Commonalities between Blood Families

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When the word family is said different people think of different things. I believe there are two different kinds of family, blood and true family. Blood family is those that share the same blood and you were born into or married into. True family is the family you choose to be part of your family. With that being said, what I am going to be look into is blood families of the medieval period. No family is completely the same, but there is common ground. By looking at personal written material from the people in that time period, I hope to see what common ground there is between families of the English and of the Italian. The wives of the time were thought to have the duty to manage everything from food supplies to managing accounts and organizing staff (Moriatry 223). On the same page, the author continues to state that children were expected to “revere and obey their parents”. This suggests to that the relationships between the parents and the children had no affection at all. Many children were also sent off by their parents for them to be cared for by other people (Moriatry 223). Looking into four letters, from “The Voice of the Middle Ages”, the bond between families can be seen because they are personal letters written between family members. In the letter between Eleanor and her son, Eleanor keeps calling her son “sweetest son” and “dearest son” (Moriatry 224). This shows how important her son was to her. In the next letter, Robert Lovell writes to his mother-in-law because he wants her to be happy (Moriatry 225). He holds her high calling her “most-honored lady”. This man is not even her blood son, yet he holds her in the position as the mother. Lovell wants to give her something to be happy about. This is the bond between... ... middle of paper ... ...if one cheats outside of the family, they are expected to make things right and be part of the child’s life. Family is important to the English and the Italian, but they show it in different ways. The English and the Italian both use other people to help raise their own children. The children also show honor towards their parents. Family is always going to be important and always the common ground with everyone. Works Cited Jansen, Katherine L. et al. Medieval Italy: Texts in Translation. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2009. Call number: DG 501 .M535 2009 Moriatry, Catherine. The Voice of the Middle Ages: In Personal Letters 1100 – 1500. New York, Peter Bedrick Books, 1989. Call number: CB 351 .V59 1989 Wiesner, Merry E. et al. Discovering the Medieval Past: A Look at the Evidence. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003. Call number: D 113 .D57 2003

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