# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The history of afternoon tea - a great British tradition

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Afternoon tea, a very English custom! Read the history behind this most English tradition; china tea cups, scones, jam, clotted...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The History of Fish and Chips - National Dish of Britain

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Freshly cooked, piping hot fish and chips, smothered in salt and soused with vinegar, wrapped in newspaper and eaten out-of-doors on a cold and wintry day - it simply cannot be beaten!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
When you think of a Tudor banquet an image may come to mind of a loud and riotous feast, Henry VIII at one end of the table gnawing on a large chicken leg, guests eating and drinking way too much and not a table manner in sight! As with many historical stereotypes the reality is somewhat different; banquets were actually quite formal occasions with rules that mirrored the class system and social etiquette of the day. They also provided the host with the perfect opportunity to show off their wealth and importance by serving their guests the most magnificent food, made from the most expensive ingredients and displayed, at times, in the most extravagant of ways.

Society was very hierarchical in Tudor times, people were not born equal, and this sentiment was echoed at the banquet table. The most important diners would have sat at the top table, which would have been raised up slightly on a platform called a dais and may have been adorned with a tablecloth. Those next in social status would have sat on one of the two tables either side of the top table, those next in status would sit at the next set of tables and so on. The food served at a banquet would also have been graded according to status so servants and those placed furthest away from the top table would not have expected to be offered the same lavish dishes as the ones given to the host of the banquet (such as a Lord or the King) and his immediate guests.

Food at a banquet was served at the table on large platters and guests helped themselves using a knife to cut off pieces of meat which they would have then eaten delicately with their fingers (forks were an Italian Renaissance idea that only became popular near the end of the 16th century). It was down to the way food was shared that a number of formal rules were developed that directed people on how they should behave at mealtimes. These were mainly concerned with being considerate to others and cleanliness, starting with the necessity to wash your hands before sitting down. If you were at the top table you would have washed your hands in a small bowl called a ewer which was brought to your table by a servant. Things considered bad manners at a banquet included putting old bones back on a shared plate, nose picking, ear scratching or blowing your nose - exactly the kinds of things that would be frowned upon today. Your behaviour at a banquet could and would be noticed so good table manners were vital if you wanted to succeed at the Tudor Court.

The most magnificent banquets were of course the ones hosted by the royal family. Henry VIII in particular is famed for his elaborate banquets; displaying a powerful dynastic image was everything to the Tudors and a banquet was the perfect opportunity for Henry to show off, this was especially true if there was a foreign monarch or dignitary present. France led the way when it came to banqueting, a Tudor cook would have been only too aware of their high standards and would have tried hard to provide a banquet with a similar level of luxury and content. A royal banquet would often be accompanied by a fair amount of pomp and ceremony too, especially if it proceeded a great event like a coronation, marriage or christening. The excerpt below is from a contemporary account of the coronation of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon in 1509. It was written by the Tudor chronicler Edward Hall.

When the ceremony was finished, the lords spiritual and temporal paid homage to the king and, with the queen's permission, returned to Westminster Hall - each one beneath his canopy - where the lord marshal bearing his staff of office ushered all to their seats. Each noble and lord proceeded to his allotted place arranged earlier according to seniority. The nine-piece table being set with the king's estate seated on the right and the queen's estate on the left, the first course of the banquet was announced with a fanfare. At the sound the duke of Buckingham entered riding a huge charger covered with richly embroidered trappings, together with the lord steward mounted on a horse decked with cloth of gold. The two of them led in the banquet which was truly sumptuous, and as well as a great number of delicacies also included unusual heraldic devices and mottoes.

How can I describe the abundance of fine and delicate fare prepared for this magnificent and lordly feast, produced both abroad and in the many and various parts of this realm to which God has granted his bounty. Or indeed the exemplary execution of the service of the meal itself, the clean handling and distribution of the food and the efficient ordering of the courses, such that no person of any estate lacked for anything.

You could expect a great number of dishes to be served at a banquet, sometimes up to six courses. These courses were not served in the same way as today with one course being served up after another, instead, all the food would have been laid out on the table at once. An abundance of food meant that everyone could get to eat the foods they particularly enjoyed, it also ensured there was enough food left over for the servants who ate later.

There may also have been an elaborate centrepiece on the banquet table; perhaps to add a little theatrics or simply so the host could show off to his guests. A centrepiece might have been a pheasant or swan which had been "re-dressed" in its feathery skin so that it looked the same as it did in life, it may also have had it's feet and beak gilded. There are also occasions where live birds like pigeons were added to pies so they flew out as the pie was cut; once the joke was over a real pie would then have been served to guests.

The food served at a Tudor banquet was indeed sumptuous and would have focused very much around meat, which in Tudor times was cooked on a spit over an open fire. Who ate what was of course dictated by your status in society so the diners on the top table could be offered roast venison whereas those way down the pecking order, servants and the like, may have been given "umble pie" made from the internal organs of the same deer. As you might have guessed, this is also where we get our term "to eat humble pie" which means to know your place. As vegetables were considered a food for the poor they were not eaten much by the wealthier members of society. In fact it was a common misconception of the time that raw vegetables could actually make you ill - how times have changed! New foods and spices were also being discovered and imported during the Tudor period, such as nutmeg and sugar from the New World. These ingredients were hugely expensive luxuries and gave rise to a number of new and unusual recipes that the nobility used to further demonstrate their wealth and status.

Sugar in particular became very popular with the wealthy classes during the middle ages. By the 16th century elaborate new ways of using sugar had been discovered so it could now be moulded into elaborate edible models which were sometimes used to create a striking centrepiece for the banquet. These models may have been created from marchpane, a Tudor version of marzipan, which was made from three main ingredients; almonds, sugar and rosewater. It wasn't just the cost of the ingredients that made marchpane so expensive but also the amount of labour involved, the almonds needed to be shelled and finely ground and the sugar had to hacked off from a large crystallised rock and then pounded into a powder using a pestle and mortar. Satisfying a sweet tooth in Tudor times certainly required a lot of hard work!

To give you some idea of how lavish these banquets would have been, the following description is of a great feast given in 1455 by the Count of Anjou, third son of Louis II, King of Sicily. It was written by Legrand d'Aussy, a historian of French cookery. Although it's slightly earlier than our Tudor period remember that the Tudors copied the extravagant banquets of the French Court and it would have been stories of feasts just like this one that would have reached the ears of the Tudor Court:

On the table was placed a centre-piece, which represented a green lawn, surrounded with large peacocks' feathers and green branches, to which were tied violets and other sweet-smelling flowers. In the middle of this lawn a fortress was placed, covered with silver. This was hollow, and formed a sort of cage, in which several live birds were shut up, their tufts and feet being gilt. On its tower, which was gilt, three banners were placed, one bearing the arms of the count, the two others those of Mesdemoiselles de Châteaubrun and de Villequier, in whose honour the feast was given.

