Toilet paper.
this post was submitted on 02 May 2025
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I'll pick the today option. My reasons have already been stated by many: political instability as a monarch, medicine, modern day commodities, etc.
But also, think about entertainment. Today we have a nearly infinite stream of entertainment at our disposal. Movies, songs, videogames, books. 500 years ago none of that existed. So there's yet another reason.
My answer is current era regardless, but do we keep our memories and go back, or is it as if we were born in that era? If you went back 500 years with the knowledge that the Super Nintendo and the Internet exist (the two inventions we have that they didn't have in the 1500s), that would be unpleasant. But if you didn't know that and were accustomed to getting your entertainment from court jesters and public hangings, I guess that would be slightly less awful.
Like everybody else has said, there's a lot of things we have now (by which I mean two) that are better than anything there was 500 years ago, even for monarchs. Regardless of whether I knew about those things in monarch form, the version of me that's making the decision knows, so ... nah.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z3jb3j6/revision/2
Heresy
increased in early modern England because of the introduction of the Protestant Church during the reign of Henry VIII. As the official religion in England changed from Catholic to Protestant, and back again, the decades following Henry VIII’s reign saw an increase in heresy-related crime. Those people who committed heresy were known as heretics and were often burned at the stake.
Those who refused to accept the new Protestant Church during the reign of Henry VIII were executed. Mary I (a Catholic) ordered the execution of nearly 300 Protestants during her reign, and Elizabeth I (a Protestant) had nearly 250 Catholics executed.
Not much by way of religious war today.
Vagabondage
During this period, the population increased, wages fell, food prices rose and people moved around the country searching for work. As a result, people became concerned about vagabonds, or vagrants,
who committed crimes such as theft, assault and murder. People in early modern England wanted to help poor people who lived in their community and were known to them. However, they viewed vagrants as suspicious, sinful and potential criminals because they were unfamiliar to the community.
There was an increase in vagrants during times of poor harvests and economic hardships. For example, the poor harvest in 1597 caused widespread poverty and suffering.
Famines are pretty much gone in the modern world. We kind of take for granted that it would be extremely unlikely for us to see large-scale starvation. Even if you probably wouldn't starve as a monarch, not the nicest environment to be in.
The Vagrancy Acts
New laws were passed to deal with the perceived threat of vagrants. In 1547 a harsh Vagrancy Act was passed by the government. An able-bodied vagrant - man or woman - who had been out of work for more than three days was branded with the letter ‘V’ and sentenced to two years of slavery if this was their first offence. For their second offence, they were sentenced to slavery for life or execution.
In 1550 this act was repealed because it was deemed too harsh. The government instead used corporal punishment, such as whipping. After being whipped, offenders were returned to their birthplace or place of residence.
A further Vagrancy Act was passed in 1597. It stated that vagrants who did not change their ways could have an ear burned using a hot iron and be sent into exile or executed.
Even North Korea, which is about as authoritarian as it gets today, probably won't go that far.
By modern standards, the world 500 years back was not a very pleasant place in an awful lot of respects. You can maybe try to avoid running into a lot of that as a monarch. But it's gonna surround you.
I'd rather live as a dirt poor person in a modern western country than as someone whose filthy rich in the middle ages. Our lives nowdays are better on pretty much every measureable metric.
The parasitic hell everyone lived through back then I'll gladly take today.