What were the daily duties of a medieval princesses?

Answer 1

I would sum up the typical day of a typical medieval princess with a single word: tedious.

There is a lot of variation from one princess to the next. After all, we are talking about a period of a thousand years across an entire continent, and given the fact that there were royal advisers involved, there were probably more opinions about how this should be done than there were parents of the princesses. But there was an important fact about all of them, which was that they could be destined to marry kings, and so a princess had to be prepared to rule in the king's place while he was off doing something else, if it came to that.

Many were educated to read and write, but some, surely were not. Some were educated in warfare, as we know from the history of Ethelfleda, the daughter of Alfred the Great, who reigned in Mercia when Vikings were attacking; she managed to keep them out of her country, partly because of her education in warfare. Quite a few were taught to be pious and regard the church with awe, but you can bet quite a few were not, privately. Some, but not all, princesses had to learn arithmetic, grammar, and logic. Many had to learn a number of languages.

Princesses had to interact with the nobility, and this meant that they had to know who the nobility were, not only by name but also how they were important. This meant that a princess might have to study and memorize lists of names, lands, and accomplishments far more than she had patience for.

Princesses also had to learn to dance, and possibly to sing and play instruments depending on what was in fashion at her place and time. But of course this was guided, as it was important that a princes knew the correct fashions, and not simply what she thought was nice.

All princesses, regardless of what they privately believed, were probably to go to church at least once every day.

Some princesses did these things at court, and some in convents. There were schools throughout the Middle Ages, but princesses almost never attended them (I am tempted to say never, but a caution is needed - there might have been one or two).

When a princess's husband was chosen for her, she might have gone to that man's court to finish her education in the country that was or would become his. In come cases this happened at an age when we would be off to kindergarten. To be fully accurate, there were a very few princesses who chose their own husbands.

I will add a couple links below to Wikipedia articles on interesting princesses.

Answer 2

She had to be charming, and keep a proper household. She would learn how to prepare a menu, give scraps to the poor, go to mass, and obey the king.

Answer 3

They basically boiled down to "Marry whomever your father tells you to, then lie back and think of England (or wherever)."