Too Much, Too Young: Children of the Middle Ages

00:28:03 The population was growing, the land was being more intensively

00:29:30 but they also had a lot to gain.

00:30:40 They actually serve the lord and lady themselves.

00:31:43 In an age of subsistence farming, where a lot of

00:32:48 "Thou shalt not spit over the table

00:34:12 You were likely to be a victim of a kind of casual

00:35:25 And there were long campaigns overseas, in France and on crusade in the Holy Land.

00:36:33 who was now besieging his castle.

00:37:42 For the knights, the potential gains in land and status were immense.

00:39:05 So your jobs would include, sweeping the

00:40:12 He'd be looking for boys who were strong, fit

00:41:34 "Out come the swords, bright as silver.

00:42:52 So warfare was just as endemic at the end of the

00:44:34 who had no immunity because they hadn't lived through the earlier epidemic.

00:45:54 who supposedly came to London penniless

00:47:25 Getting an apprenticeship here would have been a real step up in the world.

00:49:07 The contracts that bound them together are kept by archivist Jill Redford.

00:50:01 Wilelmus Filius Magote De Lincolne.

00:51:01 So he's not being told not to fornicate with the master's wife

00:52:14 The idea was that they would save that money so that they could set

00:53:29 and fighting - they gained more than survival.

00:55:12 Even the King hadn't been able to ignore her vast wealth.

00:56:38 The Tudors had a profound effect on the course of English history.

00:57:51 Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd