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Did many people work like this in the Middle Ages?

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The Knight with the Lion - an interactive educational resource for children and others based on medieval french stories about King Arthur and his Knights. Translation and adaptaion of poems by Chretien de Troyes and Marie de France. Contains historical link material on medieval life and society.

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The walled town of Carcassonne in France

The Lady of Noroison's town is like some of the others described in this story, a walled town attached to a castle. Many towns in the Middle Ages belonged to a lord, or to a bishop or an abbot (being built on land belonging to an abbey, monastery, or cathedral).

Carcassonne from the air

Carcassonne is a typical medieval fortified city, easy to defend against attack. You can see how neatly the town fits inside its two sets of walls. In England some towns, like York, still have almost all of their medieval walls. Even in towns where the walls are no longer there, you can often still follow where they have been. A lot of towns still have traces of older Roman walls as well.

Yet not all towns belonged to castles or had been there since Roman times. During the Middle Ages, around 700 towns were built in England, and many that already existed grew larger. The population of England was getting bigger, and by the early 14th Century it had reached 3 million. Forests were being cleared, and swampy land drained for people to live on and grow crops.

More and more people came to the towns to work and live. If a serf (a peasant who belonged to a feudal lord) ran away from his lord and lived inside the walls of a town for a year and a day, he became a free man. People working in the same trades often lived in particular areas of a town: all the potters were together, all the weavers, the silversmiths, the leatherworkers and so on. You can sometimes guess which trades were carried on there from the street names today.

Laying roads out of a walled town

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What might the Lady of Noroison's walled town have looked like?

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The Knight with the Lion - an interactive educational resource for children and others based on medieval french stories about King Arthur and his Knights. Translation and adaptaion of poems by Chretien de Troyes and Marie de France. Contains historical link material on medieval life and society.

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What kind of medicines did people use in the Middle Ages?

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The Knight with the Lion - an interactive educational resource for children and others based on medieval french stories about King Arthur and his Knights. Translation and adaptaion of poems by Chretien de Troyes and Marie de France. Contains historical link material on medieval life and society.

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The music you are listening to comes from the 12th Century. There are several voices singing in harmony. This is when two or more voices sing at a different pitch and still make a pleasing sound. Not all Medieval music was sung in parts like this. In churches and monasteries, for example, monks or nuns sang psalms and hymns in chorus, all singing the same notes.

This was called plain-song. The tunes they used were called Gregorian chant, because it was Pope Gregory (590-604 AD) who put together a great book of hymn tunes and sent singing teachers to every church and monastery in Europe to make sure the same tunes were used everywhere.

During the Middle Ages, music gradually became more complicated. The singers in a choir might sing the same tune, but at different pitches. Or a choir could be split into sections, one group singing the main tune, others singing variations on the same tune but quicker and higher or lower than the main tune, weaving in and out of it. In those days written music looked like this (right)
Music for a troubadour song >>
These notes were called 'neumes'. They began as a way simply to show when the tune went up or down for the monks singing Gregorian chant. After a while, the system developed until there were four lines, so the singer knew more exactly which note he was meant to sing and whether it should be long or short

By about 1250 it was possible to give singers more precise instructions by writing down music like this, so music could be composed for singing in parts with all kinds of complicated harmonies and the composer would know the music would sound as he or she meant it to.

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The birds are singing in harmony like a choir. What might a Medieval choir have sounded like?

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The Knight with the Lion - an interactive educational resource for children and others based on medieval french stories about King Arthur and his Knights. Translation and adaptaion of poems by Chretien de Troyes and Marie de France. Contains historical link material on medieval life and society.

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Click the image with the knights - great pics of "getting dressed"

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Click the image with the knights - great pics of "getting dressed"

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Published by DK Children

By Philip Steele

Flexibound Hardback eBook

RRP: $10.99

ISBN: 9781465481535 Size: 234 x 182 mm Pages: 64 Published: 25 Jun 2019

This fun, fact-filled book for kids ages 6-9 is the ultimate guide to all things medieval, from knights and jousting to sieges and forts. Entertaining and educating young readers through a combination of close-up images, quirky trivia facts, quiz questions, and fascinating tidbits, it's the perfect book for any kid who can't get enough of castles.

Where in the world can you find today's oldest existing fortress? How many people does it take to build a castle? What is the heaviest-sized boulder that could be thrown by a trebuchet? Find out the answers to these questions and more in DKfindout! Castles, which features photographs of fortresses from around the world, as well as maps, models, and dioramas to help young readers visualize all the exciting facts and information. From the earliest stone strongholds to the most elaborate fairy-tale fortresses in Germany, India, and Japan, kids will learn about every aspect of life in medieval society, including farming, food and feasting, entertainment, and, of course, knights!

Vetted by educational consultants, the DKfindout! series drives kids ages 6-9 to become experts on more than 30 of their favorite STEM- and history-related subjects, whether Vikings, volcanoes, or robots. This series covers the subjects that kids really want to learn about-ones that have a direct impact on the world around them, like climate change, space exploration, and rapidly evolving technology-making learning fun through amazing images, stimulating quizzes, and cutting-edge information. The DKfindout! series is one that kids will want to turn to again and again.

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This fun, fact-filled book for kids ages 6-9 is the ultimate guide to all things medieval, from knights and jousting to sieges and forts. Entertaining and educating young readers through a combination of close-up images, quirky trivia facts, quiz questions, and fascinating tidbits, it's the perfect ...

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The position of the medieval Blacksmith or metalworker is often innately connected with that of the knight for whom he is immortalised as supplying with a steady stream of swords and weaponry. To accurately describe this trade in the context of the medieval period, the blacksmith must be detached from the knight and analysed as a separate entity. Essentially, it must be asked 'what was there in the life of a blacksmith aside form hammering out swords for lords?' What sort of world did he inhabit and what were the rules he had to play by?
Far from the perception of them as creators of weaponry, there existed a bona fide trade industry and a conscientious effort to create an administration to preserve it. This article will focus on the other aspects of the Blacksmith's life, it will show that there was a complex industry surrounding who was able to become one and how they maintained their craft throughout the changing medieval world.

Carolingian records extol the virtues of his black and metal smiths. A capitulary from 802 stipulates that lords must have these workers to produce chainmail for them on military campaigns. It was, as a direct result of this exposure to conflict that the smiths were able to innovate and receive the most praise from their feudal lords. The Carolingians were particularly impressed with the horse-shields created for them which would have afforded them even greater superiority in battle. It is easy to view these records as confirming the Smiths' commitment to producing the tools of war and to the sole employment of the lords who directed it.

It must however be observed that the records of Charlemagne pertain to warfare and as such, will reflect his emphasis. His tenure as the King of the Franks from 768 A.D. and later as Holy Roman Emperor from 800 saw him expand his territory with unprecedented success and maintain the loyalty of his nobles by promising the riches of annual summertime invasions into enemy territory. With such a heavy emphasis on conflict to establish and maintain his crown, it is no surprise that blacksmiths are recorded primarily as catering to this. Here we see the conception of the Blacksmith as primarily a producer of arms and armour that was to endure to the present day.

Charlemagne and his successors did recognise the other values of smiths to the extent that smith-produced goods such as armour and plate were amongst items he counted as Wergild. This was a price placed on every item and living being within his domain, it was the price that thing or person was worth if killed or injured and had to be paid by the guilty party. For example, the Lex Ribuaria records a 'good breast plate' as being valued at '12 solidi'. This process required the intervention of a court to determine the outcome and clearly places the work of smiths as being viewed as of physical value to the empire and as being able to serve a legal purpose. It was in this sense a type of currency in that it incurred financial discomfort to those who stole it or were forced to offer it as compensation.

While we have discussed the inception of the Blacksmith as a weapons producer under Charlemagne, it is important to note that they were recognised as having other uses with regard to what they made. As a result, the Blacksmith became a highly valuable member of the lay society as they had the means to produce items of such value. It is also crucial that this tradition was in existence at the same time as the wars of the Caroligians and so the Blacksmith never existed as either a weapons producer or a valued member of society but as both simultaneously.

Away from the battlefield, the smith learnt his trade from a Master, who often employed several apprentices from a young age. Advancement from apprentice to Master was by no means guaranteed and rested entirely upon being noticed as a talented worker who was likely to be worthy of patronage or of lending money. The Master himself would have been raised through the ranks in this manner, which was designed to forge the best blacksmiths as well as to regulate the number of workers to reduce competition and preserve the prestige of the business. Masters were unlikely to be too lenient towards their apprentices as it was only the master who would suffer financially in turn. It is interesting to note the basic parallels between smiths at this stage and the same process of advancement for young knights seeking recognition. The industry itself, like many others, assumed legitimacy by creating a guild that was administered by the Masters which served the purpose of regulating the number of smith apprentices permitted and the materials allowed.

