How long did people live in the Middle Ages?
That, of course, varied according to diet, climate, location, relative wealth, etc., but the answer is surely not as long as we do now. For starters, infants and children died at a horrific rate (some say up to 1/3 of all died before the age of 5) and a significant percentage of women died in association with childbirth: 5% perhaps from the birth itself, often dying with the child, and a further 15% from childbed fever–the infections that followed a poorly managed delivery (by our standards).
Following that, if a person made it out of childhood, they could be expected to live into their middle forties, provided they maintained good health and weren’t killed in war. http://www.hyw.com/Books/History/Fertilit.htm Both those, of course, are big ‘ifs’.
Below is the recorded birth and death date for the adult royal family of Wales and associated Marcher relations, beginning with Joanna (the daughter of King John of England) and Llywelyn Fawr (Llywelyn the Great, the Prince of Wales). Eliminating individuals who died before adulthood completely, from the dates recorded below, the mean life expectancy for women was 43.6 years, with a median of 42/43; for men, it was a mean of 48.7 and a median of 48/49.
Please be aware that these people are of the highest class of society at the time, granting them (possibly) an easier life and longer life spans. I have indicated in parentheses the cause of death when it wasn’t old age or disease.
Joanna: 1190-1237 (daughter of King John of England; wife of Llywelyn Fawr) (47)
Llywelyn Fawr: 1173-1240 (Prince of Wales) (67)
Tangwystl: 1168-1206 (mistress of Llywelyn Fawr) (38)
Gwladys: 1206-1251 (princess of Wales) (45)
Ralph Mortimer 1198-1246 (husband of Gladwys) (48)
Gruffydd: 1196-1244 (Prince of Wales) (fell from a rope while escaping the Tower of London) (48)
Roger Mortimer: 1231-1282 (51)
Maud de Braose: 1224-1300 (76)
William de Braose: 1198-1230 (hung by Llywelyn Fawr for sleeping with his wife, Joanna) (32)
Eve Marshall: 1203-1246 (43)
Dafydd ap Llywelyn: 1208-1246 (Prince of Wales) (42)
Isabella de Braose: 1222-1248 (wife of Dafydd) (26)
Eleanor de Braose: 1226-1251 (25) (childbirth)
Humphrey de Bohun: 1225-1265 (40) (war)
Edmund Mortimer: 1251-1304 (53)
Margaret de Fiennes: 1269-1333 (64)
Humphrey de Bohun: 1249-1298 (49)
Maud de Fiennes: 1254-1296 (42)
Llywelyn ap Gruffydd: 1225-1282 (57) (war)
Elinor de Montfort: 1252-1282 (30) (childbirth)
http://www.wonderquest.com/LifeSpan.htm states: “Anglo-Saxons back in the Early Middle Ages (400 to 1000 A.D.) lived short lives and were buried in cemeteries, much like Englishmen today. Field workers unearthed 65 burials (400 to 1000 A.D.) from Anglo-Saxon cemeteries in England and found none who lived past 45.
Kings did better. The mean life expectancy of kings of Scotland and England, reigning from 1000 A.D. to 1600 A.D. were 51 and 48 years, respectively. Their monks did not fare as well. In the Carmelite Abbey, only five percent survived past 45.”
Several sources on the internet argue that if a person could get through childhood and early adulthood, he could expect to live into the 60′s or even 70′s. That claim is not substantiated by the data I’ve found. It also seems like a specious argument to say that a person could live to be 64 IF he didn’t go to war, she didn’t have a baby, and nobody got sick. Each of those conditions was endemic to life in the Middle Ages. A calculation of average—whether median or mean—life spans HAS to take this into account. That’s like saying “all the men in my family would have lived to be 91 if they hadn’t all died of heart attacks at 63”. It also implies 1) that children aren’t ‘people’; and 2) that ‘people’ aren’t women—since pregnancy and childbirth were unavoidable for women in that era unless they were barren or nuns.
To see the life expectancy of the family of King Edward I: http://www.sarahwoodbury.com/?p=115
To see the family tree of the Royal House of Wales see: http://www.sarahwoodbury.com/?p=484
Sarah,
Thoroughly enjoying your site as I read through the various pages you’ve written, as I have a great interest in Medieval Wales. One thing to note, though, about the issue of life expectancy/number of children born…the link you provide above (http://www.hyw.com/Books/History/Fertilit.htm) suggests that women had, on average, a great number of children. In fact, this was only true of the nobility, not the commoner. Various things (including such things as later age at marriage, poorer diet, etc.) mitigated against a high birth rate amongst “ordinary” women. Just thought I would mention that. I would provide sources, but too lazy to root them out just now! Would also point out that “marriage politics” only applied to the nobility, so commoners also didn’t have arranged marriages like the nobility did – at least not in Western Europe.
Thanks for commenting! If you want to find links, I’d include them. I guess it would also depend on the woman too. If I were medieval, I’m sure I would have had 12 children instead of just the 4
In Wales, marriage among high and low was a contract between families and had little if anything to do with the church, but wasn’t arranged in the same way usually–and you could marry for love and elope! But that’s a different blog . . .
this is really good info thanks
Thanks!
