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Too Much Too Young: Children Of The Middle Ages

Too Much Too Young: Children of the Middle Ages

Now that you have watched it, what is your review for the documentary called, "Too Much Too Young: Children of the Middle Ages"?

Ages Middle The Children Young Too Too

Medievalist Dr Stephen Baxter takes a fresh look at the Middle Ages through the eyes of children. At a time when half the population was under 18, he argues that although they had to grow up quickly and take on adult responsibility early, the experience of childhood could also be richly rewarding. Focusing on the three pillars of medieval society - religion, war and work - Baxter reveals how children played a vital role in creating the medieval world.

Too Much Too Young: Children Of The Middle Ages History & Civil Business Politics

Its amazing the kinds of things children had to endure during the Middle Ages. One thing that was finalized from research is that children were very much like our own inventing games, having toys, etc. The main difference is they had a lot more responsibility.

Ages Middle The Children Young Too Too

I didn't see the documentary mentioned above but I'm generally familiar with the subject, having studied Medieval Culture and Society at the University (a single exam, not the whole course: I have a degree in Political Economy) and heaving read many historical books and made some personal research myself. Something like a hobby.

Making a comparison between the Middle Ages and our modern society is not always possible because is not only the lifestyle that changed but the whole perception of life. The medieval man didn't have the notion of "Childhood" Like we have it now. A child was not a child but a little adult. Particular needs of children were not recognized, at least not after a certain age. What we call now teenagers didn't exist. The passage was from being a child directly to adulthood, sometimes at a very early age for our standards.
A boy started working around 9 or 10, at 16 you were considered a man. Between the lower class, the expectation of life was a little bit higher than 30-35 years. It was a world stormed by violence, war, plague and the hardness of nature (try to sleep on the floor in winter with no heaters and no glasses at the windows...). When people died, usually, during their early thirties how could a child stay such for longer than 6 or 7 years of his life?

In the higher class the economical and sanitary condition was a little better but the condition of their children was not so different: girls would generally get married after the first menstruation (which meant a big chance of becoming mother already around 13 or 14 years old) and boys at 15, 16 were already entrusted a trade or some other job.
Medieval history is dotted by people becoming king at 10, 12, 14 years old. The youngest of them were given somebody as a tutor (usually the mother but could be also an uncle or aunt) but at 14 they were usually entitled to reign.
It was another world. Judging it with our eyes is not possible. In our modern society some people at 35 is still home with mummy playing computer games and doing little bit else. During the Middle Ages, that same individual would already have worked for more than 20 years, got married a couple of times (it was very frequent because, in periods of peace, women used to die earlier than men), generated several children, took arms against an invader or got enlisted for some campaign, got a random number of illnesses and, probably, already died.