Medieval Children

This is a history of children in England from Anglo-Saxon times to the 16th century. Starting at birth, it shows how they were named and baptised, and traces the significance of birthdays and ages. This leads to an account of family life, including upbringing, food, clothes, sleep and the plight of the poor. The misfortunes of childhood are chronicled, from disablement, abuse, and accidents to illness, death, and beliefs about children in the afterlife. Further chapters explore the oral culture of medieval children (words, rhymes, and songs), play, religion, learning to read, and literature for children. Finally, we see how they grew up, began to work, came of age, and experienced sexuality. The result is a vivid recreation of what it was like to be young, which reveals the central importance of children in English medieval history for the first time. The traditional view of a past in which there was no childhood is shown to lack any foundation. On the contrary, children were recognized as special and different, and possessed their own flourishing culture, much of it like that of young people today.