You ever think Chaucer just wasn’t trying? “So there was this squire. He was, oh, I dunno, 20, I guess? Or something like that. Anyway, he was horny as hell. When he slept at night he didn’t get much sleep, you know what I mean? Eh? Eh? Anyway…”
A “yoot”.
“What’s a ‘yoot’?”
It’s also worth noting that “considered old enough to get married and have kids” doesn’t automatically mean “considered old enough to set up and run a household and have the authority to make decisions about your own future”.
Chris Rock(?)
They have a new code word on the news for black people - ‘youth’! As in “a 25-year-old youth was apprehended with a pistol after robbing a liquor store” or “two 20-year-old youths were arrested for possession of cocaine”… or how about “a 22-year-old youth was arrested for assaulting an 18-year-old man in Brooklyn”?
I recall reading once that Samuel Pepys became infatuated with and married his 15-year-old wife, but records that he did not consummate the marriage for almost a year until she was “old enough”. I’m assuming that means once she started her periods, became a woman, etc. Of course this is several centuries after Chaucer, the 1660’s, and middle class… but it shows a certain sensibility of the difference between woman and child when it comes to sex.
OTOH King John married his wife when she was about 13 and had noisly all night sex apparently right away…
No, actually just as “girls”. (And all actual girls were considered to be gay, back then.) Boys were girls, and not (generally) boys until some 40 years after Chaucer’s death (in 1400). (Although I suppose that even before that one could have truly said that “Boys will be boys.”)
Another wrinkle to consider is that in Medieval times in many places different adult responsibilities were attained at different ages. You might be able to marry at 14 but not bear arms until 16, inherit until 21 and form a legal contract until 25. (all of these went out the window if you were of royal blood)
Much like today where you can drive at 16, vote and serve in the military at 18 but not drink until 21.
So it all depended on what you were trying to do whether you were considered one of the grown-ups.
Excuse me, yooouuuuth.
Getting married but not consummating the marriage until the woman (or perhaps in some cases the man) was old enough is something that was done in the U.S. in comparatively recent times. Have you seen the 1956 movie Baby Doll? A 17-year-old woman gets married to an older man. By an agreement before the marriage, there will be no sex until her 20th birthday:
Apparently being connected to that film guarantees that you will have a long life. Carroll Baker is 82, having outlived her third husband. Three years ago I saw her speak about the film, and she looks great for her age. Karl Malden lived to be 97. Elia Kazan lived to be 94. Mildred Dunnock lived to be 90. Rip Torn is still alive and still acting at 82. Eli Wallach is still alive and still acting at 97. Alas, Tennessee Williams died tragically young at 71.