Many medieval children became orphans, either full orphans or with only one lost parent. Ironically, becoming an orphan was less of a tragedy for children who were not going to inherit property. Children who already lived in poverty became wards of the town and were assigned some household to grow up in, at the station in which they were born: servants or apprentices. Middle class children generally went into relatives’ families. But wealthy children became hostages.
When a baron died, his widow did not have natural custody rights. If she had her own property, she might be able to buy custody of her children from the king, but if not, then at least around school age, if not younger, off the children went to a guardian’s household. The guardian might be the king or another nobleman, or it might be the bishop. Custody of heirs and heiresses was actually bought and sold; children might be moved to a different guardian’s house without even knowing him.
Orphaned wards were money-makers for two reasons. First, until they were old enough to own the property outright, the guardian had the “usufruct,” that is, the use of the fruit: apples from an orchard, timber from forest, wool from flocks, rent from tenants, and so on. The property’s basic value remained for the orphan, but no interest or other income piled up during his childhood. Second, when the orphan was old enough to marry, the guardian made the match. A wealthy heiress was married to his own son or nephew, to keep the orchard, timber, sheep or tenants in the family’s income rolls; part of the property then stayed in the guardian’s family as her dowry. A wealthy heir wasn’t quite as lucrative, but he too could be forced to marry within the guardian’s family. It was a neat way for kings to reward loyal knights: here, take this orphan and her estate. It cost the king nothing and it was perfectly legal.
The Magna Carta even addressed the abuses of orphans’ property by royal guardians.
Even orphans who stood to inherit no more than a city house became valuable wards on a lower scale. Men with pragmatic morals and gambling debts liked to marry orphans. An orphan girl had veto power, technically, but it wasn’t hard to give her a glowing idea of her future married life to get compliance, and the guardians didn’t care if she was happy. They essentially sold these girls (and boys) to debtors.
So when we hear of aristocratic arranged marriages in those times, and we feel shocked that parents made betrothal agreements for their preschool children, we have to see the other side. A betrothed orphan went to the home of her or his future spouse, and nobody could bargain or buy custody for profit. Assuming the natural parent had made a reasonable choice, the child’s welfare was assured if death came early, as it so often did.