Female Longevity and Diet in the Middle Ages

Author(s): Vern Bullough and Cameron Campbell

Source: Speculum, Vol. 55, No. 2 (Apr., 1980), pp. 317-325
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Medieval Academy of
America
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Accessed: 03-12-2019 22:07 UTC

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Notes and Documents
SPECULUM 55,2 (1980)

Female Longevity and Diet

in the Middle Ages
By Vern Bullough and Cameron Campbell

In the ancient world it was generally thought that women did not live as
long as men. Aristotle, whose views were much repeated, believed that males
live longer than females because the male is a "warmer creature than the
female."1 The elder Pliny and Galen both held that men live longer than
women.2 While statistical evidence to confirm these views is difficult to come
by,3 most scholars agree that in fact more men than women reached adult-
hood in the ancient period.4
The same appears to be true for the early Middle Ages. In a survey of the
serfs of St. Victor of Marseilles, probably made between 813 and 814, the
overall figures show a slight predominance of males over females (a ratio of
102 males per 100 females).5 This difference is not very striking, but the
decline in the relative number of females as the population aged is certainly
noteworthy. Among children under the age of fifteen, females outnumbered

Mr. Bullough wishes to thank Lynn White, Jr., for special help and encouragement in the
preparation of this article.
1 Aristotle, On the Soul, Parva Naturalia, On Breath, ed. and trans. W. S. Hett (London, 1957),
p. 405.
2 Pliny, Natural History 7.4, ed. and trans. H. Rackham and W. H. S. Jones (London, 1942);
Galen, "Comment. III in Hippocratis lib. II Epidemiorum," Opera Omnia, 17,1 (Leipzig, 1928),
p. 445.
3 For the gravestone evidence, see A. R. Burn, "Hic Breve Vivitur: A Study of the Expectation
of Life in the Roman Empire," Past and Present 4 (1953), 2-3 1. For the criticism of this evidence,
see Keith Hopkins, "On the Probable Age Structure of the Roman Population," Population
Studies 20 (1966-67), 245-64.
4 M. K. Hopkins, "The Age of Roman Girls at Marriage," Population Studies 18 (1964-65),
309-27. For a recent summary of the classical evidence, see David Herlihy, "Life Expectancies
for Women in Medieval Society," in The Role of Woman in the Middle Ages, ed. Rosemarie Thee
Morewedge (Albany, 1975), pp. 1-22. I am greatly indebted to Mr. Herlihy for bringing to my
attention information and sources that I had overlooked. Herlihy (ibid., esp. p. 5) was uncertain
whether the disproportion of the sexes was due to female infanticide or to other factors. There
is evidence for infanticide in the medieval period as well as in the ancient period; see, for
example, Emily Coleman, "Infanticide in Carolingian Records," in Women in Medieval Society, ed.
Susan Mosher Stuard (Philadelphia, 1976). Nevertheless, we regard it as unlikely that female
infanticide could account for the predominance of males in the ancient and early medieval
populations.
5 The survey covers 128 households: "Descriptio mancipiorum ecclesie massiliensis," in Car-
tulaire de l'abbaye de Saint-Victor de Marseilles, 2, ed. Benjamin E. C. Guerard (Paris, 1957), pp.
633-56. See also Table 1 in Herlihy, "Life Expectancies," p. 21.

317

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318 Female Longevity and Diet in the Middle Ages

males (105 to 99).6 Among those over the age of fifteen, but still unmarried,
males predominated (127 to 120). The disproportion in this age group is
undoubtedly increased by the fact that girls were married at a younger age,
but males also predominated (104 to 100) among those who were married or
widowed (or whose status is not mentioned). At the monastery of Farfa in
central Italy, in a survey made sometime between 789 and 822, the ratio
between the sexes in adulthood was 112 men per 100 women.7 If these
samples can be taken as typical, and we think they can, then it is possible to
agree with David Herlihy's argument that women were in short supply, and
that there was "spirited competition for scarce women."8
By the thirteenth century, however, the situation appears to have changed.
Albertus Magnus, for example, agreed with Aristotle that men by nature live
longer than women, but he added that women per accidens in fact live longer.
He explained that menstruation purifies women, and sexual intercourse take
less from them.9 (The effect of sexual intercourse on longevity is also
mentioned in a translation of Averroes by Michael Scot.)10 Albert also noted
that women work less than men and are not consumed so much.
A number of commentators in the fourteenth century spoke of a surplus
of women.1" So changed was the situation that Castiglione argued in his
Courtier that women live longer than men and thus fulfill the intention of
nature better than men.12 The views of the commentators are documented
by population surveys from the later Middle Ages. David Herlihy sums up
the evidence:

