RAISING THE LATE MEDIEVAL CHILD
Gwen Hamilton
RAISING THE LATE MEDIEVAL CHILD
Studying the lives of people
of a different age or culture is made more difficult by the fact that we see
their actions through the window of our own experience and beliefs. This can be
particularly difficult dealing with the lives of children because of the
emotional baggage we bring from our own childhoods and our experiences as
parents. However, I believe that parents
in any age or culture are likely to share some common goals. Among these goals are keeping their child
safe, passing on to their child their own system of values, and preparing the
child to be successful in the setting in which they live. The means of reaching these goals may look
very different. Modern parents walking
their child to school, teaching tolerance for ethnic differences, and helping
with homework may seem very far afield from the medieval parents who swaddled
their infant, enforced religious practices, and beat their child for poor
manners, but the actions are/were a response to perceived needs.
Much of what we read about
medieval childrearing methods seems harsh and misguided to us. A number of historians – perhaps most
famously Philippe Ariès
in Centuries of Childhood – have
written extensively suggesting the family in the middle ages was very different
to our own, particularly regarding the emotional attachment between parent and
child and society’s view of childhood. Refuting
these theories has provided more modern medievalists such as Barbara Hanawalt and
Nicholas Orme with a springboard for their own research and theories. Although I agree there is little truth in the
theories of uncaring parents and children treated as defective adults, the
dangers to the health and safety of medieval children were indeed real, and the
medieval beliefs behind the diet provided for the young and the type of discipline
they received are not ones we find
acceptable.
However, this is simply to
say we are all affected in our choices by our culture and prevailing belief
system, whether it is the Church Fathers and Galen or Dr. Spock and Dr.
Oz. The modern mother trying to balance
the needs of her career with the needs of her family has some things in common
with the harried medieval peasant mother who needed to fetch water and do other
chores despite the danger to her children of the fire on the hearth, although
obviously the threat to the well-being of the medieval children is much more immediate
and extreme. Indeed, the medieval
situation is inevitably more extreme in most aspects. Medieval parents faced many more threats to
the physical safety of their children from both accident and disease. They not
only wanted their children to grow to be good adults, but felt concern for the
very salvation of their children’s souls from the moment of birth. In an intensely hierarchical society, showing
appropriate respect for one’s betters and gaining the good opinion of others was
important to one’s chances of earning a sufficient livelihood in an age when
lack of success might mean starvation, or at the least, a significant lowering
of status.
I would like in the following
pages to look at the lives of medieval children and their parents, but to try
to do so with some empathy and sympathy for the circumstances of their lives
and perceived knowledge. I chose to deal
with the effects of medieval diet, famines, plague, and high child mortality
separately to the flow of growing up that parents hoped to see. These issues are important, but much of the
information involved is based on our present knowledge, not the knowledge of
late medieval parents.
In a novel called Return to Laughter, written by anthropologist
Laura Bohannan and based on her field work in Africa, the fictional anthropologist
is repelled by what seems to be superstition, callousness, and even cruelty in
the people she is studying, until surviving a life-threatening emergency among
them helps her to better understand the actions and responses mandated by their
lives and situation.
The Great Differences
"The past is a foreign country: they do
things differently there." L.P. Hartley
In the main part of this
paper, I will try to describe the sort of upbringing late medieval parents
would have hoped for and have expected to happen if all went well, and we can
relate to much of that experience.
However, realistically, there was also much in their experience that is
very foreign to us in our lives in a developed country of the 21st
century, although some of the differences would not seem so foreign to someone
living in a third world country today. Outside of exceptional circumstances, we
take having basic food and shelter for granted, we expect our children to live
to adulthood in our care, and we expect to be able to protect our children to
some extent from information we deem inappropriate for them to know,
particularly in the areas of violence and sexuality. I would like to deal with the differences as
background, as what medieval parents would take for granted in their
world.
Basic Necessities
In The Third Horseman, a study of the devastating famines caused by
climate change in the early 14th century, Rosen discusses the basic
diet for the average Englishman of the period.
He describes the farming methods of the period, which produced much
lower yields for grain and milk, smaller, leaner animals, and greater
difficulty in preserving food. He quotes
Jan Peter Pals, an archaeobotanist at the University of Amsterdam, in
estimating the typical model for available food for a peasant of the
period. He estimates daily provisions
for an adult of 13 ounces of bread, a quart of beer, an ounce and a half of
cheese, a quarter pound of peas or other legumes, and a little less than 4
ounces of mixed meat and fat. This adds
up to between 2,000 and 2,100 calories a day for an adult who would be doing
heavy physical labour. Approximately
1,500 calories is needed for minimum physical functioning. Rosen’s conclusion is that even in times of
relative plenty, the majority of the population was frequently hungry. He also concludes that the particular diet is
deficient in lipids, calcium, and vitamins A, C, and D, and that for women of
childbearing years there would likely be chronic deficiencies of B12,
C, and folic acid. (Rosen, 2014, 153-158) The Church’s prohibition on eating meat several times a week and during
Lent and Advent would have had further impact on this diet, although Lent did
come during the part of the year when food supplies were lowest. Other classes
probably did better as some other sources suggest servants of noble households
and soldiers would receive about two pounds of bread and a gallon of beer
daily. Deficiencies in the diets of
childbearing women of course impacted on their fertility, on their ability to
nurse and, on the health of the children they bore.
Mortality rate
Half the bodies in the
cemetery in the medieval village of Wharram Percy were under 17 years of age
when they died, some with indicators of anaemia and/or rickets. The mortality rate for children below the age
of seven is commonly estimated at 30%. (Gilchrist 2012, 46) Nutrition and disease were major factors, but
also death by misadventure was not uncommon.
The coroner’s reports tell many tales of accidental death, by drowning
and by fire-related incidents in particular, and also by attacks from domestic
animals such as pigs.
The wealthier pre-adult members
of society had the benefits of better and more ample food and warmth and
greater supervision, but nonetheless the level of infant death was
staggering. Between 1330 and 1479, the
ducal families in England – essentially the wealthiest and most powerful in the
kingdom – lost a third of their children before the age of five. Seven of Edward I’s 16 children died before
reaching the age of seven. (Youngs, 2006, 22-25)
Malnutrition affects
resistance to infection as well as directly damaging the body. Some illnesses with devastating effects in a
malnourished population are measles, tuberculosis, dysentery, intestinal
parasites, and cholera. However, many
other diseases such as smallpox, malaria, typhoid, and bubonic plague are not directly
affected by nutrition. (Rosen, 2014, 159-160)
Philippe Ariès, among some 20th century writers, has
suggested that high infant and child mortality may have inclined parents to be
unwilling to form a close bond with the infant, although there is certainly considerable
contemporary evidence of deep parental grief at the death of a child, poignantly
expressed in the poem Pearl. Many late medieval family portraits and
sculptures showed not only the living children of the family, but those who had
died, who, although gone, certainly seem not to have been forgotten. Family archives sometimes record the major
passages and traumas of the family’s children. (Ozment, 2001, 60)
Although the mortality rate
of children affected family life, so did the death of parents. If one survived to adulthood, one actually
had a reasonable chance of living a fairly long life, but violence, death in
childbirth, and disease did mean that many children grew up in the care of
step-parents or guardians rather than both birth parents. The guardians of wealthy or noble children
were often more centred on benefitting from the inheritance than caring for the
child. Wardships and marriages of wards
were sometimes sold or given as favours, although laws regulating this
gradually developed, some in fact being included in the Magna Carta.
Exposure to Sex, Brutality, and Death
Judging from Latin exercises
set for school including coarse insults and references to prostitutes and from
concern expressed by clerics over parents setting an example of ungodly
language and behaviour, children were not typically protected from exposure to
strong language, references to sexual behaviour, or references to violence and
death. (Orme 2001, 158-159)
In fact, in a culture with
little privacy it is hard to imagine how they could be. A walk through a town, perhaps to do the
marketing, would certainly pass by animals being slaughtered, pathetic beggars,
possibly whippings or executions, and almost certainly heads or other body
parts displayed on the town gate as an example of what happens to thieves or
traitors. Children would know of many
people who had died, not just the elderly, but siblings and friends. They would certainly see adult violence, even
if they were fortunate enough to live somewhere untouched by war. All men save clerics were armed and violence
flared quickly when there was disagreement.
For all too many children living near the Scottish-English border or in
disputed parts of France, fear of violent attack must have been common.
Leisure activities included
hunting, cock-fighting, and bear-baiting.
