Childhood in the Middle Ages - Europe

Audio Transcript Auto-generated

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  Hi, everyone.

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  I'm Tiffany is a heart ah, public historian specializing in

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  researching and interpreting childhood.

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  Specifically, I focus on the study of girlhood throughout all

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  time periods with a personal passion for the medieval and

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  early modern.

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  I've worked with lots of museums, and in the past

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  decade I've discovered that girlhood and childhood in general are

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  much more diverse, complex and interesting than most scholars tend

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  to believe.

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  Today we're going to cover medieval childhood, which touches into

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  the Renaissance period as well.

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  Now, when I say that, you probably immediately think of

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  Europe right, because for so long, Western history treats the

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  medieval period like it happened on Lee to Europe.

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  And while European history has a wide ranging impact on

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  world history, childhood there was not the same as childhood

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  in other regions of the time.

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  In this first module, we're going to talk in depth

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  about medieval Europe, while the second module will hopefully open

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  up your eyes to how big the middle of a

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  world childhood really Waas.

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  Let's get started.

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  The medieval period is big, like really big medieval Europe

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  occurred from around 500 to 1500 common era.

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  That's over 1000 years.

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  Given the changes to childhood and child rearing seen in

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  just the 20th century.

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  To say that childhood was the same from the sixth

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  to the 16th centuries is, well, not quite right.

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  Granted, they did not have Facebook and MASH publishers telling

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  parents what to dio.

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  But cultural traditions were not rigid for a straight 1000

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  years. So what was it like to be a child

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  in medieval Europe?

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  Most of what we know comes from cobbling together a

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  bunch of sources archaeology, demography, family documents like correspondents and

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  studying medieval literature, art and religion.

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  Archaeology gives us a more positive view of childhood toys.

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  Air one big category of artifacts found from the medieval

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  period. For example, the toy night shown was found along

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  the River Thames in London around and was made around

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  1300. It is a cast pewter figure and one of

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  the earliest examples of mass produced metal toys, one of

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  several toys found in archaeological excavations in London.

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  It shows that there was a thriving mass market for

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  Children's toys in the medieval period like toys.

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  Today, Children who played with this likely had their own

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  slang games and pretend to go along with it.

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  Toys also showed us the Children were cared for adults,

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  made them toys, bought them toys and let them play

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  with toys like parents do today.

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  Now art is another source for learning about childhood dress

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  and activities but aren't featuring Children is fairly scarce.

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  Most images we would consider to be of Children are

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  actually religious iconography, like the fat, adult looking baby.

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  Jesus is, I mean, seriously, Such fat, squishy babies.

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  Ah, bit creepy there.

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  But looking at the borders of illuminated manuscript, you might

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  find illusions like this one.

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  Children playing war in the streets on stick hobby horses

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  with toy lances.

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  Portrait's were a relatively late medieval develop development for medieval

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  Europe, and nearly all of them are of royal or

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  noble Children.

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  Royal Portrait CE were commissioned for specific purposes.

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  Meeting They're more like propaganda than reality.

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  Portrait's were used to solidify a future rulers power or

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  were used to show potential suitors.

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  What a fine match the child was going to be.

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  So we must take what we see with a grain

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  of salt and remember that most of what is shown

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  in art is from the upper levels of society.

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  But medieval childhood has a darker side.

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  Demography. The study of births and deaths is one way

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  of seeing this, and some studies scholars have found that

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  nearly one quarter that's 25% off Children died before reaching,

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  reaching the age of one.

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  Another 12 to 18% died before the age of nine.

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  The chances of reaching adulthood we're almost the same as

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  not reaching adulthood.

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  Coroner's inquests are one of the most important sources for

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  understanding how perilous the medieval world waas, especially for Children.

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  Coroners were required by law to attend deaths and record

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  their circumstances.

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  So they're inquests are many and broad, Ah, unique source

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  that gives us an in depth look at medieval life

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  across all social classes.

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  And looking at the inquest is a whole.

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  A few patterns emerge.

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  One is the activities that Children engaged in, including the

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  ones that got him killed in infancy up to about

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  age three.

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  Most Children died within the home.

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  Their activities are listed us following their mothers being near

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  the cradle or imitating adults through pretend play.

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  After infancy, Children were more active.

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  Their deaths come more from play, acting within and outside

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  the home or from actively helping their mothers with daily

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  chores. Deaths included pulling hot pots off trip.

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  It's playing with knives, falling into wells or ditches or

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  having accidents while outside playing after age seven, though these

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  accents are more in line with adult activities.

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  Children died while completing chores or working outside with their

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  parents. But the chances of dying young did not mean

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  parents cared any less.

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  For a long time, scholars thought, Oh, the kids die

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  young, so the parents didn't invest much in them.

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  This view distorted studies of childhood, making it seem like

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  childhood was a relatively recent invented time period of life.

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  In fact, medieval scholars and society recognized distinct phases of

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  childhood part of the ages of man.

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  These included infancy, birth to age seven as a time

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  of growth, childhood ages 7 to 14 as a time

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  of play, and adolescents aged 14 to puberty or marriage

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  as one of the intensive development of preparation for adult

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  life. Well, what age childhood ends at has varied.

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  The dim view demography gives us does not mean Children

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  are loved any less than they are today.

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  In fact, looking at medieval literature, especially diaries or letters

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  written by parents reveals how deeply parents love their Children.

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  One example comes from Pearl, a poem by an anonymous

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  English man living in the 14th century.

