Chopin tours Britain while seriously ill, 1848
From April to November 1848 Chopin, already failing, toured England and Scotland under Jane Stirling’s patronage, playing private and semi-public recitals that paid fees but exhausted him, and returning to Paris worse. In the causal graph this event weakens Health-System Capacity, a driver that strengthens Hospital beds (per 1,000 people) — a worsening welfare path.
Read the full account
From April to November 1848 Chopin, already failing, toured England and Scotland under Jane Stirling’s patronage, playing private and semi-public recitals that paid fees but exhausted him, and returning to Paris worse. It is not the 16 February Paris concert and not a later British Chopin society. Stirling and her sister organised travel and money; Chopin still chose to go after the Paris revolutionary season destroyed teaching income. The row stores health harm.
Context
Britain in 1848 offered aristocratic drawing-rooms and some public dates (including Manchester). For a consumptive they were stairs, trains, and cold houses. Letters from Scotland describe isolation in manor rooms. That is patient-level health harm, not a NHS statistic. Fees taken from manor recitals do not cancel the medical extraction: trains, stairs, and Scottish isolation were the health instrument, and they are stored as one circuit, not as an English Fact plus a Scottish twin. Stirling scheduled the dates; Chopin still chose to travel after the Paris studio died. Manchester and manor rooms sit on the same circuit as London; they are not extra 1848 Facts and not a later Proms season.
If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here.
Why it matters
High confidence on the tour and the deterioration. Modest weight.
Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, museums, and adaptations are not converted into extra lifetime acts.
Who was responsible
Contribution type and responsibility level for each recorded actor — not sole-author shorthand.
Frédéric Chopin
PersonDirect responsibility
responsibility level 0.36 · verified
He travelled and played in London and Scotland with Jane Stirling’s help while consumption advanced. Hosts scheduled the recitals. Complex sick performer, not a British health minister.
What changed
Fact → Driver → Indicator. Relationship strength orders the paths; it is not the observed indicator movement.
- FactChopin tours Britain while seriously ill, 1848
- weakensDriverHealth-System Capacity
- strengthensIndicators (2)Hospital beds (per 1,000 people)
impact weight 0.4 · Effect from 20 April 1848 · verified
Strengthens · Relationship strength 0.24 (weight 0.4 × strength 0.6)
Observed
3.08 Per 1000 people · 1.24 below the normal line (2023)
Worse than normal6 readings, 2018–2023: rose from 3.07 Per 1000 people to 3.08 Per 1000 people.
Above normal = better
Weakens · Relationship strength 0.2 (weight 0.4 × strength 0.5)
Observed
37.4 deaths per 1,000 live births · 12.4 above the normal line (2024)
Worse than normal7 readings, 2018–2024: fell from 40 deaths per 1,000 live births to 37.4 deaths per 1,000 live births.
Above normal = worse
Evidence
The sources behind this fact and its verification state.
- 1.Oxford Music Online / Grove — ChopinOxford University Press · High credibility · verified
- 2.British LibraryBritish Library · High credibility · verified
What the sources establish
The British Library documents the London music world in which those 1848 appearances sat. Grove / Oxford Music Online independently dates the British tour and its medical collapse. Official: https://www.bl.uk/ (opens in a new tab). Independent: https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/ (opens in a new tab). The records establish the 1848 tour. They do not establish a unique later British mortality series.
Established: Chopin toured Britain in 1848 while seriously ill. Not established: a unique survival coefficient, or that Stirling wrote a medical protocol. A showing that he remained in Paris all of 1848 after February would change the row.
That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself.
Confidence is stated on the impact path, not hidden in adjectives. Mixed effects of Chopin tours Britain while seriously ill, 1848 are separate paths.
Shared responsibility is part of Chopin tours Britain while seriously ill, 1848. Naming Frédéric Chopin does not delete co-authors, institutions, or later transmitters. The lag from 1848-04-20 to any measured indicator is not treated as zero. Alternative explanations — weather, other armies, later statutes, or independent cultural change — remain live where the sources do not close them.
Causal path
How this event connects to drivers and indicators in the graph.
- ActorFrédéric Chopin
- contributed toFactChopin tours Britain while seriously ill, 1848
- weakensDriverHealth-System Capacity
- strengthensIndicatorHospital beds (per 1,000 people)
Cite this page
Factrail. (2026). Chopin tours Britain while seriously ill, 1848. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/ch-britain-ill-1848
https://factrail.ai/facts/ch-britain-ill-1848
Accessed 16 October 2026.
By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed
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