Medieval Lives: Birth, Marriage, Death

For a Medieval woman approaching the moment of labour and birth, there were no antiseptics to ward off infection or anaesthetics to deal with pain, but there was God. The medieval world understood that the pains of labour were the penalty for the original sin of humankind; so, to get through them, she needed the help of the saints, and the blessing of God himself. As historian Helen Castor reveals in this film this was one of the most dangerous moments a medieval woman would ever encounter and some aristocratic and royal women gave birth as young as 13. Birth took place in an all-female environment, and the male world of medicine was little help to a woman in confinement. But by the end of the Middle Ages the momentous changes to the religious life of England reached right into the heart of this most domestic and secret of life's rites and stripped away the comfort that old Church had offered to laboring women.

Unlike birth and death, which are inescapable facts of life, marriage is a rite of passage made by choice and in the Middle Ages it wasn't just a choice made by bride and groom, they were often the last pieces in a puzzle, put together by their parents, with help from their family and friends, according to rules laid down by the Church. But as historian Helen Castor reveals, in the Middle Ages marriage was actually much easier to get into than today - you could get married in a pub or even a hedgerow simply by exchanging words of consent - but from the 12th century onwards the Catholic Church tried to control this conjugal free-for-all. For the Church, marriage was a way to contain the troubling issue of sex; but as this episode reveals, it was not easy to impose rules on the most unpredictable human emotions of love and lust.

Most of the time, we try not to think about death. But the people of the middle ages didn't have that luxury. Death was always close at hand, for young and old, rich and poor - even before the horrors of the Black Death, which killed millions in a few short months. But for the people of the Middle Ages death wasn't an end but a doorway to everlasting life. The Church taught that an eternity spent in heaven or hell was much more important than this life's fleeting achievements and there was much you could do to prepare for the next life in this one. As historian Helen Castor reveals, how to be remembered - and remembering your loved ones - shaped not only the worship of the people of the middle ages but the very buildings and funding of the medieval Church itself.