sometimes i think A Distant Mirror should be required reading

magister-amoris:

calyxofawildflower:

calyxofawildflower:

Hey let’s destroy the pernicious myth that preteens were regularly marrying in medieval and early modern Europe and were having children as young teenagers. It’s just not true. Church records show the typical age people got married was around 18-23. Sure, around a third of brides were pregnant at the time of their marriage, but premarital sex was actually completely fine in medieval and early modern Europe if the couple intended to marry. (Oh look! Another historical fact the Victorian period completely mangled!)

Very young girls were not having babies in medieval times, people. The only people who ever bring this non-fact up are paedophiles looking to defend their dangerous paraphilia. So cut it out. Stop spreading this myth. It’s not historical, it’s not factual, it’s not true.

By the way the texts in support of these facts are here and here.

“Emerging evidence is eroding the stereotype of medieval child marriage. Goldberg and Smith’s work on low- and lower-middle-status women has refuted Hajnal’s argument for generally early marriage for medieval women. Even Razi’s ‘early’ age at marriage for girls in Halesowen hardly indicates child marriage, as a large portion of his sample married between the ages of eighteen and twenty-two… . Goldberg has offered evidence from fourteenth and fifteenth-century Yorkshire showing that urban girls tended to marry in their early to mid twenties and rural girls married in their late teens to early twenties, and both groups married men who were close to them in age.” (Kim M. Phillips, Medieval Maidens: Young Women and Gender in England, c. 1270-1540, p. 37 (x).

Bolded for emphasis.

As far as i can recall, the only instances of child marriages in the Middle Ages i ever remember reading about were amongst the nobility, where marriages were arranged for political advantage over any other consideration. (And even in those cases, contracts frequently specifically stated that the marriage was not to be consummated for several years.)
I think a lot of the problem in conceptions comes from the way history has often been written. It’s only relatively recently that the “common people” have been considered worthy of consideration when writing history – for a lot of the span between the Middle Ages and now, history was basically a genealogy of rulers ( in the words of Barbara Tuchman). the concerns of the lower classes were basically ignored – and a side effect of this is that the habits of the documented group are assumed to be representative of all groups. So, yeah, child marriages existed – but they existed among a tiny minority of the population whose daily lives and concerns were wildly different from those of everyone else.

wintersoldierfell:

brokje:

divinedorothy:

do you ever think about how fucked you’d be in medieval times with your weak eyesight, asthma and homosexual tendencies

#not to mention the witchcraft

you’d be COMPLETELY FINE.

1. medieval Europeans were ALL ABOUT OPTICS. They studied it, wrote about it extensively, and used magnifying lenses to read.

2. the asthma is a little bit more of an issue, because they didn’t have inhalers, but on the other hand (a) one major hypothesis for the cause of asthma is that modern-day humans aren’t exposed to enough early childhood infections, and (b) even if you don’t buy that theory, what IS true is that we have good evidence that people with disabilities were a normal part of medieval society (and this evidence comes largely from the peasant class, not the upper classes).

3. medieval Europeans were GAY AS HELL they just didn’t talk about it the same way we do. research on this is still hotly debated but basically there was a ton of hot nun-on-nun and knight-on-knight action. we didn’t invent the gays ok

4. you were more likely to be killed for being the wrong type of Christian or for being Jewish than you were for witchcraft, and even that was mostly in the post-medieval period. The Spanish Inquisition (of Monty Python fame) is early modern, not medieval. And by the way guess whether it was more dangerous to be Jewish in the 12th century or in the 20th century. Go on, guess

5. like i’m not saying it was super awesome to live without penicillin or sewer systems but basically history is not one long line of progress pointing up. a lot of things sucked in the past that don’t suck now, but other things suck way more now than they did in the past, and some things are just different as heckpants. in conclusion, what did the middle ages ever do to you, they just wanna illuminate manuscripts and drink a lot of beer ok

shieldwitch:

beggars-opera:

kuttithevangu:

Barbara Tuchman says the widespread apparently juvenile behavior of medieval Europe should be considered in light of the fact that most of active society was in fact people in their teens and twenties

Which on the one hand is like one of those things that’s obvious once it’s pointed out

But also its funny to think there was a whole historians’ tradition of being like “why were medieval kings so overemotional” until Tuchman clears her throat and goes… “Ahem… Have you ever met an eighteen year old boy” and then everyone’s like “oooooh”

See also: revolutionary Boston

“Okay listen realistically I’m going to die of pox, plague, or The French Disease by the time I’m 25 if I’m not poisoned. It’s a miracle that I’m even standing here today. I’ve got a team of bishops paid to pray for my soul in shifts so I’ve got heavenly insurance in the likely occurrence I am stabbed as soon as I leave this chamber. So you know what? I’m gonna fuck shit up. The neighboring duke looked at me weird last feast day; let’s start with him.”

star-anise:

kuttithevangu:

Barbara Tuchman says the widespread apparently juvenile behavior of medieval Europe should be considered in light of the fact that most of active society was in fact people in their teens and twenties

Which on the one hand is like one of those things that’s obvious once it’s pointed out

But also its funny to think there was a whole historians’ tradition of being like “why were medieval kings so overemotional” until Tuchman clears her throat and goes… “Ahem… Have you ever met an eighteen year old boy” and then everyone’s like “oooooh”

Also, vast swathes of the population probably had post-traumatic stress disorder and/or fetal alcohol exposure.