In 1960 the author Philippe Ariès published his controversial book Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life. In it he claimed that “in Medieval society the idea of childhood did not exist”. So, let’s travel back in time now and find out if the idea of childhood really is a modern phenomenon, what it was like to be a teenager in the Middle Ages, what age children went out to work for a living and why Elizabeth Paston was beaten until her head broke. Welcome to Medieval Madness.