The Black Death and the Medieval Family
end of the thirteenth century men married at around age 40 and women at about age 25. In the mid-fourteenth century the marriage age had dropped to about 24 years for men and 16 years for women. Many aristocratic girls were plight-trothed in marriage at 10 to 11 years old. Herlihy states that each major epidemic in Florence resulted in a "flurry of marriages." The actual marriage negotiation also became more complicated as the wealthy nobility struggled to maintain its aristocracy and the new nobility struggled to increase their social status. Marriage had become a strong weapon.
The desperate effort to ensure family lines also resulted in baby booms. While these baby booms were stabilized by recurring bouts of the plague, the large influx of children resulted in another phenomenenon of the plague -- a large generation gap. In the early 1400s, Tuscany reports a surprisingly large percentage of inhabitants 60 years and older for a community still heavily depopulated, while the largest portion of society was made up of children and youth.
The immediate effects of the plague on families were short-lived -- shock, abandonment of family members and the temporary disruption of familial and work routines. The resiliency of the family structure readjusted, rebounded and even restructured itself in ways that even today seems awe-inspiring.
Sources: David Herlihy, "The Black Death and the Transformation of the West." Ed. Samuel K. Kohn Jr. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press, 1997.
Editor, Don Nardo, The Black Death, Turning Points in History. San Diego, California. Greenhaven Press Inc., 1999
Frances Gies and Joseph Gies, Marriage and Family in the Middle Ages. New York, New York. Harper & Row, 1987.
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