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Why stress over marriage??

For us getting married is a big milestone in our lives to show mom and dad that we made it! That’s no different in the middle ages, and I don’t think it will ever be. One difference though in marriage is that you got married at the age of 14. Are you kidding me!!! We are just staring our lives at the age of 14!! Marriage had many reasons it was so important though, sometimes they didn’t mean anything, just inheriting something. A lot of times marriage was important so you could be higher politically, or have more land. What happened to marrying somebody because you love them???

             Marriage was very important politically, mainly because it was a way to get more land for you family. At first I didn’t get why, until I read this- the more land you had, the more knights you had, the more knights you had, the better chances of securing his land, therefore being of higher status. So it’s like a princess marrying a prince just so they can secure them being king and queen. Sometimes I wonder what is going on in people’s heads! Do all they care about is land??

            Marriage between rich families had the benefit of forging alliances and peace treaties. The more family you had, the more people liked you. That makes sense, I guess?? A landowner is less likely to attack somebody if they are you’re wife’s brother in law?? Another reason that marrying was important was for prestige; giving your daughter away to a king would show your wealth and honor. Ok, so when does marrying somebody you love come in??

Life: Easy or Brutal?

When we talk about history we have a lot of questions, right? Well, I wonder how life was for people of the middle ages. First, I’m going to start with houses. Unless you were of noble family and lived in a big, beautiful castle you did not have a lovely house! Wow I wish my parents were kings and queens! People lived in small houses, often with one room. That one room was where you did everything. I could live in the same room as a sibling but not an animal! Yea that’s right your animals shared the rooms with you! I’m sure most of you are probably like “what’s so bad about sharing your room with a dog?” Well, bad enough for them, the dog was not a common pet. A goat or much bigger, smellier animal was! Now think about it! Don’t want to share the room now, do ya??

One thing that is so sad is life expectancy. So yea, we live till were 70, but you didn’t when you were in the middle ages! The average life expectancy was 35-40 years; um you didn’t have much time to live your life! And that low life expectancy wasn’t even during that plague. When the plague hit, the average life dropped to less than 20 years!! Women died of childbirth, men died of war, and children who made it passed 2 years old died of illness or disease. Awww! People didn’t get death; actually they didn’t take it very well! It was a big shocker to them that you don’t live forever! The death rates increased, and that caused the birth rates to increase. You’re normally married for years, maybe even decades , but in the middle ages, you might only be married 1 year because your wife died giving birth. Sad, right, well that’s just how life went.

Children were a lot like kids today, they were expected to help their parents, didn’t mean they always did! There weren’t many schools so what else are you going to do?? Girls were expected to be housekeeping and baby-sit siblings. Boys were told to learn the family trade in hopes to carry out the business. Kids didn’t have much time to be kids, they became adults right away. The oldest son inherited property and the youngest son got nothing. Daughters got clothes, money, or jewelry because women couldn’t inherit property.  Wow who would have guessed women don’t get the same rights as men??

Growing up, more than the average life.

            You know today we grow up in school, with our friends, and just waiting to get out of the house. There’s an age we just can’t wait for, 16, oh man I know I will explode when I turn 16! Something that is surprising though, is that’s not the case when it comes to kids in the middle ages. It’s somewhat different, I don’t think that I could imagine a life different than mine; it would be pretty hard I bet!

            First comes school for us, we probably spend half our lives in school, actually if you go to school everyday for all years you will be going to school for 16380 hours!!! Um, can somebody lower the hours we go to school, please?? As hard as it would be for us to not imagine going to school ever, it would actually be harder for kids in the Middle Ages to imagine going to school. In the 1000’s barely anybody was educated. Wow!! Most people could barely read or write! I’m sure this isn’t a shock based on what we have learned about other ancient countries, but school was only really offered to boys of wealthy families. When you did go to school, you’re school was controlled by the church. You only learned Latin, grammar, reading, writing, and songs. Some songs the kids learned were the “Gregorian Chant”. Um, at our school it’s a choice if we want to take music or art. And Latin?? They don’t teach us that! Things have really changed!

           

            The poor never went to school, they only saw it as a pleasure that the rich could do. Sad isn’t it, you think now everybody has to go to school, no choice.  Rarely would you find a girl at school, and if you did they would be tutored by a nun. Where’d the idea to not send girls to school come from, maybe were just too smart! But when girls went to school they were taught household skills and they learned to paint. Again, why do girls only learn the easy stuff??  The only other reason a child would be sent to school is if a noble family wanted to send their boy to school to learn the art of chivalry, fun isn’t it?? Well, looking at this school is a lot different in the middle ages than it is now!

Women: Treated like slaves or queens?

Were used to seeing that women have the same rights as men in the world we live in today. Throughout the year, though we have learned that women weren’t treated so well in the past. But that was a little different in the middle ages, luckily!!! It’s about time that women get treated with a little respect! The only difference is that the way they lived may have depended on where they live, their social class, what they had, who they married, and many other things. Women married at around the age of fifteen, are you kidding me???? When we turn 15 were just staring our live, but when girls in the middle ages turned 15 they are starting their adulthood, awful isn’t it. Think were 13-14 right now, could you imaging thinking that in a few years you moving away and getting married. But getting married didn’t wasn’t all bad, it actually gave you more opportunities. You could have your own business and could have many jobs open to you. Some jobs include writers, artist, doctors, warriors, and wait for it, a queen! In the past we have rarely heard of women becoming a queen! It’s a step up for women!

             Remember how I mentioned that some of your rights and what you did depended on your social class?? Well like anything else, noble women had it much better than peasant girls. If you were a noble woman, you probably lived in a big castle and were married to the king or prince. The most important job that you had though was to have babies. Weird right?? I mean most girls reading this would be asking, well we have kids anyway, right? Well, yea but the noble women took this to the next step, they had a baby every year for almost 20 years! Could you imagine having a family of 22? Um you would have to be rich to put that much food on the table. Hey maybe the Duggar's from "19 Kids and Counting" are from Medieval times?? They have around 20 kids, right? Having babies was not the only job they did though, actually noble women were busy people. they supervised feast, ordered supplies, made sure the bills are paid, and they took care of the house while their husband was away fighting. I knew that my mom was busy, but I didn't think she did this much, wow how does she handle it??? I would DEFINITELY go crazy soon!

The women in town were a little different than noble women, they for sure didn't have the big stress of having a baby an going through labor every year. In my opinion I would much rather be a woman in town than a noble lady. They had normal lives pretty much, they made clothes as their job because they didn't have the same jobs we do today. Sometimes you were a huckster, who went from house to house selling things like chickens, cheese, and salt. I think I might like that job, get some exercise while talking to people around town, well it might not be all that glory carrying your products around all day. The most common job though was to help out with the family business. Everybody had a business, so why not help out every once in a while?? Actually it wouldn't be rare to find women with their own business, I think I could get use to the middle ages, you know being in charge, having some freedom. And when you weren't working in the business, you would be doing the one job that fits a mom, cleaning. the houses weren't very big though. Actually your house was normally on top of the family business.