Even sports such as football involved far more violence and risk than
their modern versions.
Stability
Both parents and children
suffered instability through fluctuations in the availability of food, through disease
and the death of family members, and through the possibility or reality of
violence. The 14th century
was particularly unstable in all of those ways. That said, some aspects of life were
stable. One’s role in society was
generally fixed by class and gender from birth.
There was some social mobility for those who could obtain an education,
either through the church, or as lawyers or merchants; however, for most, one knew
one’s position in life and the expectations and obligations that went with
it. If one was a villein, one was tied
to the land and grew up in a village with a pretty static population. If one was fortunate, one had a good lord and
that lord was able to leave his land to adult heirs who were also good
lords. Children were trained at all
levels for specific roles in life and knew what was expected. One belonged – to family, to a village, to
land, to a guild, to a parish church.
Religion was a major source
of stability. For the majority, their
faith was woven through their lives in ways we can barely imagine now. The calendar ran around not just the seasons
but religious holidays. Even secular
events and business letters referred to dates by saints’ days and other
religious holidays. Gaining heaven and
avoiding hell, or lessening one’s time in purgatory, were very real goals, not
a vague abstaction. Clerical life was
sometimes used to provide for well-born children not needed as heirs or for
marriage contracts, but did provide a life designed to lead to salvation and
which assured livelihood and status.
Monastic orders provided charity, hospitality, and help where none would
otherwise have existed. Religion
provided hope and solace in a difficult world.
The Church controlled laws about marriage and family, provided rites of
passage, provided or supervised much of the available education, and also
provided colour and entertainment through the beauty of the liturgy, music, and
art in the church, and through religious plays.
Birth
In the middle ages, a married
couple who had formed a household would very much want children. They wanted the family lineage to continue
and heirs to inherit land or the rights to use land. If a peasant family, they would welcome additional
hands to do work, albeit in the future. They
were assured by the Church that children were the purpose of marriage and
sexual relations. For women, the
successful bearing and rearing of children added to their status, while there
was a social stigma attached to barrenness.
Biblical accounts of Sarah, Hannah, and Elizabeth, who had been
accounted barren, then conceived, were popular.
Pilgrimages to shrines reputed to help in the matter of conception were
common, and thanksgiving gifts such as 97 nightgowns from previously infertile
women to the shrine of St. Thomas Cantelupe are documented. Some pilgrimages were even to shrines in foreign
cities, such as Aachen and Chartres, which had portions of the Sancta Roba believed to have been worn
by the Virgin at the conception and birth of Christ. Badges from Aachen and
Chartres with images of the sacred tunic have been found in a number of places
in England. (Gilchrist 2012, 134)
Shrine at Aachen
Pilgrim badge showing the Sacra Roba
In other places, rituals with
a definite touch of pagan history continued to take place, albeit with a
Christian gilding. In Suffolk, a white
bull, festooned with floral garlands, would be led in procession by the monks
of Bury St. Edmond’s. Women who wished
to conceive would join the procession, stroking the bull’s sides, until they
reached the gates of the abbey, where they would enter to pray. (Leyser
1995, 122)
Advice existed as well on
furthering fertility by such actions as eating the sexual organs of a hare or
drinking thistle juice. The missionary
position in intercourse was recommended for successful conception and following
Galen’s advice, they believed that it was necessary for both partners to
experience an orgasm. (Heywood 2001, 45)
Childbirth could be dangerous
for both mother and child. The church
recommended that women nearing birth should make their confession to the priest
and take communion. (Communion was not
commonly taken more than once a year.) Leechbook III recommends: “a pregnant woman is to be earnestly warned
that she should eat nothing salty or sweet, or drink beer, or eat swine’s flesh
or anything fat, or drink to intoxication, or travel by road, or ride too much
on horseback, lest the child be born before the proper time”. (Leyser, 1995, 125) One assumes this advice was for the
well-to-do. Presumably the poor ate what
was available and did whatever was necessary to run their households.
They were aware of the
dangers of malpresentation and midwives were instructed to oil their hands and
attempt to turn the child. They were
unaware of the causes of infections which killed some women with puerperal
fever after the birth of the child, but certainly knew that such deaths occurred. Hanawalt cites maternal deaths in 15th
century Florence as 14.4 deaths for every 1,000 births, but the large number of
widows in the records would suggest a great many women survived multiple births
and went on to outlive their husbands. (Hanawalt 1993, 43)
We have pictures from the period showing the
use of birthing chairs and an English medical treatise depicting a woman in
labour pulling on a cord fixed to a beam above the bed. (Hanawalt 1993, 42) Many pictures of a birth scene show a busy
gathering of women, fussing over both mother and baby. The midwife would be there and possibly
assistants she was training. The Church was
concerned with the training of midwives because of the importance of baptising
the infant immediately and with the proper words if it seemed unlikely to
survive to be christened in church. A
prayer for women with child used in York in the late middle ages asked “...that
God comfort them and deliver them with joy, and send their children Christendom
and the mothers purifying of Holy Church and release of pain in their
travailing.” In other words, God is
asked to preserve the child to receive baptism and the mother to live to be “churched”
40 days later. The Church was anxious to
save the soul of the child from eternity in Limbo and priests were to instruct
midwives in the correct formula. The
church worried, however, that midwives might use unauthorized means, even
witchcraft, to facilitate the birth. (Orme
2001, 17)
Women were well aware of the
dangers of childbirth, as they were of the many other dangers in their lives,
but they were still eager to have children and welcomed the conception of
them. In a letter probably from December
1441, Margaret Paston writes coyly and humorously to her husband about her
first pregnancy, asking for fabric to make a new gown as nothing fits her and
reminding him of a new girdle he had promised her: “for I am wax so fetis that
I may not be girt in no bar of no girdle I have but of one.” She mentions that the midwife has sciatia,
but swears she will “come hither when God sent time” if she had to be carried
in a wheelbarrow. She then talks about
the reaction of a friend when learning of her pregnancy and about the fact that
her condition is now becoming obvious.
“John of Damme was here and my mother discovered me to him; and he said
by his troth that he was not gladder of nothing that he heard this twelvemonth
than he was thereof. I may no lenger
live by my craft, I am discovered of all men that see me...I pray you that ye
will wear the ring with the image of St. Margaret that I sent you for a
remembrance till ye come home. Ye have
left me such a remembrance that maketh me to think upon you both day and night when
I would sleep.” (Davis 1963, 4-5) St. Margaret was of course Margaret’s name
saint, but also a patron saint of childbirth due to her adventures escaping
from the belly of a dragon. Margaret
Paston’s tone seems to be one of satisfaction and accomplishment and perhaps a
hint of feeling that her wishes should be fulfilled more readily because of her
condition.
Many of the customs
surrounding childbirth have a celebratory air.
Wealthy women withdrew to a specially prepared room four weeks or more
before the birth was expected. The room
was often extravagantly furnished with cushions, bedding, and draperies, which
Gilchrist suggests reveals the value placed by the aristocratic men on
perpetuating their lineage, by sparing no expense in providing an environment
suited to safe delivery. The room would
be darkened and warm, often with special clothing for the mother and nursery
equipment ready for the expected infant.
Christine de Pizan describes the birth chamber of a Parisian merchant’s
wife: “...it was hung all round with
tapestries marked with her coat-of-arms richly worked in fine gold thread; the
bed and the rug surrounding the bed were likewise embroidered with gold. The sheets beneath the coverlet...were valued
at 300 francs...In that room was a great sideboard displaying a panoply of
gilded vessels. Sitting up in bed was
the woman herself, dressed in crimson silk, propped up against large pillows
covered in the same silk and decorated with pearl buttons...she immoderately
surpassed the ritual baths and refreshments customary in Paris for gatherings
of women friends and relatives celebrating the birth of a child.” De Pizan is critical of the woman for aping
the expensive habits of women of superior rank, but we still are given the
impression that if one had the means, this was a time for display, for support
from other women, and for celebration. (Pizan 1989, 194-195)
Men of the household did not
enter the chamber, bringing the food and other necessities to the door and
giving them to the women, who would serve the lady, rather than the usual male
servants. The women would pass on
information about the onset of labour and the eventual birth.
Various religious relics,
often girdles or belts, were loaned by churches to ease childbirth. Parchment amulets with prayers and charms on
them could also be put across the abdomen.
These were approved by the church until the reformation. We have numbers of extant amulets of this
type.
Late 15th century hanging cradle, originally
painted and gilded. Museum of London
When the child was born, the
navel-string was tied four inches long.
The blood was gently washed away and the baby anointed with salt and
honey or salt and roses pounded together.
The popular Cherry Tree carol depicts the Christ child as so poor he was
washed in water, rather than wine or
milk. The child was then wrapped in
clean swaddling clothes and his mouth and gums rubbed with a finger dipped in
honey to stimulate sucking. He was
placed in a cradle, which might be decorated with carvings and paint. In poor households, a basket might
suffice. (Gilchrist 2012, 141-142)
our heavenly king.
‘He neither shall be born
in house nor in hall,
Nor in the place of Paradise,
but in an ox-stall.
‘He shall not be clothed
in purple nor pall,
But all in fair linen,
as wear babies all.
‘He shall not be rocked
in silver nor gold,
But in a wooden cradle,
that rocks on the mould.
‘He neither shall be christened
in milk nor in wine,
But in pure spring-well water,
fresh sprung from Bethine.’
From The
Cherry Tree Carol
Baptism
Baptism was done as quickly
as possible, to safeguard the infant’s soul and to make it part of the
Christian community. The father, the
godparents (usually two of the same gender as the child and one of the opposite
gender), and the midwife would solemnly present the child at the church
door. The mother did not take part in
this ceremony, but remained at home for four to six weeks until
“churched”. The priest would ask the sex
of the baby, placing a boy to his right and a girl to his left. The priest would make the sign of the cross
with his thumb on the baby’s head, put a bit of salt into the baby’s mouth, and
say some prayers. Then he used saliva to
anoint the baby’s ears and nostrils, afterwards making the sign of the cross in
the child’s right hand. The child now
having been exorcised, the priest would invite him by name into the temple of
God.
All the party now proceeded
to the font, which would be close to the entrance door and the baby
undressed. The water was hallowed and
chrism (oil and balm) added to it. The
priest would again ask for the child’s name, and laying his right hand on the
child, would inquire in Latin if he renounced Satan and all his works and
pomp. The godparents answered for the
child that he renounced them. Quid petis?
What do you seek? Baptismum. Baptism.
Vis bapitzari? Do you wish to
be baptised? Volo. I do.
The child was baptised in the
name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and immersed completely into the
water at each name. In very late period,
pouring water over the child’s head became more common. The senior godparent took the child from the
priest’s hands and raised it from the font.
The priest dipped his thumb in chrism and made the sign of the cross on
the infant’s head. The baby was now
wrapped in the chrisom, a piece of cloth or hooded robe which covered the head
and body and kept the chrism in place. The
chrisom might be a simple one borrowed from the church or a wealthy family
might bring their own, possibly embroidered and decorated with pearls. A lighted candle was put in the child’s
hand.
The priest then warned the
godparents and father of the dangers the baby would face and their duty to keep
it from all perils until it was seven.
The godparents were commanded to teach the child the Paternoster, the
Ave Maria, and the Apostles’ Creed. The
chrisom was to be kept on the baby’s head for a time to protect the chrism
there. The mother usually returned this,
if borrowed, to the church at the time of her purification. (Orme
2001, 27-30; Heywood 2001, 52-53)
The child was often given the
name of the senior godparent, although there is some disagreement among
historians about the frequency of this.
One study, by Philip Niles, in his study of 302 medieval heirs, found
that 261 of them had received a godparent’s name. Certainly this would make more understandable
the number of repeated names within families, such as the two eldest sons of
John and Margaret Paston both being named John.
Both boys survived to adulthood, so there was no question of one being
named for a deceased sibling. Orme
refers to a memorial brass of the Carew family whose seven sons were named Guy,
John, John, John, John, William, and William.
Among the girls in the family were two named Agnes. (Orme
2001, 37-38)
Godparents gave gifts, often of money. Of course, the greater the rank involved, the
greater the gifts. Prince Arthur, for
instance, received a gold cup and cover, a pair of gilt basins, a gold salt
cellar, and a coffer of gold. Sir Henry Willoughby
in the 1520’s gave 10 shillings to godchildren who were gentlemen’s children
and lesser sums to godchildren of lower rank.
(Orme 2001, 31) Silver spoons
are documented as baptismal gifts from godparents, sometimes decorated with
religious motifs. (Gilchrist 2012, 144) In many cases, the senior godparent was of superior
rank to the parents, presumably in the hope he would be helpful to the child or
his parents.
Amulets were used to protect
the baby from potential harm by the evil eye or being abducted by fairies. Amber was frequently used for this, as either
single beads or strings of beads. Coral
was considered the most efficacious in this respect where the family had the
means to purchase it. Coral pendants are
recorded as birth gifts from the 14th century and are often pictured
in Italian paintings of the Christ Child and other infants. Waste material from working coral was found
in Winchester, confirming some coral was imported and worked in England. Some fossils were also used in this way. Such pendants also became teething aids. (Gilchrist 2012, 143) Food was sometimes placed near the head of the sleeping child to
distract evil spirits. (Orme, 2001, 64-65)
Family/Household
The baby would have been
welcomed to a household which typically consisted of a married couple, their
children, and possibly apprentices and servants. Households with multiple generations in them
occurred, but were not frequent. We have
figures from the west Midlands for size of families. Between 1270 and 1349, the mean number of
children for wealthy families was 5.1, for families of middling wealth 2.9, and
for poorer families 1.8. After the
disaster of the Black Death in 1348-49, the figures shrank to 3, 2, and 1.4
respectively. The climate change and
famines at the beginning of the 14th century no doubt had their
effect as well, both in mortality and in the lowering of fertility due to poor
nutrition. Pastoral manuals of the 14th
century also expressed concern that some were controlling the size of their
family through coitus interruptus and
other means. (Gilchrist 2012, 39)
A characteristic house plan
had evolved by the mid-13th century: a central hall flanked by upper
and lower ends. The hall was a communal
space with an open hearth, used for preparing and consuming food, domestic work
such as weaving and childcare, leisure activities, and entertaining visitors. This was the centre of life in the home. A chamber or camera at the upper end provided space for the family to sleep and
to store valued items. Other members of
the household such as servants and apprentices bedded down in the hall. The lower end of the hall was used for
storage of food and tableware in the pantry and beverages in the buttery. The peasant long house with the byre for the
animals at the end of it was rare by the mid-14th century. Town houses were more likely to have upper
stories and some houses had detached kitchens.
(Gilchrist 2012, 115) Houses
of artisans would usually have the workshop as part of the building, opening
onto the street.
In an urban situation,
privies might be shared. There is
documentation for disputes about upkeep of privies, since improperly tended
ones could be a serious problem for neighbours.
In a rural setting, privies were obviously less of an issue. Some kitchens had cisterns for rainwater
collected from the eaves. Other than
this, water needed to be carried from a well or a nearby body of water, or, in
an urban setting, from a neighbourhood pump or purchased from a water
carrier. (Schofield
1995, 117-118)
Floors might be of beaten
earth or chalk, or in London, clay. Tiled
floors were in use from about the mid 13th century where means
existed, often glazed with colourful patterns. (Schofield 1995, 112). Rushes,
sometimes with sweet smelling herbs added, were strewn across the floor and
regularly swept out and replaced.
Furniture was generally still
sparse. There would be a table, possibly
on trestles, benches, stools, chests for storage and for seating, possibly a
settle, possibly a chair or two. The
chair would express rank within the household; in many cases only the head of
the household would have a chair. Comfort and colour were added by cushions and
tablecloths. There would be a bed for the married couple and truckle beds or
pallets for children and servants. The
baby would be in a cradle.
According to Gilchrist, the
13th century marked an increased consumption of household
goods. Imported pottery was accessible
even to peasant families and wealthy families had glass vessels. Rural households were more likely to spend
their money on ‘outside’ goods and cooking utensils, while urban homes more
often bought comfortable bed furnishings and cushions. (Gilchrist
2012, 115-122)
Infants and Toddlers
Bartholomeus Anglicus, in De Rerum Proprietatibus, outlines
appropriate care for babies. He says
that a baby should be washed when it dirties itself, have frequent baths, and
be anointed with oil of myrtle or oil of roses.
When it cries, it should be offered the breast or moved around, to the
shoulders, hands, or lap. The caregiver
should talk, whistle, or sing to it. It
should be wrapped in cloths, with the limbs properly stretched, and bound in
cradle-bounds to make the limbs grow straight.
