Michael and I watch a steamy costume drama on Starz, The White Queen. It's about the War of the Roses, and the beautiful actors all appear to be playing historic figures. Of course I have no idea why who hates whom. So last week during a break in the action (Michael begged permission to wash the dinner dishes), I hopped around Google looking up bios on some of the principal players in the story.
I was surprised to learn how young they all were when, for instance, they were married for the first time (3 years old? Really?) or how many spouses they ran through.
Today, Slate moved a fascinating article by Laura Helmuth about longevity. In the course of supporting her argument that older people have a moderating impact on society, she points to the 14th century as a fer instance.
Calling it "one of the worst centuries in recorded Western history," she explains that the bubonic plague and famine killed vast numbers of Europeans. She quotes historian Barbara Tuchman's observation that the Black Death cut through the complete cross-section of societies, removing anyone, including kings and established leaders.
These older people were then replaced by kids — teens or younger. As Helmuth puts it, these inexperienced, hormone-addled leaders "promptly did stupid, aggressive, frontal-lobe-deficient teen-age nonsense like invading neighboring countries."
No wonder the 100 Years War dragged on and on.
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