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Aristocratic pedigree was mostly about being effective at war at the time. The Fine Blog is a great place to read all about that in fact, because he's very muc

Aristocratic pedigree was mostly about being effective at war at the time. The Fine Blog is a great place to read all about that in fact, because he's very much not taken with the romance of historical social structures, while being honest about the fact that elites in those structures were quite a bit more capable of killing people than the peasants they dominated.

oblio 4y ago
It's a mix. The peasants frequently did not have direct access to steel weapons and armor (which were SUPER expensive) not training (which was also expensive, not only in terms of actual cost, but time to go through it). It's not like the nobles were innately better, though I guess some where, getting literally killer genes for generations has to help with that at some point...
- samatman 4y ago
  It depends on the era but it wasn't uncommon for nobles to be six inches taller than their vassals. The serfs would raise the pigs and the nobles would get to eat them more than a few times a year. We saw in the 20th century what adequate protein can do for a population, many times. Nobles were often genetically distinct from the people they ruled as well, conquest being what it was, but that part isn't necessary, the surplus of protein is sufficient to explain it.
  - oblio 4y ago
    The average male height in Spain grew from 163cm to 177cm between 1910 and now, with most of the growth happening after Franco's fall. For reference the average male height in the US is 175cm. Young male Spaniards apparently have an average height of about 179cm but Spain has a super high life expectancy so the older generations are around for a really long time (ergo lower average) :-) In the past there were a ton of jokes about Southern Europeans being short. Guess what, they were just malnourished, it seems. I've seen the same thing in Romania. After the fall of communism in 1989, the average height went up (I don't know the exact numbers) and at least in developed parts of the country the average male height seems to be going towards 180cm or even taller... (rural areas tend to have shorter people, still, again, because of nutrition issues).
SyzygistSix 4y ago
Do you have a link for The Fine Blog? Nothing relevant is showing up for me.
- samatman 4y ago
  My apologies, that was meant to be cognate to The Fine Article, I was referring to https://acoup.blog https://acoup.blog.
  - Simon_O_Rourke 4y ago
    I went off on a total tangent, thought the reference was for the "Fir Bolg".. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fir_Bolg https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fir_Bolg In fairness, I guess those guys probably had chariots.

oblio 4y ago

It's a mix. The peasants frequently did not have direct access to steel weapons and armor (which were SUPER expensive) not training (which was also expensive, not only in terms of actual cost, but time to go through it). It's not like the nobles were innately better, though I guess some where, getting literally killer genes for generations has to help with that at some point...

samatman 4y ago
It depends on the era but it wasn't uncommon for nobles to be six inches taller than their vassals. The serfs would raise the pigs and the nobles would get to eat them more than a few times a year. We saw in the 20th century what adequate protein can do for a population, many times. Nobles were often genetically distinct from the people they ruled as well, conquest being what it was, but that part isn't necessary, the surplus of protein is sufficient to explain it.
- oblio 4y ago
  The average male height in Spain grew from 163cm to 177cm between 1910 and now, with most of the growth happening after Franco's fall. For reference the average male height in the US is 175cm. Young male Spaniards apparently have an average height of about 179cm but Spain has a super high life expectancy so the older generations are around for a really long time (ergo lower average) :-) In the past there were a ton of jokes about Southern Europeans being short. Guess what, they were just malnourished, it seems. I've seen the same thing in Romania. After the fall of communism in 1989, the average height went up (I don't know the exact numbers) and at least in developed parts of the country the average male height seems to be going towards 180cm or even taller... (rural areas tend to have shorter people, still, again, because of nutrition issues).

SyzygistSix 4y ago

Do you have a link for The Fine Blog? Nothing relevant is showing up for me.

samatman 4y ago
My apologies, that was meant to be cognate to The Fine Article, I was referring to https://acoup.blog https://acoup.blog.
- Simon_O_Rourke 4y ago
  I went off on a total tangent, thought the reference was for the "Fir Bolg".. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fir_Bolg https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fir_Bolg In fairness, I guess those guys probably had chariots.