Please, there isn't any need to apologize. I cannot tell you how pleasing it is to have someone to talk to who doesn't think I would be better off limiting my conversation to the uncontroversial.
Yes, a plague will kill a lord as readily as a peasant once it takes hold, that has always been the case.
We have wood- and iron-working both, yes, but no gunpowder. Is that a naturally occurring substance, or in the realm of alchemy?
I haven't heard of it, no. I hadn't heard of America until today. Perhaps the places would be familiar but the names have changed? I can't yet tell.