Crystal's paper

I hope this is posted correctly. I pushed a bunch of random buttons that should have pointed me in the right direction.
See you all next Wednesday.

Crystal Dill
January 16, 2008
Response to Richard II
(Saul Pages 6-23)
Paper #1
Richard’s Early Years
According to Saul, “Richard’s upbringing in his years of boyhood or ‘pueritia’ would probably have followed the pattern usual among the aristocracy (14)[1].” From here he goes on to explain that at the early age of six, Richard was handed over to tutors and masters. It would seem that there was no direct involvement from either of his parents in his education. With this interpretation the reader is left to surmise that the progression of childhood in the English aristocracy is that the child is born, the child is weaned, and finally the child is groomed for their future purpose. In order to understand Richard’s childhood years better, I wanted to explore the concept of Medieval child rearing.
Barbra Hanawalt suggests that the modern perception of medieval parenting as being cold and distant is inaccurate. Hanawalt argues that the conception of a nurturing and loving childhood is a modern conception. She says:
By concentrating our attack on one front only, definitions of childhood, we have neglected the two-way relationship between parents and children, and we have overlooked entirely the importance of community in raising and protecting children. It is time to turn our attention toward the dynamics of the relationships among the three. We have followed Ariès too closely in trying to point to a clearly defined concept of childhood, to a parental attitude toward children that can only be loving if it is cast in the mold of twentieth-century sentimentality about childhood. Our interest in community responses to children and childhood has been limited to cultural expressions of love of children rather than to the discipline, training, and oversight that the community might be willing to assume in rearing children. (Hanawalt)[2]
This suggests that although our modern minds cannot fathom such a concept that perhaps in medieval society a nurturing childhood was frivolous and unnecessary. However, what was necessary was the involvement of the community to help raise the child to become a logical and determined leader.
For Richard to become a good leader by medieval standards, it would have been appropriate for his parents to step aside and allow tutors and masters to take their place. In a time period where wars were as common as church services a child did not need to be doted on by watchful parents; he needed to learn how to strategize logically and effectively.
I also found it interesting to note that Richard’s first language was not English. Through the appropriation of Aquitaine, Richard had people on staff who were of French ancestry and according to Saul, he most likely acquired English later childhood (14). Considering that England was in a perpetual state of war with France during this time period, it would appear to some that his acquisition of the language would be inconsequential perhaps even seditious, but for a future king learning the language of the enemy can be advantageous. This theory made me think of the Sapir-Wharf hypothesis which says:
…a particular language's nature influences the habitual thought of its speakers. Different language patterns yield different patterns of thought. This idea challenges the possibility of representing the world perfectly with language, because it acknowledges that the mechanisms of any language condition the thoughts of its speaker community. (wikipedia)[3]
Perhaps it was beneficial for Richard to learn the French language before his mother tongue because it would help him understand the thought process or perhaps even the cognitive process (given the grammatical structure of the French language) of his country’s greatest enemy.
Richard II’s childhood would seem strange and lonely by modern standards, but in order to survive in the medieval world it would have been the only option he would have to survive. Hopefully, medieval children were loved by their parents, but affection and kindness were not emotions they had time to display. They dealt with harsh weather, wars, and an unpredictable political climate; they wanted their children to survive.

[1]Saul, Nigel. Richard II. Yale University Press: New Haven and London, 1997.
[2] http://www.illinoismedieval.org/ems/VOL12/hanawalt.html
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir-Whorf_Hypothesis