Age, Sex, and Pregnancy in the Medieval World

Fertility and childbirth are universal topics. Although the circumstances, attitudes towards it, and the way it is spoken about and understood vary depending on time, place, culture, and context, they are nonetheless topics that have affected all humans since the beginning of time. It is, essentially, one of the most natural and most important topics of all. Naturally, this counts for the medieval period as much as for any other period of time.

Due to the fact that it is the woman who is pregnant and gives birth, it has often been assumed that in the Middle Ages, everything surrounding it was considered an exclusively female subject, and as such, due to the sexist culture of medieval Europe, it did not get a lot of attention.

Though doubtlessly, medieval society was very different from ours and had some very sexist views and practices, this is a misconception. Not only was the part of men in conception and also the progression of the pregnancy and how women should act and be treated during it one that was very much discussed at the time, but it was also a subject that was very much at the heart of culture, and no shame was attached to women discussing it.

It is true that, for obvious reasons, it was a subject that was of more interest to women than men, but medical works describe various aspects of it. Often, such texts were concerned with the religious and moral aspects of it – texts that were less rigid and sexually disapproving than might be expected – but several books were concerned with how to make it the safest and healthiest experience for mother and baby possible, offering practical advice rather than making judgements.

The myth of routine child pregnancy

Such advice began with conception – naturally, the first and obvious step to approach the subject, as it is the way any pregnancy begins. It has long been a faulty assumption about the Middle Ages that women became pregnant as barely more than children, at the soonest possible moment. This misunderstanding comes from two facts about medieval society. One, that quite famously, the age of consent was 12 for girls if they were still menstruating, and 14 for boys, and second, the idea that some rare cases happening in the nobility represent all women.

Legal consent versus social practice

These cases of extremely early consummation, and by consequence pregnancies, did occur, but they were the exception rather than the norm. Medieval texts heavily discouraged early pregnancy, and it is known that so did society at large. When John Lovell, heir to William, 7th Baron Lovell, got his then 13-year-old wife Joan pregnant while he himself was 21 years of age, both his father and his father-in-law reacted with outrage, the latter even stating in his will that the marriage between his daughter and son-in-law existed “to the fury of “God”—an interesting statement suggesting that despite the fact they were married and Joan was technically over the age of consent, such a deed was considered horrible not only in the eyes of humans but of God Himself.

“Extremely early consummation and pregnancy did occur in the Middle Ages—but they were exceptions, not the norm.”

Noble exceptions and popular norms

It wasn’t only women who were the victims of far too early a consummation of a marriage. Naturally, it was much more dangerous in their case, as they were the ones who could become pregnant. However, to understand the culture surrounding medieval conception, fertility and childbirth, it would be wrong to think that the act of sex was always between a young woman and an older man, even for nobility. While these age gaps were considered more the norm for the Middle Ages, there were cases in which they were inverted.

The Tomb of Katherine de Stafford and her husband Michael de la Pole, 2nd Earl of Suffolk in Wingfield Church

In itself, it seems that nobody considered this strange. Large age gaps between spouses were not considered abnormal or even noteworthy, unless in extreme cases, and there is no indication whatsoever that the spouses themselves considered it an imposition or anything but normal. However, as with young girls being made pregnant by much older husbands, there is also evidence that the relatives of young boys making their much older wives pregnant were not pleased. One such example is Michael de la Pole, 3rd Earl of Suffolk and brother of the famous William de la Pole, 4th Earl and eventually 1st Duke of Suffolk. At the age of around 8, he was married to Katherine Stafford, who was then around 15. Their first child was almost certainly born five years later, making Michael only 12 years old at her conception, while his wife was 19.

This, too, seems to have been considered wrong, though of course, unlike Joan Lovell, Michael did not have to bear the physical consequences of such a sex act in the form of pregnancy. He was, however, similarly forced to have sex too early and to take on parental responsibility while still barely more than a child. As with Margaret and Joan, this behaviour by his spouse was not deemed acceptable by the close family.

It was not only considered a problem with morality. Not unlike today, there was also a focus on the medical problems that could lead to difficulties with the pregnancy and even the baby’s health if the baby was conceived by too young a mother or fathered by too young a father, which gives an interesting insight into the understanding of pregnancy in the Middle Ages.

Medieval advice on the ‘right’ age to conceive

Advice on the perfect age to conceive naturally differed from text to text, but all texts agreed on the fact that the pregnant party should be a woman, not a girl.

“Medieval authorities were clear: the pregnant party should be a woman, not a girl.”