Why Medieval Locks Were So Easy to Pick

In 1225, in western Sweden, a woman could be convicted of theft for one reason: she held the key. Come on a 2,700-year break-in tour: a locked-room murder, Greek wives at war over the pantry key, a divorce by key, Thor in a wedding dress, a pope who mailed keys to kings, the skeleton key, and the chastity-belt myth. Seven rounds of Myth or Fact along the way, and the real reason the lock barely improved for two thousand years. Chapters 0:00 Under Your Key (Sweden, 1225) 1:14 The Break-In Tour 2:11 The First Lock 3:45 The Locked-Room Murder 4:44 Bronze Keys and Jealous Husbands 6:23 Rome Locks Everything 7:57 Into the Chest: Vikings and Padlocks 9:03 The Keys on Her Belt (and Thor's Wedding) 10:41 Keys from Heaven 11:37 The Skeleton Key Challenge 13:10 No Keyhole (and the Chastity Belt Myth) 14:25 What Did a Lock Cost? 15:47 Three Keys, No Trust 16:54 The Answer 17:53 The Last Thing She Locked 19:06 The Key in Your Pocket Sources (selection) The Law of the Westgoths (Västgötalagen), tr. Bergin 1906 Bracton, On the Laws and Customs of England, vol. 2 p. 428 Monstrelet, Chronicles, vol. 1 (Margaret of Flanders, Arras 1404) Homer, Odyssey 21 · Judges 3 · Isaiah 22:22 Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazusae · Cicero, Philippics 2.69 · Pliny, Natural History 33.6 Gregory the Great, Register VI.6 · Þrymskviða (The Lay of Thrym) Boileau, Livre des métiers (Paris, 1260s) · al-Jazari, Book of Ingenious Devices (1206) Kyeser, Bellifortis (c. 1405) · British Museum M.574 (chastity belt, catalogued as fake) Churchwardens' accounts of St Mary at Hill, London A. C. Hobbs, Rudimentary Treatise on the Construction of Locks (1853) D. T. Potts, "Lock and Key in Ancient Mesopotamia" (1990) Music: Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Tracks: "Achaidh Cheide", "Comfortable Mystery", "Comfortable Mystery 4", "Dark Walk", "Desert City", "Enchanted Valley", "Folk Round", "Gaslamp Funworks", "Investigations", "Lightless Dawn", "Mystery Bazaar", "Pippin the Hunchback", "Sad Trio", "Sneaky Snitch", "Thinking Music" Images and sound effects: public domain and openly licensed works via Wikimedia Commons (incl. The Met and Portable Antiquities Scheme photos) and the Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access. Creative Commons attributions for every CC BY / CC BY-SA image and sound are in the pinned comment. #history #medieval #locks