Those surveys which concern cities, particularly north of the Alps, consistently
record a numerical preponderance of women. At Rheims in France in 1422,
Fribourg in modern Switzerland in 1444, Nuremberg in Germany in 1449, and
other cities, women outnumbered men by ratios of from 109 to 120 females per
100 males. Even in those cities in which women did not hold an absolute numerical
advantage over men, they tended to dominate the older levels of population.13

6 Though undoubtedly in the Middle Ages as in modern times a slightly greater number of
males was born than females (a ratio of approximately 105 to 100), male infants then as now
had much less chance of surviving to the first year, since female infants are more advanced
developmentally than males, and male infants are more likely to die.
7 "De familiis Sanctae Mariae," in II regesto di Farfa cornpilato da Gregorio di Catino, ed. Ugo
Balzani and I. Giorgio (Rome, 1892). See also Table 2 in Herlihy, "Life Expectancies," p. 22.
Herlihy regards the census of younger children as not particularly accurate. A more precise
breakdown can be found in Richard R. Ring, "Early Medieval Peasant Households in Central
Italy," Journal of Family History, forthcoming. For sex ratios in general, see J. C. Russell, Late
Ancient and Medieval Population (Philadelphia, 1958), who puts the ratio of men to women at
110-130 to 100.
8 Herlihy, "Life Expectancies," p. 7.
9 Albertus Magnus, Quaestiones super De animalibus 15, questio 8, in Opera Omnia, 12 (Miinster,
1955), p. 263.
10 Averroes, Compendia librorum Aristotelis qui Parva naturalia vocantur, ed. Emily L. Shields and
Harry Blumberg (Cambridge, Mass., 1949), p. 139.
11 Cited by Herlihy, "Life Expectancies," p. 11.
12 Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier, trans. Charles S. Singleton (New York, 1959), p. 219.
13 Herlihy, "Life Expectancies," pp. 12-13.

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Female Longevity and Diet in the Middle Ages 319

What explains the apparent increase in the relative longevity of women in

the later Middle Ages? Various answers have been proposed - the curtail-
ment of violence in medieval life, rising standards of living, the growth of
cities. The basic answer, we think, lies elsewhere, in dietary improvements
that made their appearance after the early Middle Ages. From what we can
reconstruct of the Roman and early medieval diet, it seems clear that pro-
teins and iron, the essential components for building hemoglobin, were in
short supply. The early medieval peasant subsisted on a diet composed
largely of bread (from rye, wheat, or barley mixtures) and a comnpanaticum
from the cauldron (an ever-changing broth enriched with whatever was
available).14 This standard fare, heavy on grains and light on meat, would
not have provided adequate amounts of complete proteins. Supplementary
sources of protein, such as cheese, curds, and wine, were probably not
served often enough to remedy this deficiency. Furthermore, the basic diet
was low in iron,15 a deficiency that compounded the effects of the protein
scarcity, with particular implications for the nutritional well-being of women.

IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEDIEVAL DIET

Lynn White, Jr., has argued that the medieval diet began to change in the
ninth century because the nature of medieval farming changed, thanks to a
series of developments arising from the use of a new and more efficient type
of plow. Shortly before 800, northern peasant communities began to use a
three-field rather than a two-field rotation. Oats, barley, and legumes were
planted in the spring, supplementing the traditional fall planting of wheat
and rye. Protein-rich peas, broadbeans, and chickpeas were therefore added
to the diet.16
The- effects of this change were reinforced by an increase in the amount of
meat in the diet. White noted that the most common kind of cooking pot in
the early Middle Ages was a small, cylindrical vessel. Larger pots, globular in
shape, begin to appear in northern Europe in archeological strata from the
later ninth and early tenth centuries. It may well be that the new pots were
used like modern beanpots to simmer legumes over a slow fire, and White
argues that they were also used to cook pork, the meat most often eaten by
the lower classes.17 Other animal foods became increasingly available. The
rabbit, which was introduced from Spain, made its appearance in the Frank-
ish Empire after the time of Charlemagne and slowly spread northward,

14 Reay Tannahill, Food in History (New York, 1973), pp. 109, 221. See also Georges Duby,
Rural Econorny and Country Life in the Medieval West (Columbia, S.C., 1968).
15 The best sources of iron in the Middle Ages would have been meat (particularly liver and
kidney), beans, greens, raisins, mushrooms, dried plums, and oatmeal. On iron cooking pots as
a source, see below.
16 See Lynn White, Jr., Medieval Technology and Social Change (Oxford, 1962), particularly
the chapter on the agricultural revolution, pp. 39-78.
17 Lynn White, Jr., "Food and History," in Food, Man, and Society, ed. Dwain N. Walcher,
Norman Kretchmer, and Henry L. Barnett, new ed. (New York, 1976), pp. 12-30.

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320 Female Longevity and Diet in the Middle Ages

reaching England in the twelfth century.18 Fish became an important item in

the diet, as evidenced by the frequency with which feudal dues were paid in
eels and fish.19 Meanwhile, the church began to emphasize fasts from meat
on Fridays and at other times, allowing only fish to be eaten on these
occasions.20 Saltwater fish became more important in the fourteenth century,
when an effective method of salting herring was discovered.21 By this time
cheese and eggs had also become important in the medieval diet.22
The result of these changes was a diet that included much more protein
than the early medieval diet, particularly in the form of meat. By the later
Middle Ages Europe had become what Fernand Braudel called "l'Europe
carnivore," the most meat-eating culture in the world, with both upper and
lower classes consuming large quantities of meat.23 The population of
Europe had accordingly expanded rapidly, until by the end of the thirteenth
century population growth began to outrun food supply. The impending
crisis was aborted by the Black Death in 1347-1349 and subsequent
epidemics. The threat of overpopulation did not appear again until after the
medieval period.

IRON IN THE MEDIEVAL DIET

Both men and women benefited from the increased protein in the diet.
This factor, therefore, cannot explain the improved life expectancy of
women. One must look instead at iron consumption, which also increased,
primarily because of the increased meat, beans, and greens in the diet.
Because women require more iron than men, this increase in iron consump-
tion would indeed have had a differential effect on the sexes.
Iron is present in a variety of foods, but the body is capable of absorbing
only a fraction of the available iron, in amounts that differ according to the
particular food.24 The amount of iron absorbed from grains (and from

18 Ibid., p. 17; E. M. Veale, The English Fur Trade in the Later Middle Ages (Oxford, 1966), pp.
209-14; idem, "The Rabbit in England," Agricultural History Review 5 (1957), 85-90.
19 R. Grand, L'agriculture au moyen age (Paris, 1950), p. 536.
20 J. F. Jones, "The Function of Food in Mediaeval German Literature," SPECULUM 35 (1960),
80.
21 R. Degrijse and 0. Mus, "De lastmiddleleeuwse haringvisserij," Bijdragen voor de Geschiedenis
der Nederlanden 21 (1966-67), 113, cited in White, "Food and History," p. 19.
22 Lynn White, Jr., "Agriculture and Nutrition in Northern Europe," to be published in the
Dictionary of the Middle Ages, ed. Joseph Strayer. Prof. White has kindly lent me his manuscript.
23 Fernand Braudel, Civilisation materielle et capitalisme (XVe-XVIIIe siecle, 1 (Paris, 1967), pp.
139-46 (translated as Capitalism and Material Life, New York, 1973). Some evidence for this claim
can be found in medieval recipes and cookbooks. See, for example, A Fifteenth Century Cookry
Boke, compiled byJohn L. Anderson (New York, 1962); Constance B. Hieatt and Sharon Butler,
Pleyn Delit (Toronto, 1976); and Thomas Austin, ed., Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Books (Lon-
don, 1888). A valuable source is Jerome Pichon, ed., Le menagier de Paris, comnpose vers 1393 par
un bourgeois parisien, 2 vols. (Paris, 1896), available in an abridged translation by Eileen Power,
The Goodman of Paris (London, 1928).
24 C. V. Moore, "Iron Nutrition," in Iron Metabolism -An International Symposium, ed. F. Gross
(Berlin, 1964), p. 241.

