Marriage and the Family in the Middle AgesTraces the development of marriage and the family from the Middle Ages to the early modern era. It describes how the Roman and barbarian cultural streams merged under the influence of the Christian Church to forge new family concepts, customs, laws, and practices. Century by century, the book follows the development of significant elements in the history of the family, including: The basic functions of the family as a production unit, as well as its religious, social, judicial, and educational roles, and its surrender of one role after another to the growing power of State and Church; The shift of marriage from private arrangement between families to public ceremony between individuals, and the adjustments among dowry, bride-price, and counter-dowry to the advantage of one or another of the parties and their families; The development of consanguinity rules and incest taboos in Church Law and lay custom and their effects on marriage and the dissolution of marriage; -- Kindred lineage: the changing role of the two kinds of supra-family groupings, one contemporary, one ancestral; The peasant family in its varying conditions of free and unfree, poor, middling, and rich. It also discusses the aristocratic estate, the problem of the younger son, and the disinheritance of daughters; The Black Death and its long-term effects on the family; Sex attitudes and customs: the effects of variations in age of men and of women at marriage; The changing physical environment of noble, peasant, and urban families; and Arrangements by families for old age and retirement. -- Publisher description |
Contents
Historians Discover the Family | 3 |
Roman German Christian | 16 |
500700 | 45 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
adultery Ariès aristocratic barbarian bishop Black Death bride brother Cambridge castle Cathar child Childhood Christian Church clergy concubinage conjugal consent court cousins custom Cuxham daughter David Herlihy Dhuoda divorce dower dowry Duby economic edited Europe Exeter Book father fifteenth century Florence Florentine France Garin le Loherain Germanic Gratian Gregory of Tours Hanawalt heirs Hincmar History husband Ibid incest infanticide king kinship Klapisch-Zuber knights land Lapo Lapo's later lineage living London lord Lothair male manor manorial marriage married Medieval Medieval England Medieval Households Medieval Society merchet Middle Ages Montaillou mother nobility noble nurse parents Paris partible inheritance Paston Letters peasant families penance penitentials Philippe Ariès Pierre Clergue priest Raftis riage Roman Rome sexual Sir John sister slave social sons status Theutberga thirteenth century tion trans twelfth century wedding Wemple wergeld widow wife William wives woman York young younger