The Great Household in Late Medieval EnglandIn the later medieval centuries, a whole range of important social, political, and artistic activities took place against the backdrop of the great English households. In this lively book, C. M. Woolgar explores the fascinating details of life in a great house. Based on extensive investigation of household accounts and related primary documents, Woolgar vividly illuminates the operations of great households. He also delineates the major changes that transformed the economy and geography of both lay and clerical households between 1200 and 1500. In this portrait of aristocratic and gentry life in medieval England, Woolgar describes the roles of family members, the situations of servants, the uses of space within the household, food and drink for daily consumption and for special occasions, furnishing, clothing, arrangements for travel, household animals, cleanliness and hygiene, entertainment, the practices of religion, and intellectual life. The author also analyzes the qualitative and social evolution of great households as definitions of magnificence and conventions of etiquette became increasingly elaborate. |
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Contents
Size Membership and Hospitality | 8 |
The Servants | 30 |
Space and Residences | 46 |
The Rhythms of the Household | 83 |
Food and Drink 7 | 129 |
Cooking and the Meal | 136 |
The Senses Religion and Intellectual Life | 166 |
Travel Horses and Other Animals | 181 |
Conclusion | 197 |
Abbreviations | 205 |
Notes | 211 |
Glossary | 235 |
Common terms and phrases
accommodation accounts Aymer Bishop Mitford Bishop of Winchester Bishop's Waltham BL Add bought bread buttery Caister chamber chapel Christmas clerk cloth consumed cook Countess court dishes domestic Duke of Buckingham Edward II Eleanor Eleanor of Castile English esquires estates feast fifteenth century fish fourteenth century gentle servants Goodrich Castle grooms hall HAME HAMEi Henry Henry III horses household of Edward household of Joan Hugh Audley included Inkberrow Joan de Valence Joan's K. B. McFarlane King King's kitchen knights livery loaves London lord lord's lunch Luttrell manor McFarlane meal meat medieval England minstrels Moreton Valence Northants RO Westmorland Oxford palace pantry pattern Plate probably Psalter purchased Ralph of Shrewsbury rank residence Richard RO Westmorland Apethorpe rooms royal household Salisbury spices Stafford thirteenth century Thomas Arundel Thomas of Lancaster tion Valence's valets wardrobe Westminster wife William de Valence Winchester wine
Popular passages
Page 214 - The Treatise of Walter de Milemete de Nobilitatibus, Sapientiis. et Prudentiis Regum.