English Familial Demography c. 1300: A Reconstruction

Abstract Due to the scarcity of data, the demographic regime of pre-plague England is poorly understood. In this article, we review the existing literature to estimate the mean age at first marriage for women (at 24) and men (at 27), the remaining life expectancy at first marriage for men (at 25 years), the mean household size (at 5.8), and marital fertility around 1300. Based on these values, we develop a macrosimulation that creates a consistent image of English demography at its medieval population peak that reflects a Western European marriage pattern with a relatively very high share of celibates.