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Female Longevity and Diet in the Middle Ages 321

vegetables in general) is significantly less than that absorbed from iron salts,
liver, and muscle.25 Overall the rates vary from a low of 1% to a high of
17%, with a mean rate of 6.9% for adults and 9.3% for children. When
severe iron deficiency is present, an individual may absorb up to 20% or
more. 26
Since most of the iron in the early medieval diet came from grains and
vegetables, the amount available for absorption was relatively low. There is
therefore a strong presumption of iron deficiency, and of a higher than
normal rate of absorption from the limited supplies available. Neither of the
two variables, the available iron and the absorption rate, can be determined
very precisely, but the most optimistic calculation suggests that the average
absorption per day from the early medieval diet was no more than 0.25-0.75
mg per day.27
This amount would have been marginal for men, and even less adequate
for women between the age of menstruation and menopause. For men, iron
from the diet must replace approximately 0.5-1 mg per day, the amount lost
in feces, urine, and sweat.28 For women before menarche and after
menopause, the needs are the same, but the loss of iron in the menstrual
flow adds substantially to this amount, resulting in a total replacement need
of 1-2 mg per day. That is, a normal woman loses 43.4 + 2.3 ml of blood,
containing 20-23 mg of iron, every 27 days.29 Since each milliliter of blood

25 S. T. Callender and G. T. Warner, "Iron Absorption from Bread," American Journal of

Clinical Nutrition 21 (1968), 1170; P. C. Elwood, "Utilization of Iron Food - An
Epidemiologist's View," Nutrio et Dieta 8 (1966), 210; and R. Hussain, R. B. Walker, M. Layrisse,
P. Clark, and C. A. Finch, "Nutritive Value of Food Iron," American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
16 (1965), 464.
26J. D. Cook, M. Layrisse, and C. A. Finch, "The Measurement of Iron Absorption," Blood:
The Journal of Hematology 33 (1969), 421.
27 This is based on current data. The World Health Organization has estimated that the
average daily intake of iron today is 10 to 30 mg. Many of those who reach the current
minimum of 10 mg derive supplementary iron from iron cooking pots or from condiments such
as curry that are high in iron. Since these sources were not generally available in our period, we
conclude that the ancient and early medieval diet provided at most 10 mg, and no doubt less
than that on the average. The average absorption of iron from grains is 4.5%, which increases
to an average of 7.8% in those suffering from anemia. Thus the range of daily absorption from
an intake of 10 mg would be 0.45-0.78 mg. Our own estimate of the iron intake in the early
medieval diet is 4 or 5 mg per day, and we have chosen a range of 0.25-0.75 mg of daily
absorption so as to err on the side of optimism.
With additional and better sources of iron in the diet, the absorption rate in individuals with
severe iron deficiency can rise as high as 21.4%, producing a daily absorption of 2 mg or more.
This is what we think occurred with the changes in the medieval diet. For more discussion of
rates of iron absorption, see C. V. Moore, "Iron Nutrition and Requirements," Series
Haematologica 6 (1956), 1-15.
28 This is based on modern data and seems consistent crossculturally. That is, iron loss does
not seem to be too radically affected by body weight. See Elaine R. Monsen, Irvin N. Kuhn, and
Clement A. Finch, "Iron Status of Menstruating Women," American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
20 (August 1967), 842-49.
29 L. Hallberg, A. M. Hogdahl, L. Nilsson, and G. Ryko, "Menstrual Blood Loss: A Population
Study. Variation at Different Ages and Attempts to Define Normality," Acta Obstetrica et