The development of these institutions is important to understanding smithing and metalwork as being a staple part of medieval life because it shows an active attempt to prevent it from becoming saturated or exploited. It is clear that they served a societal purpose that was independent of the production of weapons, hence the attempt to formalise and preserve it. This is was continued consistently into the high and later middle ages as blacksmithing assumed a major position in international trade. Evidence for this lucrative development can be found in the German city of Dinkelsbuhl, which prospered largely on the trade brought in by its Smiths.

Further demonstrating the development of blacksmithing as integral to the medieval town and economy was the admission of their elite to positions of authority within a region, such as a town council. This move represents a synthesis of the practice of blacksmithing and metalworking with legitimacy and recognition. Dinkelsbuhl was one of the first such cities to implement this, granting Smiths the right to stand on the town council in 1387. This official move reflects that the city officials now recognised the blacksmith as an important domestic asset that was useful in international trade and civic development.

On balance, the image of the blacksmith cannot be totally separated from the feudal caricature that has endured and this is because despite the establishment of smithing as a major aspect of the regional economy, it maintained a latent ability to provide for the military and this cannot be ignored. However, they also existed as separate entities with legal, institutional and economic interests. Even in times of war, they performed other functions in society that were no less distinguishing features of their trade.
Timothy R. Jones is a graduate student in Medieval Studies at the University of Lincoln. Click here to read more articles by Timothy Further Reading:
Alan Harding, England in the Thirteenth Century
Top Image: A medieval blacksmith at work in this 14th century manuscript. BNF Français 24364 fol. 61r
Norman Zacour, An Introduction to Medieval Institutions

Catherine Moriarty, The Voice of the Middle Ages: In Personal Letters 1100-1500

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What was the role of the Blacksmith in medieval society?

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It must be asked 'what was there in the life of a blacksmith aside form hammering out swords for lords?' What sort of world did he inhabit and what were the rules he had to play by?

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MEDIEVAL MUSIC: There were two main types of music - secular and religious. Secular music was made up of folk songs and ballads, many of which were sung by wandering musicians called troubadours. These were mostly song about love or great valor in battle. The secular musicians sang and accompanied themselves with all kinds of instuments. Religious music was performed without instrument accompaniment. It was sung or chanted by monks. This music is called plainchant or Gregorian chant.

MEDIEVAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS: The lute was a popular instrument used by medieval musicians. Percussion instruments, drums, cymbals, bells were important. Organs were used in many churches. There were also some wind instruments, horns and flutes. Some of these instruments are the Hurdy-Gurdy, Zither, Recorder, Babypipes, Cornamuse, Bladderpipe, Doleimer, Zink, and the Serpent.

MEDIEVAL DANCE: People danced to secular music. Dancers rarely touched each other. There were court dances and country dances. The Egg Dance, for example, a country dance, was a dance done in a marked off section, with raw eggs scattered in it. The goal was to dance without breaking eggs. The Morris Dance is still done by dancers today. It is the dance around a may pole. Most of the dances had a set pattern of steps, jumps, or kicks, that you had to learn.
Troubadours - Secular Music Gregorian Chants - Religious Music
Medieval Dance
Interactive Quiz about the Middle Ages (with answers)

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The Middle Ages for Kids - Medieval Music - Middle Ages for Kids

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MEDIEVAL MUSIC: There were two main types of music - secular and religious. Secular music was made up of folk songs and ballads, many of which were sung by wandering musicians called troubadours. These were mostly song about love or great valor in battle. The secular musicians sang and accompanied themselves with all kinds of instuments.

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Although some instruments of the medieval period remain familiar to us, there are many that have been lost in the mists of time.
What, for example, was the gemshorn? How exactly did one play the portative organ? Here is our guide to both, along with many of the important instruments that co-existed with them during the medieval period.

Medieval musical instruments

1. Vielle

This bowed string instrument was one of the most popular instruments of the medieval period, often used by troubadours and jongleurs from the 13th through the 15th century. Similar in shape to a modern-day violin, but with a longer, deeper body, it had three to five gut strings and a leaf-shaped pegbox with frontal tuning pegs.

2. Lute

The name of this plucked, multi-stringed instrument is derived from its Arabic predecessor 'al-'ud' ('the wood'), which came to Spain and Sicily through conquest during the Middle Ages.

From these regions it travelled it to the rest of Europe, including Germany, where, by the beginning of the 15th century it had taken on a somewhat evolved form: with frets added to the fingerboard and a shorter neck.

Although no lutes survive from the medieval period, the instrument is depicted in many manuscript illustrations as well as drawings, paintings and sculptures from the period.

3. Psaltery

This harp-like string instrument - widely seen in medieval paintings, manuscripts and sculptures - consisted of plucked gut strings, stretched across a flat soundboard.
Probably Middle Eastern in origin, it reached Europe in the 12th century and evolved into different shapes, including the 'boar's head'. Among its descendants are the harpsichord, the harp and the dulcimer, which is struck with hammers rather than plucked.

4. Sackbut

This early version of the trombone was invented - most likely in Burgundy - in the 15th century. Possessing the characteristic slide of the trombone, but with a narrower bell and softer tone, it was widely used as part of ensembles in England during the medieval period and the two centuries that followed. But it fell into disuse in the 18th century, when it was made obsolete by the more assertive-sounding trombone.

5. Shawm

Made in Europe from the 13th century, this loud double-reed woodwind instrument played an important role in dance bands and ensembles for municipal and court ceremonies throughout the medieval period. The precursor to the oboe, it was commonly used to sound the 'all's well' from the town tower at social and ceremonial events.

6. Bagpipe

The medieval version of the bagpipe was similar to its modern-day Scottish counterpart, but probably softer-sounding, and with fewer drones. According to images, it was mouth-blown, with a conical bore, a single drone and a large round bag. This is impossible to verify, since none of the instruments themselves have survived.
What we do know is that they were a common feature of medieval English life, even getting a mention from Chaucer, who describes the Miller piping his fellow pilgrims on their way in The Canterbury Tales.

7. Gemshorn

Historically made from the horn of a chamois, goat, or other suitable animal, the gemshorn was a kind of flute used in the 15th century. A skeletal figure is shown holding one in a Danse macabre illustration dated to 1485. But there is nothing very 'macabre' about the instrument itself, which uses the same fingering as the recorder and whose gentle sound was often harnessed as part of folk music ensembles.

8. Hurdy-gurdy

Known in French as the vielle à roue (the vielle with the wheel), the hurdy-gurdy was a string instrument that was set up primarily for the purpose of making drones. A rosined wooden wheel, turned by a crank, produced the sound by setting a number of strings in continuous droning vibration.
One of these was also a melody string which could play tunes by being stopped by keys along its length. Introduced in England during the 12th century, the hurdy-gurdy remained a popular instrument beyond the end of the medieval period.

9. Chimes

Tuned bells that were strung together to form chimes were amongst the most highly-regarded percussion instruments of the medieval period. Particularly associated with representations of King David, the second Israelite king, they were frequently depicted in manuscript illuminations from the 10th century onward. Struck on the outside by a hammer, they made notes of varying pitch that was determined by the thickness of their casting.

10. Portative organ

This small precursor to the organ, played from the 12th to the 16th century, was one of the most popular instruments of its period. Slung from a player's neck, it consisted of a bellows made of sheepskin and wood, along with a keyboard and a rank of pipes, which produced a flute-like sound when the bellows were squeezed and the keys were struck.
Unlike its modern-day descendants, it could only sound one note at a time. As a result it was generally used for monophonic dance music or a single part in a motet, chanson or other polyphonic work.

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Our guide to some of the most important instruments of the medieval period

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𝔐𝔲𝔰𝔦𝔠𝔞 𝔐𝔢𝔡𝔦𝔢𝔳𝔞𝔩𝔢

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𝔖𝔱𝔯𝔲𝔪𝔢𝔫𝔱𝔦 𝔐𝔲𝔰𝔦𝔠𝔞𝔩𝔦 - Medieval Musical Instruments, Early Music Consort of London, dir. David Munrow

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Musical performance - Medieval Instruments, Chant, Troubadours

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Musical performance - Medieval Instruments, Chant, Troubadours: The tradition of sung prayers and psalms extends into the shadows of early civilization. Such sacred singing was often accompanied by instruments, and its rhythmic character was marked. In the synagogue, however, the sung prayers were o…

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(spectacles)

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This playlist features every episode of Modern History: The Knight, including Jason’s bonus vlogs. Follow all of Jason’s investigations into what it must hav...

