Children Of The Renaissance
"Renaissance," French for "rebirth," portrays the intellectual and economic changes that happened in Europe from the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries. During this era, Europe emerged from the economic stagnation of the Middle Ages and experienced a time of financial growth. Also, and perhaps the most importantly, the Renaissance was an age in which artistic, social, scientific, and political thought turned in new directions (Annenberg/CPB).
Of all of the misconceptions of the Middle Ages, some of the most difficult to overcome involved life for children and their place in society. Our distorted view is understandable because evidence is scarce, and little work has been done on the topic by medievalists until recently. In addition, as is often the case with medieval studies, assumptions have been made by those who sought to hold up the modern age as "enlightened" in comparison to the "dark ages" that had gone before. It is these generally unfounded concepts that seem to be most common in people's opinions of the time (Snell: Childbirth, Childhood, andÂ…).
Because the primary purpose of marriage at any level of society during the medieval times was to produce children, the birth of a new baby was usually a cause of joy with a slight element of anxiety. Even though the childbirth mortality rate at the time was not as high as some people make it out to be, there were still the possibility of problems such as birth defects, breech birth, and the death of the mother, child, or both. Also, even under the best circumstances, there was no anesthetic to lessen the pain (Snell: Childbirth). Even so, families still often had a new child every year. (Iannuzzo). On that note, it is not surprising that it was common for people to have twelve to fifteen children (Marszalek).
"Childhood," when a child was in the hands of domestic women, lasted until about the age of 7. At this point, an upper-class girl might be sent to a convent for...
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