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The Duke is seen sitting at the high table surrounded by numerous servants, guests and dependants. Illustration from Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, ca 1410. The medieval household was, like modern households, the center of family life for all classes of European society.
Medieval pages might accompany their lords to war. While their roles in battle were generally limited to secondary assistance and minor support functions, pages might expect to participate directly in siege situations. This could occur when a castle was under attack and crossbows were available for use by pages among the defenders. The ...
While life upstairs away from the servants became more relaxed with less ceremony, life downstairs became a parody of the former world upstairs. Butlers, housekeepers and cooks now became monarchs in their own small kingdoms. A strict hierarchy among the servants developed which persisted in the grander households until the 20th century.
This week, read the “bone biographies” of medieval Cambridge, learn why chinstrap penguins take thousands of naps, peer inside a mysterious galactic cloud, and more.
A proven seducer of a maidservant worth 15 or 25 solidi, and who is himself worth 25 solidi, would be fined 72 solidi plus the value of the maidservant. The proven abductor of a boy or girl domestic servant will be fined the value of the servant (25 or 35 solidi) plus an additional amount for lost time of use. [75]
In post-classical history, an affinity was a collective name for the group of (usually) men whom a lord gathered around himself in his service; it has been described by one modern historian as "the servants, retainers, and other followers of a lord", [1] and as "part of the normal fabric of society". [2]
William Shakespeare's plays on the lives of the medieval kings have proved to have had long lasting appeal, heavily influencing both popular interpretations and histories of figures such as King John and Henry V. [369] Other playwrights have since taken key medieval events, such as the death of Thomas Becket, and used them to draw out ...
In the book series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, which falls into the genres of both epic fantasy and dark fantasy, the female servants of a queen or a lady are referred to as "handmaidens" and the term is used to refer to many characters, most notably Queen Margaery Tyrell's cousins, Elinor Tyrell and Megga Tyrell, who serve as ...