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20 minutes long but - No talking, nice medieval music, accurate costumes and depictions of daily life based on a famous primary source "The Luttrell Psalter" (bonus: has some of my friends in it!) ;-)

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The Luttrell Psalter - A Year in a Medieval English Village

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Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

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Lots of interesting stuff about just daily life!

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Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

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Family Daily Life through History - Time Periods - Medieval Europe

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Education Daily Life through History - Time Periods - Medieval Europe

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Citation: C N Trueman "Food and Drink in Medieval England"
historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, . .

Most people in Medieval England had to make their own food. Food shops were found in towns but most people were peasants who lived in villages where these did not exist. In Medieval England you, if a villager, provided for yourself and farming for your own food was a way of life dictated by the work that had to be carried out during the farming year. You needed a good supply of food and drink. Drink should have meant water which was free from rivers but usually water was far too dirty to drink.

Most people in Medieval England ate bread. People preferred white bread made from wheat flour. However, only the richer farmers and lords in villages were able to grow the wheat needed to make white bread. Wheat could only be grown in soil that had received generous amounts of manure, so peasants usually grew rye and barley instead.

Rye and barley produced a dark, heavy bread. Maslin bread was made from a mixture of rye and wheat flour. After a poor harvest, when grain was in short supply, people were forced to include beans, peas and even acorns in their bread.

Lords of the manor, did not allow peasants on his land to bake their bread in their own homes. All peasants had to pay to use the lord's oven.

As well as bread, the people of Medieval England ate a great deal of pottage. This is a kind of soup-stew made from oats. People made different kinds of pottage. Sometimes they added beans and peas. On other occasions they used other vegetables such as turnips and parsnips. Leek pottage was especially popular - but the crops used depended on what a peasant had grown in the croft around the side of his home.

The peasants relied mainly on pigs for their regular supply of meat. As pigs were capable of finding their own food in summer and winter, they could be slaughtered throughout the year. Pigs ate acorns and as these were free from the woods and forests, pigs were also cheap to keep.

Peasants also ate mutton. This comes from sheep. But sheep and lambs were small, thin creatures and their meat was not highly valued. People also used the blood of the slaughtered animal to make a dish called black pudding (blood, milk, animal fat, onions and oatmeal).

Animals such as deer, boar, hares and rabbits lived in woodland surrounding most villages. These animals were the property of the lord and villagers were not allowed to hunt them. If you did and you got caught killing these animals, you faced being punished by having your hands cut off. However, many villages did get permission from their lord to hunt animals such as hedgehogs and squirrels.

Lords might also grant permission for people in his village to catch dace, grayling and gudgeon from the local river. Most villages were built next to a river so these could be a good source of food even if they were small. Trout and salmon were for the lord only. Many lords kept a large pond on their estates filled with large fish. If a peasants was caught stealing from this, he would face a very severe punishment.

The villagers drank water and milk. The water from a river was unpleasant to drink and the milk did not stay fresh for long. The main drink in a medieval village was ale. It was difficult to brew ale and the process took time. Usually the villagers used barley. This had to be soaked for several days in water and then carefully germinated to create malt. After the malt was dried and ground, the brewer added it to hot water for fermentation.

People in most villages were not allowed to sell their beer unless they had permission from their lord. To get permission to sell ale at a fair, for example, you needed a licence which had to be paid for.

Food for the rich and poor varied enormously - as would be expected.

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Food and Drink in Medieval England - History Learning Site

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Most people in Medieval England had to make their own food. Food shops were found in towns but most people were peasants who lived in villages where these did not exist. In Medieval England you, if a villager, provided for yourself and farming for your own food was a way of life dictated by the ...

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Peasants sharing a simple meal of bread and drink; Livre du roi Modus et de la reine Ratio, 14th century

Medieval cuisine includes foods, eating habits, and cooking methods of various European cultures during the Middle Ages, which lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. During this period, diets and cooking changed less than they did in the early modern period that followed, when those changes helped lay the foundations for modern European cuisines.

Slow and inefficient transports made long-distance trade of many foods very expensive (perishability made other foods untransportable). Because of this, the nobility's food was more prone to foreign influence than the cuisine of the poor; it was dependent on exotic spices and expensive imports. As each level of society attempted to imitate the one above it, innovations from international trade and foreign wars from the 12th century onward gradually disseminated through the upper middle class of medieval cities. Aside from economic unavailability of luxuries such as spices, decrees outlawed consumption of certain foods among certain social classes and sumptuary laws limited conspicuous consumption among the nouveau riche. Social norms also dictated that the food of the working class be less refined, since it was believed there was a natural resemblance between one's way of life and one's food; hard manual labor required coarser, cheaper food.

The cuisines of the cultures of the Mediterranean Basin since antiquity had been based on cereals, particularly various types of wheat. Porridge, gruel, and later bread became the basic staple foods that made up the majority of calorie intake for most of the population. From the 8th to the 11th centuries, the proportion of various cereals in the diet rose from about a third to three-quarters. Dependence on wheat remained significant throughout the medieval era, and spread northward with the rise of Christianity. In colder climates, however, it was usually unaffordable for the majority population, and was associated with the higher classes. The centrality of bread in religious rituals such as the Eucharist meant that it enjoyed an especially high prestige among foodstuffs. Only olive oil and wine had a comparable value, but both remained quite exclusive outside the warmer grape- and olive-growing regions. The symbolic role of bread as both sustenance and substance is illustrated in a sermon given by Saint Augustine:

This bread retells your history[...] You were brought to the threshing floor of the Lord and were threshed[...] While awaiting catechism, you were like grain kept in the granary[...] At the baptismal font you were kneaded into a single dough. In the oven of the Holy Ghost you were baked into God's true bread.

Nuns dining in silence while listening to a Bible reading. The nuns use hand gestures to communicate. The Life of Blessed Saint Humility by Pietro Lorenzetti, 1341.

The Catholic and Orthodox Churches, and their calendars, had great influence on eating habits; consumption of meat was forbidden for a full third of the year for most Christians. All animal products, including eggs and dairy products (during the strictest fasting periods also fish), were generally prohibited during Lent and fast. Additionally, it was customary for all citizens to fast before taking the Eucharist. These fasts were occasionally for a full day and required total abstinence.

Both the Eastern and the Western churches ordained that feast should alternate with fast. In most of Europe, Fridays were fast days, and fasting was observed on various other days and periods, including Lent and Advent. Meat, and animal products such as milk, cheese, butter, and eggs, were not allowed, and at times also fish. The fast was intended to mortify the body and invigorate the soul, and also to remind the faster of Christ's sacrifice for humanity. The intention was not to portray certain foods as unclean, but rather to teach a spiritual lesson in self-restraint through abstention. During particularly severe fast days, the number of daily meals was also reduced to one. Even if most people respected these restrictions and usually made penance when they violated them, there were also numerous ways of circumventing them, a conflict of ideals and practice summarized by writer Bridget Ann Henisch:

It is the nature of man to build the most complicated cage of rules and regulations in which to trap himself, and then, with equal ingenuity and zest, to bend his brain to the problem of wriggling triumphantly out again. Lent was a challenge; the game was to ferret out the loopholes.

During the Middle Ages it was believed that beaver tails were of such a fish-like nature that they could be eaten on fast days; Livre des simples médecines, about 1480.

While animal products were to be avoided during times of penance, pragmatic compromises often prevailed. The definition of "fish" was often extended to marine and semi-aquatic animals such as whales, barnacle geese, puffins, and even beavers. The choice of ingredients may have been limited, but that did not mean that meals were smaller. Neither were there any restrictions against (moderate) drinking or eating sweets. Banquets held on fish days could be splendid, and were popular occasions for serving illusion food that imitated meat, cheese, and eggs in various ingenious ways; fish could be moulded to look like venison and fake eggs could be made by stuffing empty egg shells with fish roe and almond milk and cooking them in coals. While Byzantine church officials took a hard-line approach, and discouraged any culinary refinement for the clergy, their Western counterparts were far more lenient. There was also no lack of grumbling about the rigours of fasting among the laity. During Lent, kings and schoolboys, commoners and nobility, all complained about being deprived of meat for the long, hard weeks of solemn contemplation of their sins. At Lent, owners of livestock were even warned to keep an eye out for hungry dogs frustrated by a "hard siege by Lent and fish bones".