It should be put to sleep in the dark, to avoid injuring its eyes and
causing a squint. (Orme 2001, 63)
This advice was of course intended
for a wealthy household where there was a constant attendant for the
child. We know from various records,
particularly in Hanawalt’s research, that peasant mothers at times needed to
leave the child, sometimes on its own, sometimes with an older child watching
it, or in the care of a neighbour. On
occasion the swaddled child might be taken to the fields and put at the end of
furrow while its parents worked. The
records also indicate that there was a community expectation that the mother
would care for it appropriately, whatever the necessities of her work.
Swaddling
The baby would have been
swaddled in linen bands for much of its early life. Its predominant humours were believed to be warm
and moist, dominated by blood, therefore plastic and mouldable. Swaddling was intended to straighten and
strengthen its limbs and was also felt to prevent it from crying. Later a vest may have been worn with only the
legs swaddled. Medical texts recommended
that the bands be removed frequently and the child washed. (Gilchrist
2012, 35, 49)
Swaddling the infant also would
have helped keep it warm, made it easy to carry, helped protect it from
animals, and kept it from getting out of its cradle and into danger. When the child was no longer swaddled, it
was sometimes tied in its cradle in an attempt to keep it from harm. Heywood comments that while cleaning and
rewrapping the baby several times a day could be onerous, it could also be a
satisfying, bonding time. He quotes a 17th
century midwife saying that one should handle the child “very tenderly and wash
the body with warm wine, then when it is dry roll it up with soft cloths and
lay it into the cradle.” (Heywood 2001,
71)
Feeding
All but a small minority of
babies were breastfed. Peasant women
would feed their child themselves unless this was impossible. It was felt that colostrum was bad for babies
and for the first few days they might be fed by another woman or fed small
amounts of sugared wine. If the mother
died or was ill, it might be necessary to arrange to have another woman feed
the child. Animal milk or pap (bread or
flour mixed with water) was sometimes used – probably in desperation – but were
not very satisfactory. Babies were fed
on demand where possible.
Families who could afford it sometimes
sent their babies to wet nurses until the children were weaned, usually between
18 months and two years. If they were
quite wealthy the wet nurse sometimes became part of their household, keeping
the baby at home. There were plenty of
contemporary advocates, particularly religious ones, for nursing one’s own
children, but wet nursing remained common among the well to do. Maternal death, lack of milk in the mother,
the wish for another pregnancy, and time-consuming responsibilities are all
possible reasons for this. Among the
nobility and even the wealthier commoners, custom and fashion probably was a
factor. Contemporary critics of wet nursing alleged it
was done because of the mother’s desire to remain beautiful and to sleep
through the night. (Orme 2001, 58)
When the baby was old enough
to be weaned, the mother or nurse might paint her breasts with wormwood or
other unpleasant substances. By eighteen
months or two or three years, the child would already have been eating some
other foods. “Pap”, a type of porridge,
was a typical first food, made of hulled grain, flour, or breadcrumbs, cooked
in water or milk until the mixture thickened.
An “ages of man” scene from 15th century France shows a baby
cradled in its mother’s arms while its father carefully spoon feeds it. Once teeth were present for chewing, they
were encouraged to gnaw on crusts.
Walter de Bibbesworth also recommended carefully peeled and cored apples
or a soft-boiled egg. (Henisch
2013, 37-38)
Activities
Once toddlers, they were now
on the move, playing with pots in imitation of the mother, following the father
while he worked, tagging along with other children, picking wild flowers,
trying to retrieve a pretty feather from the brook. However, they still
remained in or close to the home and spent the majority of their time with
their mother. (Hanawalt 1993, 63-64) Baby frames
were often used for safety and to facilitate walking.
Christine de Pizan writes, of a fairly
substantial household: “She will supervise the raising of her children and make
sure they are neither coddled nor allowed to be too boisterous while they are
young. The children must be kept clean
and mannerly. Nor should their
belongings nor the nurses’ belongings be strewn about the house.” (Pizan 1989, 187)
Leyser refers to depictions
of mothers playing hide-and-seek with their children in The Ancrene Riwle of the 13th century and quotes an
example of conventional maternal concern shown in a play, when Sarah wants to
keep Isaac indoors to keep him out of the wind.
From a medieval lament of Mary mourning the loss of her son comes this
picture of a mother with her children:
Your children you dance upon your knee
With laughing, kissing and merry cheer.
O woman, woman well is with thee
The child’s cap thou puttest on,
Thou combest his hair, his colour see... (Hanawalt 1986, 179)
Bartholomeus refers approvingly
to adults using baby talk, as helping the child to learn to speak, although Sir
Thomas Elyot in his book on education, The
Governor, heartily disapproves of it.
Bartholomeus also refers with approval to children being lulled to sleep
with “lulling and cradle songs”. No
lullabies survive from this period, although some verses about the Virgin Mary
as mother may give us an idea of what they might have been like:
Lullay, lullow, lully, lullay,
Dewy, bewy, lully, lully,
Bewy,
lully, lullow, lully,
Lullay,
baw, baw, my bairn,
Sleep
softly now.
Or - Lullay, mine liking, my dear son, mine sweeting,
Lullay, my dear heart, mine own dear darling.
(Orme 2001,
130-132, quoting from Greene, Early
English Carols)
Family Routine
Despite the increased use of
clocks and bells to tell time by the 15th century, the day’s routine
was still oriented to daylight. There
was also increased use of oil lamps and tallow candles, but these were an
expense readily lessened by making the best use of the daytime.
Rural families’ routine would
also have differed with the season. In
the growing season, every hour was precious and they worked as long as daylight
lasted. The family’s food supply
depended upon producing the crop and this required backbreaking labour,
particularly at harvest. Women helped in
the fields at harvest and at other times as needed. The children in the family
who were beyond the toddler stage, perhaps aged four to eight, now spent more
time outside the home, often following the parents as they worked. They were
still mainly playing – although they would do some simple chores such as
minding the latest baby or fetching wood – but they were now old enough to
safely play near their parents as they laboured. (Hanawalt
1986, 158-160) In the
winter, there was less to do and the family would no doubt spend more time in
the house, close to the fire.
In an urban setting, they
would still rise soon after dawn.
Courtesy literature of the period aimed at the sons of gentry and
well-to-do townspeople, gives advice on what they should do upon waking. They are advised to make the sign of the
cross and say their Pater Noster and other prayers. They should wash their faces and hands,
making sure their eyes and noses are clean.
They should comb their hair and dress neatly.
They would have worn
underwear of linen – shirt and drawers for boys, chemise for girls – hose for
the legs, and a top garment, probably belted in the middle. The girls’ outer garments would have been
longer than the boys’. Hoods and hats were
worn and gloves against the cold. Most
garments would have been made of wool. The
quality and colour of the garments would depend on the wealth and rank of the
family. (Orme 2001, 73) It is thought that most garments for children
were made in the home from purchased fabric.
The Stonor papers include some interesting invoices for fabric and
shoemaking, much of it for young people in the Stonor household.
From a mercer’s letter of October 1, 1479 to Dame
Elizabeth Stonor:
“...according to your letter I send you: that is...
Itm. 6
elles holland at 2 s. an ell...
Itm. 7
elles holland at 16 d. an ell...
Itm. 38
yards green sarcenet at 5 s. the yard...
Madam, the sarcenet is very fine. I think most profitable and most worshipful
for you, and shall last your life and your child’s after you, whereas [cheaper]
would not endure two seasons...” (Carpenter
1996, 346)
Wealthy children might have
servants to expedite the process of getting up and dressed and were criticized
by some writers for being spoiled and allowed to sleep in to full daylight. (Orme 2001,
69-70) We cannot know, but where there were few or no servants, I can well
imagine harried mothers or older sisters scolding dawdling schoolboys into
hurrying or helping them find mislaid clothing or sending them back to wash
their faces.
Children would have shown
respect to their parents by bowing and curtseying, and in the case of the boys,
doffing their caps. Probably this would
have been part of greeting them in the morning.
They would also kneel at times for their parents’ blessing.
Mothers would traditionally
teach them their first prayers. The
boys might attend school; the girls, if taught to read, would more likely be
taught at home. In the towns, literacy
increased in importance. Merchants – and
often merchant’s wives – needed to read and more and more of the gentry became
literate. In a household large enough
for a chaplain, he might teach the girls and younger boys to say their prayers
and read. Leyser argues that the
increase in the 14th century of devotional pictures of St. Anne
teaching the Virgin to read may indicate a rise in domestic literacy,
particularly given the ruling during the suppression of Lollardy in the 15th
century which stated that women were only to teach other women and
children. The boys would be taught Latin
at school. The girls would not learn
Latin, but would need to be taught skills such as spinning, needlework, and
household management. (Leyser 1995, 138-139)
“And then the whining
school-boy, with his satchel, and shining morning face, creeping like snail,
unwillingly to school.” Shakespeare
School lessons started at six or seven in the
morning. Breakfast was simply a drink or
small snack, eaten independently, sometimes taken to school and eaten
there.