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322 Female Longevity and Diet in the Middle Ages

contains about 0.5 mg of iron, even mild increases in menstrual flow increase
iron loss significantly. A woman of menstrual age, therefore, requires at least
twice as much iron as a man. If the early medieval diet supplied barely
enough iron for men's needs, it must be concluded that women on the whole
were severely anemic.30
During pregnancy a woman's need for replacement iron is even greater.
While there is no loss of iron through menstrual flow, this saving is over-
shadowed by fetal needs for iron, increased maternal red cell volume, and
the loss of blood and lochia at delivery. These increased requirements begin
at about the fourth month of gestation and rapidly increase until the time of
delivery. During the last two thirds of pregnancy iron requirements are said
to be 3-7.5 mg per day. Although iron absorption is increased during the
third trimester, the required amounts are usually greater than the amounts
available in the diet. The total cost of pregnancy is about 680 mg of iron, or
2.4 mg per day.31 The problem is compounded if pregnancies come close
together.32 Lactation causes an additional loss of approximately 0.5-1 mg
per day, roughly equal to the menstrual loss. In short, during pregnancy and
lactation, a woman requires approximately three times the amount of iron
required by men,33 much more than the early medieval diet provided.
Anemia is seldom the primary cause of death. Rather it acts as a predispos-
ing factor, increasing the risk of some other stress or crisis. Since anemia
diminishes the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood (although the body has
ways of compensating for this through a shift in the oxyhemoglobin curve),
any further loss of capacity can be fatal. That is, even moderate blood loss -
from a spontaneous or induced abortion, childbirth, or even a moderate
injury resulting in internal or external bleeding - can have serious conse-
quences. In anemic individuals, diseases that diminish the supply of oxygen
to the blood, such as pneumonia, bronchitis, and emphysema, reach the

Gynecologica Scandinavica 45 (1966), 320; and G. Ryko and L. Hallberg, "Influence of Heredity
and Environment on Normal Menstrual Blood Loss: A Study of Twins," ibid., p. 389.
30 If a woman becomes seriously anemic or loses a significant amount of weight, she will cease
to menstruate. This fact might well explain why population remained relatively stable through-
out the medieval period and why in the later Middle Ages, when data are more accurate, a
significantly greater number of children was born in late spring than at other times in the year
- in terms of weight and quality of diet, women were at an optimum for conception in late
summer and early fall.
31 N. K. M. de Leeuw, L. Lowenstein, and Y. S. Hsiel, "Iron Deficiency and Hydremia in
Normal Pregnancy," Medicine 45 (1966), 291.
32 The average frequency of pregnancies in this period cannot be determined. The highest
maternity ratio (average number of live births per woman aged forty-five or over) at present is
the ratio of 10.6 recorded among the Hutterites, a communal religious group in the United
States and Canada. Probably the medieval average fell in the more normal range of 5 or 6 (the
maternity ratio does not include stillbirths and abortions). Apparently any woman who engages
in sexual intercourse with any degree of regularity can be expected to become pregnant every
two years. For further discussion see Vern and Bonnie Bullough, Sin, Sickness and Sanity (New
York, 1977), pp. 91 ff.
33 Moore, "Iron Nutrition and Requirements," pp. 1-12; and Monsen, Kuhn, and Finch,
"Iron Status of Menstruating Women," pp. 842-49.

