Relationships between Parents and Their absent Adolescent Offspring in the High Middle Ages

ADOLESCENT OFFSPRING IN THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES Relationships between parents and adolescents during the high Middle Ages were often marked by separation as young people left their families to be married, join a monastery, or pursue an education through apprenticeship in arms or a craft or at the newly formed universities. The relative independence of young people in the Middle Ages has led some scholars to argue that no life stage of adolescence existed at all during the Middle Ages,' or that children and adolescents were hopelessly emotionally scarred by their upbringing, creating hostile relationships with their parents and other authority figures. 2 My own ongoing research into medieval adolescence suggests that many parents in the high Middle Ages did not sever emotional ties with their absent adolescent children, but continued to demonstrate concern for the well-being of their offspring.