Month: July 2018

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was published in the early 19th century. Because I wanted Snow White and Her Queen to be possibly real, it had to take place a couple of hundred years before that, long enough before for the truth to be distorted beyond recognition. I settled on the 16th century because it had castles, huts in the woods, inequality and violent punishments—all the things I needed for my story—and I put my characters within it. It was a very different time back then. Average life expectancy was 35 years. Many died in infancy, more died in childhood, even more died in childbirth. The ones who survived lived till age 50 or 60 only. The average age of marriage was, as a result, much earlier than it is today. It was also arranged, for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with love or romance. Girls could legally be married from the age of 12 onwards, though it was usually only the girls from rich families who married young. Thus, in accordance with those circumstances, my poor little rich Queen Katherine was made to marry at age 13.