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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

#81

Post by IAmBroom »

ben_w wrote: post #58
antonvs wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No refrigeration either, so you're limited to seasonal availability. Well, except for food preserved via pickling, salting, drying, smoking, fermenting, sugaring, and confit. Which makes for quite a long list. Plus, various foods like grains, root vegetables, onions, and even apples could be stored for months using proper techniques. They didn't have the luxury we have of not paying much attention to how we store t…

> pickling, salting Yes, but also my understanding is that the preservation technique of that name involves much more salt than modern palettes are willing to tolerate, and also salt itself was much more limited in supply. Despite this, salt as a preservative was indeed critical to civilisation. > fermenting True, and also I want to say "blessed are the cheesemakers" etc. here. :)

That is why some salt-preserved foods are traditionally soaked before consumption: to remove the excess salt.

Re: The daily life of a medieval king

#82

Post by IAmBroom »

VilleO wrote: post #59
defrost wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ha…

Also willow bark was chewed as a painkiller because of the acetylsalicylic acid it contains.

Quite powerful, BTW. I've used it while hiking for a headache. Damn thing tastes like it's half-aspirin, bleh... but the headache went away.

Re: The daily life of a medieval king

#83

Post by IAmBroom »

anovikov wrote: post #60
raincole wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/43292/what-was-t... > For England, including the Kings of Wessex from Æthelberht on (the first I could find a birthdate for), and the Kings of England up to Edward IV, whose reigns extends to 1483 (and consequently into Modern Ages, if we take the usual date of 1453 - the fall of Constantinople - as the end of the Middle Ages), I found the average age of death of monarchs t…

Except kings very frequently died for "good" reasons: being killed in battle, or by political opponents, or during hunting accidents, or victims of coups, or beheaded. As a leader, you lead your subjects into all kinds of battles and take all kinds of risks and today's politicians don't do that anymore.

Richard II starved to death. Voluntarily. After signing over his crown to someone he had previously banished. While in prison.

Re: The daily life of a medieval king

#84

Post by IAmBroom »

pjc50 wrote: post #30
walthamstow wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've seen this recently in British and Japanese royal families. Some people just don't want it, and to get a normal life they have to leave the monarchy.

This is reminding me of folk tales where the king, prince or princess disguises themselves and goes among the commoners, but I can't name a definite example of the trope at the moment.

The Prince and the Pauper is the classic Western version.

Re: The daily life of a medieval king

#85

Post by adsteel_ »

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

Re: The daily life of a medieval king

#86

Post by IAmBroom »

HKH2 wrote: post #71
fmbb wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 t…

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.

Re: The daily life of a medieval king

#88

Post by baxtr »

taneq wrote: post #77
baxtr wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re your last paragraph: can’t this be said about any form of government since there will be any kind of variation independent of form?

No. The best form of government is never a committee, but the worst form is seldom a committee.

Fair enough. Makes sense!

Re: The daily life of a medieval king

#89

Post by prmoustache »

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…

It doesn't work for everything but clove act as a decent local painkiller. I once broke a tooth and cloves in my mouth made me go through the day until my appointment to the dentist.

The taste wasn't so fun though.

Re: The daily life of a medieval king

#90

Post by bee_rider »

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.

I bet I could rule a kingdom well enough. A lot of old timey kings seemed to be real dummies.
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