Natural Causes

[Jerzul]

[Begin griping] So my first King of Brittany died (after a wound to the head) and his 20 year old son took over. No problem, the son is good and well liked. Three years later, my second King is dead and I have a two-year-old ruler. My only complaint: my second King died of "natural causes"...at 23. I'm sorry, even in the dark ages people didn't generally keel over at 23 without at least being sick or having an infection. It's not that someone shouldn't die at 23, it's that if it is sudden it should be because of an accident or angry wife. At the very least it should have some better description about the death. [/griping]

 

[Ciaphas Cain]

Natural natural causes or suspicious natural causes?

 

[leksu]

I don't think it is even possible (in reality) for a healthy 23 year-old to die of natural causes, so this should really be looked at.

 

[Mods]

define natural causes, you realize that any death that isn't man-inflicted can be seen as natural right?

 

[unmerged(1949)]

Remember that the life expectancy of the Mid Ages was only 30 years of age. The suspicious natural causes would be things like hunting accidents, poison, etc; unless they are discovered. With this game and all the plots, what isn't a natural cause of death.

 

[unmerged(494787)]

It's entirely possible for a twenty-year-old to keel over from something that the middle ages would attribute as "Natural Causes". Heart attacks, strokes, congenital defects, various parasitic infections... basically everything that doesn't have obvious symptoms and/or kills quickly that would be represented by another trait.

 

[Torngasuk]

When it comes to natural causes, I'd look less at how plausible it is, and more at how often it happened among the upper classes in the era we're talking about.

Sure, some peasant might keel over stone dead at twenty-two, but how many kings did?

 

[OrdepNM]

It's entirely possible for a twenty-year-old to keel over from something that the middle ages would attribute as "Natural Causes". Heart attacks, strokes, congenital defects, various parasitic infections... basically everything that doesn't have obvious symptoms and/or kills quickly that would be represented by another trait.

This. Remember that several things we already have names for would be natural causes 800 years ago. Maybe your king had terminal cancer or a brain aneurysm.

 

[Thure]

Remember that the life expectancy of the Mid Ages was only 30 years of age. The suspicious natural causes would be things like hunting accidents, poison, etc; unless they are discovered. With this game and all the plots, what isn't a natural cause of death.

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Always this bad historical lie... The life expectancy of the Middel Ages was over 40. The German Kings/Emperors life 50 years on an average. It was only so low, because the many child deaths.

 

[yezhanquan]

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Always this bad historical lie... The life expectancy of the Middel Ages was over 40. The German Kings/Emperors life 50 years on an average. It was only so low, because the many child deaths.

Basically, those who die young, do so at a very young age. Those who die old, can die at a very advanced age. Hence, the average can be rather misleading.

 

[vitek69]

Basically, those who die young, do so at a very young age. Those who die old, can die at a very advanced age. Hence, the average can be rather misleading.

Exactly! Clever man:] If you have a kid who died at one year of age, and a man who died at 99 years of age, the average life span of them 2 is 50 years. Can be very misleading indeed.

I would be interested in the mode (the most frequent) age of death of people in the Middle Ages

 

[Thure]

Exactly! Clever man:] If you have a kid who died at one year of age, and a man who died at 99 years of age, the average life span of them 2 is 50 years. Can be very misleading indeed.

I would be interested in the mode (the most frequent) age of death of people in the Middle Ages

This is interesting for exemple:

http://apps.business.ualberta.ca/rfield/lifeexpectancy.htm

The "Further years of life expected at age 21"
From 1200 to 1300 it was 43.14! So it means... If you are 21, you will life 43 more years. This are the numbers for the nobility... But we play the nobility in this game.

Also here is a list in the wiki.

 

[vitek69]

Most interesting indeed, thank you!:]