What did a medieval royal physician earn?
40 pounds a year, for treating the king and nobody else.
About $9,700 a month in today's gold.
A month of that pay weighs about as much as 3 AA batteries in gold.
One famous surgeon's rule: charge the rich 40 pounds an operation, treat the poor for free.
Where the money came from
Thomas Morstede was the son of Thomas and Alianora Morstede of Betchworth in Surrey. He was apprenticed to a London surgeon, Thomas Dayron, entered Henry IV's service in 1410 and became the King's Surgeon in 1411. A royal surgeon was paid partly in kind: his predecessor, John Bradmore, received payments from the crown for fees and robes, and 10 marks a year from the Prince of Wales. Morstede was also made searcher of vessels in the port of London, collecting the king's dues from ships on the Thames, and he paid agents out of his fee to do the work. In 1415 he was Henry V's chief surgeon on the Agincourt campaign. Before leaving he asked the king for money to buy and carry the surgical supplies the chief surgeon had to provide. In France he was paid a shilling a day, on the same terms as the fighting men. Out of that he had to provide and pay for three archers, three horses and twelve more surgeons. His assistant surgeons got 6 pence a day, the archers' rate, so he earned twice as much as each of them. He grew rich: his second wife was an heiress, and he held lands and yearly payments in Surrey, London, Essex, Middlesex and Lincolnshire. In his will he left 33 shillings to a hundred poor people of Betchworth and Brockham, 4 pence each.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org 2 · dorkingmuseum.org.uk
What a royal physician's pay bought in 1350
a longbow and 24 arrows: less than a day's pay
an ox: 6 days' pay
a year's food for one adult: 3 weeks' pay
a great stained-glass window: 17 months' pay, more than a whole year of it
a warhorse: 24 months' pay, more than a whole year of it
Every price of 1350, with its source, is on the prices page.