Marriage was the only acceptable place for sex in the medieval period, and as a result Christians were allowed to marry from puberty onwards, generally seen at the time as age 12 for women and 14 for men. Parental consent was not required.

What was marriage like in medieval times?

In the middle ages, girls were typically in their teens when they married, and boys were in their early twenties. The arrangement of the marriage was based on monetary worth. The family of the girl who was to be married would give a dowry, or donation, to the boy she was to marry.

Was incest common in the medieval times?

Homosexuality and incest were both officially extremely taboo in medieval Europe.

Did people marry their siblings in medieval times?

For example, in many royal marriages in medieval times, two siblings in one family married siblings from another. If they married, the marriage would count as a first cousin marriage, but genetically, the couple had closer connections than first cousins who were not doubled.

Why was incest common in royalty?

Incest was a common tactic among royal families to retain power. For the Habsburgs, intermarriage and “a huge amount of inbreeding” protected the familys influence as successive generations occupied the throne of the Holy Roman Empire between the 1400s and 1700s.