The trend from the 13th century onward was toward a more legalistic interpretation of fasting. Nobles were careful not to eat meat on fast days, but still dined in style; fish replaced meat, often as imitation hams and bacon; almond milk replaced animal milk as an expensive non-dairy alternative; faux eggs made from almond milk were cooked in blown-out eggshells, flavoured and coloured with exclusive spices. In some cases the lavishness of noble tables was outdone by Benedictine monasteries, which served as many as sixteen courses during certain feast days. Exceptions from fasting were frequently made for very broadly defined groups. Thomas Aquinas (about 1225-1274) believed dispensation should be provided for children, the old, pilgrims, workers and beggars, but not the poor as long as they had some sort of shelter. There are many accounts of members of monastic orders who flouted fasting restrictions through clever interpretations of the Bible. Since the sick were exempt from fasting, there often evolved the notion that fasting restrictions only applied to the main dining area, and many Benedictine friars would simply eat their fast day meals in what was called the misericord (at those times) rather than the refectory. Newly-assigned Catholic monastery officials sought to amend the problem of fast evasion not merely with moral condemnations, but by making sure that well-prepared non-meat dishes were available on fast days.

In the late Middle Ages, the increasing wealth of middle class merchants and traders meant that commoners began emulating the aristocracy. This threatened to break down some of the symbolic barriers between the nobility and the lower classes. The response came in two forms: literature warning of the dangers of adapting a diet inappropriate for one's class, and sumptuary laws that put a cap on the lavishness of commoners' banquets. Animal parts were even assigned to different social classes.

Medical science of the Middle Ages had a considerable influence on what was considered healthy and nutritious among the upper classes. One's lifestyle-including diet, exercise, appropriate social behavior, and approved medical remedies-was the way to good health, and all types of food were assigned certain properties that affected a person's health. All foodstuffs were also classified on scales ranging from hot to cold and moist to dry, according to the four bodily humours theory proposed by Galen that dominated Western medical science from late Antiquity and throughout the Middle Ages.

Before a meal, the stomach would preferably be "opened" with an apéritif (from Latin aperire, 'to open') that was preferably of a hot and dry nature: confections made from honey- or sugar-coated spices like ginger, caraway, and seeds of anise, fennel, or cumin, wine and sweetened fortified milk drinks. As the stomach had been opened, it should then be "closed" at the end of the meal with the help of a digestive, most commonly a dragée, which during the Middle Ages consisted of lumps of spiced sugar, or hypocras, a wine flavoured with fragrant spices, along with aged cheese. A meal would ideally begin with easily digestible fruit, such as apples. It would then be followed by vegetables such as cabbage, lettuce, purslane, herbs, moist fruits, and light meats, such as chicken or goat kid, with pottages and broths. After that came the "heavy" meats, such as pork and beef, as well as vegetables and nuts, including pears and chestnuts, both considered difficult to digest. It was popular, and recommended by medical expertise, to finish the meal with aged cheese and various digestives.

The most ideal food was that which most closely matched the humour of human beings, i.e. moderately warm and moist. Food should preferably also be finely chopped, ground, pounded and strained to achieve a true mixture of all the ingredients. White wine was believed to be cooler than red and the same distinction was applied to red and white vinegar. Milk was moderately warm and moist, but the milk of different animals was often believed to differ. Egg yolks were considered to be warm and moist while the whites were cold and moist. Skilled cooks were expected to conform to the regimen of humoral medicine. Even if this limited the combinations of food they could prepare, there was still ample room for artistic variation by the chef.

The calorie content and structure of medieval diet varied over time, from region to region, and between classes. However, for most people, the diet tended to be high-carbohydrate, with most of the budget spent on, and the majority of calories provided by, cereals and alcohol (such as beer). Even though meat was highly valued by all, lower classes often could not afford it, nor were they allowed by the church to consume it every day. In England in the 13th century, meat contributed a negligible portion of calories to a typical harvest worker's diet; however, its share increased after the Black Death and, by the 15th century, it provided about 20% of the total. Even among the lay nobility of medieval England, grain provided 65-70% of calories in the early 14th century, though a generous provision of meat and fish was included, and their consumption of meat increased in the aftermath of the Black Death as well. In one early-15th-century English aristocratic household for which detailed records are available (that of the Earl of Warwick), gentle members of the household received a staggering 3.8 pounds (1.7 kg) of assorted meats in a typical meat meal in the autumn and 2.4 pounds (1.1 kg) in the winter, in addition to 0.9 pounds (0.41 kg) of bread and imperial gallon (1.1 L; 0.30 US gal) of beer or possibly wine (and there would have been two meat meals per day, five days a week, except during Lent). In the household of Henry Stafford in 1469, gentle members received 2.1 pounds (0.95 kg) of meat per meal, and all others received 1.04 pounds (0.47 kg), and everyone was given 0.4 pounds (0.18 kg) of bread and imperial gallon (1.1 L; 0.30 US gal) of alcohol. On top of these quantities, some members of these households (usually, a minority) ate breakfast, which would not include any meat, but would probably include another imperial gallon (1.1 L; 0.30 US gal) of beer; and uncertain quantities of bread and ale could have been consumed in between meals. The diet of the lord of the household differed somewhat from this structure, including less red meat, more high-quality wild game, fresh fish, fruit, and wine.

In monasteries, the basic structure of the diet was laid down by the Rule of Saint Benedict in the 7th century and tightened by Pope Benedict XII in 1336, but (as mentioned above) monks were adept at "working around" these rules. Wine was restricted to about 10 imperial fluid ounces (280 mL; 9.6 US fl oz) per day, but there was no corresponding limit on beer, and, at Westminster Abbey, each monk was given an allowance of 1 imperial gallon (4.5 L; 1.2 US gal) of beer per day. Meat of "four-footed animals" was prohibited altogether, year-round, for everyone but the very weak and the sick. This was circumvented in part by declaring that offal, and various processed foods such as bacon, were not meat. Secondly, Benedictine monasteries contained a room called the misericord, where the Rule of Saint Benedict did not apply, and where a large number of monks ate. Each monk would be regularly sent either to the misericord or to the refectory. When Pope Benedict XII ruled that at least half of all monks should be required to eat in the refectory on any given day, monks responded by excluding the sick and those invited to the abbot's table from the reckoning. Overall, a monk at Westminster Abbey in the late 15th century would have been allowed 2.25 pounds (1.02 kg) of bread per day; 5 eggs per day, except on Fridays and in Lent; 2 pounds (0.91 kg) of meat per day, four days per week (excluding Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday), except in Advent and Lent; and 2 pounds (0.91 kg) of fish per day, three days per week and every day during Advent and Lent.

The overall calorie intake is subject to some debate. One typical estimate is that an adult peasant male needed 2,900 calories (12,000 kJ) per day, and an adult female needed 2,150 calories (9,000 kJ). Both lower and higher estimates have been proposed. Those engaged in particularly heavy physical labor, as well as sailors and soldiers, may have consumed 3,500 calories (15,000 kJ) or more per day. Intakes of aristocrats may have reached 4,000 to 5,000 calories (17,000 to 21,000 kJ) per day. Monks consumed 6,000 calories (25,000 kJ) per day on "normal" days, and 4,500 calories (19,000 kJ) per day when fasting. As a consequence of these excesses, obesity was common among upper classes. Monks, especially, frequently suffered from conditions that were more common among the obese, such as arthritis.

The regional specialties that are a feature of early modern and contemporary cuisine were not in evidence in the sparser documentation that survives. Instead, medieval cuisine can be differentiated by the cereals and the oils that shaped dietary norms and crossed ethnic and, later, national boundaries. Geographical variation in eating was primarily the result of differences in climate, political administration, and local customs that varied across the continent. Though sweeping generalizations should be avoided, more or less distinct areas where certain foodstuffs dominated can be discerned. In the British Isles, northern France, the Low Countries, the northern German-speaking areas, Scandinavia and the Baltic, the climate was generally too harsh for the cultivation of grapes and olives. In the south, wine was the common drink for both rich and poor alike (though the commoner usually had to settle for cheap second- pressing wine) while beer was the commoner's drink in the north and wine an expensive import. Citrus fruits (though not the kinds most common today) and pomegranates were common around the Mediterranean. Dried figs and dates were available in the north, but were used rather sparingly in cooking.

Olive oil was a ubiquitous ingredient in Mediterranean cultures, but remained an expensive import in the north where oils of poppy, walnut, hazel, and filbert were the most affordable alternatives. Butter and lard, especially after the terrible mortality during the Black Death made them less scarce, were used in considerable quantities in the northern and northwestern regions, especially in the Low Countries. Almost universal in middle and upper class cooking all over Europe was the almond, which was in the ubiquitous and highly versatile almond milk, which was used as a substitute in dishes that otherwise required eggs or milk, though the bitter variety of almonds came along much later.