The first course consisted of a civet of hare, a quarter of stag which had been a night in salt, a stuffed chicken, and a loin of veal. The two last dishes were covered with a German sauce, with gilt sugar-plums, and pomegranate seeds.... At each end, outside the green lawn, was an enormous pie, surmounted with smaller pies, which formed a crown. The crust of the large ones was silvered all round and gilt at the top; each contained a whole roe-deer, a gosling, three capons, six chickens, ten pigeons, one young rabbit, and, no doubt to serve as seasoning or stuffing, a minced loin of veal, two pounds of fat, and twenty-six hard-boiled eggs, covered with saffron and flavoured with cloves.

For the three following courses there was a roe-deer, a pig, a sturgeon cooked in parsley and vinegar, and covered with powdered ginger; a kid, two goslings, twelve chickens, as many pigeons, six young rabbits, two herons, a leveret, a fat capon stuffed, four chickens covered with yolks of eggs and sprinkled with powder de Duc (spice), a wild boar, some wafers (darioles), and stars; a jelly, part white and part red, representing the crests of the three above mentioned persons; cream with Duc powder, covered with fennel seeds preserved in sugar; a white cream, cheese in slices, and strawberries; and, lastly, plums stewed in rose-water.

Besides these four courses, there was a fifth, entirely composed of the prepared wines then in vogue, and of preserves. These consisted of fruits and various sweet pastries. The pastries represented stags and swans, to the necks of which were suspended the arms of the Count of Anjou and those of the two young ladies.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When you think of a Tudor banquet an image may come to mind of a loud and riotous feast, Henry VIII at one end of the table gnawing on a large chicken leg, guests eating and drinking way too much and not a table manner in sight!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kids learn about food and cooking during the Renaissance. What did they eat?.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
By using this site, you agree we can set and use cookies. For more details of these cookies and how to disable them, see our cookie policy.

Food in Elizabethan England

The wealthiest Elizabethans ate lavish meals of many courses, while many poorer people didn't even have their own ovens, and some of the poorest survived on leftover scraps from the rich. Liza Picard describes how class, religion and politics all influenced how Elizabethans shopped for food, cooked and ate.

Fish days

An Elizabethan's diet was ruled by the calendar. Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays were fish days, so was the whole of Lent and various other days - almost a third of the year. But 'fish' included veal, game and poultry, and if you really couldn't do without beef you could buy a 'flesh-eater's licence', or get round the rules in other ways.

In the words of an Act of 1563, fish days were 'for the better maintenance and increase of the Navy...and not for any superstition...(nor) for the saving of the soul of man' - as they had been in the previous reign. In the 1588 Armada crisis, only 34 ships out of the total English fleet of 226 belonged to the Queen. All the rest were merchantmen manned by fishermen and Thames watermen, with other civilian mariners. So the fishermen were kept in employment by all this fish eating.

Shopping

Generally only freemen of London were allowed to sell in the markets. Countrymen from outside London had very limited rights. There were markets scattered throughout London; a housewife did not have far to walk to do her daily food shopping. The markets were all controlled by the Lord Mayor, who kept an eagle eye out for any offences, especially any kind of profiteering. They were open six days a week, from 6 to 11 in the morning and 1 to 5 in the afternoon. Sunday trading was limited to perishables such as milk, fruit and vegetables, in the early morning.

Bread was strictly controlled, both in quality and price. A good place for fish was Billingsgate Market, near London Bridge, where you might pick up some Kentish fruit in the season, too, or some salt from France. There were rows of butchers' stalls within reach, everywhere. Non-perishables such as the sand used for household cleaning, and sugar planed off a sugar-loaf in the quantity and quality needed, were sold in shops. Some shops were tiny, only a yard wide. But the customer would not expect to go in - there would hardly be room for her if she were wearing a farthingale. She would stand outside, telling the apprentice what she wanted.

Paintings of London in the friendship album of Michael van Meer, c. 1614-1615

View images from this item (23)

Three women return home after visiting a London market.

Street sellers

She might prefer to wait at home until a street seller came round. They sold fish, and fruit, and fresh vegetables and sausages, and baked apples and highly seasoned pies.

Paintings of London in the friendship album of Michael van Meer, c. 1614-1615

View images from this item (23)

Men carry meat and other wares through the streets of London.

Fast food

For a poor person living in one room, with only a small open fire if she was lucky, fast food from a cookshop must have been a blessing. Oysters fresh from the boats moored midstream by Billingsgate were sustaining, and cheap.

Eating out

The best place for a really good meal was a livery company. The Drapers' Feast in 1564 lasted for three days. The members and their 89 guests disposed of 40 bucks (male deer), a sturgeon, and miscellaneous birds, from swans to larks, as well as exotic jellies and sweetmeats.

The main meal in wealthy households was midday dinner. Nobles, gentlemen and merchants would sit down about eleven o'clock. The table would be set with 'the first course' of soup, boiled and roast meat, chickens and pies and a sweet custard. They were replaced with another course, perhaps roast lamb and capons, rabbit, venison and a tart. Then in case anyone was still hungry, quails and larks and deer pasties and gingerbread and fritters. How anyone could contemplate, let alone consume, such a meal is incredible to the modern mind. And I haven't mentioned the rich sauces with each dish, nor the vegetables and fruit.

But, undeterred, they sat down again at six, for supper.

At least the 'full English breakfast' had not yet arrived. People 'broke their fast' (the origin of the word 'breakfast') in the morning with a little weak beer, and a slice of bread and butter.

Cooking

Not every house had an oven. It was quite usual for the housewife to send a pie or a cake round to the baker, when she heard the baker's apprentice shouting 'come to the bakehouse', while his master's ovens were still warm from baking the day's bread. She might also take him a joint which she had wrapped in a hard 'coffin' of pastry, not intended for eating but to stop the joint from drying out, as we would use foil wrap. In her own kitchen, she cooked at the open fire, spiking joints and birds on to spits strong enough for a whole swan, or small enough to hold larks. The spits were turned by a small boy, or a dog running endlessly round in a wheel, or by an ingenious device called a spit-jack, using the heat of the fire. Vegetables were boiled in a cauldron over the fire. Fish were fried in butter. The cook needed long-handled spoons and skimmers and ladles. For special little dishes she would use a small 'chafing-dish' over a brazier.

Everything was highly seasoned. It is sometimes suggested that the seasoning was to disguise the taste of food that had begun to rot, in those pre-refrigeration days; but perhaps the Elizabethans simply enjoyed the taste of sugar and ginger and cinnamon with cream, in a pudding, and oranges, sugar, cloves, mace, pepper and more cinnamon, with a chicken.

The poor

How did poor people fare? Even pies and tarts from a street seller could be beyond their means. In the old days they could have relied on the leftovers from monasteries and convents, now long gone. But the remains of meals in the big houses and the livery halls were still distributed to the poor, once all the servants had had their pick, and trimmings and oddments might be given away at the end of the trading day, by the fishmongers and the butchers.

Table manners

Forks were still rare. Everyone would carry a small knife for use at table, and there would be a spoon at each place. Water and a towel were ready for you to wash your hands before sitting down. Be careful to sit in the right place. In rich households there would be an elaborate salt cellar on the table, sometimes in the form of a ship a foot high or more. The master and his guests and family sat 'above' the salt, at the top of the table. Lesser mortals sat further down.

After grace, a gentleman's upbringing was tested; he had to know how to carve all the birds and joints and fishes on the table. Not only that, he had to know the right terms to describe the process - 'rear that goose, alay that pheasant, undertranch that porpoise...'