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Female Longevity and Diet in the Middle Ages 323

critical stage earlier, and any cardiac problem that diminishes the power of
the heart to compensate for the anemia can be fatal. Probably the leading
anemia-related death for women in the early medieval period was childbirth,
and this alone would be enough to explain the predominance of men over
women in the early medieval population.34

THE AGE OF MENARCHE

Since an increase in anemia-related female mortality would occur after

menarche, it becomes important to determine the age of menarche in the
medieval female. The age of menarche has been the subject of scholarly
debate, although the debate deals more with the modern period than the
medieval one.35 Roman law assumed that females were mature at the age of
twelve, and the evidence from classical medical treatises states that menarche
took place between the ages of twelve and fourteen.36 Medieval medical
authorities tended to agree, although much of the information comes from
the later Middle Ages.
Perhaps the earliest and most popular of the medieval gynecological texts
was De passionibus mulierum, attributed to Trotula. While the treatise is gener-
ally dated to the second half of the eleventh century, the earliest extant
manuscript is currently believed to be the thirteenth-century copy in Brus-
sels (Bibliotheque royale, MS 14339). There are numerous copies of English
provenance, eighteen at Oxford alone. Twelve of the English manuscripts
include tables on menarche and menopause, and the ages appear to vary
according to the scribe's personal knowledge. In general, however, the Ox-
ford copies put the beginnings of menopause at the age of fourteen, al-

34 There were other causes of maternal mortality, particularly for those who died during their
first labor. Rickets, for example, could lead to pelvic deformities that would be a major cause of
death in the primipara. Puerperal sepsis, or infection, also was a cause of maternal mortality,
particularly in long labors. Such factors, however, remained more or less constant until the
nineteenth century. Anemia was certainly a major cause, as it is in many underdeveloped
countries today. John Contreni of Purdue University is beginning a project to examine medieval
bone evidence, which may throw light on this problem. Josiah Russell has also made some
tentative explorations in this area. On bone malformations and disease, see Calvin Wells, Bones,
Bodies, and Disease (London, 1964).
35 J. M. Tanner, Growth at Adolescence (Springfield, Il., 1962), concluded on the basis of data
from several northern European countries that the age of menarche in 1850 was seventeen.
Tanner argued that the age of menarche has declined since then at the rate of nearly half a year
per decade. C. V. Fluchmann, The Management of Menstrual Disorders (Philadelphia, 1956),
reports that studies of the age of menarche in a single area of the United States in 1900 and
again in 1950 showed a decline from the age of 14.5 to the age of 13. Even if Tanner's data are
correct for the area studied, they are not necessarily applicable in other geographical areas and
prior to 1850. G. Backman, "Die beschleunigte Entwicklung der Jugend," Acta Anatomica 4
(1947-48), 459, argued that the age may have been seventeen in the nineteenth century, but
that it had been much lower earlier (probably fourteen) and began to rise c. 1500 until it
reached the nineteenth-century peak.
36 M. K. Hopkins, "Age of Roman Girls," pp. 310-13.

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324 Female Longevity and Diet in the Middle Ages

though some put it at thirteen. Most say that menopause begins at the age of
fifty, although earlier and later dates are also given.37
De secretis mulierum, spuriously attributed to Albertus Magnus, places the
onset of menstruation in the thirteenth year.38 Most other medieval writers
agree that the age of menarche was thirteen or fourteen.39 Assuming the age
to have been fourteen, the following calculations apply. If the yearly input
from the diet was 274 mg of iron (a high figure, assuming 0.75 mg per day),
and the yearly loss was 548 mg (average figures of 0.75 mg per day from
normal body loss and 0.75 mg per day from menstruation), the net loss of
iron per year for a woman over the age of fourteen would have been 274
mg. Assuming a rather high figure of 1,925 mg of iron for the woman's
body stores at the age of fourteen (35 mg/kg),40 the net loss of 274 mg per
year theoretically would reduce body stores of iron to zero within eight
years. That is, by the age of twenty-three the early medieval woman would
have been severely anemic, even if pregnancy is discounted.
A single pregnancy would result in losses of 1,467 mg of iron in two years
(680 mg for nine months of pregnancy, 765 mg for fourteenth months of
lactation, and 22 mg for one month of normal menstruation). At this rate a
woman's iron stores would be reduced to zero by the age of 21.7. With two
pregnancies, her stores would be depleted by the age of 20.3. A third
pregnancy would involve a serious risk to the mother. Even so, these calcula-
tions start from an assumed store of 1,925 mg of iron, a figure based on
current American diets and hence undoubtedly too high. Furthermore,
losses from a normal pregnancy are less than those from either a spontane-
ous or an induced abortion, and it is likely that one should assume additional
losses from the presence of worms or other intestinal parasites.
In short, we can state with considerable certainty that the early medieval
diet would have resulted in a high rate of female mortality due to iron-
deficiency anemia. The increased protein and iron intake in the later Middle
Ages, evident from the dietary changes outlined above, would have been
enough to reduce this source of female mortality and equalize the ratio of
the sexes in the population. That is, increased iron intake, by reducing the
differential between iron intake and iron loss, would have had the immedi-
ate effect of lessening the severity of anemia in women, thereby reducing
female mortality.

