Childhood, Orphans and Underage Heirs in Medieval Rural England

This book explores the experience of childhood and adolescence in later medieval English rural society from 1250 to 1450. Hit by major catastrophes the Great Famine and then a few decades later the Black Death this book examines how rural society coped with children left orphaned, and land inherited by children and adolescents considered too young to run their holdings. Using manorial court rolls, accounts and other documents, Miriam Müller looks at the guardians who looked after the children, and the chattels and lands the children brought with them. This book considers not just rural concepts of childhood, and the training and schooling young peasants received, but also the nature of supportive kinship networks, family structures and the roles of lordship, to offer insights into the experience of childhood and adolescence in medieval villages more broadly.

Provides the first substantial and detailed study of growing up in the medieval English village Explores not only the lives of young people in medieval rural society, but also the attitudes of adult peasants to their offspring Employs an interdisciplinary research perspective, utilising manorial records and archaeological sources

Auteur
Miriam Müller is Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Birmingham, UK. She has published widely on various aspects of medieval social and economic history, especially the English peasantry, popular protest and gender.

Contenu
Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: Vulnerable Members of the Community.- Chapter 3: Inheritance, Rights and Goods.- Chapter 4: Looking after Underaged Heirs.- Chapter 5: Plotting out a Living.- Chapter 6: Conclusion.