Some Emerging Issues in the Demography of Medieval England and Prospects for their Future Investigation

Abstract

This brief overview of recent and possible future areas for developments in the field of medieval English demography examines recent work on male mortality and female marriage patterns, focusing especially on analysis of the inquisitiones post mortem and various other manorial records. It stresses the degree of uncertainty surrounding demographic analyses based on these data, and the challenges facing those who seek to derive demographic indicators. It concludes that much more is now known with some confidence about male adult mortality than female nuptiality and hence fertility, leading to considerable asymmetry in our current basic demographic knowledge.