Children
Childhood as a time of play or schooling was almost non-existent. Children were regarded as sources of labour on the farm. At first it was helping the women with household chores, but fairly soon they could be expected to be sent out to the fields. Peasant children were educated in how to harvest a field, fix a thatched roof or milk a cow.
It appears that in medieval Europe, the period of growth now called adolescence was ignored. Children were treated as adults from the age of ten, because by then they could participate in the farm work. Boys generally married a little older than girls — when they were about 14. ‘Teenagers’ were isolated; as they did not go to school, they had few opportunities to mix with other people their own age.
ACTIVITIES symbol
EXPLANATION AND COMMUNICATION
To which social class did most people belong in medieval Europe?
Why were noble women's marriages arranged for them by their family?
What property rights did a noble woman have compared with her husband?
Why did peasant children in medieval times have little opportunity to play?
List some of the jobs a child was expected to do.
ANALYSIS AND USE OF SOURCES
Make a list of the work you can see people doing in Source 1.
Of the jobs you have listed, which ones would women and children have been able to do?
Examine Source 1 and explain the roles of the reeve, steward and bailiff. Do you think women would have been allowed to do these jobs in medieval times? Explain.