If anybody knows how much the value of a medieval pound (anywhere from 1100-1500 is fine) is, it would be a big help. I've been looking it up and it seems to bob anywhere from $600 to $2500. I've also read it's good to use the context of what a loaf of bread costs to estimate value compared to today, but I don't think so. Bread now and then and things now and then have two different values based on ease of production and demand. A sword today might be less than a sword in medieval times or more depending on the fan craze of some collectors. Either way, if anybody has any info, it would be a great help.
it's hard to figure, i've done a stack of research into general medieval culture, but none targetted at the value of money - save that a footsoldier in the english army would earn 2 pennies a day, and a mounted archer 6 pennies a day, presumably for his greater skill and his horse. this would not quite be enough as the soldiers would often be promised booty to make it all the more enticing, so these couldn't have been satisfactory wages. value is relative anyway. perhaps google stuff on medieval ransom values for the captured knights in combat?
The British National Archives have a currency converter. It only goes from 1270, when a single pound was worth £532.72 in modern money, and £486.10 in 1500. I don't know what it was for a knight (probably considerably less) but kings would be ransomed for anywhere between two and three times the annual income of their kingdom. So it's safe to assume that the same would be true of knights and their estates. I know that when Iain I (self-styled king; considered on the same level as a prince by European nobility) was ransomed for about £500 when captured at the Battle of Poitiers (1356), so that might give you a more realistic figure.
Sorry, I got a little confused by your post. Did you mean a single pound was worth 486 pounds in 1500's money and worth 532 pounds in modern? Either way, that sounds about right for one of the places I seen. There was just a site where it had one pound medieval equaling $2500 american that threw my off. Thanks A LOT for the site, though. NEVER would have thought to look there.
