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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

#121

Post by ainiriand »

mistrial9 wrote: post #106
thesuitonym wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couple of points on life expectancy: If you made it to age 15, it was likely you'd live to be 60-80. Life expectancy wasn't lower in the past because people died earlier, they just died as children at a much higher rate, but there are some important caveats. In King Charles V's day, a simple cut that today we would not even think twice about could prove fatal from infection. Add to that the common plight of royal fam…

> a simple cut that today we would not even think twice about could prove fatal from infection maybe .. most mammals do not get infections from an ordinary cut.. it is humans that are uniquely weak that way source: retired medical surgeon

My cat almost died from an infected wound from the bite of another cat, so maybe it depends on the wound.

Re: The daily life of a medieval king

#122

Post by athenot »

ramses0 wrote: post #100
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've made it a hobby to compare my current standards of living to "When would this be kingly?" We've traded down so much on quality of products (and sometimes: quality of life) but making a conscious decision to "live like a king" in a lot of cases isn't that hard. Simplest example? Indoor plumbing: Boom, 15th century king. Silly example? I got my wife seven silk pillow cases one year as a Christmas gift. A bit spend…

I love this! It's really a mindset of taking seemingly common things that we take for granted, and reconsider them under a fresh look to appreciate how amazing they actually are.

Re: The daily life of a medieval king

#124

Post by naniwaduni »

psunavy03 wrote: post #118
gampleman wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And very very importantly, this is taking the death ages of kings (i.e. people who lived long enough to actually become monarchs) compared to life expectancy at birth (i.e. people who lived long enough to be born). Given that until roughly the 1700s infant mortality was brutal (according to [1] fully 50% of children died before reaching adulthood), this comparison becomes even starker, since average life expectancy o…

This "average life expectancy in the ancient world" thing is nothing more than an illustration of when to pick the median over the mean because the data is skewed by outliers.

Quite the opposite in this case—the median is single-digit; adults are the outliers.

Re: The daily life of a medieval king

#125

Post by naniwaduni »

game_the0ry wrote: post #91

From the looks of it, a medieval king spent more time with his subjects that a typical US congressman spends with his constituents -- rather, they tend to spend more time at dinner parties with lobbyists and donors. In fact, the only time I here from my congressional rep is when I get texts asking for more money.

The time spent with lobbyists and donors most certainly gets totaled in for this purpose.

Re: The daily life of a medieval king

#126

Post by tristor »

bluGill wrote: post #98
pyrale wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many secretaries, go-to people, etc. do you have?

75 years ago someone in my position would have had a secretary - she (sexism intended) would have covered about 4 others. My boss would have had a personal secretary. Today Outlook (or similar programs) do the majority of what she would have done and they do it better. I can book an airline ticket myself in the time it would take to explain what I really want to the secretary.

I think you are mistaken, because you have made a category error. The work of a personal secretary or an assistant isn't merely to book you an airline ticket or manage your calendar. These are part of it, yes, but not the entirety and even in those you are missing the nuance of it. Their job is to understand you, and act on your behalf in the matters you delegate, knowing what outcome you would choose yourself. This is a force multiplier in the way that Outlook will never be.

Re: The daily life of a medieval king

#127

Post by projektfu »

teleforce wrote: post #61

The author is Christine de Pizan, an Italian-born (Venice) French court writer [1]. Fun facts, Christine married at the age of 15, now will be considered by both Italian and French law as an illegal underage marriage. The marriage was, by all accounts, a happy one [2]. She had 3 children from the marriage to Etienne du Castel, (a royal secretary) for about ten years, remained widow after her husband's death. Christin…

And at the age of 12, the king (then dauphin) married his 12-year-old cousin, Joanna.

Etienne was apparently 8 years older than Christine.

Re: The daily life of a medieval king

#128

Post by Ishxnxibz »

IAmBroom wrote: post #86
HKH2 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well giving people food doesn't solve hunger problems because those people just breed. Why doesn't Africa have more farms and infrastructure?

Short answer: Climate (even without climate change) and war. Long answer: Western colonialism.

> Long answer: Western colonialism.

How do you explain lack of farming / infrastructure prior to colonialism? More or less all environments populated by sub saharans struggle with infrastructure. This is true before, during, and after colonialism.

Re: The daily life of a medieval king

#129

Post by Ishxnxibz »

adsteel_ wrote: post #85
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #72

That's a fascinating treatise. It also paints Charles in quite a good light. I assume that she wrote to please, but it also sounds like he was a genuinely good king. I have heard that the best form of government is an absolute monarchy, and the worst form of government is an absolute monarchy.

"Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time...." - Winston S. Churchill, 11 November 1947

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