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There's quite a broad range of "poor" in America. At least medieval kings never ran out of food, which people in food deserts do regularly. And medieval kings w

There's quite a broad range of "poor" in America. At least medieval kings never ran out of food, which people in food deserts do regularly. And medieval kings would have been quite secure, compared to the extreme violence that makes up daily life in many of America's urban poor communities, which are some of the most dangerous in the world. I'm thankful that I've gotten to live in Northwest DC, South Chicago, West Baltimore, Oakland. Our country's extremes are often as bad as a war-torn country.

WalterBright 5y ago
I think you're seriously underestimating the rate of violence against kings. They didn't live in ruinously expensive, heavily fortified castles for nothing. They endured constant plots against them, from everyone, and to misjudge those threats meant death.
- dane-pgp 5y ago
  That would be an interesting study, actually, to see what percentage of medieval kings died of old age (and not in their successor's dungeon). As a first order approximation, I've looked at the Wikipedia article "List of monarchs of the British Isles by cause of death"[0] (which covers more than just the medieval period), and counted this summary: Natural causes: 60 In battle: 15 Murdered, assassinated, executed: 17 Euthanised: 1 Other: 2 Accidental: 3 Unknown: 10 The "other" category seems to be cases where the monarch was effectively imprisoned and/or murdered, and I'll exclude the euthanised king as being controversial from the point of view of "violence". That leaves 107 deaths, of which 34 were violent (battle, murdered, assassinated, executed, imprisoned), giving a percentage of about 32%. I guess if you live like a king you have to be willing to die like one too. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_monarchs_of_the_British_Isles_by_cause_of_death https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_monarchs_of_the_Britis...
  - WalterBright 5y ago
    Although I was sure that was true, it's nice to have a solid reference. Thanks! There's also the wannabes (like princes) who were killed to prevent their ascension to the throne.
WalterBright 5y ago
> Our country's extremes are often as bad as a war-torn country. I infer you've never spent time in a war-torn country. My father told me that in Germany after the war, if you were smoking a cigarette, people would follow you until you threw the butt away. They'd fight over the butt, and the winner would combine the bits of tobacco left with other bits and sell the result. Accurate figures are not known, but likely millions starved to death in Germany after the war.

WalterBright 5y ago

I think you're seriously underestimating the rate of violence against kings. They didn't live in ruinously expensive, heavily fortified castles for nothing. They endured constant plots against them, from everyone, and to misjudge those threats meant death.

dane-pgp 5y ago
That would be an interesting study, actually, to see what percentage of medieval kings died of old age (and not in their successor's dungeon). As a first order approximation, I've looked at the Wikipedia article "List of monarchs of the British Isles by cause of death"[0] (which covers more than just the medieval period), and counted this summary: Natural causes: 60 In battle: 15 Murdered, assassinated, executed: 17 Euthanised: 1 Other: 2 Accidental: 3 Unknown: 10 The "other" category seems to be cases where the monarch was effectively imprisoned and/or murdered, and I'll exclude the euthanised king as being controversial from the point of view of "violence". That leaves 107 deaths, of which 34 were violent (battle, murdered, assassinated, executed, imprisoned), giving a percentage of about 32%. I guess if you live like a king you have to be willing to die like one too. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_monarchs_of_the_British_Isles_by_cause_of_death https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_monarchs_of_the_Britis...
- WalterBright 5y ago
  Although I was sure that was true, it's nice to have a solid reference. Thanks! There's also the wannabes (like princes) who were killed to prevent their ascension to the throne.

WalterBright 5y ago

> Our country's extremes are often as bad as a war-torn country. I infer you've never spent time in a war-torn country. My father told me that in Germany after the war, if you were smoking a cigarette, people would follow you until you threw the butt away. They'd fight over the butt, and the winner would combine the bits of tobacco left with other bits and sell the result. Accurate figures are not known, but likely millions starved to death in Germany after the war.