Banquet given in Paris in 1378 by Charles V of France (second from right) for Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor (left), and his son Wenceslaus, King of the Romans. Each diner has two knives, a salt cellar, a napkin, bread and a plate (Banquet de Charles V le Sage, by Jean Fouquet, around 1455-60).

In Europe there were typically two meals a day: dinner at mid-day and a lighter supper in the evening. The two-meal system remained consistent throughout the late Middle Ages. Smaller intermediate meals were common, but became a matter of social status, as those who did not have to perform manual labor could go without them. Moralists frowned on breaking the overnight fast too early, and members of the church and cultivated gentry avoided it. For practical reasons, breakfast was still eaten by working men, and was tolerated for young children, women, the elderly and the sick. Because the church preached against gluttony and other weaknesses of the flesh, men tended to be ashamed of the weak practicality of breakfast. Lavish dinner banquets and late-night reresopers (from Occitan rèire-sopar, "late supper") with considerable alcoholic beverage consumption were considered immoral. The latter were especially associated with gambling, crude language, drunkenness, and lewd behavior. Minor meals and snacks were common (although also disliked by the church), and working men commonly received an allowance from their employers in order to buy nuncheons, small morsels to be eaten during breaks.

As with almost every part of life at the time, a medieval meal was generally a communal affair. The entire household, including servants, would ideally dine together. To sneak off to enjoy private company was considered a haughty and inefficient egotism in a world where people depended very much on each other. In the 13th century, English bishop Robert Grosseteste advised the Countess of Lincoln: "forbid dinners and suppers out of hall, in secret and in private rooms, for from this arises waste and no honor to the lord and lady." He also recommended watching that the servants not make off with leftovers to make merry at rere-suppers, rather than giving it as alms. Towards the end of the Middle Ages, the wealthy increasingly sought to escape this regime of stern collectivism. When possible, rich hosts retired with their consorts to private chambers where the meal could be enjoyed in greater exclusivity and privacy. Being invited to a lord's chambers was a great privilege and could be used as a way to reward friends and allies and to awe subordinates. It allowed lords to distance themselves further from the household and to enjoy more luxurious treats while serving inferior food to the rest of the household that still dined in the great hall. At major occasions and banquets, however, the host and hostess generally dined in the great hall with the other diners. Although there are descriptions of dining etiquette on special occasions, less is known about the details of day-to-day meals of the elite or about the table manners of the common people and the destitute. However, it can be assumed there were no such extravagant luxuries as multiple courses, luxurious spices or hand-washing in scented water in everyday meals.

John, Duke of Berry, enjoys a grand meal, sitting at the high table in front of the fireplace, served by a carver and other servants. On the table to the Duke's left is a golden salt cellar, or nef, in the shape of a ship; Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, about 1410.

Things were different for the wealthy. Before the meal and between courses, shallow basins and linen towels were offered to guests so they could wash their hands, as cleanliness was emphasized. Social codes made it difficult for women to uphold the ideal of immaculate neatness and delicacy while enjoying a meal, so the wife of the host often dined in private with her entourage or ate very little at such feasts. She could then join dinner only after the potentially messy business of eating was done. Overall, fine dining was a predominantly male affair, and it was uncommon for anyone but the most honored of guests to bring his wife or her ladies-in-waiting. The hierarchical nature of society was reinforced by etiquette where the lower ranked were expected to help the higher, the younger to assist the elder, and men to spare women the risk of sullying dress and reputation by having to handle food in an unwomanly fashion. Shared drinking cups were common even at lavish banquets for all but those who sat at the high table, as was the standard etiquette of breaking bread and carving meat for one's fellow diners.

All types of cooking involved the direct use of fire. Kitchen stoves did not appear until the 18th century, and cooks had to know how to cook directly over an open fire. Ovens were used, but they were expensive to construct and existed only in fairly large households and bakeries. It was common for a community to have shared ownership of an oven to ensure that the bread baking essential to everyone was made communal rather than private. There were also portable ovens designed to be filled with food and then buried in hot coals, and even larger ones on wheels that were used to sell pies in the streets of medieval towns. But for most people, almost all cooking was done in simple stewpots, since this was the most efficient use of firewood and did not waste precious cooking juices, making potages and stews the most common dishes. Overall, most evidence suggests that medieval dishes had a fairly high fat content, or at least when fat could be afforded. This was considered less of a problem in a time of back-breaking toil, famine, and a greater acceptance-even desirability-of plumpness; only the poor or sick, and devout ascetics, were thin.

Fruit was readily combined with meat, fish and eggs. The recipe for Tart de brymlent, a fish pie from the recipe collection The Forme of Cury, includes a mix of figs, raisins, apples, and pears with fish ( salmon, cod, or haddock) and pitted damson plums under the top crust. It was considered important to make sure that the dish agreed with contemporary standards of medicine and dietetics. This meant that food had to be "tempered" according to its nature by an appropriate combination of preparation and mixing certain ingredients, condiments and spices; fish was seen as being cold and moist, and best cooked in a way that heated and dried it, such as frying or oven baking, and seasoned with hot and dry spices; beef was dry and hot and should therefore be boiled; pork was hot and moist and should therefore always be roasted. In some recipe collections, alternative ingredients were assigned with more consideration to the humoral nature than what a modern cook would consider to be similarity in taste. In a recipe for quince pie, cabbage is said to work equally well, and in another turnips could be replaced by pears.

Fowl roasting on a spit. A shallow basin collects the drippings to use in sauces or for basting; The Decameron, Flanders, 1432.

In most households, cooking was done on an open hearth in the middle of the main living area, to make efficient use of the heat. This was the most common arrangement, even in wealthy households, for most of the Middle Ages, where the kitchen was combined with the dining hall. Towards the Late Middle Ages a separate kitchen area began to evolve. The first step was to move the fireplaces towards the walls of the main hall, and later to build a separate building or wing that contained a dedicated kitchen area, often separated from the main building by a covered arcade. This way, the smoke, odors and bustle of the kitchen could be kept out of sight of guests, and the fire risk lessened. Few medieval kitchens survive as they were "notoriously ephemeral structures".

Many basic variations of cooking utensils available today, such as frying pans, pots, kettles, and waffle irons, already existed, although they were often too expensive for poorer households. Other tools more specific to cooking over an open fire were spits of various sizes, and material for skewering anything from delicate quails to whole oxen. There were also cranes with adjustable hooks so that pots and cauldrons could easily be swung away from the fire to keep them from burning or boiling over. Utensils were often held directly over the fire or placed into embers on tripods. To assist the cook there were also assorted knives, stirring spoons, ladles and graters. In wealthy households one of the most common tools was the mortar and sieve cloth, since many medieval recipes called for food to be finely chopped, mashed, strained and seasoned either before or after cooking. This was based on a belief among physicians that the finer the consistency of food, the more effectively the body would absorb the nourishment. It also gave skilled cooks the opportunity to elaborately shape the results. Fine-textured food was also associated with wealth; for example, finely milled flour was expensive, while the bread of commoners was typically brown and coarse. A typical procedure was farcing (from the Latin farcio 'to cram'), to skin and dress an animal, grind up the meat and mix it with spices and other ingredients and then return it into its own skin, or mold it into the shape of a completely different animal.

A restored medieval kitchen inside Verrucole Castle, Tuscany

The kitchen staff of huge noble or royal courts occasionally numbered in the hundreds: pantlers, bakers, waferers, sauciers, larderers, butchers, carvers, page boys, milkmaids, butlers, and numerous scullions. While an average peasant household often made do with firewood collected from the surrounding woodlands, the major kitchens of households had to cope with the logistics of daily providing at least two meals for several hundred people. Guidelines on how to prepare for a two-day banquet can be found in the cookbook Du fait de cuisine ('On cookery') written in 1420 in part to compete with the court of Burgundy by Maistre Chiquart, master chef of Duke Amadeus VIII of Savoy. Chiquart recommends that the chief cook should have at hand at least 1,000 cartloads of "good, dry firewood" and a large barnful of coal.

Urban cookshops that catered to workers or the destitute were regarded as unsavory and disreputable places by the well-to-do and professional cooks tended to have a bad reputation. Geoffrey Chaucer's Hodge of Ware, the London cook from the Canterbury Tales, is described as a sleazy purveyor of unpalatable food. French cardinal Jacques de Vitry's sermons from the early 13th century describe sellers of cooked meat as an outright health hazard. While the necessity of the cook's services was occasionally recognized and appreciated, they were often disparaged since they catered to the baser of bodily human needs rather than spiritual betterment. The stereotypical cook in art and literature was male, hot-tempered, prone to drunkenness, and often depicted guarding his stewpot from being pilfered by both humans and animals. In the early 15th century, the English monk John Lydgate articulated the beliefs of many of his contemporaries by proclaiming that "Hoot ffir [fire] and smoke makith many an angry cook."

