Marriage and the family in the Middle Ages
A readable chronicle of medieval life written by the authors of Life in a Medieval Castle& Life in a Medieval City. Historians have awakened to the importance of the family, the basic social unit. This traces the development of marriage & the family from the Middle Ages to the early modern era, describing how Roman & barbarian cultural streams merged under Church influence to forge new concepts, customs, laws & practices. Century by century it follows the development--sometimes gradual, at other times revolutionary--of significant elements in the history of the family. Origins Historians Discover the Family Roots: Roman, German, Christian The Early Middle Ages The European Family: 500-700 The Carolingian Age Anglo-Saxon England Marriage & the Family in the Year 1000 The High Middle Ages The Family Revolution of the 11th Century The 12th Century: New Family Models Peasants Before the Black Death: 1200-1347 The Aristocratic Lineage: Perils of Primogeniture Children in the High Middle Ages Marriage & the Family in the Year 1300 The Late Middle Ages The Impact of the Black Death The Late Medieval Peasant Family: 1350-1500 A Family of the English Landed Gentry A Merchant's Family in 15th-Century Florence Marriage & the Family After the Black Death The End of the Middle Ages Legacy