While the main theme of the Renaissance Fair was Medieval Europe, there were other parts there as well. There was also a lot of information that was shared at the time.
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Countess Irena, in one of her ancestors' dresses ('nipped and tucked' here and there to fit her) was listening to one medieval scholar talking about a brilliant way that the Knights Templar rendered themselves "immune" to the Medieval Inquisitions.
"So it was quite simple." said the scholar, "When the Knights Templar returned from the Crusades, one of the things they brought back with them was the knowledge of stonecutting. So when the Vatican ultimately turned on them, they came up with an effective strategy: Restrict knowledge of stonecutting only to those who were accepted into their group, become a secret society of sorts, then provide the Church with all the stone blocks they needed. Eventually the Vatican would rely on them for getting the stone they need enough that they would be unable to actively interfere."
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"It's a myth that knights had to be winched onto their horses or require many people to help them." said a medieval lecturer at a genuine medieval smithy, during the forging of a medieval era suit of armor. "In truth, medieval knights practiced religiously to get used to their armor before they could get sent onto the battlefield. They would practice leaping onto their horses, climbing walls, and even performing backflips, first with ponderous garments, then with armor. At least according to a knight's training manual from the 15th century."
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There were also models of famous castles from the medieval era. Some were more familiar than others, such as Deal Castle from Great Britain, to Prague Castle from the Czech Republic. One lesser known castle was Poenari Fortress, where Miss Vivian grew up in the shadow of. Miss Vivian's grandmother came in to share local folklore that showed how even a tiny village could shape a history of a nation like Romania.
"My home village takes great pride in how they outsmarted the Ottoman Empire and enabled Vlad Tepes III to escape them." said Miss Vivian, translating for her grandmother around a medieval "fireside circle tale", "What they came up with was by turning their horseshoes the wrong way 'round and reattaching them to their horses, then leading Vlad away on these horses in the dead of night. So the Turks, when they saw the hoof prints, thought that he had gone into the castle when he had actually left the castle unknown to them."
"Pretty slick." commented Daniel.
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During the "siege simulations" provided by "Doctor Who", there were some new things learned about medieval siege warfare.
"Some would thing that the anthrax-contaminated letters are the first incident of biological warfare." said another medieval scholar. "In actuality, It was the Mongols catapulting their Black Death-claimed corpses into the medieval trade city of Kaffa during its siege in the 14th century that was the real first time that biological warfare was used. After that, medieval armies began catapulting more than stones into enemy fortresses. While they didn't actively used their own diseased corpses, they did used diseased animal corpses to either pass the bubonic plague, or at least poison the fortresses water supply."
"It's a myth that digging a tunnel under a wall was to let enemy soldiers into the besieged fortress." said another medieval scholar, at a demonstration of 'wall sapping'. "It would be too easy for the defenders to pour boiling water into the tunnel or drop hives of angry bees into the tunnel if that was the intent. What was really done was to dig a tunnel under a fortification, then light a fire to collapse the tunnel and the fortification along with it."