Drink

Ale or beer (ale flavoured with hops) was safer to drink than water, and probably tasted better. Most households brewed their own. Wine was drunk at formal meals. The custom was to 'pledge' a fellow guest, who thanked you by pledging (toasting) you back. There was no glass at your place. You asked the servitor for wine, he filled a glass and gave it to you, you drank and handed it back. The servitor rinsed it in a wooden basin and replaced it on the 'buffet' (sideboard). The wood was to protect the glass. Delicate Venetian glass was more highly prized than gold or silver cups.

Wine was imported from Spain, Greece, France, Madeira and other countries. Some was produced from English vineyards.

Queen Elizabeth was fond of metheglin, distilled from honey and herbs. Mead was metheglin without the herbs. Cows' and ewes' milk were good for old men and children, but not for those who have 'gurgulations in the belly'.

Broadside ballad 'A Bill of Fare'

View images from this item (2)

A 17th-century song about a feast.

Liza Picard researches and writes about the history of London. She spent many years working in the office of the Solicitor of the Inland Revenue and lived in Gray's Inn and Hackney, before retiring to live in Oxford.

Ideas and inspiration directly to your inbox

Join our mailing list to keep up to date

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Food in Elizabethan England | The British Library

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The wealthiest Elizabethans ate lavish meals of many courses, while many poorer people didn't even have their own ovens, and some of the poorest survived on leftover scraps from the rich. Liza Picard describes how class, religion and politics all influenced how Elizabethans shopped for food, cooked and ate.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Some Elizabethan entertainments, such as theatre and football, are still popular today. Others, such as animal-baiting, now seem shocking. Liza Picard takes a look at common 16th-century pastimes.

Plays and play-going

The great names of the Elizabethan stage - Shakespeare, Marlowe, Dekker, Ben Jonson - still retain their richness and power today. These plays could be bought to read at home, but it was much more fun to attend one of the several playhouses, such as the Globe, that had sprung up on the south bank of the river. The usual shape of the playhouse was, as Shakespeare put it, a 'wooden O', open to the sky, with the stage at one side of it and galleries all around. Refreshments of fruit and nuts were sold throughout the performance, and came in useful as missiles if the audience disapproved of the play. Most of the audience stood, or walked about, in front of the stage. The more select could pay for a seat in one of the galleries, or even on the stage itself, where they could smoke their tobacco pipes, and gossip, and generally draw attention to themselves, and torment the unfortunate actors. The cast was all male, women's parts being taken by boys. There was no scenery, but the costumes were often sumptuous, since it was the custom for the clothes of rich people sometimes to be given to the players after their death. Performances had to be given during daylight hours, because there was no stage lighting except by candles, which glinted on the gold lace and velvets of the costumes, and caused frequent fires.

Animal baiting

A modern audience would find this shocking, to put it mildly. Queen Elizabeth was a well-educated renaissance lady, yet in 1559, just a year after coming to the throne, she gave the French ambassador a special treat - a royal baiting of bulls and bears in her palace of Whitehall. The populace regularly attended the rings on the south bank, where they could watch various animals trying to kill each other - dogs against horses, sometimes with monkey riders for the dogs to bite, bears against the famous English mastiffs, mastiffs against bulls... The bears were well known to Londoners by their nicknames, rather like modern football stars.

There were probably many cock-pits scattered throughout London. There was, of course, one in royal Whitehall, but the common people patronised one near Smithfield, where the sessions could last four or five hours, and the betting was fast and furious.

View of London in Civitates Orbis Terrarum

On the south bank of the river can be seen two rings, one for 'Bowll bayting' the other for 'Beare bayting'.

Paintings of London in the friendship album of Michael van Meer, c. 1614-1615

At the cockpit, spectators bet gold coins on which cock will win. The seated man with the beard and hat is probably King James.

The Lottery

Someone in Government must have spotted this passion for betting, and decided that it could raise some revenue for the Treasury. In 1567 the first lottery promised as first prize the astronomical sum of £5,000.

They would be paid partly in 'ready money' and partly in plate, tapestries and 'good linen cloth'. Tickets cost 10 shillings each - far too much for the ordinary citizen to afford. To encourage as many people as possible to buy tickets, all ticket holders were promised freedom from arrest for all crimes other than murder, felonies, piracy or treason. If it had worked as planned the Government would have made £100,000. But alas, it didn't. Investors were slow in buying their tickets. Another lottery was tried in 1585, when Elizabeth was desperately trying to raise cash for her various wars. But I have found no record of any significant prizes.

Sports

Bowling greens were everywhere. Archery was losing ground to small arms shooting, but Elizabeth still required every male between seven and 60 to possess, and be able to use, bows and arrows. Wrestling and football were popular with young men. In a hot summer they could cool off by a refreshing dip in the Thames.

Recreational drugs

Tobacco was smoked everywhere, in taverns and inns, at playhouses and in homes. It began as a medicinal remedy for coughs and colds, but soon became known for its pleasant narcotic effect. A foreign tourist remarked that 'their preachers cry out on them for their self-destruction', but when did good advice ever stop a determined smoker?

Cannabis and opium poppies provided useful home remedies for earache and pain relief. Surely some gardeners found them an enjoyable means of relaxation?

The Queen

Elizabeth was expert at public relations, never missing a chance to remind her people of her status as their rightful monarch. She could be seen, and cheered, on her way down the river in the royal barge to visit friends, or to spend the summer in her favourite palace at Greenwich. When she came back to London from her frequent 'progresses' (tours) round the country, many hundreds turned out to greet her. If it was late in the evening her cavalcade was lit by a thousand torch-bearers. When she attended St Paul's Cathedral to give thanks for the victory over the Armada, she was carried in a 'chariot throne', bejewelled, painted, wearing sumptuously embroidered robes. No Catholic image could have outdone her in splendour: a fitting monarch for her adoring people.

Books

Pliny's The Secrets and Wonders of the World provided children with vivid descriptions of dragons and olipohants (elephants). For more serious tastes, Plutarch's Lives and Chapman's Homer were both available. The best seller of the time was Foxe's Book of Martyrs, published in 1563, describing Mary Tudor's persecution of her Protestant subjects, all too graphically illustrated with blood-curdling pictures.

The adventures of Francis Drake and his fellows fuelled an appetite for travel books. The Most Famous Travels of Marcus Paulius (otherwise known as Marco Polo) was published in English in 1579, describing the journey of three Genoese merchants by the overland route to (modern) Beijing, through the vast empire of Kublai Khan. Richard Hakluyt published the second edition of his The Principal Navigations, Voyages and Discoveries of the English Nation... between 1598 and 1600. Hakluyt was noted for his meticulous research. The same could not be said of the 14th-century author of Mandeville's Travels, a highly fantastical account of travels in the Middle and Far East that included stories of men with eyes in their shoulders, and of weeping crocodiles. They still made a good read, and Walter Ralegh assured his readers that they were absolutely true in his 1596 publication The Discoverie of the Large Rich and Bewtiful Empire of Guiana, with a Relation [description] of the Great and Golden City of Manoa (which the Spanish call El Dorado), a shameless piece of advertising 'spin'.

