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The daily life of a medieval king

medievalists.net

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Re: The daily life of a medieval king

#41

Post by gherkinnn »

pyrale wrote: post #34
pjc50 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It reads a lot like those instagram/magazine profiles of "I get up at 7am and eat healthily" (author actually gets up at 9am and eats junk food on most other days). Worth noting that this is a relatively immobile king. Various other kings spent a lot of time on: - hunting for sport - military campaigns (e.g. Richard Lionheart spent more time out of England than in it) - assizes (mobile courts) - summer residences (Ve…

> e.g. Richard Lionheart spent more time out of England than in it To be fair, most of his prize holdings were also out of England.

> To be fair, most of his prize holdings were also out of England.

To be fair, he wasn't really English and didn't speak the language either. It wasn't until Henry IV (reign 1399 - 1413) that a post-invasion King's mother tongue was English. Most people don't realise that for over 300 years the (language at) court was Norman French.

Re: The daily life of a medieval king

#42

Post by CuriouslyC »

joules77 wrote: post #3
morgoths_bane wrote: post #2

[flagged]

Donald Trump, the Ayatollah and Putin are very disciplined people. Ordered lives need to be grounded in value systems, moral emotions, and philosophies deeper than self preservations. Otherwise people start behaving like ants. Don't need a human brain for that.

From all accounts the disciplined one is Susie Wiles, and Trump is like boss baby.

Re: The daily life of a medieval king

#44

Post by mihaic »

dan-robertson wrote: post #16
braza wrote: post #10

> His meal was not long, for he did not favour elaborate food, saying that such food bothered his stomach and disturbed his memory. He drank clear and simple wine, light in colour, well cut, and not much quantity nor great variety. Like David, to rejoice his spirits, he listened willingly at the end of his meal to stringed instruments playing the sweetest possible music. For me, the most curious thing here would be t…

I assume someone in the 5th percentile of wealth is going to have very negative wealth which is only really possible in developed countries, eg an American medical student or a doctor who is part-way through paying off their loans, or someone suffering from massive credit card debt / car loans. (I think this isn’t really what you were thinking of though. I think the poorest people in the world still live, in many way…

> someone in the 5th percentile of wealth

I find the percentile measure terrible to technically mean 95% of the population, but is often colloquially understood the other way around. It's like German numbers, when people say five and forty to mean 45. The general population rejects needless complexity.

Re: The daily life of a medieval king

#45

Post by fmbb »

dan-robertson wrote: post #16
braza wrote: post #10

> His meal was not long, for he did not favour elaborate food, saying that such food bothered his stomach and disturbed his memory. He drank clear and simple wine, light in colour, well cut, and not much quantity nor great variety. Like David, to rejoice his spirits, he listened willingly at the end of his meal to stringed instruments playing the sweetest possible music. For me, the most curious thing here would be t…

I assume someone in the 5th percentile of wealth is going to have very negative wealth which is only really possible in developed countries, eg an American medical student or a doctor who is part-way through paying off their loans, or someone suffering from massive credit card debt / car loans. (I think this isn’t really what you were thinking of though. I think the poorest people in the world still live, in many way…

https://www.who.int/news/item/24-07-2024-hunger-numbers-stub...

Hunger worldwide has been getting worse for the last quarter century or so.

733 million people don’t have food security. I think about 5-10 million die every year from starvation.

In medieval times there were famines, but they were caused by there not being enough food to go around due to disease or bad harvests.

Today millions of people starve even if there is no bad harvest or animal pandemics.

Re: The daily life of a medieval king

#46

Post by mseepgood »

khazhoux wrote: post #22

The supplicants brings to mind the opening scene of The Godfather. I’m endlessly perplexed how a human with the same number of hours as me, can rule a kingdom, or run a modern country, or be CEO of a major company, meanwhile I’m working long hours every day and still get nothing accomplished.

Delegation is key

Re: The daily life of a medieval king

#47

Post by scott_w »

joules77 wrote: post #3
morgoths_bane wrote: post #2

[flagged]

Donald Trump, the Ayatollah and Putin are very disciplined people. Ordered lives need to be grounded in value systems, moral emotions, and philosophies deeper than self preservations. Otherwise people start behaving like ants. Don't need a human brain for that.

He only said "essential," not "sufficient."

Re: The daily life of a medieval king

#48

Post by pjc50 »

pjc50 wrote: post #29
braza wrote: post #10

> His meal was not long, for he did not favour elaborate food, saying that such food bothered his stomach and disturbed his memory. He drank clear and simple wine, light in colour, well cut, and not much quantity nor great variety. Like David, to rejoice his spirits, he listened willingly at the end of his meal to stringed instruments playing the sweetest possible music. For me, the most curious thing here would be t…

I remember many years ago the Economist pointed out one of the Rothschilds died young of something that would have been readily solvable with penicillin, but no amount of money could get you something that didn't exist yet. I'm going to go with a cautious "yes" to the first: the ages at death of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_monarchs are not great. "No" on the second (king is never going to have to wo…

Addendum: food security was assured, food choice was very restricted by modern standards. Remember the medieval period is pre-Colombian exchange, so no potatoes, no tomatoes, no peppers. Some spices, but a different range to what modern palates are used to. No refrigeration either, so you're limited to seasonal availability. In the winter that means you're eating a lot of root vegetables and bread, even if as king you're guaranteed a supply of fresh meat and fish (from the royal holdings dedicated to producing it).

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forme_of_Cury

This is where you get the memes about shocking medieval Europeans with a time travelling bag of Doritos: both the bag and its contents are completely impossible items for them.

Worth noting that durable items could be shipped long distance - precious metals, gems, textiles - but foodstuff shipping was more limited to high value density stuff like spices and the European wine trade.

Speaking of wine: no modern stimulants. No coffee, no tobacco, no weed, no cocaine, no opiates. No painkillers, no anasthesia. For all those situations, you have one option: alcohol.

A huge number of critical historical decisions were taken by people who would fail a brethalyser.

Re: The daily life of a medieval king

#49

Post by mrits »

nottorp wrote: post #15
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Little has changed, except it's coffee and Spotify for me. Keep in mind that back then, wine / beer were an important source of clean drinking water, and it would often be low alcohol.

"He drank clear and simple wine, light in colour, ** well cut ** ". It's right there in the original medieval article.

I never heard the term "cut" outside drugs that often involved putting something stronger but less expensive in

Re: The daily life of a medieval king

#50

Post by defrost »

pjc50 wrote: post #48
pjc50 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember many years ago the Economist pointed out one of the Rothschilds died young of something that would have been readily solvable with penicillin, but no amount of money could get you something that didn't exist yet. I'm going to go with a cautious "yes" to the first: the ages at death of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_monarchs are not great. "No" on the second (king is never going to have to wo…

Addendum: food security was assured, food choice was very restricted by modern standards. Remember the medieval period is pre-Colombian exchange, so no potatoes, no tomatoes, no peppers. Some spices, but a different range to what modern palates are used to. No refrigeration either, so you're limited to seasonal availability. In the winter that means you're eating a lot of root vegetables and bread, even if as king yo…

Quite a few precursors to modern stimulants though, there were many Solanaceae (nightshade) variations in Europe, from harmless through high to deadly. Papaver somniferum (opium poppy) got about the place quite a bit (according to archaeologists at least.

Hemlock and henbane were both used as painkillers and dulling agents .. up to unconsciousness and death, depending on dosage.

Added: Monastery herb gardens often had quite the range, eg: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/inspire-me/blog/ar...

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