Plague, death from an infected paper cut, no refridgeration meant eating rotten food NEARLY EVERY DAY, lice, vermin, no justice of any measure... did I mention slow, rotting, spirit sucking, soul crushing death as the norm? Oh, and if you were lucky enough to live in a lowland country, or 'the marshes' in Britain, you were almost guaranteed to have malaria, so befor said rotting death you could look forward to YEARS of intermittant fevers and nausea/rhea that lasted for weeks at a time and could come back any time without warning?
These are the 'good ol' days', there was no golden age: it's now.