Woah. 43% of families in 14th century Languedoc (southern France) with wills that have survived to the present day were childless at the time of death. That's a pretty wild demographic factoid. journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs…

Childless Families in Languedoc in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries - Lucie Jenny Laumonier,...

Childlessness was a widespread concern for late medieval couples. In the southern French diocese of Maguelone, an average of 43 percent of fourteenth- and fifte...

journals.sagepub.com
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Replying to @lymanstoneky
Were those without children more likely to make wills because (as today) the default rules were less likely to be what they wanted? (Hopefully the paper addresses this; I can only see the abstract.)

Nov 19, 2020 · 2:02 AM UTC

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Replying to @davidbaron @lymanstoneky
Plus, if you don't have kids, you need more assets for your support in old age, so are more likely to die with assets, so have more need to make a will?
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Replying to @davidbaron @lymanstoneky
Yeah that was my first thought, too.
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Replying to @davidbaron @lymanstoneky
Sharp
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