A baker caught trying to cheat customers is punished by being dragged around the community on a sleigh with the offending loaf of bread tied around his neck.

The period between 500 and 1300 saw a major change in diet that affected most of Europe. More intense agriculture on ever-increasing acreage resulted in a shift from animal products, like meat and dairy, to various grains and vegetables as the staple of the majority population. Before the 14th century, bread was not as common among the lower classes, especially in the north where wheat was more difficult to grow. A bread-based diet became gradually more common during the 15th century and replaced warm intermediate meals that were porridge- or gruel-based. Leavened bread was more common in wheat-growing regions in the south, while unleavened flatbread of barley, rye, or oats remained more common in northern and highland regions, and unleavened flatbread was also common as provisions for troops.

The most common grains were rye, barley, buckwheat, millet, and oats. Rice remained a fairly expensive import for most of the Middle Ages and was grown in northern Italy only towards the end of the period. Wheat was common all over Europe and was considered to be the most nutritious of all grains, but was more prestigious and thus more expensive. The finely sifted white flour that modern Europeans are most familiar with was reserved for the bread of the upper classes. As one descended the social ladder, bread became coarser, darker, and its bran content increased. In times of grain shortages or outright famine, grains could be supplemented with cheaper and less desirable substitutes like chestnuts, dried legumes, acorns, ferns, and a wide variety of more or less nutritious vegetable matter.

One of the common constituents of a medieval meal, either as part of a banquet or as a small snack, were sops, pieces of bread with which a liquid like wine, soup, broth, or sauce could be soaked up and eaten. Another common sight at the medieval dinner table was the frumenty, a thick wheat porridge often boiled in a meat broth and seasoned with spices. Porridges were also made of every type of grain and could be served as desserts or dishes for the sick, if boiled in milk (or almond milk) and sweetened with sugar. Pies filled with meats, eggs, vegetables, or fruit were common throughout Europe, as were turnovers, fritters, doughnuts, and many similar pastries. Grain, either as bread crumbs or flour, was also the most common thickener of soups and stews, alone or in combination with almond milk. By the Late Middle Ages biscuits ( cookies in the U.S.) and especially wafers, eaten for dessert, had become high-prestige foods and came in many varieties.

A baker with his assistant making bread rolls or manchets; from a book of hours manuscript from about 1500

The importance of bread as a daily staple meant that bakers played a crucial role in any medieval community. Bread consumption was high in most of Western Europe by the 14th century. Estimates of bread consumption from different regions are fairly similar: around 1 to 1.5 kilograms (2.2 to 3.3 lb) of bread per person per day. Among the first town guilds to be organized were the bakers, and laws and regulations were passed to keep bread prices stable. The English Assize of Bread and Ale of 1266 listed extensive tables where the size, weight, and price of a loaf of bread were regulated in relation to grain prices. The baker's profit margin stipulated in the tables was later increased through successful lobbying from the London Baker's Company by adding the cost of everything from firewood and salt to the baker's wife, house, and dog. Since bread was such a central part of the medieval diet, swindling by those who were trusted with supplying the precious commodity to the community was considered a serious offense. Bakers who were caught tampering with weights or adulterating dough with less expensive ingredients could receive severe penalties. This gave rise to the " baker's dozen": a baker would give 13 for the price of 12, to be certain of not being known as a cheat.

Fruits were popular and could be served fresh, dried, or preserved, and was a common ingredient in many cooked dishes. Since honey and sugar were both expensive, it was common to include many types of fruit in dishes that called for sweeteners of some sort. The fruits of choice in the south were lemons, citrons, bitter oranges (the sweet type was not introduced until several hundred years later), pomegranates, quinces, and grapes. Farther north, apples, pears, plums, and wild strawberries were more common. Figs and dates were eaten all over Europe, but remained rather expensive imports in the north.

While grains were the primary constituent of most meals, vegetables such as cabbages, chard, onions, garlic, and carrots were common foodstuffs. Many of these were eaten daily by peasants and workers and were less prestigious than meat. Cookbooks, which appeared in the late Middle Ages and were intended mostly for those who could afford such luxuries, contained only a small number of recipes using vegetables as the main ingredient. The lack of recipes for many basic vegetable dishes, such as potages, has been interpreted not to mean that they were absent from the meals of the nobility, but rather that they were considered so basic that they did not require recording. Carrots were available in many variants during the Middle Ages: among them a tastier reddish-purple variety and a less prestigious green-yellow type. Various legumes, like chickpeas, fava beans, and field peas were also common and important sources of protein, especially among the lower classes. With the exception of peas, legumes were often viewed with some suspicion by the dietitians advising the upper class, partly because of their tendency to cause flatulence but also because they were associated with the coarse food of peasants. The importance of vegetables to the common people is illustrated by accounts from 16th century Germany stating that many peasants ate sauerkraut from three to four times a day.

Common and often basic ingredients in many modern European cuisines like potatoes, kidney beans, cacao, vanilla, tomatoes, chili peppers, and maize were not available to Europeans until after 1492, after European contact with the Americas, and even then it often took considerable time, sometimes several centuries, for the new foodstuffs to be accepted by society at large.

Milk was an important source of animal protein for those who could not afford meat. It would mostly come from cows, but milk from goats and sheep was also common. Plain fresh milk was not consumed by adults except the poor or sick, and was usually reserved for the very young or elderly. Poor adults would sometimes drink buttermilk or whey or milk that was soured or watered down. Fresh milk was overall less common than other dairy products because of the lack of technology to keep it from spoiling. On occasion it was used in upper-class kitchens in stews, but it was difficult to keep fresh in bulk and almond milk was generally used in its stead.

Cheese was far more important as a foodstuff, especially for common people, and it has been suggested that it was, during many periods, the chief supplier of animal protein among the lower classes. Many varieties of cheese eaten today, like Dutch Edam, Northern French Brie and Italian Parmesan, were available and well known in late medieval times. There were also whey cheeses, like ricotta, made from by-products of the production of harder cheeses. Cheese was used in cooking for pies and soups, the latter being common fare in German-speaking areas. Butter, another important dairy product, was in popular use in the regions of Northern Europe that specialized in cattle production in the latter half of the Middle Ages, the Low Countries and Southern Scandinavia. While most other regions used oil or lard as cooking fats, butter was the dominant cooking medium in these areas. Its production also allowed for a lucrative butter export from the 12th century onward.

A 14th-century butcher shop. A large pig is being bled in preparation for slaughter. A whole pig carcass and cuts are hanging from a rack and various cuts are being prepared for a customer.

While all forms of wild game were popular among those who could obtain it, most meat came from domestic animals. Domestic working animals that were no longer able to work were slaughtered but not particularly appetizing and therefore were less valued as meat. Beef was not as common as today because raising cattle was labor-intensive, requiring pastures and feed, and oxen and cows were much more valuable as draught animals and for producing milk. Lamb and mutton were fairly common, especially in areas with a sizeable wool industry, as was veal. Goat meat was consumed in some parts of medieval Europe. Far more common was pork, as domestic pigs required less attention and cheaper feed. Domestic pigs often ran freely even in towns and could be fed on just about any organic waste, and suckling pig was a sought-after delicacy. Just about every part of the pig was eaten, including ears, snout, tail, tongue, and womb. Intestines, bladder, and stomach could be used as casings for sausage or even illusion food such as giant eggs. Among the meats that today are rare or even considered inappropriate for human consumption are the hedgehog and porcupine, occasionally mentioned in late medieval recipe collections. Rabbits remained a rare and highly prized commodity. In England, they were deliberately introduced by the 13th century and their colonies were carefully protected. Further south, domesticated rabbits were commonly bred and raised both for their meat and fur. It is frequently and falsely claimed that they were of particular value for monasteries because newborn rabbits were allegedly declared fish (or at least not meat) by church officials, allowing them to be eaten during Lent.

Meats were more expensive than plant foods and could be up to four times as expensive as bread. Fish was up to 16 times as costly, and was expensive even for coastal populations. This meant that fasts could mean an especially meager diet for those who could not afford alternatives to meat and animal products like milk and eggs. It was only after the Black Death had eradicated up to half of the European population that meat became more common even for poorer people. The drastic reduction in many populated areas resulted in a labor shortage, meaning that wages dramatically increased. It also left vast areas of farmland untended, making it available for pasture and putting more meat on the market.