If in a local school, they
would usually be allowed to go home for dinner, which would be at eleven or
twelve. Dinner and supper were family
meals. In a poorer home, with one table,
the family may all have sat together. We
do not know what the arrangements were in a larger, wealthier household, where
seating tended to be by rank. The boys
as they became older may well have acted as pages and served their parents in
order to learn the manners necessary for serving at a formal dinner. (Orme 2001, 71)
Books such as John Russell’s Boke of Nurture have extremely detailed
instructions on the fine art of serving and also on table manners.
The meal would have begun
with grace. What was eaten would have
varied with income, day of the week, and season of the year. Obviously, certain foods would only be
available at certain times of the year, but as well the Church’s calendar of
feast and fast needed to be observed.
Children were not expected to keep fasts in the same way that adults
were. Winchester College in 1400 allowed
students under fifteen years of age to have breakfast as well as dinner and
supper. Similar concessions to the young
are shown in the food provided for the Percy family’s children and the boys of the
family chapel in 1513. The earl’s
children were permitted butter and eggs during Lent, which were forbidden to
adults. The two oldest boys’ breakfast
consisted of a half loaf of “household bread”, a manchet (a small loaf of very
fine bread), two quarts of beer, and either a chicken or three boiled mutton
bones. The chapel boys ate household
bread, beer, and boiled beef, with salt fish on Fridays. Supper was similar. The Percy boys would have fresh fish during
Lent, the chapel boys salt fish. Dishes
from boarding school menus include rough bread with butter for breakfast, with vegetable
stew, salt fish, bowls of bread and buttermilk, salad, and stewed mutton at
other meals. A number of writers speak of bread and butter as a food
particularly suited for children and that children loved fruit – sometimes
stealing apples from trees. (Orme 2001,
70-73)
The study of child skeletons
found at Wharram Percy seems to indicate children ate a diet more dominated by
plant foods than the diet of adults.
This appears to have led to somewhat slower physical maturation than
children in our time and culture. (Gilchrist 2012, 33, 41-42)
After dinner, the schoolboys
would return to their lessons, perhaps enjoying seeing what was happening in
the town as they went to and from school, then coming home again for supper at
five or six. “Symon’s Lesson of Wisdom
for All Manner of Children” warned boys in the street not only to greet people
courteously, but not to fight, swear, get their clothing dirty, or lose their
books, caps, and gloves, which would suggest possible distractions en
route. (Hanawalt 1993, 74)
Couvre-feu
provenant de l'Hôtel de Hollande (seconde moitié du XIVe siècle)
Education
Religious
All children were supposed to
receive a basic religious education.
Their godparents promised this at the time of their baptism and it was
considered important that they be able to say at least the Pater Noster, Ave
Maria, and Credo. Parents, godparents,
and priest might all be involved in this process. Mothers traditionally would teach them their
very first prayers. Below is a 14th
century translation in William Maskell of the Pater Noster and the Ave,
presumably with the hope of the children understanding as well as saying the
prayers: (Forgeng 2009, 45)
Pater Noster Lord’s
Prayer
Pater noster qui es in coelis Fader oure that art in heven
Sanctificdguf nomen tuum halwed be thi name
Adveniat regnum tuum come
thi kingdom
Fiat voluntas tua fulfild
by thi wil
Et in terra sicut in coelo in heven as in erthe
Panem nostrum quotidianum oure ech-day bred
Da nobis hodie yef us to day
Et dimitte nobis debita nostra and
foryeve us oure dettes
Sicut et dimittemus debitoribus nostris as we foryeveth to oure
detoures
Et ne nos inducas in tentationem and ne led us nought in temptacion
Sed libera nos a malo.
Amen. Bote delivere us of evel. So be it.
Ave Maria Hail
Mary
Ave Maria, gratia plena Heil, Mary, ful of grace
Dominus tecum God
is with the
Benedicta tu in mulieribus of alle wymmen thou art most
blessed
Et benedictus
fructus ventris tui and
blessed be the fruyt of thi wombe, Ihesus
Peasants
The majority of peasant
children would have learned their life skills from their families, watching
them, being instructed by them, and later working with them. Wealthier, freeborn, peasants might choose to
have some of their children more formally educated, to prepare them to become
clergy, to have them gain a skill in order to act as an effective reeve, or to
prepare them for apprenticeship. The
children of villeins needed the permission of the lord of the manor to attend
school. Some lords, particularly abbeys,
gave this permission fairly readily and for a low fee; other lords could charge
much more.
However, farming the land was
a skill in itself and one which changed over the centuries and had to be
taught. Boys might start by goading the
ox, helping to weed and hoe, graduating to plowing, casting seed, and
reaping. Helping to care for animals and
learning to do so properly is something else they would need to learn and learn
well, given the value of the animals. England’s prosperity was built on wool
and the care of sheep was important. As
well, various figures in the village such as carpenter, miller, or blacksmith
would also need to train appropriate successors, possibly but not necessarily
from their own families.
The women’s tasks, such as baking, brewing, dairy
work, and spinning were also important and necessary skills which needed to be
learned. Indeed, brewing was a
traditional way for women to earn money and would be highly respected. Hanawalt quotes some of the many female
tasks: “I must learn to spin, to reke,
to card, to knit...to brew, bake, make mault, reap...weed in the garden (this would
be the house garden rather than the fields), milk, serve hogs...sweep filthy houses...turn the spit, scour pots,
wash dishes, fetch wood, scald milk pans, wash the churn...set everything in
good order.” (Hanawalt 1986, 158)
Some traditions, such as
“a-ganging” show the community’s consciousness that the children of the village
needed to learn such things as boundaries, particularly crucial where the
information might not be written down.
“An English tradition known as ‘gang-days’ took an entire village’s
children out a-ganging: they would be
dunked in boundary streams, and bumped against boundary trees and outcroppings,
so as to define the borders of the village.”
(Rosen, 2014, 149)
Literacy
There seem to be various
guesses about the literacy rate in the late middle ages. It is difficult to pin down specific numbers,
partially because of many variables.
There is an assumption (a legal assumption, actually) that all clergy were
literate, but we also read of complaints that many rural clergy had difficulty
reading. The literacy rate for women was,
we assume, much lower than that for men, but it seems that the women of the
upwardly mobile Paston family could read, although probably not write. The Ménagier de Paris assumed his young wife
could read, but was unsure whether she could write. Merchants, lawyers, and major artisans needed
to read, write, and do accounts and many guilds in the late middle ages
insisted on apprentices being able to read and write. The guilds making this a rule shows both that
they saw literacy as necessary and that some of the applicants were not literate. We can only guess at the actual numbers of
people who were able to read and write, but this was an important skill and
understood to be so. We have extant
letters from families like the Pastons and the Stonors which deal with both
business and personal matters in great detail, and we have many, many documents
of laws, sales, land deals, apprenticeship agreements, and guild rules. In the 14th century peasant
uprising, the rebels were very concerned to find and destroy various legal
documents
The new availability late in
this period of paper and of printed books made both reading and writing
accessible to more people. Wax tablets
were often used for practice and for quick notes that didn’t need to be
permanently kept.
There were certainly more
levels of literacy at that time than there are now: the highly educated would be able to read and
write and understand Latin and English and possibly French, some might be able
to read - or sing - the Latin correctly without understanding its meaning,
others might be able to read and write only in the vernacular, and others to
read in their own language but be unable to write other than to sign their
name. The wide use of broadsheets pasted
to walls and printed ballades suggests that the level of vernacular literacy
was such that if you were unable yourself to read, you would probably have been
able to find someone who could read it to you.
Of course, rank and income
made a difference to the availability of formal education. Aristocrats often had tutors in their homes
to teach their children, especially since the upper classes frequently arranged
for their children to learn manners and make valuable contacts by sending them
to another home after they had reached an age of seven or more, usually that of
someone of superior rank to their parents.
This could result in a household with a relatively large number of
children to be taught. Those with the
financial resources sometimes sent their children to monasteries or convents to
be educated. There were grammar schools
in major towns and cities, as well as boarding school, but most schools charged
fees. Parents who could read themselves
may often have taught their children at least the basics at home.
