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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 1999-07 > 0932339199


From: "D. Spencer Hines" <>
Subject: Re: An Adult in the Middle Ages
Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1999 13:06:39 -1000


Vide infra.

Do you have a scholarly citation or two for this story?

It sounds worthy of Braveheart.

D. Spencer Hines

Lux et Veritas
--

D. Spencer Hines --- "She [Hillary Rodham Clinton] loves eunuch geek
men." [CP]; "Like Who?" [The Women's Quarterly]; "Oh my God, look at
them all! Sidney Blumenthal, Ira Magaziner, Harold Ickes --- they all
look alike. They are all weird Ichabod Crane men, all high IQ men who
have no natural virility, okay? It's really weird. She loves to have
her little cabals with them. And the other one --- the lawyer David
Kendall --- they're all alike, and they all bond with her. They're all
joined at the hip with her! "Camille Paglia, Professor of Humanities
at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia is a culture critic,
libertarian feminist, and columnist for the Internet magazine _Salon_.
She is also the author of four books including _Sexual Personae: Art
and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson_; _Art and American
Culture_; and _Vamps and Tramps_." _The Women's Quarterly_, Spring
1999, Number 19.

Urania <> wrote in message
news:7mtlnq$ct5$1@neptunium.btinternet.com...
> In article <>, says...
> >
> > Hello All,
> > At what age is a Man in the Middle Ages considered an Adult?
>
> It depends for what purpose.
> Many -if not most - people in the Middle Ages did not themselves
know how
> old they were. Your "age" depended on your biological maturity.
> Therefore, if you were capable of it, you could be married as young
as 12
> for a woman or 14 for a man, or earlier if you were precocious.
>
> By the age of 14 -18 or thereabouts - when you were obviously no
longer a
> child, (voice broken, beard sprouting, serving wench accusing you of
> paternity ...)- you could wed or fight, but this did not mean that
you
> were not under an obligation to take orders from someone else. A son
> would be expected to obey his father until father died or entered a
> monastery. A married woman would expect to do what her mother-in-law
told
> her, a knight obeyed his feudal lord, a nun obeyed her Mother
Superior.
> In a feudal and patriarchal society, being adult did not imply the
> freedom it does today.
> However, if in (say) a charter you have both a father and son
witnessing
> the charter, it may be assumed that the son is old enough to
understand
> what is going on and is entitled to an opinion - especially to give
his
> consent if family land, which he might expect to inherit, is being
> donated to the church. If he refused his consent, it held up the
> transaction. At best, the donation might have to be renegotiated
when dad
> died.
>
> Remember Wat Tyler and the Peasant's Revolt. A Poll Tax had been
ordered
> on every adult - the technical age was "14" but this was a
guesstimate.
> The tax collector demanded that Wat Tyler pay poll tax on his
daughter.
> Wat said his daughter was still a child - and therefore a virgin.
The tax
> collector, who had been eyeing the girl, offered to f...k her to
prove
> she was an adult [convert her into an adult, even] and liable for
poll
> tax. Wat Tyler hit the tax collector with his hammer and killed
him - as
> any reasonable father would. ... The Peasants' Revolt followed.
> Now this story may not be factually true. It may be propaganda, but
it
> does illustrate the above point about mediaeval conceptions of age,
> maturity and adulthood.
>

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