Youth, gender and identity in Welsh princely families, 1075--1240

In his study of the juvenes of high medieval France, Georges Duby was one of the first historians to identify the important role played by youth in medieval European society. Forced by changing familial customs into a period of extended social adolescence, young unmarried men left home to join the mesnie, the military arm of the nobility. The juvenes were full of aggressive feelings and prone to acts of violence as they sought fame, wealth and wives. In this thesis, I aim to discover the extent to which Duby's concepts of youth and juvenes can be applied to the Anglo-Norman frontier region of Wales. The structure of the Welsh princely family was quite different from the family structure of the French nobility suggested by Duby, but young unmarried men in Wales similarly endured a long period of social adolescence and spent their youth in military service as part of the prince's teulu, or warband. This resulted in large numbers of young unmarried men who, like Duby's juvenes, had taken up arms, were full of aggressive feelings and lived in a violent militaristic society.; I examine the topic of princely youth in Wales within the context of changing political, social and familial norms of the late eleventh through the mid-thirteenth centuries. I define the legal and cultural conceptions of youth and outline the major differences between Duby's juvenes and the youth of Wales. Exploring the three major dynasties, I look closely at comparative status and relations within the Welsh princely family. I assess the influence of the Welsh Church in an attempt to understand why so few members of Welsh princely families entered into religious careers. I discuss youth violence, paying close attention to the dynamics of power within the father-son relationship and its impact on the behavior of Welsh youth. Going beyond the bounds of Duby's study, I examine the complex and often contradictory evidence regarding the sexual behavior of young aristocratic women, raising the question as to whether female social adolescence existed in high medieval Wales. I conclude with a discussion of marriage and its relationship to social maturity.