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  The poem focuses on the loss of his daughter, stating

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  in part, my breast swells and burns painfully yet there

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  was no song that seemed so sweet.

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  But then my thoughts ran free to think her color

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  so clad and dirt.

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  Oh, Earth, You have marred her purity, My special pearl

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  without a spot calling his daughter the Pearl.

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  This father completely adores his child, his praises making the

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  death the child's death.

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  More appointment.

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  Later in the poem, the father states that even though

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  he knows to seek comfort in Christ, as for his

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  religion, he cannot get the wretched sorrow to go away.

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  The scholars tend to focus on the poems spiritually, meaning

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  for studies of childhood pain of parental grief could scarce

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  be clearer?

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  Other examples come from journals by parents such as an

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  Clifford or John D with historian Linda Pollock, Found included

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  mentions of Children's first words, the need for discipline or

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  guidance and having to hire baby sitters when parents needed

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  to travel far away from home.

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  Thes literary examples become more pronounced as we move into

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  the late medieval and Renaissance periods, when advice manuals on

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  child rearing began to be published.

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  Many advised parents to be kind to their Children, but

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  to avoid being overly indulgent sounds like today, right?

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  Such love is also seen in grave goods found with

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  Children, though it can be very hard to study early

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  medieval childhood from 500 to about 1100 burials from the

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  time show, two key fax Children born with physical deformities

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  could grow up and work hard for, thus disproving a

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  long held view that deformities equaled infanticide and Children who

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  died were deeply mourned.

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  Graves can also reveal a lot of unexpected fax, including

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  ones that refutes centuries of thinking about the medieval period

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  as the dark ages.

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  It totally was not dark, by the way.

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  Take, for example, a double burial found in Frankfurt in

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  1992 these two Children were buried in a single coffin

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  underneath what is now a cathedral.

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  Around 700.

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  This land was inhabited by the Franks ruled by the

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  mayor of in Jin Dynasty.

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  From the mid four hundreds to 7 51 the mayor

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  of engines were the most powerful dynasty in Europe at

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  the time, and we're converting indigenous populations to Christianity.

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  But in the seven hundreds, they faced repeated invasions from

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  Viking invaders who brought Scandinavian culture to the region and

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  ultimately helped end the mayor of Indians rule.

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  Did I lose you there?

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  Possibly. But those facts are a bit important.

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  According to the final reports from archaeologists, the Children were

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  both around four years old when they died.

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  About between 707 30 one was a girl, the other

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  we don't know.

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  The girl was dressed in his tunic and shawl, commonly

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  worn by Marilyn Jian nobility, and she was adorned with

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  gold, silver, bronze and precious jewelry based on her dress

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  and jewelry.

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  Scholars determined she was Christian.

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  The other child was the cremated remains of a four

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  year old held in a bear skin sack, along with

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  bear claws and other animal bones, which is in line

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  with Scandinavian nomadic traditions of the time.

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  The graves were highly honored so much that over set

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  100 years after their burial, the chapel constructed above the

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  grave also directly aligned with it.

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  So why were these Children so important that an entire

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  cathedral was built to be aligned with their grave.

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  That's a question plaguing scholars, but the remains do tell

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  us a unique story around the time of burial.

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  Somewhere between 707 30 these two Children died likely at

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  the same time.

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  Perhaps during a raid, they were buried together, a sign

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  that these two cultures the marrow of Indian nobles and

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  the immigrating or invading Scandinavian nomads, possibly Vikings, were meeting,

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  interacting and living together in some way.

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  They were also both buried with a fine attention to

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  detail. The grave goods mean that they were people, probably

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  their families, who cared for these Children and wanted to

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  honor the lives they had led.

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  The double burial confirms what we already know and leaves

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  questions that make us wonder just how important Children might

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  have been during this clash of cultures.

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  So between archaeology are demography and burials.

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  We've seen quite a bit about childhood.

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  Daily life for Children was different, but not necessarily that

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  different from today.

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  Once Children got past the initial 40% or so chance

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  of dying as a toddler, they grew up learning cultural

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  traditions slowly, Children made their way from primarily being in

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  the home and near their cradles to participating in daily

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  household life alongside their parents.

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  Eventually, Children would even begin learning skills or a trade

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  in preparation for adulthood.

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  While education and exact tasks varied by gender, class, country

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  and century, these patterns are roughly like childhood.

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  Today we spend much of our infancy at home with

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  parents are toddler and early childhood years with our parents

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  but gradually exploring the world and later childhood, playing outside

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  with other Children, helping with chores and learning skills for

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  our adult lives.

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  As all this evidence shows, medieval childhood was a rich

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  and varied life.

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  We have touched on mostly similarities and some differences, but

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  truly this is just scratching the surface.

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  Medieval European childhood is a topic still being explored today,

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  with scholars finally paying more attention to how important the

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  formative childhood years as defined by the ages of man

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  and later the Catholic Church were in medieval Europe, as

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  Nicholas or May of the University of Extra Terse stated

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  in his summation of medieval childhood.

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  Most of what we associate with childhood, however, existed for

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  Children in the Middle Ages.

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  upbringing at home play special treatment according to age and

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  training for adult life and work.

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  The concentration of historians on adults in the Middle Ages

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  does insufficient justice to the fact that about one third

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  of the population was usually under the age of 14.

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  Thanks for joining me for this exploration of medieval childhood

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  in Europe.

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  And be sure to start watching Module number two next

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  to learn about childhood elsewhere in the world.

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  Thanks, y'all.