Mitchell 2007 keeps visible the different cultural and religious groups that comprised medieval society. More recently, overviews have deliberately avoided the pitfalls of generalization. Herlihy 1985 uses a structural approach, placing the household at the center of analysis and reflecting the social scientific approach of the 1980s. Similar to other introductions, this essay has broad geographic and temporal boundaries and takes both a chronological and thematic approach. A similar perspective is found in Murray 2001, which presents an accessible narrative overview of marriage and family suitable for novice readers.
The authors carefully explain the contributions to the medieval family by Roman, Christian, and Germanic cultures as they merged into a distinctly medieval society. The early work Gies and Gies 1987 remains a useful introduction to the topic. Nevertheless, there are a number of useful introductions to and overviews of medieval marriage and family that take into consideration its transitional nature. Thus, time, place, religion, and culture were important and mutable determinants of the family. Moreover, there was considerable change over time so that laws, practices, and customs pertaining to marriage and the family evolved over the thousand years from the end of the Roman Empire to the early modern world. The Middle Ages were so diverse, with significant variations in religion, culture, beliefs, and domestic practices, stretching from Egypt to Scandinavia. How and when a couple married could have a considerable effect on the structure of a family and the experience of members of the household. Overviews of the family in the Middle Ages inevitably include discussions of marriage. I am grateful for their assistance and to the University of Guelph for its financial support for an Undergraduate Research Assistantship. Jack Mallon assisted with research into medieval sources and Kelsea Martin brought a strong bibliographic eye to the project. This bibliography benefited from the contributions of two research assistants. This article provides an overview and introduction to this complex medieval family, which took on different shapes at different times and different places. Recent scholarship reveals an appreciation and respect for the complexity and diversity of medieval families. Parent-child and husband-wife relationships were examined more deeply, moving beyond conventional notions of affective relations to reveal tensions and stress, including domestic violence. The dynamics of family life also received attention. Texts of all types-literature, law, chronicles, letters, and theology among others-were analyzed through critical lenses that enriched our understanding of medieval values. This brought new questions to the study of the family, in particular a reassessment of women’s roles and experiences. At the same time, historians of the family were influenced by women’s history, gender history, sexuality studies, and gender studies. Later historians turned to court records to examine the experiences of the individuals whose testimony survives. While this approach provided new information and opened new research questions, it did so demographically, without reference to individuals. The application of quantitative techniques revealed aspects of social practice on a large scale, revealing information such as age at marriage, inheritance patterns, and illegitimacy. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, scholars examined prescriptive sources such as theology and canon law, but did not assess the extent to which they reflected the lived reality of marriage and family. Different methodologies and ways to use evidence have also led to different perspectives on the family. How people married affected the shape of the family and the experience of its members. The family also needs to be discussed in light of beliefs and customs surrounding marriage. Consequently, historians try to avoid generalizing or presenting the family of the dominant group as paradigmatic.
There were multiple structural variables as well as contextual ones. The Middle Ages stretched over one thousand years, from Scandinavia to Byzantium, and incorporated three major religions. The medieval family is in reality diverse, with different characteristics in different times and places. The family is fundamental to human societies, although its shape can vary widely according to culture, religion, wealth, urban or rural context, or myriad other factors.
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