Illustrated pornographic works, often Italian, were flooding the market. Ballads and pamphlets, too, could be fairly filthy. But some, imported secretly from the Continent, preached pro-Catholic subversion, the penalty for which could be death.

The Elizabethan poets, such as Edmund Spenser or John Donne, discovered the rich potential of the English language for simple, moving poetry.

Music

Any gentleman would be expected to play an instrument, such as a lute or one of the viols, which came in sets, or 'chests', varying from a small version of a modern violin through to an unwieldy version of a double bass. (It took Italians such as Stradivarius, in the next century, to fix for all time the shape and potential of the family of violins and their cousins.) Equally, most of the leisured classes could sing part songs such as madrigals. A Roman Catholic family needed a small-scale sung mass to perform in their house, with only the voices of the family, the priest and perhaps one or two brave neighbours. Surprisingly, some composers managed to compose sacred music for Catholic masses as well as for the new Protestant religion.

Usage terms

Public Domain in most countries other than the UK.

Queen Elizabeth prided herself on her mastery of the keyboard instrument known as the virginals. She even arranged to be 'surprised' playing, all alone and unaware of his presence, when the French ambassador came to call.

At the other end of society, there was a brisk trade in ballads, which supplied news and scandal rather as the popular press does today. During Elizabeth's reign, 3,000 ballads poured out of the printing presses. They cost a penny each, and told of all kinds of popular subjects.

Liza Picard researches and writes about the history of London. She spent many years working in the office of the Solicitor of the Inland Revenue and lived in Gray's Inn and Hackney, before retiring to live in Oxford.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
amusements and pastimes in elizabethan england

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Amuseuments and pastimes in Elizabethan England

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Some Elizabethan entertainments, such as theatre and football, are still popular today. Others, such as animal-baiting, now seem shocking. Liza Picard takes a look at common 16th-century pastimes. The great names of the Elizabethan stage - Shakespeare, Marlowe, Dekker, Ben Jonson - still retain their richness and power today.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Medieval cookery books
There are over 50 hand-written medieval cookery manuscripts still in existence today. Some are lists of recipes tucked into the back of guides to medical remedies or apothecaries' instruction manuals. Others focus on descriptions of grand feasts. But most are devoted to recording the dishes of the medieval kitchen. The majority of recipes recorded in these manuscripts will have been cooked in the houses of wealthy noblemen.
Food across the social scale
A nobleman's diet would have been very different from the diets of those lower down the social scale. Aristocratic estates provided the wealthy with freshly killed meat and river fish, as well as fresh fruit and vegetables. Cooked dishes were heavily flavoured with valuable spices such as caraway, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger and pepper. Other commonly used ingredients included cane sugar, almonds, and dried fruits such as dates, figs or raisins. The wealthy treasured these goods which were imported from far away lands, and were hugely expensive. Indeed, there was an ancient department at the Royal court called the 'spicery', which was entirely devoted to spices. Spicy sauces were extremely popular, and entire professional careers were dedicated to saucemaking.
Cooked food
All fruit and vegetables were cooked - it was believed that raw fruit and vegetables caused disease. The Boke of Kervynge (carving), written in 1500, warns the cook to: 'Beware of green sallettes and rawe fruytes for they wyll make your soverayne seke.' (Beware of green salads and raw fruits, for they will make your master sick.') Gardeners grew fresh herbs which were used for both medical remedies and cookery, and were therefore an essential part of the nobleman's garden.
Banquets and plain food
Banqueting tables at grand feasts were decked with spectacular dishes - providing the perfect opportunity for the nobleman to show off his wealth. Everyday jellies, pies, fritters and stews were accompanied by magnificent animals such as peacocks, seals, porpoises, and even whales. Jellies and custards were dyed with vivid natural colourings - sandalwood for red, saffron for a fiery yellow, and boiled blood for black. But the most visually alluring pieces at the table were special sugar sculptures known as sotiltees (or subtleties). These sculptures came in all sorts of curious forms - castles, ships, famous philosophers, or scenes from fables. Sotiltees were also known as 'warners,' as they were served at the beginning of a banquet to 'warn' (or notify) the guests of the approaching dinner. Unlike today, meals were not separated into savoury main courses and sweet desserts. Instead, many dishes were laid out together in luxurious chaos. Special courtesy books, which were popular at the time, instructed diners not to fart, scratch flea bites, or pick their noses.
Poorer diets
Those lower down the social scale ate a less impressive diet. Unless you served in a large household, it would have been difficult to obtain fresh meat or fish (although fish was available to those living by the sea). Most people ate perserved foods that had been salted or pickled soon after slaughter or harvest: bacon, pickled herring, preserved fruits for instance. The poor often kept pigs, which, unlike cows and sheep, were able to live contentedly in a forest, fending for themselves. Peasants tended to keep cows, so a large part of their diets would have included dairy produce such as buttermilk, cheese, or curds and whey.

Rich and poor alike ate a dish called pottage, a thick soup containing meat, vegetables, or bran. The more luxurious pottage was called 'mortrew,' while a pottage containing cereal was a 'frumenty'. Bread was the staple for all classes, although the quality and price varied depending on the type of grain used. Some people even used bread as plates: 'trenches' were thick slices of bread, slightly hollowed out, and served bearing food at meal times.
Explore more 1500s food 1600s food 1700s food 1800s food
1900s food

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Medieval cookery books There are over 50 hand-written medieval cookery manuscripts still in existence today. Some are lists of recipes tucked into the back of guides to medical remedies or apothecaries' instruction manuals. Others focus on descriptions of grand feasts. But most are devoted to recording the dishes of the medieval kitchen.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Romans were fond of a slap-up dinner, preferably one that involved gluttonous excess and lashings of promiscuity. But, according to the historian Tacitus, one banquet - organised by Tigellinus for his deviant emperor, Nero, AD64 - stands out as the most "prodigal and notorious" of the lot.

In Book V of The Annals, Tacitus writes that "the entertainment took place on a raft constructed on Marcus Agrippa's lake. It was towed by other vessels, with gold and ivory fittings. Their rowers were degenerates, assorted according to age and vice."

Download the new Independent Premium app

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

Although Tacitus' recollection of the event does not extend to a menu card (there, are, however, details of eye-watering sexual feats), we may assume the feast ran along the lines of the one mapped out by Petronius in his Satyricon. At that banquet guests were treated to dormice sprinkled with poppyseed; sow's udders; a hare with wings attached, to represent Pegasus; a calf boiled whole and wearing a helmet; and more than 50 other Roman delicacies.
THE MEDICI WEDDING Florence, 1600
In 1600, a great dynastic wedding took place in Florence when Marie de Medici married Henry IV, the King of France. The ceremony in the cathedral was an impressive feat of theatre but had nothing on a party for 300 guests, held at the Palazzo Vecchio's Salone dei Cinquecento. The festivities were designed by the Florentine sculptor and architect Bernardo Buontalenti, who, it seems, had a limitless budget. Historical reports say there were more than 50 courses at the banquet. The first surprise, though, came shortly before the starter - when the guests sat down, unfolded their napkins and saw songbirds fly out. The highlight of the meal was sherbets of milk and honey, which were created by Buontalenti and inspired by Marie, who had brought the recipe for sherbet from France.
THE FIELD OF THE CLOTH OF GOLD Balinghem, 1520
In the early 16th century, Europe, a continent divided between the great powers - most notably the French and the Habsburg empires - was threatened from the East. And, in 1518, the major powers had signed the Treaty of London, a non-aggression pact to ensure they repelled the march of the Ottoman Empire.

