Growing up, I acquired a vague idea that medieval people did not view childhood as we do. Nicholas Orme’s Medieval Children is the leading study for England in particular. ‘It cannot be overemphasised that there is nothing to be said for Ariès’s view,’ Orme notes. Medieval parents made immense sacrifices for their children, and seem to have expected little in return. Medieval England was often at war, and the government was desperately in need of soldiers.