Whether taught at home or at
school, the starting place for learning to read was the alphabet. It was however not quite the alphabet as we
know it now. The 22 letters of the Latin
alphabet worked for Latin, but required added letters for some sounds in
English, such as thorn for “th”, which was added, become similar to “y”, and
eventually disappeared. By the late 14th
century, the “abece” would have looked something like this:
+A.a.b.c.d.e.f.g.h.i.k.l.m.n.o.p.q.r .∫s.t.uv.x.y.z.&. .vest.Amen
The child would likely have
had it on a piece of paper or parchment fastened onto a wooden tablet for
durability. Later tablets sometimes had
the writing covered with horn and they eventually became known as horn
books. The alphabet may have been
expressed aloud as : (crossing
himself) “Christ’s cross be my speed,
in all virtue to proceed, A a b c d e f g h i k l m n o p q r s and t,
double-u, v x with y. Ezod, ‘and’ per se, ‘con’ per se, tittle tittle ‘est’
amen. When you have done, begin again,
begin again.” Orme takes this from a
1597 musical setting by Thomas Morley, which seems to use a deliberately familiar
text. “J” had not yet arrived in the
alphabet except as an alternative for “i”, the alternative writings for “r” and
“s” may not have been expressed aloud, the abbreviation for “and”, the
abbreviation for the Latin “con”, and an abbreviation of the Latin “est”, often
with the word “est”, followed. “Per se” means “by itself” and “tittle” refers
to the little dots standing for “est”.
Ending with Amen, the alphabet became a form of prayer. On the tablets it was usually followed by the
Pater Noster. (Orme 2001, 246-254)
Having the Pater Noster follow the
letters makes sense, as the children would know the prayer and be able to
relate the letters to the sounds in the words, especially as the sound values
in Latin are very consistent. Reading
would normally have been aloud – still the simplest way to make sense of the
words while reading something unfamiliar, particularly if reading middle English
with its varying spelling.
Schools
Boys of widely differing
social ranks attended school, although most noble children would have been
taught by tutors in noble households.
However, sons of the gentry, merchants, well-to-do townsmen, and yeomen were
all well represented. The sons of
villeins (serfs) needed the permission of their lords to attend school. There are records of such requests being made
and approved upon payment of a fee. The
statutes from Eton show that there at least, nobility sat at a high table, the
majority of the other students at a lower one.
Extremely poor boys who were earning their tuition with service would
have served the tables and eaten later. (Orme 2006, 131-132)
Most schoolboys probably
attended school near to their homes, because while tuition was not steep (about
4d. a term in 1277), boarding costs could be high; for instance, in the same
year, boarding costs at Merton were 8d. a week.
Other expenses included appropriate clothing, generally a long gown,
belted at the waist. Also needed were
supplies such as books, writing tablets of polished or waxed wood, slates,
pens, paper, inkhorn, and a penner, a little sheath to carry pens. Penner and inkhorn were often carried on the
belt. Some schools asked for contributions
of straw for strewing the floor, candles, and firewood. (Orme
2006, 134) A c.1380 inventory from the Stonor letters of a schoolboy’s
belongings which had been left at Ewelme school included coverlets, blankets,
sheets, a bolster, shirts, several gowns, an ivory comb, and kerchiefs. (Carpenter
1996, 450)
A few endowed schools were
made for the purpose, but more often parts of existing buildings were used,
sometimes part of churches. It seems
that a typical classroom would be a rectangular room with the schoolmaster’s
chair at the far end and a seat for the usher (assistant teacher) near the door, where he could monitor comings and
goings. Benches, called forms, were
usually against the walls and the books would be held in the students’ laps. When called to the master to be tested or
“apposed”, the boys went to stand before his chair. (Orme 2006, 144)
Pictures of schools showed
both master and usher armed with rods to beat lazy or disobedient
students. This type of discipline was
taken for granted. Agnes Paston, writing
about her son Clement in 1458, had this to say:
“And if he hath not do well, nor will not amend, pray him (the master)
that he will truly belash him till he will amend; and so did the last master
and the best that ever he had, at Cambridge.”
This does seem to have become a nuisance at certain times and places as
the Bishop of Norwich forbade the use of churches in King’s Lynn for schools
since the cries of beaten pupils distracted worshipers. (Orme 2006,
136)
What we might call elementary
schools taught reading and sometimes writing in the vernacular and singing,
which was important in the churches. Because
important documents and letters were often written in French, the French
language was taught, as were “casting accounts”. Writing and accountancy were important skills
for future businessmen, stewards, or clerks.
Although learning was mostly
by rote, some educators made an effort to encourage learning by making the
material appealing to children. The many
books on behaviour were generally in rhyme and some Latin exercises included
insults such as “A turd in your teeth!” and subjects that would be interesting
and familiar to the students. The children of wealthy families would no
doubt have been fascinated by the beautiful and colourful psalters and books of
hours used by their elders and have been motivated to try to read them.
Training for Combat
Medieval society was a
military society. The Statute of
Westminster in 1285 required every male over the age of 15 to possess weapons
appropriate to his rank – and implied was the ability to use them. Peasants had clubs, daggers, bows and
arrows. Many of the laws against various
recreational sports were designed simply to force the men and boys to practice
archery, and by 1512 laws were enacted that boys between seven and 17 must be
provided with a bow and two arrows and taught to shoot. Royal and noble children were of course
provided with miniature weapons, such as
the sword owned by Henry V when he was nine, and bows and crossbows were also
provided for privileged children, who would be taught to use them hunting. Even quite young peasant children practiced
with bow and arrow, as shown by a coroner’s report of a young child being
accidently shot by a ten year old. Boys
also invented their own war games, some violent enough to cause serious
injuries and adult intervention (Orme 2001, 182)
Noble children were
frequently raised in huge households, often a household other than that of their
parents, where they would be taught some academic skills, manners, and military
skills, traditionally moving from page to squire to knight. Unless the boy was being prepared for the
church, the role of warrior was a given and even some priests fought. Hunting, often starting at ages as early as
six or seven, definitely by 14, was considered training for combat, building
skill on horseback and with weapons, as well as physical hardiness and becoming
accustomed to the sight of blood. (Orme 2001, 182)
Apprenticeship
Entry into trades was
controlled by the Guilds – indeed everything to do with the trades was
controlled by the Guilds, the numbers who could enter, and the prices and
quality of goods among other things. The
typical age for entering into apprenticeship was 14, although there are
examples of younger or older individuals doing so. Generally those who became apprentices had
some family status or money. Guilds
eventually insisted upon literacy in their apprentices and there was generally
a fee involved, sometimes quite a large one.
Apprenticeships were legal arrangements and documented, so we are
familiar with the expectations on both sides.
The length of time – usually seven years or more – and the obligations
on both sides were spelled out. The
master would commit to providing appropriate food, clothing, and housing and to
teaching the apprentice his trade.
Sometimes additional terms were added, such as access to learning to
read and write or to not being obliged to perform chores inappropriate to the
apprentice’s rank. The apprentice
committed to obedience to his master, proper behaviour such as avoiding drunkenness
and fornication, and usually to remaining unmarried during his
apprenticeship. The apprentice lived in
his master’s household and under his master’s authority. Eventually, the apprentice became a
Journeyman and hoped to finally become a master with apprentices of his own. Typically apprentices were males learning
from male tradesmen or artisans.
Occasionally, girls were apprenticed to women in such fields as the silk
trade and daughters and wives were permitted to help with some other trades. (Orme
2001, 312-313) There
are documents extant about apprentices complaining about their food or
treatment. Sometimes these were written
by the apprentice’s parents; however, parents who had parted with sizable sums
to set the boy up in a respectable trade were not necessarily sympathetic if
they believed their son to be lazy or unreasonable.
The Pleasures of Life
Doing things just for
enjoyment is part of being human and medieval families would certainly have
done so. Some activities would be
specifically childish, but there were also many pleasant times that would have
been shared as a family. Medieval
society enjoyed music, both the music of the church and popular music such as
carols, which originally were songs to be danced to, usually in a circle.
Particularly in the Christmas
season, mummers and others would come to the door to entertain and be given
food or drink. The Christmas season
lasted 12 days, with special foods, special music, and some things like the
first Christmas mass, held in candlelight in the dark of night, when they would
rarely be out, must have impressed the children immensely, providing a sense of
mystery and awe. At certain times, the
lords of the manor would provide feasts for their peasants, which however
briefly, would have left the peasants with full stomachs for a change and given
them an opportunity to celebrate as a community. In wealthy homes, minstrels and jugglers
added to the merriment. In some places,
youth-centred activities such as “hunting the wren” took place, with the boys
trying to capture a wren, which they would then parade through the village, asking
for food, drink, or money. In religious
schools, Twelfth Night brought the brief reign of the Boy Bishop and authority
turned on its head.
