Childhood During The English Renaissance

1279 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Significance of the renaissance in the development of medicine

Childhood During the English Renaissance

In the 16th century, the English life style was dramatically affected by the renaissance. Because more than half of England's population was under 25 years of age, children were a primary focus in life. The form and quality of a child's education varied according to the economic and social status of the family, sex of the child, the expectations of their parents, and the availability of the schooling.

At age seven, children were thought to be capable of being instructed. Childhood was also thought to begin at age seven and end at age fourteen. Children under seven years of age were still considered infants and were under the complete care of women. ("Encyclopedia" 417) In some cases, children under fourteen were able to commit adult crimes. On the other side of the legal system, however, some young men were forced to bear arms as young as nine years old.

In the 16th century, children did not become adults when they reached a certain age. Adulthood only came when a child's father went before a judge and legally granted his child their independence. (Malvasi "Renaissance") A father would normally do this when his child was in their early teens to their late twenties. In some cases, boys were emancipated as young as nine years of age. ("Encyclopedia" 417)

It was not uncommon for families to have twelve to fifteen children. In rich households, many servants did all of the housework. In poor households, children took care of all of the chores. (Marzalek "Life") Normally, the older children took part in watching the younger children. The rest of the daily chores were split evenly among all of the children.

Because there were not any super markets in this time period, all meals had to be prepared from scratch. Normally this was the girls' job. Young women also helped their mothers with the needlework. (Marzalek "Life") They created blankets, mattresses, pillow cases, and the

family's clothing.

The young men of the family assisted their father in hunting for the family's next meal. They usually caught cod, shrimp, crabs, oysters, sausage, pigeons, ducks, blackbirds or anything else they could find before meal time. (Marzalek "Life") The younger boys often ran around picking up feathers to fill pillows and mattresses.

In the 16th century, medical technology was not nearly as advanced as it is today. Which made children extremely susceptible to disease and death. Even in the most privileged of households, several children may die in their early years of childhood.

Show More
Related

  • The Culture of the Makah

    1164 Words  | 3 Pages

    Food was something everybody needed. The Makah ate a lot of fish and still do today. Fish was the main thing they ate. The Makah also ate deer, seal, whale, and more. The Makah ate everything with fish oil even dessert. They loved fish oil so much they had to eat it with everything. The Makah were hunters. They would go out in canoes and catch as much as they could. The Makah ate very little vegetables. They mostly ate meat. The only vegetables they ate were in the spring when the woman would find some plants. They would dry the fish for the winter and other times when it was needed. How they cooked the food was with a cedar wood box. They would make a fire and put coals on the fire. The Makah would put water in the box and add the hot coals. Then they would add the food. They would take out cold coals and put in hot ones. The Makah ate with their hands and ate on cedar mats. The Makah didn’t have any kind of utensils so they just used their hands for everything.

    Read More

  • Roles Of Women In The Economic Success Of Colonial New England

    785 Words  | 2 Pages

    Families with limited financial resources had to sell their personal goods or labor to feed and clothe themselves. In poor families, the housewives had to cook meals, make clothing, and clean in addition to making household goods to use and sell. Middle class and upper class women shared in most of these chores in their households, but often had servants to help.

    Read More

  • The Utopian Experiment of Utopian Community Brook Farm

    923 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... and men of the community would freely pick their jobs without being demanded. Both women and men received an evenly amount of hours. Most of the time the women would be taking care of household chores and the children while the men produced crops and did most of the farming. At one point a man named Lewis Ryckman, suggested a business of shoemaking which successful.

    Read More

  • Domestic Life of Peasants in the Middle Ages

    1403 Words  | 3 Pages

    Typically, men were in charge of the household and provided most of the food and money for their family. In the Middle Ages, most men were either sheepherders or farmers. Different types of jobs given to the peasants included tasks such as raising crops and livestock and working the soil (Hinds 53). Both the women and children would sometimes take part in these tasks (Hinds 53). Duties given to women consisted of food processing and work around the house such as washing, cleaning, cooking, taking care of the animals and, of course, children and gardening (Barter 51).

    Read More

  • Gender Hierarchy In Maya, Inca And Aztec Society

    857 Words  | 2 Pages

    Businesses could run out of homes, tolerating the sale of items such as clothes and rugs. Often times, merchant stalls were managed by women. Administrative positions were open to the female sex, whether it was to superintend venders, managing product price and quality, or to sever as a scribe for the emperor. Assets, including movable property, could also be inherited by women as equally as they were for men. Men and women also shared domestic duties, which were divided among the sexes; men assumed responsibility over much of the agricultural aspects of society, while women controlled the cleaning and culinary obligations of the home.

    Read More

  • Women's Inequality In The 1930s Essay

    738 Words  | 2 Pages

    Some of women in this time period’s family roles are very similar to what is expected of them today. The most common jobs were “domestic work, including teaching young females their roles for later in life, cleaning the house, and preparing food” (¨DeVault¨). Men would often be working during the day. Women's jobs were very crucial because if all they did around the house. Not all kids were able to attend school so it was up to the mother. Though not every one was married at this time, “common arguments against married women working were that they were taking jobs away

    Read More

  • The Life of Infants and Children in Victorian London

    4849 Words  | 10 Pages

    Victorian homes offered children a large network of various caregivers built in to the family structure. Each married couple had an average of six children, but the average household was considerably larger. Rarely would one find the nuclear family living alone. Only thirty-six per cent of families consisted simply of a set of parents and their children. Extended families were also rare. Only 10 per cent of families had three or more generations under one roof. The average household would more likely be a conglomeration of a nuclear family along with any number of random outsiders. The stragglers could include any combination of lodgers, distant relatives, apprentices and/or servants.

    Read More

  • Children in Elizabethan England

    955 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of Queen Elizabeth’s accomplishments was the improvement of education she brought to England. At the beginning of her reign, about 20% of the population could sign their own name. When she passed, 60% of the population was able to write. Both girls and boys would be taught the skills appropriate for their rank in society at the age of six. No schooling was equal to another, and not everyone could get an education. The noble-class would be home schooled by England’s top educators. The middle-class children were able to attend public schools, which were not free. Education among low-class children was much harder to come by (Benson and Stock World Wide Web).

    Read More

  • The American Prairie In The 1800's

    604 Words  | 2 Pages

    On the contrary to some beliefs, the women did more work than you would expect. Since the men were usually working in factories or in the 1860’s fighting in the war, the women had to pick up a lot of slack. They would be a mother to the children, do all of the housework such as cooking,

    Read More

  • Essay On Why Juveniles Should Be Tried As Adult

    1833 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...r the age of eighteen is not considered an adult. It has been proved that a person does not mature mentally until about age twenty one. Many basic adult rights are not granted to juveniles because they are not responsible enough to assume the role of an adult. It goes without saying that the law regards those under the age of eighteen as minors, and so these minors shall not ever be treated as an adult in a court of law. Three basic reasons that minors should not be tried as adults are the decreased mental capacity of juveniles, the basic adult rights are not granted to juveniles, and the fact that prison is an unsuitable environment for minors. Juveniles and adult do not have a parallel mental capacity; therefore, a juvenile should not be tried as an adult in a court of law, and should instead be subject to separate age-specific judicial procedures and legislation.

    Read More

  • Middle Childhood to Adolescents

    1935 Words  | 4 Pages

    The text depicts a historical perspective on Middle Childhood, as during the twentieth century, children were viewed primarily as an economic source of income, in terms of providing for the family. According to the text this happens often in European counties and in parts of the United States. Elizabeth D. Hutchinson, Dimensions of Human Behavior The Changing Life Course 3rd, 2008. In this short review we will look at how this historical perspective in itself is not a question to how, but when these individual give.

    Read More

  • What Was The Difference Between The Juvenile Courts And The Adult Courts?

    737 Words  | 2 Pages

    Since the early 19th century, people would consider children as young adults, and it was expected from them to behave appropriately and not as a criminal. As early as 7 years

    Read More

  • The Canadian Juvenile Justice System

    1184 Words  | 3 Pages

    Before 1908, the nature of the developing society caused children at risk to commit crimes. In nineteenth century and even early of twentieth, there were many orphaned and negected children in the society. They came from Europe or other colonies and they could lose their parent during long time trip. The doli incapax defence, "the incapacity to do wrong" - children who under the age of seven (in some cases, the maximum was 13) were incapable to commit crime, was initially presumed. It misled that youth could be innocent when charged in every case. However, children could have the same intelligence as adults to know the consequences of doing wrong things. Thus, children who were convicted of criminal would face the same penalties and were treated as adult offenders (The evolution of, 2009, p1). However, sometimes, penalties went beyond justice – these children would receive harsh punishment for minor criminal acts.

    Read More

  • Children In The 1800s

    1342 Words  | 3 Pages

    Compared to people in the twenty-first century, with all their modern conveniences and technological advances, the life of any early-American seems difficult. However, the lives of children were among the most arduous. Linda Pollock states in her book Forgotten Children that between 1660 and 1800 families -and society in general- became more affectionate, child-oriented, and permissive of uniqueness and unstructured time (67). Although this may be true, many other sources depict the lives of children as taxing and oppressive at best. Children of the time were either forced to abandon education for their family contributions, or had to balance school with a full day's work ("Education"). Even when they were not in school or doing manual labor, their day-to-day lives were uncomfortable and harsh (Kids). Social status, as is expected, was a key factor in determining how hard a child's life would be (Murray 9). Although many children at the time had it easier than others they were all asked at an early age to take on adult responsibilities. The lives of all children in 1800 were mundane and difficult due to family and societal expectations for labor, schooling, and maturity.

    Read More

  • Elizabethan Era Rich Vs Poor

    685 Words  | 2 Pages

    Poor children didn’t have many toys or games, but instead they made toys of what they can find (Toys of common children). Rich children had more toys then that of the poor children. Rich parents and sometimes poor parents gave their children imported toys (Toys of common children). Rich and poor children would go fishing or hunting if they could obtain the proper tools to do so. Before birth children can carry the burden of being a bastard (A child born out of wedlock.)

    Read More

More about Childhood During The English Renaissance

Open Document