In the spirit of this new-found bonhomie, Henry VIII of England and François I of France agreed to hold a carnival, over three weeks in June, which would become known as The Field of the Cloth of Gold. The party, which took place between Guines and Ardres, near Calais, was one of the most lavish diplomatic splurges ever recorded. There was jousting, music, huge tents (Henry had a 12,000 sq ft temporary palace built), and a disgusting amount of food. The festival turned sour for Henry when, in its last week, he lost a wrestling match to François.
NICOLAS FOUQUET'S FÊTE WORSE THAN DEATH Vaux-le-Vicomte, 17 August 1661
Nicolas Fouquet, finance minister to Louis XIV, had not only enjoyed a stellar career at the court of the capricious French king, but also bought himself a glorious estate at Vaux-le-Vicomte. There, he developed the greatest chateau in France. So sumptious were the grounds, and so generous was its host, the castle became a centre for society dandies and great artists. But the fun had to stop eventually. On 17 August 1661, Fouquet threw such a lavish banquet that he was arrested. To celebrate the inauguration of the chateau, a play by Molière called Les Fâcheux (The Bores) was performed before thousands of guests who were determined to be anything but the title of the drama. Then Vatel, the highly strung chef who created Chantilly cream and killed himself when he was unable to provide fresh fish for the king's dinner, made a sumptuous, dairy-heavy feast. Fireworks marked the end of the meal, but there were more to come: Fouquet's party had been deemed too ostentatious by the king, who inferred a misappropriation of the Crown's money. Fouquet was arrested and later imprisoned for life. His wife was then exiled, and his beloved chateau was taken away from him. All this for holding the greatest shindig of the 17th century.
THE REGENT'S BANQUET Brighton, 18 January 1817
The Prince Regent - later George IV of England - was such a glutton that it was said his uncorseted belly hung between his knees. No doubt he had a special place in his cholesterol-saturated heart for the greatest knees-up of his Regency: the "Regent's Banquet" at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton.

On 18 January 1817, George invited the greatest (and most expensive) chef in the world, Marie-Antoine Carême, to prepare a unique and extravagant dinner in honour of the visiting Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia. Carême had previously cooked for Napoleon, the Rothschilds and the Tsar. But on that cold night in 1817, Carême outdid all his previous achievements - creating 127 dishes. The evening's pièce de résistance was a 4ft-high Turkish mosque constructed entirely out of marzipan, although there were pigeon pies, saddles of lamb and a hundred other delicacies. So pleasurable was the feast that the Prince Regent exclaimed: "It is wonderful to be back in Brighton where I am truly loved."
THE FEAST OF BEASTS Paris, 31 December 1870
On New Year's Eve 1870, at Noel Peter's restaurant in Paris, Monsieur Bonvalet, the mayor of the third arrondissement, arranged the ultimate carnivore's party for 20 of his friends. It was, you might have thought, an odd time to throw a celebratory dinner - Paris had been under siege from the Germans for months and food was scarce in the capital.

Nevertheless, Bonvalet, using his connections at the local zoo, designed an innovative menu. Guests were treated to such unusual fare as escalope d'elephant with a shallot sauce and roast bear à la sauce Toussenel. It was, according to reports, a roaring success - proof, for Bonvalet at least, that if the siege of Paris continued much longer, the poor could be fed using animals from the zoo. There are no reports, though, to suggest that Bonvalet's bold solution to Paris's food shortage was ever put to the test. The city fell to the advancing Germans on 28 January. One can only assume that Bonvalet and his friends were eating elephant casserole all January.
ST PATRICK'S DAY FOR THE PRESIDENTS Washington, 17 March 1959
On Saint Patrick's Day in the US, everyone is Irish. So when on St Patrick's Day in 1959, Ireland's President O'Kelly visited President Eisenhower at the White House, the scene was set for an almighty diplomatic splurge. "Ike" had always loved his food and was famed for cooking barbeques on the roof of the West Wing, while President O'Kelly was a noted talker. Together, they had a ball, in every sense.

The menu for the state dinner on 17 March 1959, was prodigious. According to John Lane, whose book Taste of the Past chronicled the event, the party started with prosciutto ham and melon, before moving on to cream of watercress soup with melba toast, celery hearts and olives. Guests then tucked into lobster newbergs - made from lobster, butter, cream, cognac, sherry, eggs and cayenne pepper - before a round of vol-au-vents, preceded by cucumber sandwiches.

The main course was a roast, stuffed Long Island duckling with apple sauce, a casserole of aubergine, French string beans almandine and a green salad with anchovy and cheese crusts, after which came a huge frosted mint delight - essentially an ice cream sundae - and nuts and bonbons for anyone still peckish. It was washed down with copious amounts of Pol Roger 1952.
THE CRITIC'S REVENGE Paris, 10 November 1975
It's not often the Pontiff takes time out of his busy schedule to chastise a restaurant critic. But, in 1975, Pope Paul VI did just that, after the New York Times food critic Craig Claiborne pulled off one of the greatest individual feats of gluttony ever witnessed.

Claiborne had bid $300 (£175) at a television charity auction and won a meal for two, anywhere in the world - paid for by American Express. Somewhat surprised that a relatively low sum had won such a luxurious prize, he and his friend Pierre Franey chose the Parisian restaurant Chez Denis, where they asked the chef, Claude Mornay, to prepare a special menu for them.

Mornay produced a five-hour, 31-course dinner including caviar, foie gras, ortolans, truffles, sweetbreads, woodcock and - a culinary extravagance - a dish made of hundreds of chicken "oysters". The wine list was equally impressive. Among the highlights were a 1918 Chateau Latour, a 1928 Mouton Rothschild and d'Yquem and a 1961 Petrus. Despite the considerable expense to American Express - the meal cost $4,000 - Claiborne gave the restaurant a mixed review in his ensuing front-page story for The New York Times.

Claiborne said his lobster was "chewinggommeux" and that his chicken oysters reached the table cold.

The restaurant wasn't the only one offended by Claiborne. The newspaper received thousands of angry letters, with many condemning their critic's stunt as being obscene in a hungry world, while the Vatican issued its famous rebuke - calling the meal "scandalous".
FRANÇOIS MITTERRAND'S LAST MEAL Latche, 31 December 1995
When François Mitterrand - a man who had, in his 14 years as President of the French Republic, garnered something of a reputation as a gourmand - discovered he did not have long to live, he planned a meal. And not just any old meal.

On New Year's Eve 1995, Mitterrand invited 30 friends to Landes, in the south-west, to share a dinner of oysters, foie gras, capons and the endangered ortolan bunting bird.