Although less prestigious than other animal meats, and often seen as merely an alternative to meat on fast days, seafood was the mainstay of many coastal populations. "Fish" to the medieval person was also a general name for anything not considered a proper land-living animal, including marine mammals such as whales and porpoises. Also included were the beaver, due to its scaly tail and considerable time spent in water, and barnacle geese, due to the belief that they developed underwater in the form of barnacles. Such foods were also considered appropriate for fast days, though the rather contrived classification of barnacle geese as fish was not universally accepted. The Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II examined barnacles and noted no evidence of any bird-like embryo in them, and the secretary of Leo of Rozmital wrote a very skeptical account of his reaction to being served barnacle goose at a fish-day dinner in 1456.

Especially important was the fishing and trade in herring and cod in the Atlantic and the Baltic Sea. The herring was of unprecedented significance to the economy of much of Northern Europe, and it was one of the most common commodities traded by the Hanseatic League, a powerful north German alliance of trading guilds. Kippers made from herring caught in the North Sea could be found in markets as far away as Constantinople. While large quantities of fish were eaten fresh, a large proportion was salted, dried, and, to a lesser extent, smoked. Stockfish, cod that was split down the middle, fixed to a pole and dried, was very common, though preparation could be time-consuming, and meant beating the dried fish with a mallet before soaking it in water. A wide range of mollusks including oysters, mussels, and scallops were eaten by coastal and river-dwelling populations, and freshwater crayfish were seen as a desirable alternative to meat during fish days. Compared to meat, fish was much more expensive for inland populations, especially in Central Europe, and therefore not an option for most. Freshwater fish such as eel, pike, carp, bream, perch, lamprey, salmon, and trout were common.

An abbey cellarer testing his wine. Illumination from a copy of Li livres dou santé by Aldobrandino of Siena. British Library, Sloane 2435, f. 44v.

While in modern times water is often drunk with a meal, in the Middle Ages concerns over purity, medical recommendations and its low prestige value made it less favored, and alcoholic beverages were preferred. They were seen as more nutritious and beneficial to digestion than water, with the invaluable bonus of being less prone to putrefaction due to the alcohol content. Wine was consumed on a daily basis in most of France and all over the Western Mediterranean wherever grapes were cultivated. Further north it remained the preferred drink of the bourgeoisie and the nobility who could afford it, and far less common among peasants and workers. The drink of commoners in the northern parts of the continent was primarily beer or ale.

Juices, as well as wines, of a multitude of fruits and berries had been known at least since Roman antiquity and were still consumed in the Middle Ages: pomegranate, mulberry and blackberry wines, perry, and cider which was especially popular in the north where both apples and pears were plentiful. Medieval drinks that have survived to this day include prunellé from wild plums (modern-day slivovitz), mulberry gin and blackberry wine. Many variants of mead have been found in medieval recipes, with or without alcoholic content. However, the honey-based drink became less common as a table beverage towards the end of the period and was eventually relegated to medicinal use. Mead has often been presented as the common drink of the Slavs. This is partially true since mead bore great symbolic value at important occasions. When agreeing on treaties and other important affairs of state, mead was often presented as a ceremonial gift. It was also common at weddings and baptismal parties, though in limited quantity due to its high price. In medieval Poland, mead had a status equivalent to that of imported luxuries, such as spices and wines. Kumis, the fermented milk of mares or camels, was known in Europe, but as with mead was mostly something prescribed by physicians.

Plain milk was not consumed by adults except the poor or sick, being reserved for the very young or elderly, and then usually as buttermilk or whey. Fresh milk was overall less common than other dairy products because of the lack of technology to keep it from spoiling. Tea and coffee, both made from plants found in the Old World, were popular in East Asia and the Muslim world during the Middle Ages. However, neither of these non-alcoholic social drinks were consumed in Europe before the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

A matron demonstrates how to properly treat and conserve wine.

Wine was commonly drunk and was also regarded as the most prestigious and healthy choice. According to Galen's dietetics it was considered hot and dry, but these qualities were moderated when wine was watered down. Unlike water or beer, which were considered cold and moist, consumption of wine in moderation (especially red wine) was, among other things, believed to aid digestion, generate good blood and brighten the mood. The quality of wine differed considerably according to vintage, the type of grape and more importantly, the number of grape pressings. The first pressing was made into the finest and most expensive wines which were reserved for the upper classes. The second and third pressings were subsequently of lower quality and alcohol content. Common folk usually had to settle for a cheap white or rosé from a second or even third pressing, meaning that it could be consumed in quite generous amounts without leading to heavy intoxication. For the poorest (or the most pious), watered-down vinegar (similar to Ancient Roman ) would often be the only available choice.

The aging of high-quality red wine required specialized knowledge as well as expensive storage and equipment, and resulted in an even more expensive end product. Judging from the advice given in many medieval documents on how to salvage wine that bore signs of going bad, preservation must have been a widespread problem. Even if vinegar was a common ingredient, there was only so much of it that could be used. The 14th-century cookbook Le Viandier, describes several methods for salvaging spoiling wine; making sure that the wine barrels are always topped up or adding a mixture of dried and boiled white grape seeds with the ash of dried and burnt lees of white wine were both effective bactericides, even if the chemical processes were not understood at the time. Spiced or mulled wine was not only popular among the affluent, but was also considered especially healthy by physicians. Wine was believed to act as a kind of vaporizer and conduit of other foodstuffs to every part of the body, and the addition of fragrant and exotic spices would make it even more wholesome. Spiced wines were usually made by mixing an ordinary (red) wine with an assortment of spices such as ginger, cardamom, pepper, grains of paradise, nutmeg, cloves and sugar. These would be contained in small bags which were either steeped in wine or had liquid poured over them to produce hypocras and . By the 14th century, bagged spice mixes could be bought ready-made from spice merchants.

While wine was the most common table beverage in much of Europe, this was not the case in the northern regions where grapes were not cultivated. Those who could afford it drank imported wine, but even for nobility in these areas it was common to drink beer or ale, particularly towards the end of the Middle Ages. In England, the Low Countries, northern Germany, Poland and Scandinavia, beer was consumed on a daily basis by people of all social classes and age groups. By the mid-15th century, barley, a cereal known to be somewhat poorly suited for breadmaking but excellent for brewing, accounted for 27% of all cereal acreage in England. However, the heavy influence from Arab and Mediterranean culture on medical science (particularly due to the Reconquista and the influx of Arabic texts) meant that beer was often disfavoured. For most medieval Europeans, it was a humble brew compared with common southern drinks and cooking ingredients, such as wine, lemons and olive oil. Even comparatively exotic products like camel milk and gazelle meat generally received more positive attention in medical texts. Beer was just an acceptable alternative and was assigned various negative qualities. In 1256, the Sienese physician Aldobrandino described beer in the following way:

But from whichever it is made, whether from oats, barley or wheat, it harms the head and the stomach, it causes bad breath and ruins the teeth, it fills the stomach with bad fumes, and as a result anyone who drinks it along with wine becomes drunk quickly; but it does have the property of facilitating urination and makes one's flesh white and smooth.

The intoxicating effect of beer was believed to last longer than that of wine, but it was also admitted that it did not create the "false thirst" associated with wine. Though less prominent than in the north, beer was consumed in northern France and the Italian mainland. Perhaps as a consequence of the Norman Conquest and the travelling of nobles between France and England, one French variant described in the 14th century cookbook Le Menagier de Paris was called godale (most likely a direct borrowing from the English 'good ale') and was made from barley and spelt, but without hops. In England there were also the variants , made from hot milk and cold ale, and brakot or , a spiced honey ale prepared much like hypocras.

Before hops became popular as an ingredient, it was difficult to preserve this beverage for any time, so it was mostly consumed fresh. It was unfiltered, and therefore cloudy, and likely had a lower alcohol content than the typical modern equivalent. Quantities of beer consumed by medieval residents of Europe, as recorded in contemporary literature, far exceed intakes in the modern world. For example, sailors in 16th-century England and Denmark received a ration of 1 imperial gallon (4.5 L; 1.2 US gal) of beer per day. Polish peasants consumed up to 3 litres (0.66 imp gal; 0.79 US gal) of beer per day.

