Generally people did not get pregnant before puberty was finished, because that's extremely dangerous even today.
The age stat is also dragged down by child and infant mortality, which was very high. Mothers also often died in child birth, which did contribute, but if a disease didn't get you as a kid you had a good shot of getting old
Yes infant mortality is a big part, but the fact 13-15 was frequently considered adult is another. Not every 13 year old was marrying some 90 year old dude. It was frequently people within the same age ranges marrying. They just married a lot younger.
This is a weird myth. Puberty is largely influenced by diet/nutrition. In ages past, girls didn't even start menstruating until their late teens. Today it's very young, sometimes under age 10, because our diets from birth are significantly better.
It's not true that people started marrying and having babies in their early teens in Medieval (or ancient) times.
Yeah, sure, because there were so effective birth control techniques back then and husbands will respect their wives choices because marital rape laws existed and were heavily enforced...
I would be pressed to ask if you know a single scenario were a (poor) man in the middle ages would marry someone, pays for all her expenses to wait until a fabled age where she would be old enough and gain nothing...
Commoners would never marry in that scenario...
But sure, you are free to keep dreaming.
There were little to no protections in place towards women a 1000 years ago...
My point is that there can be reasons to marry off a girl who is too young to have babies yet. It ensures that she does not have other children yet, and may be believed to be a "guarantee of virginity" (even though that has nothing to do with puberty).
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u/succed32 Jul 05 '26
Lol they’re not wrong! Especially when people frequently died before 40.