Overview

A compelling, lucid, and highly readable chronicle of medieval life written by the authors of the bestselling Life in a Medieval Castle and Life in a Medieval City Historians have only recently awakened to the importance of the family, the basic social unit throughout human history. This book traces the development of marriage and the family from the Middle Ages to the early modern era. It describes how the Roman and barbarian cultural streams merged under the influence of the Christian church to forge new concepts, customs, laws, and practices. Century by century, it follows the development--sometimes gradual, at other times revolutionary--of significant elements in the history of the family, including The basic functions of the family as production unit, as well as its religious, social, judicial, and educational roles; The shift of marriage from private arrangement between families to public ceremony between individuals, and the adjustments in dowry, bride-price, and counter-dowry; The development of consanguinity rules and incest taboos in church law and lay custom; The peasant family in its varying condition of being free or unfree, poor, middling, or rich; the aristocratic estate, the problem of the younger son, and the disinheritance of daughters; The Black Death and its long-term effects on the family; Sex attitudes and customs: the effects of variations in age of men and women at marriage; The changing physical environment of noble, peasant, and urban families; and Arrangements by families for old age and retirement. Expertly researched, master historians Frances and Joseph Gies--whose books were used by George R. R. Martin in his research for Game of Thrones--paint a compelling, detailed portrait of family life and social customs in one of the most riveting eras in history.

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The Gieses succeed in making a remote and unfamiliar world accessible...Should appeal to those with a casual interest in the medieval panoply. -- Kirkus Reviews, praise for the authors

Author Information

Frances Gies (1915-2013) and Joseph Gies (1916-2006) were the world's bestselling historians of medieval Europe. Together and separately, they wrote more than twenty books, which collectively have sold more than a million copies. Anne Flosnik, a seasoned audiobook narrator, has over four hundred titles to her credit and several awards and distinctions, including AudioFile Earphones Awards, a USA Today Recommended Listening selection, an AudioFile ""Best Narration of the Year"" selection in 2009, and the American Library Association's Special Services to Children Award. She has also been a finalist for the prestigious Audie Award for best narration. She is an award-winning British actress with lead credits on stage, on television, and in commercials and voice-overs.

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