Posted on 02/16/2024 6:17:53 AM PST by Cronos
There can be no definitive answer to the question, ‘what was England’s population in [such and such a period]?’. Even with the sophisticated data gathering and processing techniques used in compiling the modern Census, not every individual is counted, and a few assumptions have to be made. When the question is applied to earlier centuries, a degree of intelligent guesswork is called for.
Although England is famously blessed with a generous source of historical records, the information is not sufficient to provide a complete picture. However, a profile or ‘shape’ to England’s population history is certainly possible, one that may be regarded as reliable. The main chart of this page shows a profile based on the combined output of three different approaches.
The safest way of dealing with late medieval populations is to work within a range. For example, John Hatcher (1977) offers high and low estimates that run from the beginning of the twelfth century into the sixteenth. Estimates by other researchers of the same period tend to fall within this range, or not far outside.
Taking the story from Tudor to Victorian times, Anthony Wrigley and Roger Schofield (1989) supply a detailed set of tables produced by a method of calculation called back projection. Systematic regular counting of actual people started in 1801. The official national Census provides a decadal count which brings the chart to the present day.
The period from 1348 (the Black Death) to 1665 (the Great Plague) could be termed the plague centuries, although other diseases were also responsible for mortality. During this part of England’s history, the population must have intermittently dropped, to recover a little, only to fall once again as another epidemic flared. A total of thirty-three widespread outbreaks of plague have been identified for the period.
By entering into a computer model some values for natural growth (as it might be without plague but having regard for the action of other diseases), exposure to the disease, case fatality, plague type, immunological protection, and by stipulating that the trace be faithful to the paths proposed in the main chart, a speculative ‘saw tooth’ profile for the plague centuries is formed. As plague disappeared in the second half of the seventeenth century, other factors caused several decades of population stagnation.
References
Hatcher, J (1977)
Plague, Population and the English Economy, 1348-1530 Studies in Economic and Social History
London: Macmillan
Wrigley, E A, and Schofield, R S (1989)
The Population History of England 1541-1871: A reconstruction
Cambridge University Press
The UK had a population less than 2023 New York for much of history until 1800
Germany was sparsely populated until the mid 1800s
Or Poland
Or Russia - which had a population of 11 million in 1700, but then 25 million in 1800, and 73 million in 1900
Kind of crazy to realize that the population of Tudor-era England was roughly comparable to the city of Chicago in 2024. Of course, even with all the beheading and quartering, Tudor England was likely safer than Chi-Town.
The population of the Roman Empire at its peak in 117 AD was between 59 to 76 million
at that same time, Han China (which had a census in 156 AD) was about 51 million people
Thanks to capitalism and technological progress, England and the United States were the first countries to escape from the Malthusian trap around 1820. They were the first two countries to be able to increase both the average standard of living and population at the same time.
Henry VIII himself had three of my ancestors lopped, chopped and hanged.
Yes, the world population was about the same from 1000 BC to 1700. The rate of innovation was roughly matched to the rate of soil depletion.
It was fossil fuels that unlocked the energy boost that liberated humanity.
“Thanks to capitalism and technological progress, England and the United States were the first countries to escape from the Malthusian trap around 1820. They were the first two countries to be able to increase both the average standard of living and population at the same time”.
British troops were impressed with the standard of living in the Colonies prior to, and during, the War of Independence. It was higher than the British standard of living.
Estimates are that Caesar’s conquest of Gaul involved killing about 1 million Gauls.
The Romans just slaughtered anybody that opposed them.
Jack the Ripper wouldn’t recognize the people living in Whitechapel these days.
What is THE POINT of this article?
BTW - for anyone interested in a fantastic podcast series, I recommend “The History of England”, by David Crowther.
NOT “fossil fuels”
PetroChemicals!
One of my ancestors was Cardinal Wosley (yeah, Catholic clergy could and did get married in that era) who was fired by Henry VIII when he couldn't get him his first divorce.
Sir Thomas More took his place and we all know how that turned out after More got the annulment that Wosley was pushing for after Henry wanted to dispose of his second wife as well.
Wosley, meanwhile, became so popular with his parishioners in York that Henry had him summoned to London to find an excuse to have him executed. God was kind and allowed Wosley to die on the journey there.
I read somewhere that at one point, there were 800 (yes 800) capital crimes in England. People had to stand in line and wait their turn to be hanged, I guess.
In Victorian England, pocket-picking was a capital crime.
One of the events where pick-pockets could be counted on to ply their trade en masse was at a public hanging.
Interesting
Were tHe British Island people counted after 1066 when the Doomsday Book was prepared?
I picked up a modern edition of it (for genealogy) and it’s a real count of the inhabitants under Norman rule. That included everything more or less south of The Wall, and east of Wales, as well as parts of southern Wales, all of Cornwall / Devon (that was ruled by the Saxon kings after, hmm, probably Athelstan). The tiny place where my surname ancestors eventually hailed from is in there, had about 70 living there if memory serves. :^)
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