The ortolan, which is about the size of a man's thumb, is said to embody the soul of France, but is illegal to eat. Mitterrand's party consumed their ortolan in the traditional way. After being drowned in Armagnac, the ortolan was roasted, then eaten entire - bones and all. It is customary for diners to wear a napkin over their heads, to hide the sinful act of eating the tiny bird from God. Mitterrand was bashful enough to wear his napkin, but brazen enough to eat two birds - a sin he could explain to his maker eight days later, when he died from prostate cancer.
THE EPICUREAN MASTERS OF THE WORLD Bangkok, 10 February 2007
If you advertise a banquet as "The Epicurean Masters of the World", you'd better make it good. So let's hope for the sake of the 15 gourmets who have paid £15,000 each (tax and service not included) for a seat at the Dome Restaurant in Bangkok's State Tower, this evening lives up to their - and their 25 invited guests' - expectations.

Tonight's menu, which will be prepared by six three-star Michelin chefs (including Alain Soliveres of the Taillevent in Paris and Antoine Westermann of the Buerehiesel in Strasbourg) certainly looks impressive. Highlights of the 10-course meal include a "crème brûlée of foie gras with Tonga beans", which will be served with a 1990 Louis Roederer Cristal; "a tartare of Kobe beef with Imperial Beluga caviar and Belons oyster", served with a 1995 Krug; and "Veal cheeks with Perigord truffles", served with a 1955 Château Latour.

The chefs have flown in ingredients from 35 different countries for the 1 million-baht blow-out, but there are, notably, no Thai dishes on the menu. One of the chefs, Heinz Winkler (of the Residenz Heinz Winkler in Aschau, Germany), is unrepentant. "What we want to do is to improve the standard and inspire Thai chefs to raise their level of inspiration," he explained.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Blow out! History's 10 greatest banquets

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Romans were fond of a slap-up dinner, preferably one that involved gluttonous excess and lashings of promiscuity. But, according to the historian Tacitus, one banquet - organised by Tigellinus for his deviant emperor, Nero, AD64 - stands out as the most "prodigal and notorious" of the lot.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
English food at its best is a hearty, simple, and delicious fare. English cooking is steeped in history, yet the modern face of British food presents a dynamic and thriving cuisine now followed intensely by foodies around the globe.

A Brief History

English food has been heavily influenced by foreign invaders. Vikings, Romans, and French brought their own influence to the English table. The impact of the Franco-Normans is clearly reflected in the common use of their spices: saffron, mace, nutmeg, pepper, ginger, and sugar. Medieval English cookery abounds with recipes containing these foreign contributions, and these ingredients are still found in traditional recipes.

The British Empire

The British Empire's colony in East Asia brought tea to England, and in return, the English took it to India, another one of their colonial outposts. From the English relationship with India came the love for curry, spicy sauces, and condiments which now are such an intrinsic part of English cuisine.

The World Wars

Immense damage was inflicted on English cookery throughout two World Wars, when the war effort used up all available goods and services, leaving little for private consumption. During World War II, food rationing of the most essential ingredients-meat, sugar, butter, and eggs-continued until early into the 1950s. It is from these years that England gained a reputation for poor cooking and became a gastronomic joke worldwide.

Back on the Map

Several notable upsets in the food world created a change in the English diet, namely Hoof-and-Mouth Disease, the Horse Meat Scandal, and a deep monetary recession in the early part of the 21st century. What emerged was a massive resurgence of traditional English foods, recipes, and cooking, using locally-produced seasonal foods wherever possible. Though it has taken many years to overcome, England has regained its reputation for some of the finest foods, best chefs, and renowned restaurants.

Traditions and Favorite Dishes

English food traditions are many and varied. Who hasn't heard of afternoon tea, the full English breakfast, a Sunday roast, or the hallowed British pub?

So rich and diverse is English food, that England boasts no less than three national dishes: Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, fish and chips, and-their controversial third- chicken tikka masala. Some say this is the new national dish, one that has evolved from the extensive migration into the country from India and Pakistan. Regardless of the debate surrounding it, it is most certainly an English favorite.

British puddings are renowned. Often steamed or baked (as in spotted dick) and served with custard, they are the perfect dish on a wet winter's day. But puddings are not always sweet, like the savory steak and kidney pudding.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
English food at its best is a hearty, simple, and delicious fare. English cooking is steeped in history, yet the modern face of British food presents a dynamic and thriving cuisine now followed intensely by foodies around the globe. English food has been heavily influenced by foreign invaders.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Tea is the British and Irish national drink. Tea in Britain is drunk daily, often many cups a day, but from where did this love of teas in Britain come?

A Very Brief History of Teas in Britain and Ireland

Tea was first brought to Britain in the early 17th century by the East India Company. It was an expensive product and one only for the rich and often kept under lock and key. Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles II introduced the ritual of drinking teas to the English Royal Court and the habit adopted by the aristocracy. The first tea shop for ladies opened in 1717 by Thomas Twining and slowly tea shops began to appear throughout England making the drinking of teas available to everyone. The British further developed their love of teas during the years of the British Empire in India.

There are currently almost 1,500 different teas in Britain. They all vary in style, taste, and color.

India is one of the leading growers exporting 12% of the world's teas. The three most important types popular in the UK are:

Darjeeling, which comes from Northern India and is a light, delicate tea-perfect for Afternoon Teas.

Ceylon Tea is slightly stronger than Darjeeling. It is aromatic with a slightly sharp taste.

Assam is a strong tea which stands up well to being blended.

Other teas found in Britain and Ireland are Darjeeling Orange Pekoe or Ceylon Broken Orange Pekoe. This tea is not orange in flavor but describes the size of the leaf.

The birthplace of tea China produces 18% of the world's tea. Two favorite types are:

Lapsang Souchong is perhaps the most famous of China teas, the best coming from the hills in north Fujian. It has a smoky aroma and flavor.

Yunnan is a black tea from the province of Yunnan. The rich, earthy taste is similar to Assam and makes an excellent breakfast tea.

There are many other varieties from both India and China and other country's which include green teas, white teas, and aromatics.

One Per Person and One for the Pot - Making the Perfect Cup of Tea

Everyone has an opinion on how to make a 'proper' cup of tea. The first ingredient must be leaf teas. Not tea bags and certainly not powder. Only black tea is considered real for a cup of tea in Britain. Black tea is the dried and fermented leaves of the tea plant, Camellia sinensis.

Fill a kettle with fresh water and bring to the boil.

Warm the teapot with a little of the boiled water swirls it around the pot and discard.

Place one tsp of fresh, leaf tea per person plus one for the pot.

Top up the teapot with the boiling water (do not allow the water to go off-the-boil or it will not be hot enough to brew the tea).

Leave to infuse for 3 to 4 minutes, no longer or it will develop a 'stewed' flavor.

Pour the tea through a tea-strainer directly into clean―preferably―china teacups.

Milk in First or Teas in First?

Debate continues about whether to put milk in the cup before pouring or after. Originally milk was always added before the tea to prevent the hot teas from cracking the delicate bone china cups. Tea experts agree with this tradition but also state, pouring milk into hot tea after pouring alters the flavor of the tea.

