Marriage and the Family in the Middle Ages

By: Frances Gies, Joseph Gies

Narrated by: Anne Flosnik

A compelling, lucid, and highly enjoyable 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.

©1987 Frances and Joseph Gies (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

Quite in depth.

Truly a book for scholars; very fact based.
For the average reader, it’s not one that will keep you up in the late hours, turning pages til the wee dawn. Delivered well.

Information I do not know…

But need to. I frequently rewound just to make sure I heard it correctly. This is not a topic I lean to, the authors did a great job; the link to UofMichigan was a nice surprise. Happy New Year from the mitten state.

Family Structure and Society

The early history of marriage, family structure and its evolution was consistently interesting and thought provoking.

Fun narration for an interesting topic

This is an all encompassing work which details norms of family life from classical Rome to the renaissance. Obviously it can get overwhelming but it does a good job of organizing the information. I love how the narrator always reads primary source quotes with some dramatization, which both helps delineate the quotations from the text, and gives character to the people being referenced. Really great for having a pretty solid understanding of Medieval marriage and family relations, as well as where most of our modern versions originate.

Very Interesting

I learned so much and enjoyed more about the Pastons, women’s rights, etc. This book begins in the Roman period an ends with the Reformation. Information taken from sources in Italy, Britain, and France.