My novel takes place in that era when England was just emerging into its Renaissance.
• at what age would a female be referred to as woman or males as a man? would it be different for servants than for ladies and gents? • what advantages did royal/noble fathers get from arranging marriages for their daughters, since dowries came with the marriages of their sons? • when was it not allowed for women to ride astride horses the way the indigenous women of England did in Mists of Avalon? • when did they first practice armwrestling and what was it called? • if they had to travel in the rain in a carriage, how did they cover the windows? • what term was used for the lowly servants who were commoners – kitchen help, stable workers, etc. • when river men moored boats at fairgrounds, was there someone whose job it was to help moor them, watch over them, for a fee? what would this person be called?
thank you!
Quite a few questions here, I'll answer the ones I can:
"at what age would a female be referred to as woman or males as a man? would it be different for servants than for ladies and gents?"
The age of maturity was a bit of a fluid thing, similar to now. Women never legally reached an age of maturity, legally always being a dependent of a male family member. In society, though, a girl would become an adult at around the age of 20 or so. This was the usual time for a girl in England to get married. She was old enough to have learned important skills and perhaps have amassed some property (usually movable property but perhaps some bits of land depending on how rich her parents were) and also young enough to have many years of childbearing ahead of her. For a man it was legally a bit different, he would be entered into a tithing at around the age of 12 so legally he was an adult BUT socially he wouldn't be considered an adult or a full member of society until around the age of 23 (also when men married), not much older than a girl. Also important to remember that marriage was the norm. This was also fluid, like today. If your parents died when you were 18 and you were able to take on full adult responsibilities then you were an adult. View this as a normative structure, not an absolute in every case.
Servants need a separate note: Servitude was not viewed exactly the way it is today. Most people in the late middle ages/early Renaissance would have served at one point or another. It was common to go out for a year or a few month into the home of another family to serve there and perhaps to learn a trade (both formal apprenticeship and informal skills) A girl may have gone to the next village to live and work with the family of a wife known for her dairy making to learn that skill. After a while she would have come back home and gotten married. OR she could have gotten married in the town she was staying in. Besides learning a skill you would earn a bit of coin on the side which would help you when you start off on your own. So their adulthood would be seen to be the same time as everyone else's.
" what advantages did royal/noble fathers get from arranging marriages for their daughters, since dowries came with the marriages of their sons?"
Political and economic ties. A good way to try and gain allies or resolve disputes was to marry your children, girls are needed for that.
3)> "when was it not allowed for women to ride astride horses the way the indigenous women of England did in Mists of Avalon? "
Generally during the middle ages and into the early modern period women rode however they could. Sitting astride was fine as long ad you were covered by your skirts. A common way to ride would be to sit pillion behind a man sideways. Another would be to use a sort of early side saddle. IT was like a bench that sat atop a horse and a lady would sit sideways on it. Something to note is that if a lady of rank needed to go somewhere distant she would most likely be in a carriage or in a palanquin, not on a horse. For a woman further down the social ladder riding astride would be fine but most of the time people just walked or caught rides on carts. People didn't generally have horses to spare. As well, it wasn't overly far to the next village so walking would often be a lot easier since you didn't have to follow the road if, say, the next village was over the fields or through the wood.
For images of medieval women riding horses look here
"if they had to travel in the rain in a carriage, how did they cover the windows?"
Generally medieval and early modern carriages had cloth tops so windows were not the same. You just raised part of the cloth covering to get some air and lowered it when you wanted to. For example here you can see women travelling in an enclosed carriage with curtains. Cloth was the way to go as it would be oiled to resist rain and it was possible to produce in large sizes, which glass was not at that time.
In general I'd highly suggest Ian Mortimer's book "The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England" for a good and accessible overview of the time period.