Vulnerable Members of the Community

Abstract

The first part of the book focusses on perceptions of and the mainly legal interactions with children and young people by village communities, law makers and lords. Müller offers a detailed exploration of village children as perceived as vulnerable on the one hand, and in need of protection, while at the same time being accorded increasing responsibilities and economic agency. A much needed and in-depth analysis of the concept of full age and maturity not only reveals significant local variation in manorial custom, but also shows that medieval villagers were less focussed on numerical age as such, and more interested in the achievement of social and economic competences by young people to measure maturity.