The Right Teapot

The right teapot for the perfect cuppa is a matter of personal preference either metal (all early teapots were solid silver, ornate vessels) or China. A metal teapot will keep the tea hotter for longer but some feel that China keeps a finer flavor, with no tainting from the metal.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Different Types of Tea in Britain - There Are Many

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Tea is the British and Irish national drink. Tea in Britain is drunk daily, often many cups a day, but from where did this love of teas in Britain come? Tea was first brought to Britain in the early 17th century by the East India Company.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Description

This rare pamphlet is a festival book produced to commemorate Elizabeth I's visit to Elvetham in September 1591. It describes the lavish entertainment put on for her by Edward Seymour (1539?-1621), the Earl of Hertford, that spanned four days. As we see in the woodcut illustration, the estate was dressed with spectacular and fantastical scenery, including an artificial half-moon pond with three islands (a ship island, a fort and a snail mount that could turn into a flaming monster), all specially constructed for the occasion. There were boats with musicians, and everything was decorated with flags and streamers. Elizabeth was entertained at the various locations by allegorical displays of music and dance by performers in extravagant, often symbolic costume. There were also poetry, speeches and songs that flattered the Queen and asserted the Earl's loyalty, as well as feasting and other displays including fireworks, sports, the shooting of cannon and gifts. Elizabeth's visit was part of her royal progress - a journey through the country during which a monarch could be seen by his or her subjects and would meet with important local people. The in-person presence of the monarch encouraged loyalty and asserted his or her royal authority.

This is one of two editions of the pamphlet, both produced in 1591. Q1 (i.e. quarto 1) survives in just three copies (all with variations), including one at the British Library, C.33.e.7.(9.), which is missing (or possibly never had) the foldout woodcut. The pamphlet shown here from the Royal Collection is the only known surviving copy of Q2, which was 'Newlie corrected, and amended' from Q1. The foldout plate and the title page of the Royal Collection copy are hand-coloured, most likely by the printing house prior to publication as a deluxe copy.

Elizabeth I meets a fairy queen

On the fourth day of the entertainment, Elizabeth was met by a fairy queen attended by a train of dancers. The Fairy Queen planted a staff in the ground and placed on it a garland in the form of a crown, much like a maypole. She gave a speech, saluting Elizabeth with the garland, given to her 'by Auberon the Fairy King'. The Queen and her maids danced and sang a song, ' Elisa is the fayrest Queene '. Q2 says they danced around the garden, where Q1 says the garland. The revision in Q2 may be a puritanical response to the pagan associations of the ring dance around a pole. Elizabeth was so delighted with this piece that she had the performers sing and dance it three times.

With the exception of Robert Greene's The Scottish History of James IV (c. 1590), fairies in performance before Shakespeare were only seen in courtly contexts such as this and not on the public stage.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

In Act 2, Scene 1, Oberon remembers witnessing Cupid firing one of his arrows. His description of the scene, listening to the song of a mermaid with a fair vestal (i.e. virgin) throned by the west, is usually interpreted as an allusion to Elizabeth (the vestal) and the entertainment at Elvetham, which on the second day featured a spectacular water pageant in the pond by performers dressed as sea-people. Popular legend has it that Shakespeare was part of the Queen's party at Elvetham, and even that A Midsummer Night's Dream was first performed here, but these are entirely unsubstantiated.

Reading the festival book alongside the play emphasises the festive qualities and pageantry of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It also highlights the frequency of allusion to Elizabeth in the play, for example in the references to Cynthia or Diana, the moon goddess who is often associated with Elizabeth, as in the song of Nereus and the oration of Silanus on the second day at Elvetham. However, in alluding to a mode or genre that is highly allegorical in A Midsummer Night's Dream, a play that accommodates a deeper, more realistic exploration of character and emotion, Shakespeare also has the opportunity to trouble the stability of some of these tropes, for example in the role of Titania, who is a far cry from the Fairy Queen of Elvetham.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
an entertainment for elizabeth i at elvetham

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
An Entertainment for Elizabeth I at Elvetham, 1591

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This rare pamphlet is a festival book produced to commemorate Elizabeth I's visit to Elvetham in September 1591. It describes the lavish entertainment put on for her by Edward Seymour (1539?-1621), the Earl of Hertford, that spanned four days.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Elizabethan Timeline

The Elizabethan Age - Elizabethan Timeline
This comprehensive Elizabethan Timeline details the major events significant to life of Queen Elizabeth I of England. The timeline starts at the beginning of the Tudor period with the start of the Tudor dynasty and the grandfather Queen Elizabeth I - Henry Tudor. The timeline then goes on to the sons of Henry Tudor, Prince Arthur, who died when he was young and the younger son Prince Henry who became King Henry VIII and the father of Queen Elizabeth I.

The father of Queen Elizabeth was famous for his six wives and all of these women are detailed in this Elizabethan timeline. Dates of all of the major events and people who were important to Queen Elizabeth I are detailed in the Elizabethan timeline. Her brother and sister, the politicians, suitors, explorers and courtiers and her adversaries are all featured. Facts and information about King Philip II and Mary Queen of Scots, who both played a major part in the life of Queen Elizabeth I, are found in many entries in the timeline.
Elizabethan Timeline
1485 - 1603

Timeline of
King Henry VIII and his Six Wives
&
Princess Elizabeth

Timeline of
Lady Jane Grey

Timeline of
Queen Mary I
(aka Mary Tudor and Bloody Mary)
&
Princess Elizabeth

Insurrection is led by Henry Grey, duke of Suffolk whose daughter, Jane is Married to his son, Lord Guildford Dudley, as part of a plot to alter the succession

Monday 10th July 1553 Lady Jane Grey Proclaimed Queen of England (Queen for just Nine Days)

19th July 1553 Queen Jane was deposed as Queen

Monday 23 August 1553 - John Dudley was executed on Tower Hill

Picture of Sir Humphrey Gilbert

Elizabethan Timeline

Interesting Facts and information about Elizabethan Timeline in the Elizabethan Age

People, events and Elizabethan Timeline in the Elizabethan Age

Timeline

War

The Spanish Armada

The People, Dates and Events

Explorers, Politicians and Suitors

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Elizabethan Age - Elizabethan Timeline This comprehensive Elizabethan Timeline details the major events significant to life of Queen Elizabeth I of England. The timeline starts at the beginning of the Tudor period with the start of the Tudor dynasty and the grandfather Queen Elizabeth I - Henry Tudor.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Early Elizabethan Society 1558-1588: Government and Society

# data[].attributes.body
Part 1

# data[].attributes.body
Part 2 of 4

# data[].attributes.body
Part 3 of 4

# data[].attributes.body
Part 4 of 4

# data[].attributes.body
Tudor Family Tree

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"Manners maketh man" was the motto of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. More than simply the social niceties, as portrayed (and sometimes mocked) in the period's satiric comedies, courtesy and civility were the very glue that held society together. They were, as scholar Anna Bryson notes, "central to Tudor and Stuart assumptions and fears about the social and political order."

In Days of Yore

Manners, however, did not suddenly spring to life in the Renaissance. In the Middle Ages, it was knightly virtue that set the chivalrous standards for comportment. Because eating and drinking were central to medieval social life, many of these dicta took the form of poems designed to teach table manners. Presented as easy-to-remember rhymes, these rules became part of an oral tradition in days when books were scarce and expensive and literacy was low.