37 Trotula, The Diseases of Women, trans. Elizabeth Mason-Hohl (Los Angeles, 1940). A survey
of the manuscripts can be found in J. B. Post, "Ages at Menarche and Menopause: Some
Medieval Authorities," Population Studies 25 (1971), 83-87.
38 Cited in Post, "Ages," p. 86.
39 Post, "Ages," passim.
40J. A. Pritchard and R. A. Mason, "Iron Stores of Normal Adults and Replenishnlent with
Oral Iron Therapy," Journal of the American Medical Association 190 (1964), 897. The figure of
1,925 mg is the figure for modern girls and is no doubt substantially higher than the true figure
for medieval girls, whose body weight was much less. The amount that can be stored is
proportional to body weight. At 50 kg the amount stored would be 1750 mg; at 40 kg, 1400 mg.
Below 40 kg, girls are not likely to enter menarche.

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Female Longevity and Diet in the Middle Ages 325

The effects of the improved diet may have been supplemented by another
factor, so far unmentioned. It has recently been discovered that iron intake
can be increased measurably by the use of iron cooking utensils.4' Iron
cooking pots are mentioned in the Carolingian period,42 and they apparently
existed in Roman Britain.43 Nevertheless, it seems likely that iron pots were
not in common use until the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.44 Like the
changes in diet, the use of iron pots would have increased iron intake
significantly.
In conclusion, the nutritional evidence indicates that the early medieval
person was anemic, suffering from both protein and iron deficiency. As
dietary improvements were introduced in the tenth and eleventh centuries,
the effects of protein and iron deficiency were gradually ameliorated. Ma-
ternal mortality, and female mortality in general, could be expected to
decline as iron in the diet increased. Since men are less severely affected by
anemia (and their iron requirements are substantially less than those of
women), the improved iron content in the medieval diet would have had
little impact on male mortality. Consequently the relative life expectancies of
men and women were altered to the benefit of women. If by the later Middle
Ages women had begun to live longer than men, the reduction in anemia-
related mortality seems likely to be one of the major causes of this new
demographic situation.

CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE

BONITA, CALIFORNIA

41 See, for example, Elizabeth J. P. de Bruin, R. C. P. M. Mekel, J. J. Thieron, and J. R.

Jannsen, "An Evaluation of the Increase in the Iron Content of Foodstuffs Cooked in Various
Utensils," South African Medical Journal 3 (February 1958), 108-9; and R. W. Charlton, T. H.
Bothwell, and H. C. Seftel, "Iron Overload in South African Negroes," Clinics in Haematology 2
(1973), 383-403.
42Capitulare de villis, par. 42, in MGH, Legum II (Hannover, 1883), 1:82-94. Charlemagne
ordered each of his estates to have vessels of plumbea, ferea, lignea, and aera, that is, lead
(pewter), iron, wood, and bronze.
43London in Roman Times, London Museum Catalogue No. 3 (London, 1930), p. 118, fig. 41,
no. 1. I am indebted to Ian H. Goodall for this reference.
44 Bradford Bennet Blaine, "The Application of Water Power to Industry during the Middle
Ages," unpublished Ph.D. dissertation (University of California, Los Angeles, 1966), pp. 117-
39, esp. p. 120, argues that iron pots existed in some quantity from at least the eleventh century.
See also Rolf Sprandel, Das Eisengewerbe im Mittelalter (Stuttgart, 1968).

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