct treatments but may or may not be driven by looking to ancient classics - like Galen and Hippocrates. It could almost be like applying modern alternative and homeopathic techniques; basically at risk of being too academic in their own Humorism theories. However, a physician could also be pragmatic. Then there were your apothecaries and midwives who would know of local herbs and salves that might help with a fever or dry throat - basic symptoms.

Sometimes they might do the right things for the wrong reasons, and other times they may do the wrong things for what would be considered pseudo-scientific quackery today.

The Crusades: A History by Jonathan Riley-Smith (contains a few passages regarding disease and famine)

https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/hippocrates-the-writings-of-hippocrates-and-galen (Like most medieval physicians, I'll be referring to Galen and Hippocrates!)

The Black Death: The History and Legacy of the Middle Ages’ Deadliest Plague

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/medm/hd_medm.htm I honestly recommend reading through this then the related essays because it's from the Met and well sourced.