Writings from this time often pass along the common wisdom, as in this excerpt from a popular thirteenth-century poem about table manners for boys:

With soup, do not use bread to sop it up,
Or suck it loudly - that is to transgress,
Or put your dirty mouth to a clean cup,
Or pass drinks while your hands are in a mess,
Or stain your napkin out of carelessness.
Also, beware at meals of causing strife,
And do not make a tooth-pick of your knife.

For adults, guidelines frequently drew contrasts between the feudal lords of the court and the lower classes. "A man of refinement should not slurp with his spoon when in company," admonishes one author of a book on manners, while another warms, "If a man wipes his nose on his hand at table because he knows no better, then he is a fool, believe me." Others frowned upon putting a gnawed bone back in the dish ("this is a serious offense"), blowing your nose on the tablecloth, "fall[ing] upon the dishes like swine," or putting your fingers in the salt or mustard.

A New Order

Such rules set the expectations for behavior in Medieval courts, but whether such advice "took" among the lower strata of society was not a big concern. According to historian Norbert Elias, "[People in the Middle Ages] were told, do this and not that; but by and large a great deal was let pass." In the Renaissance, however, things changed. "Individuals of different social origins are thrown together," with the result that a new social order was created. In this new hierarchy, behavior among the upper class was still looked to as exemplary, but enforcement relied more on peer pressure than on a set of proscribed rules. "People forced to live with one another in a new way become more sensitive to the impulses of others," writes Elias about life at court and in cities, "[and] the degree of consideration expected of others becomes greater."

The social imperative not to offend informed much of the writing on manners during this period. Probably the most seminal of these was a 1530 work by Erasmus, De civilitate morum puerilium (On Civility in Children), which became a veritable bestseller. Straddling the Middle Ages and the early modern era, Erasmus drew on traditional concepts of courtesy from prior works, but he also included keen observations on the social transitions of his time. He laid out a new standard in De civilitate, which is dedicated to a young prince: "Let others paint lions, eagles, and other creatures on their coats of arms. More true nobility is possessed by those who can inscribe on their shields all that they have achieved through the cultivations of the arts and sciences."

Down and Dirty

Despite his elevated tone, Erasmus did not neglect the nitty-gritty business of manners. Concern with bodily propriety loomed large and he and his contemporaries did not shrink from addressing matters which today are seldom discussed outside commercials for digestive aids. He cautioned, for example, against moving about in your chair while sitting at the table, "lyke a man that letteth a blast or is about it." Even Erasmus bowed to nature, however, noting that "it is not pleasing, while striving to appear urbane, to contract an illness." Should the necessity arise, he advised either withdrawing or, if that was not possible, to "let a cough hide the explosive sound." "Replace farts with coughs," was his final word on the subject.
Part 2 of this blog post will publish on Friday, Nov. 10. This article was first published in the Spring 2011 issue of Folger Magazine.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Manners and etiquette: How to behave in Shakespeare's England

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"Manners maketh man" was the motto of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. More than simply the social niceties, as portrayed (and sometimes mocked) in the period's satiric comedies, courtesy and civility were the very glue that held society together. They were, as scholar Anna Bryson notes, "central to Tudor and Stuart assumptions and fears about the social and political order."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"Behave yourself!" is one of the first lessons children learn-or, as some arbiters of societal mores these days would have it, fail to learn. Those who decry the current lack of civility, however, would do well to hearken to the past, when even adults had to be told not to wipe their noses on the tablecloth or "snort disgustingly over the dishes like swine," and keeping your fingers out of the mustard pot was considered a sign of refinement.

Books on manners became so popular during the Elizabethan period that it was only a matter of time before someone satirized them. In The Gull's Hornbook (1609), Elizabethan dramatist and pamphleteer Thomas Dekker delivered a mock treatise on proper behavior disguised as the most egregious examples of boorishness. In an ordinary [restaurant], for example, he advised patrons to "discourse as loud as you can, no matter to what purpose" and to "eat as impudently as can be, for that's most gentlemanlike." He was especially instructive about what to do should nature call during a meal:

You may rise in dinner-time to ask for a close-stool, protesting to all the gentlemen that it costs you a hundred pound a year in physic besides the annual pension which your wife allows her doctor. And if you please you may, as your great French lord doth, invite some special friend of yours from the table to hold discourse with you as you sit in that withdrawing-chamber; from whence being returned again to the board, you shall sharpen the wits of all the eating gallants about you, and do them great pleasure, to ask what pamphlets or poems a man might think fittest to wipe his tail with (marry, this talk will be somewhat foul if you carry not a strong perfume about you)...

Renaissance manners sought both to elevate humans from animal-like behavior (boorish eaters were frequently compared to pigs) and, by introducing the concept of consideration toward others, to delineate class distinctions (the disgusting practice of wiping your nose on your sleeve was best left to fishmongers). Early modern courtesy manuals reflected these two aspects of civility, describing both a set of behaviors that distinguished man from beast, and a more variable civil code that defined a person's place within a given society. These more subtle directives help a society define itself and, in some ways, define the notion of civilization itself.

As historian Norbert Elias points out, however, the terms "civilized" and "uncivilized" should not be equated with "good" and "bad." Instead, they represent stages in an evolving process of development. "It may well happen," he writes, "that our stage of civilization, our behavior, will arouse in our descendants feelings of embarrassment similar to those we sometimes feel concerning the behavior of our ancestors." If that's the case, we would do well to heed the words of Erasmus, who advised, "Be lenient toward the offenses of others. This is the chief value of civilitas, of courtesy. A companion ought not to be less dear to you because he has worse manners. There are people who make up for the awkwardness of their behavior by other gifts."
This article was first published in the Spring 2011 issue of Folger Magazine.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Manners in early modern England: Rules for behavior

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"Behave yourself!" is one of the first lessons children learn-or, as some arbiters of societal mores these days would have it, fail to learn.

# data[].attributes.body
Elisabeth really did like dancing. In th picture you can see her dancing with Robert Dudley

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Antony Holborne (1545〜1602)  Pavane & Galliard

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Food, Drink, and Etiquette in Elizabethan Times

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Food, Drink, and Etiquette during the Elizabethan Era http://10ipresentselizabethanengland.wikispaces.com/file/view/cheechee.jpg/239449711/245x283/cheechee.jpg. Alcoholic beverages were drank by adults, as well as kids, and was drunk with every meal of the day. Wine making wasn't

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Wars of the Roses: traduzione del brano e spiegazioni esercizi assegnati

# data[].attributes.headline
William Shakespeare and a Midsummer Night’s Dream 

# data[].attributes.subject
William Shakespeare and a Midsummer Night’s Dream 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
UDA 2: Traduzione e spiegazione dei brani su William Shakespeare e “A Midsummer’s Night Dream”

# data[].attributes.body
Part 1

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Uda 4: “The Tempest” by William Shakespeare

# data[].attributes.body
Part 2

# data[].attributes.headline
Ariel’s song (fro. The Tempest by William Shakespeare)

# data[].attributes.subject
Ariel’s song (fro. The Tempest by William Shakespeare)

# data[].attributes.body
Act 1 scene 2

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
UDA: Ariel’s song lettura, traduzione e spiegazione