In medieval times was the average age 20 and if so what was the average marrying age?

Question

I think that the average age of medieval man was only 20, or so and if so, what was the average marrying age?

Answer 1

If you're talking about life expectancy, the average man only lived to be about 35 or 40.

Most people married young, in their teens, in fact. I believe that Church law required that the girl be at least 12 and the boy at least 14, but I'm not sure of the age of puberty at the time. Presumably, those who decided these things figured that a girl of 12 was capable of reproducing and that a boy of 14 was capable of fathering children. That may be so, but I think it's more likely that marriages took place when the principals were a bit older, say, 15 or 16.

Margaret Beaufort, the mother of Henry VII, gave birth to him when she was only 13. He was her only child, and medical historians speculate that her young age at the time he was born effectively precluded any further children. Further back in English history, Mary de Bohun--the first wife of the man who became Henry IV-- also had their first child at 13 or 14, and was dead before she reached 24, after bearing about five or six children (one of whom grew up to become King Henry V).

Having babies in the Middle Ages was a pretty risky business!

Answer 2

Peasant girls could marry as young as 12 and boys as young as 14. Most of the time though, girls married around 17 or 18 and boys in their late 20's or 30's. The groom was almost always much older than his bride. (1)

Noble women sometimes didn't marry until the age of 24, but this was rare. More than 3/4 were married before they reached 19. By today's standards, western Europe was inhabited by the young, with more than half of the population under 20 years of age. (2)

Answer 3

I believe there was a wide variation in average/mean age, or life expectancy, at least in western Europe where most information and data comes from. And I think 20 is too low. Depending on time and place, the average life span was about 28 to 38 for men. You have to bear in mind that the average is brought down by the enormous number of children who died at birth or in their first year of life, and those who died young of disease, starvation or violence. It's not like everyone was dead by age 40. Lots of people lived into very old age, but they were lucky. The ones who were unlucky bring down the average age.

Girls married usually not before 12 or 13, generally before 16. Men generally not before 16, but usually by early 20's.

Answer 4

In midieval times the average longevity was about 35 to 40 yrs old. It only stands to reason that marrying age was at or shortly after the onset of puberty. For girls this is around 13, for guys it's about 15.

Answer 5

14

Answer 6

13

Answer 7

It completely depends on where you are talking about. The aveage age in England was in ht 40's and women often were married around 15 although it was not unheard of for them to be as young as 13. Of course average life expectancies also vary between social classes.

Answer 8

the average lifespan of 'peasants' was around 20 to 30 and the marrying age was between 12 to 14 mostly withe them having a child at that sam age mentioned.

Answer 9

probably around 12 to 14. they couldn't have kids right away though cause most kids now can't get pregnant yet at 12 or 13, and kids now hit puberty earlier b/c of better nutrition and stuff, so they probably wouldn't have had kids before they were like 15 or 16. part of why the average age was so low is that a lot of ppl used to die in childhood, so it wasn't that most ppl only lived to like 25 or 30 but that there were more kids than adults b/c a lot of kids wouldn't live into adulthood at all. kids used to die of a lot of things that kids now are vaccinated for, and plus like food poisoning and stuff cause they didn't know about bacteria yet. i think the life expectancy for ppl once they made it past age 5 was probably close to 40.

romeo and juliette were like 16 and 13.

Answer 10

prolly around 15 or 16.