Marriage and the Family in the Middle Ages

by Frances Gies, Joseph Gies Narrated by Anne Flosnik

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.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940178058527
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	09/06/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

Why Condole?

Condole: To express sympathy or sorrow; I condoled with himin his loss.
— American Heritage Dictionary

I'm So Sorry

You read it in the newspaper or the telephone rings; the loved one of a friend has died. Among the thoughts that cross your mind are the desire to help in some way, to respond to your friend's sorrow and pain. The wish to condole is such a human trait, yet most of us are at a loss to acknowledge, in a caring and loving way, the grief of others. That's understandable. No one has ever taught us the art of condolence. And when we try to draw from our own experiences of loss, we find that those who have tried to condole us, friends and relations with the best of intentions, have frequently said or done exactly the wrong thing.

We want to comfort, to condole, but we don't know what to write, what to say, o r what to do. Days fade into each other and the call never seems to be made; that letter just never seems to get written. Sound familiar?

What is it about our confrontation with another's anguish that causes a tightness in our chest, a constriction in our throat, the primal urge, tempered only by social form, to run? What causes the words to slip away when we are faced with another's grief? Is it overwhelming compassion, or is it the reflection of our own mortality mirrored in another's suffering? Sometimes, when we respond to the grief of others, our deepest fears surface and we are reminded of our own experiences with the pain of loss. Yet, we know intuitively that in offering comfortand sympathy to another, each of us gains.

Grieving embraces the mysterious, unknowable aspects of existence and has the possibility of lending insight into oneself, one's choices, and the profound human longing to understand. Those who grieve, as well as those who have died, c! an The Art of Condolence. Copyright © by Leonard M. Zunin. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

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