The majority of people during the medieval period were illiterate; this goes for men, women and children, mostly the commonfolk but there were cases where nobles were illiterate. Commonfolk had little to no chance of learning to read or write as the education was expensive and process quite lengthy. Forgery, while not widespread and commonly practiced was not something new for the time, as few people could read, thus few could verify the authenticity of letters or documents for example. Nobles who could not read themselves dictated their documents to scribes, and they usually did not have much trust in the written word, which had a good possibility of containing lies. Greater faith was instead placed on the spoken word, promises, oaths and words of honour.
Nobles or aristocrats who knew how to read and write were taught to do so from a very young age and were educated most likely by scribes, paid scholars or their parents themselves on rare occassions. There is much debate on whether women were allowed to have been educated, but it is safe to assume that noblewomen were also taught how to read and write, perhaps in order to increase their appeal and 'value' when marrying other noble families, however were still not trusted with handling documents and important matters.
Nobility often used messengers to orally communicate an intended message to the intended recipient, yet were not always trusted, as messengers could twist the words in accordance to their own will, for that reason some nobles sent messengers with letters that they, or their scribes personally wrote, with their own signature to confirm the authenticity of the letter. Often times, reading would have been done out loud when need be, as those who read silently were suspected of hiding ill intentions.
Paper and parchment were costly resources, and making it was a very lengthy proccess. Usually made out of animal skin, which needed to be dired out, stretched, cleaned and scraped, thus, communication was mostly done orally and through third parties.
Earlier version
From the old forum. Posted by theSerpent on 17 September 2018.
Forgery, Reading and Writing
The majority of people during the medieval period were illiterate; this goes for men, women and children, rich and poor. For the poor, there was almost little or no chance of learning to read or write, as a woman, this is even less. Forgery of various documents was relatively widespread. Few people could read or write, so few people could judge the authenticity of any record. Even gentlemen of high standing could seldom read and only dictated their documents to scribes – so there was not as much trust in the written word, which might contain falsehoods. Greater faith was placed on oral promises, oaths and the other person’s word of honour.
So what about the rich, well, the men would have had some sort of education, the women are unlikely to have been able to read or write. If these women’s father’s allowed, they might have been taught well. In earlier times, reading would have been done out loud, this way, there could only be one interpretation of the text. Those who read in their heads were often suspicious, especially for females. Not everyone could pick up a pen and paper and write, for starters, paper was not that easy to find. It took a lengthy process to make, out of animal skin, which needed to be dried out, stretched, cleaned, scraped.