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. 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: 1228-1282 (54) (war)

Elinor de Montfort: 1252-1282 (30) (childbirth)

Archaeological evidence indicates that 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. This site and this site has similar statistics.

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. This site says wealthier people would have a life expectancy of more than forty years.

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/sick-kids/

To see the family tree of the Royal House of Wales see: http://www.sarahwoodbury.com/family-tree-of-the-royal-house-of-wales/

