Bringing together a wealth of evidence drawn from court records, literary sources and books of advice, the author weaves a rich tapestry of the lives of the common children of medieval London during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Much of what she finds is eye opening. She shows for example that--contrary to the belief of some historians--medieval adults recognized and paid close attention to the various stages of childhood and adolescence. For instance, wardship cases reveal that London laws granted orphans greater protection than do our own contemporary courts. And with her innovative narrative style, she bring medieval childhood to life, creating composite profiles based on the experiences of real children, such as Alison the Bastard Heiress, whose guardians married her off in order to gin control of her inheritance.
Ranging from birth and baptism to apprenticeship and adulthood, here is a myth-shattering, innovative work that illuminates the nature of childhood in the Middle Ages.
Contents:
Preface
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
- Approaches to Studying Childhood and Youth
- Sources for Studying Childhood and Youth
- The Historical Context
2. The Material Environment of London’s Youth
- Housing
- Neighbourhoods: Streets, Parishes and Wards
- The Larger City: Forays Outside the Neighbourhood
- The Material Standard of Living
3. Birth and Baptisms: Membership in a Social and Spiritual Network
- Birth and Baptism
- ‘Thomas Seint John Imagined’
4. The Fragile Years of Childhood
- Survivors and Non-survivors of Childhood
- ‘A Child of the Parish’
- The First Seven Years
5. Childrearing, Training and Education
- The Daily Routine
- Games and Play
- ‘A Schoolboy Who Aspired to be Episcopus Puerorum’ - Schooling
- Moral Behaviour and Its Goals
6. Orphans and Their Upbringing
- Laws on Orphans and Guardians
- The Age and Condition of Orphans
- The Guardians
- ‘Alison, the Bastard Heiress
- Abuses of Wards and Orphans
- Disruptions of Wardship
- Caxton’s Puzzle Revisited
7. Life on the Threshold of Adolescence
- Social Puberty and Biological Puberty
- Adolescent Games
- ‘Joan Rawlyns of Aldersham’
- Sexual Initiation
- Riot and Misrule
8. Entering into Apprenticeship
- Establishment of Apprenticeship
- Ceremonies of Initiation
- Female Apprentices
- Profile of the Apprentice Populations
- An Italian Traveler Leads Twentieth-Century Historians Astray, or the Lasting Importance of the Natal Family and Friends
- ‘William Bothe, Mercers’ Apprentice’
9. Relationships Between Masters and Apprentices
- Faults of Masters
- Rebellious Apprentices
- ‘William Raynold and Thomas Appleford, Apprentices, Versus Richard Berne, Mercer and Master
- Friendship Between Masters and Apprentices
10. Servants
- Formation of the Service Contract
- Who became a Servant?
- Living Arrangements
- Expected Relations Between Master or Mistress and Servant
- The Reality of Relationships Between Master and Servant
- ‘Servant Murders Master’
- Leisure and Relationship with Other Servants
- Journeymen
11. On Becoming Sad and Wise
- Age of Exit from Adolescence
- Ceremonies for Coming of Age
- Other Experiences that Induced Sadness and Wiseness
- ‘John Borell, Who Tried to Live Happily Ever After as a Sad and Wise Man’
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Review:‘Exemplary scholarship that blends traditional, painstaking research with contemporary approaches and undertakings’ -- Kirkus Reviews
‘Oh, how we have needed this work on the experience of growing up in past time!’ -- Glen J. Elder Jnr, author ‘Chil
