When the word "Medieval" is mentioned, the words "knight in shining armor", "the king and queen" and lets not forget "the magician" come to mind. Medieval life seems heroic, entertaining and romantic, but in reality it was sometimes harsh, uncertain and often dangerous.
Majority of a childs education in Medieval times were taught at the home by parents. Children stayed at home till the age of 7. At age 7, boys that were to be trained to be knights became pages, and later squires. If a child wanted to become a clerk they attended a regular school. The subjects taught were : grammer, rhetoric, logic, arithmatic, geometry, astronomy and music. Girls who were educated became a wife of a knight or a Lord or became the wife of a townsman. Some undertook the duties of a nun. For a woman, the only way for women to become formally educated seemed to be if she joined a nunnery. In some or most cases a nun was required to learn how to read and write. If a nun was thought of as a "slow-learner" she was beaten, as a punishment for not grasping the concepts as quickly as they wanted the nuns to be able to. The nuns were, in most cases, limited in their education to a thorough knowledge of the Bible, the works of the Church Fathers, and some basic understanding of civil and canon law.
Today, when people decide to marry, they usually prefer to wait until they are out of high school. Many more wait until till they are in their 20's before marrying. However, in the Middle Ages, marriage was entered at an extremely early age. Many girls would join their husbands at the minimum legal age of 12 years . The reasons for early marriage hinged on the fact that women lived such short lives. Society figured that if young women married older men these women would die within a very short time of each other. There was only one law that protected minors from marriage.
Women were not given a choice on who they married. Usually they did not know the man before the marriage. Relationships built on monetary worth rather than genuine love were not very solid to begin with, and often were surely awkward until each of them became used to living with the other. However, just because a marriage was based on these terms did not necessarily mean love was impossible.The role of the groom was to make a final decision on his choice for a bride, unless of course, his parents had chosen for him. Even if love was not eventually established in the relationship, admiration and friendship usually was.
