The Latrine Accident Story

 I occasionally tell history stories, so this is one of them....dating back to Germany....the summer of 1184 (yeah, a long time ago).

So, over in Erfurt (eastern area of Germany).....they had this king (Henry VI).

There had been this 'misunderstanding' between a couple of folks.  On one side was the Archbishop of Mainz (the Catholic Church guy) and the Landgrave of a region (basically a prince-status guy).

This argument had reached a stage where it was a 'feud', and probably going to get people killed.

So Henry VI calls the folks to come down and have a talk.  He just wanted to settle the affair.  

Folks came from both parties, and the King's court was convened in a wooded structure....up on the second floor.

Now, this was back in the days where German carpentry skills and standards were not at some significant level. 

If you'd walked into this type of situation today....at the door, there would be a sign to say only twenty individuals would be allowed in the room....because of weight limits.  But no such standard existed in that period.

So here are the Catholic Church folks, nobles representing the prince's side, and the King's court itself.

Somewhere in the middle of this....the wood floor gave way.

What was on the first floor?  Well.....a latrine pit.  Yeah....almost all of the first floor was just an exceptionally large and deep crap pit.

Now you'd think about this a whole.....it had to give off some aroma, and bad-smell.  But the guys probably had gotten use to that.

So, what happens as they fall into the crap-pit?  Well....history says that around sixty of them drowned in the crap-pit.  Some were fairly known people in the region....holding 'status'.  

King Henry?  He's one of the few in the situation who survived....mostly because he was sitting at the end of the room....on what was a stone floor (which didn't give way).  No one says much over his reaction, but I would imagine he viewed this as something you don't typically see everyday.

The feud between the Bishop and this prince?  No one says much about the end-results.  The Bishop did survive the episode, in case you were interested.  God probably had a hand in ensuring he stood in the right place, or was late for the meeting.  

I would imagine for a whole generation that followed....this was probably one of the most repeated stories of the region around the fireplaces at night.