First the comments at the srticle:
uncle clive Dec 24th 2010, 20:12
‘The average medieval man stood 1.71 metres tall—just four centimetres shorter than a modern Englishman. “It is only in the Victorian era that people started to get very stunted”. Their health was generally good. Dietary isotopes from their knee-bones show that they ate pretty healthily.’
The 1460’s was when the wool trade was at its peak...to drag in some boring economic stuff. England and Burgundy (Belgium) colluded to cut out France. A sack of best English wool fetched ten pounds... a sack of Spanish wool two shillings.
There was more cleared land than was needed to feed the population... thanks to the Black death.
There were a hundred saints’ days and holy days in addition to Sundays... the four day work week was the norm.
Zero taxation of course: The king lived of his own. The aristocracy played at politics.
The standard of living for ordinary folk was at its peak: in terms of shelter, food and fuel. It was not to be reached again until after the first world war.
One anecdote should suffice...At the monastery of Holy Cross outside Winchester, any tradesman or merchant on his travels could drop in for a free meal...roast lamb without potatoes... There’s the downside!... which was presented to the wayfarer on a silver platter... He provided his own knife of course... And afterwards he could walk off with the platter. Saved on the washing up!
That should give some idea of the relative wealth of England in the mid fifteenth century... before the great squeeze set in... when the Hapsburgs got control of Burgundy and Spain and cut England out of the action... and the Reformation eliminated most holidays... and the new gentry landlord class, that supplanted the monasteries and the aristocracy, set about raising the rents. But I digress.
Mutilation and dismemberment are all very fine, but economics can be jolly interesting too.
*From the comments at the article