I have to ask, what was the life expectancy in warmer and friendlier environments such as Italy or Spain?
And what about the “developed” world of the time, the muslims of Spain, of the middle east and the Byzantines?
From my reading, it wasn’t much different in Italy and Spain. It wasn’t cold that killed people so much as density of population that spread disease. Warfare and child birth killed people in equal measure in Italy as England (maybe more warfare in Europe, come to think on it). As to the Muslim world, this paper (http://shm.oxfordjournals.org/content/3/3/345.abstract) suggests that child mortality was equally high, which given the more modern science of Islam is somewhat surprising, as you suggest. The long citation at Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliphate presents divergent views, with some texts suggesting that medieval Muslim clerics lived very long lives in comparison–though some studies have shown comparable lifespans for monks/nuns in Europe, since that profession removes childbirth and war as likely causes of death.
Okay. There’s more to say so this is becoming a blog post!
Thanks
The link to the new blog post: http://www.sarahwoodbury.com/?p=2908
Thanks again
You’re welcome!
One cannot assume that the upper class had food, healthcare, and life expectancy than common people. If you look at the studies of Dr. Weston A. Price, author of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, he has repeatedly shown that “civilized” diet has contributed far more to debilitating and fatal illnesses – including infant mortality and childbirth difficulties – than would be normally assumed.
The lower class were also more apt to suckle their own children, lending the child-spacing effect of exclusive breastfeeding to the question of how often women had babies.
Just a couple more factors that could be looked at and accounted for in your conclusions.
Absolutely. The tendency among the upper classes not to breast feed is well known. At the same time, because the data of life expectancy among the lower classes is incredibly scarce–if not entirely absent in this era–it’s difficult to draw any sure conclusions. At the same time, my data of the upper classes shows that average life expectancy is the middle-forties. Many sources argue that medieval life expectancy was more like 25, which I think is far too low.
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Because the life expectancy was very short, they had kids (not sure if they were considered kids back then) as young as twelve-year-olds marrying and having babies. I am wondering as to what the age the “kids” are considered adults back then.
In Wales, a boy became an adult member of the community at 14 by law. For girls, it was when they began menstruating (and thus could have kids). It’s hard to know what was happening among the common folk, but among the nobility marriages occurred young, though more for financial reasons than anything else.
EXCELLENT INFORMATION TO READ TO MY TENTH (10TH) GRADE HISTORY CLASS STUDYING THE MIDDLE AGES OR DARK AGES… I WOULD LIKE TO READ ANY OTHER SOURCES THAT EXPLAIN EXACTLY HOW THE “DARK AGES” WERE NAMED “DARK” AND WHY…
BUT GREAT ARTICLE AND GREAT READING!!! THANKS FOR YOUR INFO!
Thanks so much. I’m glad the post was helpful.
Sarah,
This was very interesting. I heard that it was common knowledge that one of the chiefest causes of death in the middles ages was tooth decay and associated problems…maybe like infections which honed in on the heart. I doubt that anyone recognized that relat-ionship. What do you think? I’ve been wondering, also, if Mary the mother of Jesus was considered elderly at possibly 48 years old +/-at the time of Jesus’ crucifiction. Any Thoughts?
I have a post on medieval dentistry here: http://www.sarahwoodbury.com/?p=101
My brother-in-law almost died from a coma caused by an infected tooth for which he’d postponed a root canal, so I can believe it. He was only 30 at the time.
It is hard to know what constituted ‘elderly’ in the past. A woman who has had many children can look ancient at 35, but my sense (and this is only a sense) is that just because people considered dying at 50 as having lived a full life, it doesn’t mean the individual wasn’t vibrant still when they died. They were just felled by war/famine/disease.
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An interesting read!
Send me all the newsletters about this that you posibly can.
Thank you very much for this lovely write up! It has helped me a lot with my school assignment on the medieval times and I plan to share this link with other students,
Thanks again,
Tess
I’m so glad it was useful! Thanks for letting me know and good luck
be carefull with middle ages statistics.. there was no birth certificate on the commun people.
middle ages statistics were only based on kings and lords.. and theyr nutrition was horrible..
Milk Cheese Eggs and Meat ( in some countrys Fish ).
the people eated potatoes and bread ( wich is ideal for human beings to eat ). we dont know exacly what happened at the middle ages to influence on life expectancy. besides desieses, poverty and nutrition.
Thanks for commenting. We do have dating on bones, however, which give a good idea of the age that a person was when he/she died.
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Hm. I’d love to find out where those Europeans found their potatoes, pakau. Great writeup, Sarah.
Ha. Well. No potatoes until after 1492, I’m afraid.
Thank you for a very informative article. I would like to know the name and place of the ruins pictured at the top of your page!
That is Dolwyddelan Castle, an important castle for the Welsh princes. I have a post about it here: http://www.sarahwoodbury.com/dolwyddelan-castle/