ABSTRACT
Didactic writers asserted that the main function of mothers was to rear their sons to the age of 7. In fact, many of those designated for knighthood were separated from their mothers at the age of 7-9. In Gottfried of Strasburg’s Tristan, the eponymous hero is raised with great love and tenderness by an adoptive mother. Supreme responsibility rested with the feudal seigneur, but the everyday training was carried out under the guidance of the nutricius (tutor). Military training, contests among the boys, and hunting entailed risk and were among the causes of the low life-expectancy of males in the nobility. Training was conducted in groups, and children constituted a single group (of mixed ages) within the population of the castle. Like children in monasteries, they too were a separate group, but took part in the routine and the activities of the adults.
