Age of majority
The age of majority is the legal threshold of which a person is legally declared as an adult.[1] It is the moment when a person ceases to be considered a minor and assumes legal control over their person, actions, and decisions, thus terminating the control and legal responsibilities of their parents or guardian over them, having gained the rights to be able to vote in elections, to buy tobacco and cigarettes and get a tattoo.[2] Most countries set the age of majority at 18, but some jurisdictions have a higher or lower age than others.
Although easily confounded with one another, the age of majority is not the same as the age of consent.[3]
Historical age of majority
Variations in the age of the sovereign's majority couldbe found as in the case of the majority of others. The Kingof Denmark came of age at fourteen, according to Lacombein his history of the ancient kings of the northern Europeancountries. This custom would be referable to a period priorto the tenth century. "At that age the King would declarepublicly that he wished no longer to have the services of atutor."3 Gothic kings seem frequently to have come of age atfifteen, for example Childebert II in 585 A.D. The aristocracy would have been influenced by the royal example; but, inevitably, the qualifications for majority were different. Thus,in his Memoirs of Ancient Chivalry, St. Palaye records thatthe minority of the nobles in France ended at seventeen, "because they were then judged strong enough and sufficientlyqualified for the culture of their lands, the mechanic arts andcommeree in which they were all employed."[4] (T. E. James)