Gift giving days for children
whose parents had the means to be generous were St. Martin’s on November 11,
St. Nicholas’ on December 6, New Year’s, and Epiphany on January 6, when
possible gifts were sweets, new clothes, silver spoons, and coins. Shrovetide sometimes saw children begging
treats from house to house and schoolboys permitted to bring their cocks to
school for cockfighting. (Ozment, 2001,
72)
Medieval children enjoying the sport of cock
fighting. From the Romance of Alexander,
MS. Bodl. 264, pt. I .folio 050r
Some religious holidays
provided particular entertainment such as religious plays, in which we know
boys played the parts of women and children.
(Orme 2001, 191-195). As well as
the cycles of mystery and miracle plays, there apparently were plays about such
subjects as Robin Hood. For urban
children and their families there would sometimes have been the fascination of
watching processions, religious ones and secular ones such as the mayor or even
royalty processing or formally entering the city. We have information about street performances
and presentations in these processions which must have been impressive to watch,
with elaborate costumes and music. We
know that the guilds and noble or royal households paid for “mummings” and “disguisings”
written by John Lydgate and probably others, although we do not know whether
any of the apprentices or other youth would have been able to see them. Puppet shows existed, possibly at markets or
fairs.
May Day brought processions,
dancing, and antics, with stories about Robin Hood entwined with much of the
celebration. The young would start the
day by fetching branches of May (Hawthorn branches) to decorate the doors of
their homes. It was traditionally a day
when apprentices might well get out of hand.
Riddles, some of them bawdy,
were popular. Adult men played football
and other games, no doubt watched by their admiring children, and it is
documented that older youth played football outside London, watched by men who
rode their horses there to watch – and possibly reminisce about their own
youth.
Some urban guilds and some
village churches provided religious youth groups called “guilds” or
“fraternities” for adolescent males and maidens separately. They would care for particular shrines or do
activities to raise money for the church, while providing an opportunity for
harmless (and supervised) socializing. (Youngs
2006, 116-117)
Games and toys
A contemporary poem by Jean
Froissart lists 51 children’s games, including using materials such as mud,
wood, and cloth to construct toy boats, mills, ovens, weapons, and
hobbyhorses. The toys most frequently
depicted in pictures are spinning tops, hobbyhorses, and balls. Items believed to be “buzz-bones” (bones with
a cut hole to be threaded and whirred) have been excavated. There is written documentation for dolls, but
none have survived, so presumably they were created from perishable materials. Some small metal or wax figures are known,
but may have been votive offerings rather than toys. Miniatures made of pewter or lead/tin alloy
have survived, including small knights and equestrian figures and little jugs
and tablewear. (Gilchrist 2012, 149-151) Rait in Ratis
Raving, 15th century, refers to “making a comely lady from a
clout”, which would certainly suggest what we call a rag doll. (Orme 2012, 18)
Children’s possessions and
activities are documented back to antiquity: “rattles, clay and paper dolls,
wheeled horses and wagons, sleds, balls, stilts, even miniature gardening
tools. Surviving illustrations depict
boys and girls playing marbles, shooting dice, jumping rope, flying kites,
dragging tame birds and reluctant beetles about on strings, spinning tops,
rolling hoops, puffing into blowguns, and riding stick horses while pinwheels
spin in their free hand. Between the 12th
and 14th centuries, noble and patrician boys staged tournaments with
puppet knights and horsemen….Favourite games were ball, ring-around-the-roses,
hide-and-go-seek, forfeits, chase, blind cow, thieves and sheriffs, musical
chairs, and freeze…In winter, snowballs, snowmen, sleds, and ice skating filled
the short days.” (Ozment, 2001, 71)
We have some traces of
children playing dice, tables (backgammon), chess, and Nine Men Morris. Adults gambled when playing these and that may
also have been true of adolescents. There were sports: bowls, football
(sometimes called “camping”), closh (possibly similar to croquet), wrestling,
and running. There are records of boys
bird-nesting, cock-fighting (particularly at Shrove-tide), and throwing sticks
at the head of a live cock buried to the neck in the ground. They played games with cherry-pits, probably
in ways rather similar to marbles, and used nuts and other things as
counters. There was fishing and, in some
times and places, swimming (naked and only for boys). (Orme 2001,
176-180)
Blind Man’s Bluff was played
and a game called Stools that we are not sure of the rules to. We know a bit
more about another game, How Many Miles to Beverleyham, as it was mentioned in
a sermon and some later references provided details. It may have been chanted as follows:
“How many miles to Beverleyham?”
“Eight, eight, and other eight.”
“May I come there by daylight?”
“Yes, by God, if your horse be light!”
The original questioner runs
from his base to another and back. If he
is not caught, he taunts, “Ha, ha, petty pace, yet I am where I was.” (Orme 2001,
141; Orme 2012, 27)
Pieter Bruegel’s 1559
painting, “Children’s Games”, shows more than 200 incredibly solemn children
playing various games and with dolls, hoops, tops, pin-wheels, and other toys,
as well as putting items not actually toys to use in play as children have
always done and still do. (See this
opposite page 29.)
Stories and Rhymes
About what our culture calls
“children’s literature”, we are guessing.
As with lullabies, this is not a topic that was much documented by
contemporaries and we do not know if they had a sense that some stories and
verses belonged to children and others to adults. It is difficult to know if the few remnants
of rhymes that have survived from the middle ages were used to amuse children
as our nursery rhymes are. Nicholas Orme
in Fleas, Flies, and Friars:
Children’s Poetry from the Middle Ages
discusses a number of verses that whether actually written to delight children
would certainly be appropriate for doing so.
One example that certainly sounds as though meant for the young is the
following:
I
have twelve oxen, and (Blumen der Tugend) 15th century
With
hey, with ho, with hoy!
Sawest
thou not mine oxen,
Thou
pretty little boy?
I
have twelve oxen, and
They
be fair and white,
And
they go grazing
Down by the dyke,
With
hey, with ho, with hoy!
Sawest thou not mine oxen,
Thou
pretty little boy?
This continues with black oxen by the lake and
red oxen by the mead. One could imagine
it being used with finger play or other activities between child and mother or
nurse. Orme also cites charming nonsense
rhymes about anthropomorphic animals garbed as knights or “fastening
shoon”.
There are extant stories about the imagined childhood
of Jesus and about child saints, such as William of Norwich and Little Hugh of
Lincoln, which would have made the story of their faith seem closer to children
listening to them. Robin Hood stories were
well known and popular. We know that
stories of King Arthur were popular with adults at this period and were often
read aloud, which might have opened them up to a more youthful audience. Orme quotes a wonderful story – The Friar and
the Boy – printed by Wynkyn de Worde that once again we cannot be sure was
intended for a young audience, but which has all the markings of a story
designed to be loved by children: a
young hero who triumphs over unkind adults, magic, and a mean stepmother forced
by magic to make rude noises that embarrass her.
That they in the
hall were aghast;
It rang all over
the place.
All they laughed
and had good game;
The wife waxed
red for shame;
She wished she
were somewhere else.”
(Orme 2012, 72)
The children would also have
listened to adults telling stories of local history and stories from their own
childhood, which would have given a sense of their community’s past and their
family’s role in it. Perhaps the much
later legends that became attached to Sir Richard Whittington, mercer and four
times mayor of London started that way – although sadly the cat is fictitious.
When Did Childhood End?
This is a question with a lot
of different answers, depending on class, gender, and circumstance. For most purposes the church saw adulthood
arriving between the ages of 12 and 17.
Typically participation in confession and the Eucharist began about
puberty, although a 12th century church council said youth under the
age of 14 should not be forced to take oaths.
