• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

TheStrangerOrg

Major
14 Badges
Mar 4, 2012
512
124
  • Crusader Kings II
  • Crusader Kings II: Charlemagne
  • Crusader Kings II: Legacy of Rome
  • Crusader Kings II: The Old Gods
  • Crusader Kings II: Rajas of India
  • Crusader Kings II: The Republic
  • Crusader Kings II: Sons of Abraham
  • Crusader Kings II: Sword of Islam
  • 500k Club
  • Crusader Kings II: Horse Lords
  • Crusader Kings II: Reapers Due
  • Crusader Kings II: Monks and Mystics
  • Crusader Kings II: Jade Dragon
  • Crusader Kings II: Holy Fury
was the deathrate in the middle ages amongst noblewomen really that high? i usually lose all my daughters before age 40, usually due to childbirth or falling ill after childbirth.

is it a bit too high or was it really so?
 

zeress

Retired CK2+ Dev
67 Badges
Mar 4, 2012
2.359
650
  • PDXCon 2017 Awards Winner
The second wife of Charlemagne comes to mind. She died at around 25 due to child birth related issues. While a bit out of the timeframe, Jane Seymour third wife of King Henry VIII died at ~28. Also Eleanor de Montfort and Eleanor de Braose both being in their mid 20s. Then there's Judith of Habsburg and Isabella of Hainault. These are just off the top of my head anyways, as I know there are many, many more examples

Being a peasant or a noble mattered relatively little when it came to child birth during that era as it was a common practice to have a midwife deliver the baby, not a physician. Even if a physician were to deliver the baby, physicians knew laughably little and what they did "know" was often a load of hogwash and snake oils. Chances are the midwife actually would have known better anyways.

Assuming the lady in question survived the birth itself, a task that sometimes even proved too much on its own, they could then start worrying about post partum infections and the like. Being a pregnant woman during the feudal period quite simply sucked.

EDIT: Although this does extend in parts to after CK2's timeframe as well, here's a list of some notable female deaths during childbirth.

And these are the women "we care about" to put it bluntly. I wouldn't be surprised if there are many women who were never noted into chronicles as well.
 
Last edited:
  • 1
Reactions: