# Had you lived 500 years ago, what would your profession be? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 14, 2010, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/had-you-lived-500-years-ago-what-would-your-profession-be/524918 "2010-01-14T11:45:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Aghris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecccb3/32.png) [@Aghris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aghris)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/had-you-lived-500-years-ago-what-would-your-profession-be/524918/21 "2010-01-14T15:12:26Z")
> [@Oredigger77](#): > > I’d be a blacksmith. I’m 6’6" and 330# so I’m sure I would have been easily apprenticed. I’m an engineer now so I have a mechanically inclined mind and would probably have been pretty successful. With a username like that you would expect to find you in the mines instead. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/had-you-lived-500-years-ago-what-would-your-profession-be/524918/22 "2010-01-14T15:16:25Z")
> [@Aghris](#): > > With a username like that you would expect to find you in the mines instead. Too tall them mine shafts are freaking tiny especially back when they were using rapid heating and cooling as their sole means of breaking the rock. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/had-you-lived-500-years-ago-what-would-your-profession-be/524918/23 "2010-01-14T15:18:54Z")
Currently a lawyer. Back then, I’d likely have been a mercenary knight/warrior. Same thing, really, just now I fight with motions and briefs rather than broadswords and battle axes. ---
**Author:** ![furlibusea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@furlibusea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furlibusea)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/had-you-lived-500-years-ago-what-would-your-profession-be/524918/24 "2010-01-14T15:21:16Z")
If I had survived birth I probably would have died in childbirth when my daughter was born. If I survived all that it, is unlikely I would have lived through the scarlet fever a couple years later. Even still, at 49 I am far older than the life expectancy of the time. My family tended toward scholarship and so women were expected to do needlework, and I am kind of crafty. I can knit, sew, do needlepoint, and assorted fine needlework. If not born to that class I might have made lace or other homebound craft for sale. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/had-you-lived-500-years-ago-what-would-your-profession-be/524918/25 "2010-01-14T15:29:40Z")
Small farmer, based on family records. By occupation, probably a monk, since they did most of the teaching back then. I know how to brew and distill, so alchemy might also be an option. ---
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/had-you-lived-500-years-ago-what-would-your-profession-be/524918/26 "2010-01-14T15:31:06Z")
I’m female, so like most other women of the time I’d be a mother and housewife. Wait a second… that’s what I am now! Weird! ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/had-you-lived-500-years-ago-what-would-your-profession-be/524918/27 "2010-01-14T15:32:00Z")
Well, my family has been on the same land for 3000 years, and our cattle herd was ginormous, and our masonry work sought after. (I come from a long line of Goban Tsaoirs.) So I know I would have had a good start in life, and excellent schooling. I would probably have been well known in the local area for my crocheting and embroidery (I used to make some lovely things back when I had time for it, and in those days would have been encouraged to really develop the skill.) I woudl also probably have been a lacemaker. Likely to have had a lot of children too, and to have started my family much younger than I did here. Chances are good that “my husband” would have written quite a few books and pamphlets as well. Strangely, I think I woudl have been much healthier back then, as most of my allergies are to modern chemicals, or American pollens. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/had-you-lived-500-years-ago-what-would-your-profession-be/524918/28 "2010-01-14T15:35:56Z")
Some kind of artist . . . possibly a monk creating illuminated manuscripts . . . and faking the religious part and the celibacy. Or court jester. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/had-you-lived-500-years-ago-what-would-your-profession-be/524918/29 "2010-01-14T15:41:27Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Currently a lawyer. Back then, I’d likely have been a mercenary knight/warrior. Same thing, really, just now I fight with motions and briefs rather than broadswords and battle axes. Actually, your job is absolutely nothing like fighting with broadswords and battle axes. 😉 They had lawyers back in the 1500s so you would probably have still been a lawyer. They didn’t have “management consultants” back then, but I imagine I would be either a lawyer or some sort of advisor. Sort of like whatever Machiavelli’s job was. Or I might have done something with my original career path in architecture/structural engineering > [@Aghris](#): > > How about you? How would your life translate to the middle ages? 500 years ago was the Renaissance. Did you mean like if we lived a few hundred years before that in Braveheart times? ---
**Author:** ![Aghris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecccb3/32.png) [@Aghris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aghris)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/had-you-lived-500-years-ago-what-would-your-profession-be/524918/30 "2010-01-14T15:44:20Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Some kind of artist . . . possibly a monk creating illuminated manuscripts . . . and faking the religious part and the celibacy. > > Or court jester. We could share a cell in the abby. You could do the gold leafing on my manuscript. ---
**Author:** ![Aghris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecccb3/32.png) [@Aghris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aghris)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/had-you-lived-500-years-ago-what-would-your-profession-be/524918/31 "2010-01-14T15:47:32Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > 500 years ago was the Renaissance. Did you mean like if we lived a few hundred years before that in Braveheart times? Depends on the part of Europe, but sure, to avoid confusion, let’s say 800-1000 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/had-you-lived-500-years-ago-what-would-your-profession-be/524918/32 "2010-01-14T15:49:44Z")
Being able to read and write were good job skills 500 years ago, at least for those of the male persuasion. Ditto arithmetic. So I expect I’d be some combination of scribe and keeper of accounts, if I were transported 500 years back in time. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/had-you-lived-500-years-ago-what-would-your-profession-be/524918/33 "2010-01-14T15:52:01Z")
Deceased. Too many things in my life would have killed me long before my current age. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/had-you-lived-500-years-ago-what-would-your-profession-be/524918/34 "2010-01-14T15:57:54Z")
Well, I’m a computer scientist. It’s a male-dominated profession, frequently celibate, you end up working in languages no one else can understand, wear the same dang thing every day, and hardly ever speak to anyone. So…yeah, monk. Definitely monk. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/had-you-lived-500-years-ago-what-would-your-profession-be/524918/35 "2010-01-14T16:03:17Z")
Blacksmith. Mainly because my great grandfather was a blacksmith (I still have a hammer he made) and IIRC ironwork had been on his side of the family for awhile. ETA: Failign that, I’d opt for “dragonslayer”, ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/had-you-lived-500-years-ago-what-would-your-profession-be/524918/36 "2010-01-14T16:08:18Z")
Bard. ---
**Author:** ![stargazer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@stargazer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stargazer)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/had-you-lived-500-years-ago-what-would-your-profession-be/524918/37 "2010-01-14T16:16:01Z")
Assuming a woman would be allowed to do this, I’d probably be a baker. If I couldn’t do that, then a weaver/knitter (and I’d probably have picked up crocheting and tatting and sewing). Of course, this is also assuming my eyes were better than they are in real life, or that I’d managed to jury-rig some sort of spectacles. I could do the knitting sans glasses, but the baking would be trickier, I imagine. ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/had-you-lived-500-years-ago-what-would-your-profession-be/524918/38 "2010-01-14T16:34:59Z")
Currently a lawyer. Back then, I’d be someone’s really shitty wife. ---
**Author:** ![Sonnenstrahl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Sonnenstrahl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sonnenstrahl)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/had-you-lived-500-years-ago-what-would-your-profession-be/524918/39 "2010-01-14T16:51:22Z")
Nun, definitely. If my family could raise the necessary cash, that is - becoming a nun was cheaper than marrying into the aristocracy, but more expensive than marrying a peasant. If not, maybe one of the lay nuns who served the endowered (endowed?) sisters. But I’m three-quarters blind without the miracle of modern optometry (they had glasses back then, but nothing so advanced as lenses to deal with my astigmatism), so I might have been just parked in the corner by my parents and left to mend sheets by feel or something. 500 years ago was actually a pretty good time to be a nun, depending on how you looked at it. Reforms of convents were underway by some idealistic women who were sick of them being places where rich women brought in their lapdogs and lovers, but Council of Trent reforms hadn’t yet taken place which enforced enclosure, so women usually visited family frequently. Still, I would probably be one of the women who complained that convents were sites of sin and would be pushing for reform, without actually being one of the reformers. Not that I’m a prude, that’s just how I see my idealism translating back then. Yes, I’m currently researching the history of nun four hundred years ago and have given the matter lots of thought. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![This\_Just\_In\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@This\_Just\_In\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/This_Just_In_2)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/had-you-lived-500-years-ago-what-would-your-profession-be/524918/40 "2010-01-14T16:59:07Z")
King. “Hail to the King, baby!” (this assumes I could bring some modern weapons with me) Otherwise I’d just be dead. Being born with underdeveloped lungs probably would have led to an early demise. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/had-you-lived-500-years-ago-what-would-your-profession-be/524918.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/had-you-lived-500-years-ago-what-would-your-profession-be/524918.md?page=3)