However, twelve year old non-aristocratic males took oaths to keep the
peace and joined the “tithing” and “hundred” (organizations of local government
sharing responsibility for peace keeping), but for most legal offenses youth
under the age of 12 were the responsibility of their fathers, who would be
expected to answer for their behaviour and pay for damages, as well as deal out
punishment themselves. Once teenagers
were working and earning money, they became responsible for their own behaviour. For very serious crimes, such as homicide, a
small number of children did face the full penalty of the law, but these were relatively
rare and always a matter of concern to the people involved. (Orme
2001, 321)
Marriage
Marriage and the setting up
of a household was a major sign of achieved adulthood. Marriage was valid only with the consent of
the parties when the female was 12 or more and the male 14 or more. Betrothals and marriages between much younger
children did indeed take place among the high born and wealthy, for purposes of
the parents and guardians, sometimes
political or financial,
sometimes simply through anxiety to ensure the safe future of their child,
rather than risk the child’s marriage being sold to strangers. However, those marriages could be repudiated
when the children reached the age of consent and sometimes were.
Margaret Beaufort did exactly
that, repudiating the marriage she had contracted with John de la Pole when
very young and marrying Edmund Tudor when she was approximately twelve. Supposedly she made the choice herself, but
presumably would have had adults advising her; the story was told that she prayed to St. Nicholas,
who appeared to her in a dream and advised her to take Edmund. However, these unions of infants were
concerns of royalty and the upper classes.
Laws were gradually passed granting more protection to minors being
married, particularly when the marriage was arranged by a guardian rather than
a parent. (Orme 2001, 334-337)
More typical of the wealthy,
but not noble class, Katherine Riche, the step-daughter of Thomas Stonor, was
betrothed at the age of 13 and receiving letters from her much older
husband-to-be, Thomas Betson, but the letters are playful, suited to her age,
and make it plain that she was not regarded as quite old enough yet to be a
wife. She was finally married at the age
of 15 and apparently very happily. (Power 1963, 102-105). The wife of Le Ménagier de Paris
also was married at 15, with an affectionate husband expecting her to behave in
an appropriately youthful manner.
However, the majority of the
population did not marry until their late teens or early 20’s. Apprentices were not free to marry until the
apprenticeship was completed, usually in their 20’s. Peasants married when they had enough money
for their own home, again usually in their 20’s. Peasant girls would sometimes go into service
to gain experience and save some money while waiting for marriage. (Orme 2001, 334-337)
Members of the socially
mobile Paston family certainly looked for financial and social advantage in
their marital plans. Margaret Mauteby,
an heiress, was probably in her mid-teens when she married John Paston and seems to have had some choice in the
matter. The marriage was a successful
one. Her sister-in-law, Elizabeth Paston,
suffered physical abuse from her mother for flatly refusing one suitor, but still
wanted an advantageous match, several times asking for her brother’s help in
finding a suitable husband. She finally
married when she was almost 30. Margaret’s
elder daughter, Margery Paston, made a runaway match with the family steward at
19 and stuck to it against strong family opposition. Her older brother, John III, managed to
achieve a marriage that was both suitable and a love match with Margery Brews,
although not without considerable negotiating about the dowry. (Orme 2001, 334-337)
(Davis 1963)
Similarly, binding vows to a
religious life and celibacy as a subdeacon had a mandated age of 17, and one
had to be 24 to be ordained as a priest.
(Orme 2001, 216)
Inheritance
Inheritance involved still a
different set of ages. The standard age
for inheritance was 21, although women could inherit at 16 if married to
someone over the age of 21. A peasant
would be permitted to farm his father’s land when he was sufficiently
physically able to do so, probably around 15, although possibly supervised by
his mother. A burgess’ son could take
over his father’s business when he could show himself to have the skills to do
so. Some wills stipulate the use of money for an apprenticeship or for
education, or specify obedience to the surviving parent, the mother, as a
condition for inheritance. (Orme 2001, 326-327)
Guardians for minor heirs
frequently undertook the task in order to make a profit. The city of London had strict rules for the
guardianship of orphans of citizens, an orphan being a minor child where the
parent who was a citizen had died. One
of the considerations in appointing a guardian was that it should not be
someone who would profit from the early death of the orphan, so that if the
inheritance came from the father’s family, someone from the maternal side (most
frequently the mother) would be appointed, but if the inheritance came from the
mother’s family one of the paternal relatives was named. (Hanawalt
1993, 95)
Obviously there were
considerations other than just providing for the child’s upkeep and safety. When John Paston I died, his oldest son was
old enough to inherit his property, but he also inherited the responsibility
for the well-being of two widows (his mother and grandmother, both of whom had
dower rights in much of the family’s property), and his younger siblings to see
educated and appropriately married, as well as the care of several estates, some
of which had been involved in lengthy and difficult litigation. Where there were responsibilities it was
obviously important that the heir be old enough and competent enough to deal
with them.
Success or Failure?
Public opinion held the
parents responsible for how their child turned out. Orme quotes a story of the period in which a
condemned man, encountering his mother on his way to the scaffold, bitterly
berates her for not having corrected him sufficiently in his childhood, leading
him to a life of crime and an early death.
Bartholomeus sums up a medieval
view of the roles of successful parents:
“The mother loves her child
tenderly, and hugs and kisses him and feeds him and nurtures him
attentively.” “A man loves his child,
and feeds and nurtures him...and teaches him in his youth with speech and with
words, and chastises him with beating, and sets him to learning under ward and
keeping of wardens and tutors. And the
father shows him no glad cheer lest he become proud. And he...gives to his children clothing and
food as their age requires, and acquires land and heritage for his children
constantly and makes it greater and greater, and improves his acquisition, and
leaves it to his heirs.” (Forgeng 2009, 48-49)
An earlier medieval view
comes from the Anglo-Saxon poem The
Fortunes of Man and is even more evocative of parents tending their child
and hoping the results are successful:
“It very often happens
through God’s powers that man and woman bring forth a child by birth into the
world and clothe him in colours and curb him and teach him until the time comes
and it happens with the passing of years that the young and lively limbs and
members are mature. Thus his father and
mother lead him along and guide his footsteps and provide for him and clothe
him – but only God knows what the years will bring him as he grows up.” (Leyser 1995, 64)
Bibliography
Carpenter, Christine (editor), Kingsford’s Stonor Letters and Papers
1290-1483
1996,
Cambridge University Press
Davis, Norman (editor, introduction) The Paston Letters, A
Selection in Modern Spelling,
1963, Oxford
University Press
Forgeng,
Jeffery & Will McLean, Daily Life in
Chaucer’s England
2009, The Greenwood Press
Furnivall,
F.J., Early English Meals and Manners: With Some
Forewords on Education in Early England,
Originally published 1897
Russell’s
Boke of Nurture; The Babees Book; Fyrst Boke of Curtasye; Stans Puer ad Mensam;
other period books on food and manners
Gilchrist,
Roberta, Medieval Life: Archeology
and the Life Course
2012, The Boydell Press
Hanawalt,
Barbara A., Growing Up in Medieval
London: The Experience of Childhood in History
1993, Oxford University Press
Hanawalt,
Barbara A., The Ties That Bound: Peasant
Families in Medieval England
1986, Oxford University Press
Henisch,
Bridget Ann, The Medieval Cook
2013, The Boydell Press
Heywood, Colin, A History of Childhood
2001, Polity
Press
Leyser, Henrietta, Medieval Women: A
Social History of Women in England, 450-1500,
1995,
Weidenfeld & Nicolson; ebook, Phoenix 2013
Orme, Nicholas, Fleas, Flies, and Friars: Children’s Poetry from the Middle Ages
2012,
Cornell University Press
Orme, Nicholas, Medieval Children
2001,
Yale University Press
Orme, Nicholas, Medieval Schools: Roman Britain to Renaissance England
2006,
Yale University Press
Ozment, Steven, Ancestors: The Loving Family in Old Europe
2001,
Harvard University Press
Pizan, Christine de, A Medieval Woman’s Mirror of Honor: The Treasury of the City of Ladies, translated by
C. Willard, edited by M. Cosman
1989,
Persea Books, Inc.
Power, Eileen (translator, introduction,
notes) The Goodman of Paris (Le Ménagier de Paris),
1992, The Folio
Society
Power, Eileen, Medieval People
1963
London: Methuen, 2000, Dover Publications, Inc.
Ricket, Edith & L.J.
Naylor (translators), The Babee’s Book
2000, In parentheses Publications, Middle English Series,
Cambridge, Ontario
Rosen, William, The Third Horseman: Climate Change and the Great Famine of
the 14th Century,
2014, Viking Penguin
Schofield, John, Medieval
London Houses
1995, Yale
University Press
Sponsler, Claire, The
Queen’s Dumbshows: John Lydgate and the Making of Early Theatre,
2014,
University of Pennsylvania Press
Youngs, Deborah, The Life Cycle in Western Europe,
c.1300-c.1500,
2006, Manchester University Press
No comments:
Post a Comment