Growing Up in Medieval London
With GROWING UP IN MEDIEVAL LONDON, Hanawalt makes a worthwhile contribution to the social history of the Middle Ages. After an introduction describing her sources, which include court, municipal, and guild
Growing Up in Medieval London
With GROWING UP IN MEDIEVAL LONDON, Hanawalt makes a worthwhile contribution to the social history of the Middle Ages. After an introduction describing her sources, which include court, municipal, and guild records of London from 1300 to 1500, Hanawalt presents her thesis: Medieval people recognized childhood as a distinct stage of life and did not, as some social historians allege, neglect them or treat them merely as small adults. Instead, Hanawalt argues, medieval parents (and London’s municipal government) did their best to care for children despite the dismaying rate of infant and child mortality. Hanawalt then describes the stages of life that children went through, from infancy to youthful education to apprenticeship, domestic service, and, finally, adulthood and marriage. Some of her most detailed work i