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Overview
The family in the Renaissance was somewhat like the modern family in that it consisted of the parents and children, but it was in many ways different. The Renaissance family could also consist of grandparents, widowed mothers, and, in some cases, unmarried sisters. A strange thing about the Renaissance family was that the family members, members of the family with the same surname, almost always lived next to one another. This made sense at that time, because it provided a sort of close knit web of protection. I the family grew in size it had the potential to essentially rule a city district. However because of the close knit feel to the families if one member committed a crime against another family, the two men didn't just work it out, but instead the families became involved and the problem grew.
Marriage
Marriage in the Renaissance was much different than marriage now a days. In most cases the marriage was arranged and usually at a young. This was almost always so that the marriage would strengthen the family. Meaning that if the wife was to marry a man of a higher social status then she was to present the groom's family with a largedowry. This action would signify that the bride's family would move upwards socially. However if the bride was to marry a man who had come from a lowlier family than her own she would present his family with a smaller sized dowry, thus indicating that the grooms family was moving upwards socially.
In Renaissance Italy the father was the center of the nuclear family and made every important decision from what their children were going to do in life to where the family invested their money. Unlike in the U.S. children in the Renaissance weren't considered adults at 18, but only reached adulthood after being legally freed by their father. He has to go before the court and legally emancipate his children. The general age of emancipation ranged from early teens to the child's late twenties.
Children
While the women of the Renaissance were largely looked upon as second to men and as people with little to no authority they did, in most cases, maintain control of the household. The home was their domain and, while the husbands had the ultimate say in everything, they did have some leeway. Though the women of the 14th-16th centuries were restricted in what they were allowed to do they did realize that their ultimate purpose in society was to bear as many children for their husbands as possible. This was due to the high infant mortality rate, in fact around 50% of children born to the lower to upper middle classes died before reaching their twenties. This was problematic as the family always needed a male heir so to ensure that a male survived long enough to take his father's position the wife was expected to frequently give birth. In fact it is said that some upper class women had up to eight children over the span of ten years alone.
While birthing usually went over well the processes of giving birth was one of the most frightful that women had to endure. Due to the unsanitary conditions of the Renaissance about 10% of all women died in child birth. It came to be known as a very fearful and deadly occasion.
Sexual Norms
The marriages during the Renaissance were usually unstable for two reasons. One being that the marriages were likely arranged which in many cases meant that the relationship between the husband and wife was no more then a formal family tie. The second being that the age difference between husband and wife was large, because women were normally married at the ages of 15 and 16 where as men were married around their 30's and early 40's. Due to the inter marital stress that most couples experienced affairs and, in some cases, prostitution were common. While males were almost expected to cultivate affairs, women were held to different standards, especially women in royal courts. It was said that the wife of Duke Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan was execute after her affair with a court musician was exposed.
Prostitution became so normal and regular that those who had aimed to stop it realized that it was impossible and in 1415 the city fathers of Florence began to establish communal brothels and started to limit and restrict the practice rather than eliminating it.
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