20 Famous “Facts” That Historians Now Consider to Be Merely Hypotheses

Lady Godiva was a real 11th-century noblewoman associated with Coventry and Earl Leofric of Mercia. However, her famous naked ride appears only in late medieval writings, long after she could have been around to confirm or deny the story.

Napoleon Bonaparte’s height has become one of the most recurring subjects of humor in history, fueled by British caricatures that loved to depict him as shorter than he actually was. His official height was also lost in the old French units of measurement, which did not translate easily into the English system. According to current estimates, he was actually about average for French men of his time, at approximately 1.68 m.

The Viking helmet with horns seems entirely plausible to us, given how deeply we’ve been influenced by popular culture. However, archaeological findings from the Viking Age do not support the idea that Nordic warriors went into battle with horns attached to their heads. This look became established much later, largely thanks to 19th-century theater sets.

Christopher Columbus did not set sail in 1492 to teach Europe that the Earth was round. Educated Europeans had already inherited this idea from ancient Greek and Roman thought. Columbus’s real mistake was believing that Asia lay much closer on the other side of the Atlantic than it actually did—not to mention the one or two other continents that separated him from his original destination.

Many Roman gladiators were slaves, prisoners, or convicted criminals; therefore, there is no reason to downplay the cruelty of the arena. However, some free men signed contracts to fight, whether for glory or for money. Roman entertainment truly gave full meaning to the expression “career opportunity.”

The Great Wall of China looks enormous from the ground, which is why this myth has always been so easily believed. From orbit, however, it is difficult to make out with the naked eye, as it often blends into the surrounding landscape. 

The notion that most Europeans in the Middle Ages believed the Earth was flat has been greatly exaggerated. Scholars in monasteries, royal courts, and universities generally knew that the planet was spherical. This old idea of a flat Earth shows us, above all, just how much later generations have enjoyed portraying the Middle Ages in a darker light than it actually was.

The story of the cherry tree made George Washington look like a paragon of honesty. It comes from an early 19th-century biography published after his death, and there is no concrete evidence from his childhood to support it.

Nero could not have played the violin during the Great Fire of Rome in A.D. 64, probably because that instrument did not yet exist. Ancient authors already had plenty of reasons to despise him, and later accounts exaggerated this accusation to turn it into a scene that everyone remembers. It’s a memorable story, but it’s simply false.

The legend that Cleopatra placed a pearl in vinegar has its origins in an ancient account describing a lavish wager with Mark Antony. Pearls can react when they come into contact with acid, but this famous story is difficult to verify, especially in the abridged version that is generally remembered. It speaks volumes about how Roman writers imagined Egyptian luxury, but little else.

This quote, attributed to Marie Antoinette, was already circulating before she became the most hated queen in France. During the French Revolution, it fit the public’s image of a pampered princess who had no idea what it was like to go hungry.

The excavations conducted by Heinrich Schliemann at Hisarlik in the 1870s established a link between this site and ancient Troy. This was a major archaeological milestone, but it did not constitute formal confirmation of Homer’s world. The site contained numerous layers of settlement, and the treasure that Schliemann attributed to King Priam likely belonged to a much earlier period.

The Salem witch trials of 1692 are often remembered as a story marked by fire, because American history has become intertwined with images of European witch hunts. In Salem, the condemned victims were not burned. Nineteen people were hanged, and one man was crushed to death.

The flight made in 1903 by Wilbur and Orville Wright at Kitty Hawk remains a landmark event in the history of powered, controlled, heavier-than-air flight. However, the public flight performed by Alberto Santos-Dumont in Paris in 1906 took place without launch rails. While this does not diminish the Wright brothers’ achievements, it does raise the question of who was actually the first to accomplish this feat.

The story that Albert Einstein supposedly failed at math is comforting to anyone who has ever gone into an exam with a touch of apprehension. Of course, this claim is simply false. Einstein excelled in math and physics from a very young age.

Abner Doubleday did not sit down in Cooperstown in 1839 to invent a new game from scratch. The sport evolved over time from older traditions involving a bat and a ball, notably rounders. Doubleday’s story has given baseball a clear American origin, but the reality is not so black and white.

Spartacus did indeed lead a major uprising against Rome in the 1st century B.C. The revolt began with an escape from a gladiator school in Capua, but ancient accounts do not allow us to determine with certainty the initial number of participants, contrary to what later accounts suggest.

Camelot now occupies a central place in Arthurian legend, just like the Round Table. The problem is that Camelot appears in late medieval novels rather than in the earliest Arthurian texts. Camelot has never been discovered, but it’s sometimes fun to let oneself be carried away by the myth.

The term “Dark Ages” gives the impression that Europe in the early Middle Ages was more barren than it actually was. Scholarship, religious studies, manuscript copying, and the arts continued, particularly during the Carolingian period under Charlemagne and his successors. While this era was certainly marked by much violence and upheaval, it cannot be described as having experienced a total cultural collapse.

It’s easy to see how the word “vomitorium” might have led people to believe that the Romans led a luxurious lifestyle. In Roman architecture, vomitoria were actually passageways designed to facilitate the exit of crowds from amphitheaters and stadiums. Contrary to what their name might suggest, they were not rooms reserved for diners wishing to make room for another course.