First off, most people that wanted to write a letter, couldn't write a letter. This was because a majority of the medieval population was illiterate. This meant whoever wanted to write a letter to someone else would have to enlist the help of a scribe. This proved to be problematic for a few reasons. One reason was the message's content was, in the end, at the mercy of the scribe. If the scribe misheard the sender or wanted to ruin them intentionally, they could do it without the sender knowing. The other problem with this system is the person who sends the letter knowingly accepts that the scribe will know what the content of their message is. In the end this could prove...dangerous.
Given these obstacles, letters were a scarce commodity among peasants. Letters were reserved to upper class clergy and royalty. There was also very little privacy with writing a letter as ironic as that is. In the end was it really worth it to write a letter?
Work Cited
"Signed, Sealed, Delivered: How Messages Were Sent in the Middle Ages - Medievalists.net." Medievalists.net. Accessed October 12, 2014.
Taylor, Craig. Joan of Arc: La Pucelle. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006. 92-93
As a historian, we relish letters. They must have been worth it, because they were frequently preserved. A few in this class have read the letters of Magdalena and Balthasar (16th c), and I am about to start the letters of Abelard and Heloise (12th c) in my medieval Europe class. Isn't it amazing though that Joan learned to sign her name?
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