Death of the magnate: life expectancy of the magnatery in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Versus the demography of the Western European elites in the early modern age

The main purpose of the text was to obtain the life expectancy of the magnatery in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and compare it with the results from the Western European elites in the early modern age. Calculation of the life expectancy parameter values was made on the basis of genealogical facts, such as dates of birth and death of the members of 17 families (365 adult men and 173 adult women). Life tables were constructed starting from the age of 20. On account of the relatively small number of cases, the entire group was adopted as the cohort constituting the basis for constructing the life tables (extreme dates of birth for the cohort are in the case of men: 1457-1800 and women: 1499-1796). Because there were slight differences that may be observed between the life expectancy of magnates from the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, I decided to calculate 95% confidence intervals from my sample. Then I compared the value for the life expectancy of the magnatery with the value for the same parameter of the Western European aristocracy. My database was constructed using information from genealogical works and published materials referring to particular families, biographies of particular people, and also biographies published in the Polish Biographic Dictionary, monographs of families, articles dedicated to these families and their members, as well as already-published sources, such as wills, letters and memoirs. Certain data were complemented or corrected as a result of an archive query. Male life expectancy at the age of 20 was almost 33 years, and at the age of 50, 14.5. On average, women who reached their 20s carried on living for a further 31 years, and after reaching the age of 50, still had 19 years to go. Differences in life expectancy between men and women from different parts of the country turned out to be minor. The results of calculating 95% confidence intervals from my sample are not statistically significant. However, we can see bigger differences in relation to the Western European elites. Studies conducted by Western European historical demographers showed longer life expectancy for both men and women, especially in the second half of the 17th and 18th centuries. The lower life expectancy of the magnatery might have been the result of worse medical care, and in a broader sense, a lower level of human capital. The very small differences in life expectancy between men and women from different parts of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth may have resulted from the small amount of data collected and, on the other hand, of a similar lifestyle and economic and environmental conditions. In addition, they were related to each other as a result of marriage between representatives of both states of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth