An average life expectancy of around 30 conceals enormous differences in medieval lifespans. Some people reached their eighties and beyond – but surviving long enough to grow old depended heavily on childhood, circumstances and wealth
In 1386, an elderly Devon landowner had a compelling reason for being excused a journey to give evidence in court. He was Sir John Sully, and according to the account highlighted by historian Dr Ian Mortimer, he was 105 years old.
“He's probably the most remarkable old age person you would come across in the 14th century,” says Mortimer, speaking on his HistoryExtra Academy series.
Even allowing for uncertainty over his reported age, Sully presents a striking rebuke to a familiar picture of medieval life. If people in the Middle Ages could expect to live only about 30 years, how could anyone have survived for more than a century?
The answer lies partly in what life expectancy actually measures. An average of 30 never meant that everyone approached their fourth decade with death imminent. But correcting that misconception offers only limited reassurance.
The truth is, “very few people grow old in the Middle Ages,” Mortimer explains.
For someone born in medieval England, the greatest obstacle might be surviving long enough to become an adult.
What an average life expectancy of 30 really means
Life expectancy at birth describes the average length of life implied by a population’s mortality pattern. It includes the people who die in infancy alongside those who survive into middle age or beyond.
Imagine two people born in the same village. One dies aged one; the other reaches 59. Their average lifespan is 30 years, although neither dies anywhere near that age.
When large numbers of children die, their short lives pull the average sharply down. Life expectancy is therefore neither a maximum lifespan nor necessarily the most common age at death.
Someone who had already reached 30 had survived dangers included in the calculation for a newborn. Their prospects had to be assessed from that point onwards.
That’s one misconception that Mortimer says we need to avoid. Another is that making it through childhood effectively guaranteed a long life.
The struggle to reach adulthood
“Chances are you will die as a child in medieval England,” Mortimer says. “That's the bad news. I'm sorry about that.”
His estimate is that around half the population would fail to reach 21. That threshold includes adolescence as well as childhood, but it conveys the scale of early mortality. Archaeological research supports Mortimer’s point.
Cambridge University’s After the Plague project estimates that around half the ordinary townspeople represented in its study would not have survived childhood, particularly because of infectious diseases. The researchers describe crowded accommodation, contaminated water and exposure to parasites as threats to life. Rich and poor shared many of these hazards, while effective treatment was extremely limited.
What if you survived to 20?
Reaching adulthood improved your position, but substantial dangers remained.
“If you do get to 20, then you have roughly a 50 per cent chance of living to 40,” Mortimer explains. “If you do live to 40, if you're one of the lucky quarter, then you have about a 20 per cent chance of living to 60.”
“In other words, only about 5 per cent of the entire population lives to 60 or further.”
Expressed as an illustrative group of 100 births, his rounded estimates suggest about 50 survivors entering adulthood, 25 reaching 40 and five reaching 60. This describes survival through a lifetime, rather than the proportion of elderly people you would necessarily encounter in a village on a particular day.
The distinction also explains why removing childhood deaths from the calculation does not remove the hardship of medieval life. Adults still faced disease, injury and shortages all the same.
The man who outlived expectations
Against this background, Sully’s reported longevity is extremely notable – and suspicious.
“There's a man called Sir John Sully, who is a minor lord in Devon, who in 1386 is forgiven for not turning up in court to give evidence because he was then 105 years of age,” Mortimer explains.
The legal proceedings concerned a dispute between Sir Richard Scrope and Sir Robert Grosvenor over the right to bear the same coat of arms. Sully’s recollections of earlier military campaigns made him a useful witness. His evidence was taken at home because he could not travel.
His age was a self-reported one, rather than a verifiable record. Nevertheless, even if he was younger than 105, the account suggests he was at least exceptionally elderly within the practical business of medieval society.
Reflecting on the likelihood of Sully’s claim, Mortimer notes “there are some who get into their 80s and sometimes 90s. So old age, advanced old age, is possible. Some people do get there, but very, very few.”
Could wealth buy you more years?
“Having said all that, of course, it does depend on how wealthy you are,” Mortimer explains.
Sully belonged to a privileged minority. He was a landowner, and status could influence the conditions in which a person lived.
“So if you are going through life as a member of the gentry, the knightly class, then you would probably have a life expectancy at birth of five to six years more than your peasant vassals working on the manor.”
The gentry were landowning families below the great nobility. A manor was an estate whose tenants might owe rent, labour or other obligations to its lord. Peasant households varied in prosperity, but the poorest had fewer resources to carry them through illness or a failed harvest. Clearly, wealth could improve security without making its owner invulnerable.
So how long might you have lived? The answer depends on where your story begins. As a newborn, you faced the heavy toll of childhood mortality. As an adult, you had already survived that danger, although reaching 60 remained far from assured in Mortimer’s account.
You might have reached your seventies or eighties. With extraordinary fortune, you might have become another Sully. But a medieval life expectancy of around 30 chiefly records how many lives ended prematurely – and how uncertain the opportunity to grow old really was.
“Life is tough. There is no doubt about it,” he says.
Dr Ian Mortimer was speaking on his HistoryExtra academy series, A-Z of Medieval Life. Watch the full episode.
Authors
James Osborne is a senior content producer at HistoryExtra