#I've got loads more myths where that came from but I have developed a bit of a reputation for ranting about this one because it seems to

[siena-sevenwits]

please tell me: what is your favourite medieval history myth to mythbust? I want to know more!

I am on a lifelong crusade to free young people of the belief that "Forty was elderly in the Middle Ages," and its accompanying myth, "Most Medievals married between ages 12-14 because they knew they'd probably die young!"

It is mathematically true that thirty-five was more or less the average life span in most parts of western Europe for much of the Medieval era. It is also true that life spans averaged shorter than in a modern first world country's population.

However, this doesn't mean most people died around that age. It's the average, because most people died either in infancy/early childhood or in old age. If you made it past early childhood, you had a decent likelihood of living into your sixties or seventies. Yes, there was greater risk of death from untreatable sickness or childbirth or misadventure, but forty was certainly not seen as old, and most people hoped to live to seventy.

As for young marriages, yes, they happened, but mainly among the aristocracy who needed to make family alliances/gain political advantage/move money around. In those cases, the young people usually remained living with their parents/relatives until they were ready to be parents themselves, at which point they would join their spouse. And remember, puberty usually occurred a couple of years later in those times, because without the rich nutrition we have today, the body does not mature as quickly. Scholarly findings indicate that many girls only experienced menarche around the age of fourteen, fifteen, or sixteen.

And if you were poor? Generally speaking, no need to marry kids off young, because there are no political alliances etc. to make! In the late Middle Ages, church and legal records show that most commoners married in their late teens or early twenties, at which point they'd be in a better position to support a family, have children, etc.

In any case, it had nothing to do with dying at forty and wanting to get in as many years of married life before then as possible. Biological clock might well be on their radar, but probably not worries about dying young.