In the Early Middle Ages, beer was brewed primarily in monasteries, and on a smaller scale, in individual households. By the High Middle Ages, breweries in the fledgling medieval towns of northern Germany began to take over production. Though most of the breweries were small family businesses that employed at most eight to ten people, regular production allowed for investment in better equipment and increased experimentation with new recipes and brewing techniques. These operations later spread to the Netherlands in the 14th century, then to Flanders and Brabant, and reached England by the 15th century. Hopped beer became very popular in the last decades of the Late Middle Ages. In England and the Low Countries, the per capita annual consumption was around 275 to 300 litres (60 to 66 imp gal; 73 to 79 US gal), and it was consumed with practically every meal: low alcohol-content beers for breakfast, and stronger ones later in the day. When perfected as an ingredient, hops could make beer keep for six months or more, and facilitated extensive exports. In Late Medieval England, the word beer came to mean a hopped beverage, whereas ale had to be unhopped. In turn, ale or beer was classified as "strong" or "small", the latter less intoxicating, regarded as a drink of temperate people, and suitable for consumption by children. As late as 1693, John Locke stated that the only drink he considered suitable for children of all ages was small beer, while criticizing the apparently common practice among Englishmen of the time to give their children wine and strong alcohol.

By modern standards, the brewing process was relatively inefficient, but capable of producing quite strong alcohol when that was desired. A 1998 attempt to recreate medieval English "strong ale" using recipes and techniques of the era (albeit with the use of modern yeast strains) yielded a strongly alcoholic brew with original gravity of 1.091 (corresponding to a potential alcohol content over 9%) and "pleasant, apple-like taste".

The ancient Greeks and Romans knew of the technique of distillation, but it was not practiced on a major scale in Europe until after the invention of alembics, which feature in manuscripts from the ninth century onwards. Distillation was believed by medieval scholars to produce the essence of the liquid being purified, and the term ('water of life') was used as a generic term for all kinds of distillates. The early use of various distillates, alcoholic or not, was varied, but it was primarily culinary or medicinal; grape syrup mixed with sugar and spices was prescribed for a variety of ailments, and rosewater was used as a perfume and cooking ingredient and for hand washing. Alcoholic distillates were also occasionally used to create dazzling, fire-breathing entremets (a type of entertainment dish after a course) by soaking a piece of cotton in spirits. It would then be placed in the mouth of the stuffed, cooked and occasionally redressed animals, and lit just before presenting the creation.

Aqua vitae in its alcoholic forms was highly praised by medieval physicians. In 1309, Arnaldus of Villanova wrote that "[i]t prolongs good health, dissipates superfluous humours, reanimates the heart and maintains youth." In the Late Middle Ages, the production of moonshine started to pick up, especially in the German-speaking regions. By the 13th century, Hausbrand (literally 'home-burnt' from gebrannter wein, brandwein 'burnt [distilled] wine') was commonplace, marking the origin of brandy. Towards the end of the Late Middle Ages, the consumption of spirits became so ingrained even among the general population that restrictions on sales and production began to appear in the late 15th century. In 1496, the city of Nuremberg issued restrictions on the selling of aquavit on Sundays and official holidays.

Herbs, spices, and condiments

Harvesting pepper; French manuscript of The Travels of Marco Polo, early 15th century

Spices were among the most luxurious products available in the Middle Ages, the most common being black pepper, cinnamon (and the cheaper alternative cassia), cumin, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. They all had to be imported from plantations in Asia and Africa, which made them extremely expensive, and gave them social cachet such that pepper, for example, was hoarded, traded and conspicuously donated in the manner of gold bullion. It has been estimated that around 1,000 tons of pepper and 1,000 tons of the other common spices were imported into Western Europe each year during the late Middle Ages. The value of these goods was the equivalent of a yearly supply of grain for 1.5 million people. While pepper was the most common spice, the most exclusive (though not the most obscure in its origin) was saffron, used as much for its vivid yellow-red color as for its flavor, for according to the humours, yellow signified hot and dry, valued qualities; turmeric provided a yellow substitute, and touches of gilding at banquets supplied both the medieval love of ostentatious show and Galenic dietary lore: at the sumptuous banquet that Cardinal Riario offered to Eleanor of Naples in June 1473, the bread was gilded. Among the spices that have now fallen into obscurity are grains of paradise, a relative of cardamom which almost entirely replaced pepper in late medieval north French cooking, long pepper, mace, spikenard, galangal, and cubeb. Sugar, unlike today, was considered to be a type of spice due to its high cost and humoral qualities. Few dishes employed just one type of spice or herb, but rather a combination of several different ones. Even when a dish was dominated by a single flavor it was usually combined with another to produce a compound taste, for example parsley and cloves or pepper and ginger.

Common herbs such as sage, mustard, and parsley were grown and used in cooking all over Europe, as were caraway, mint, dill, and fennel. Many of these plants grew throughout all of Europe or were cultivated in gardens, and were a cheaper alternative to exotic spices. Mustard was particularly popular with meat dishes and was described by Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) as poor man's food. While locally grown herbs were less prestigious than spices, they were still used in upper-class food, but were then usually less prominent or included merely as coloring. Anise was used to flavor fish and chicken dishes, and its seeds were served as sugar-coated comfits.

Picking green grapes for making verjuice; Tacuinum Sanitatis, 1474

Surviving medieval recipes frequently call for flavoring with a number of sour, tart liquids. Wine, verjuice (the juice of unripe grapes or fruits) vinegar and the juices of various fruits, especially those with tart flavors, were almost universal and a hallmark of late medieval cooking. In combination with sweeteners and spices, it produced a distinctive "pungeant, fruity" flavor. Equally common, and used to complement the tanginess of these ingredients, were (sweet) almonds. They were used in a variety of ways: whole, shelled or unshelled, slivered, ground and, most importantly, processed into almond milk. This last type of non-dairy milk product is probably the single most common ingredient in late medieval cooking and blended the aroma of spices and sour liquids with a mild taste and creamy texture.

Salt was ubiquitous and indispensable in medieval cooking. Salting and drying was the most common form of food preservation and meant that fish and meat in particular were often heavily salted. Many medieval recipes specifically warn against oversalting and there were recommendations for soaking certain products in water to get rid of excess salt. Salt was present during more elaborate or expensive meals. The richer the host, and the more prestigious the guest, the more elaborate would be the container in which it was served and the higher the quality and price of the salt. Wealthy guests were seated " above the salt", while others sat "below the salt", where salt cellars were made of pewter, precious metals or other fine materials, often intricately decorated. The rank of a diner also decided how finely ground and white the salt was. Salt for cooking, preservation or for use by common people was coarser; sea salt, or "bay salt", in particular, had more impurities, and was described in colors ranging from black to green. Expensive salt, on the other hand, looked like the standard commercial salt common today.

The term "dessert" comes from the Old French desservir, 'to clear a table', literally 'to un-serve', and originated during the Middle Ages. It would typically consist of dragées and mulled wine accompanied by aged cheese, and by the Late Middle Ages could also include fresh fruit covered in honey, sugar, or syrup and boiled-down fruit pastes. Sugar, from its first appearance in Europe, was viewed as much as a drug as a sweetener; its long-lived medieval reputation as an exotic luxury encouraged its appearance in elite contexts accompanying meats and other dishes that to modern taste are more naturally savoury. There were a wide variety of fritters, crêpes with sugar, sweet custards and darioles, almond milk and eggs in a pastry shell that could also include fruit and sometimes even bone marrow or fish. German-speaking areas had a particular fondness for : fried pastries and dough with various sweet and savory fillings. Marzipan in many forms was well-known in Italy and southern France by the 1340s, and is assumed to be of Arab origin. Anglo-Norman cookbooks are full of recipes for sweet and savory custards, potages, sauces, and tarts with strawberries, cherries, apples, and plums. The English chefs also had a penchant for using flower petals such as roses, violets, and elder flowers. An early form of quiche can be found in Forme of Cury, a 14th-century recipe collection, as a Torte de Bry with a cheese and egg yolk filling.

Le Ménagier de Paris ("Parisian Household Book"), written in 1393, includes a quiche recipe made with three kinds of cheese, eggs, beet greens, spinach, fennel fronds, and parsley. In northern France, a wide assortment of waffles and wafers was eaten with cheese and hypocras or a sweet malmsey as issue de table ('departure from the table'). The ever-present candied ginger, coriander, aniseed and other spices were referred to as épices de chambre ('parlor spices') and were taken as digestibles at the end of a meal to "close" the stomach. Like their Muslim counterparts in Spain, the Arab conquerors of Sicily introduced a wide variety of new sweets and desserts that eventually found their way to the rest of Europe. Just like Montpellier, Sicily was once famous for its comfits, nougat candy ( torrone, or in Spanish) and almond clusters ( confetti). From the south, the Arabs also brought the art of ice cream-making that produced sorbet and several examples of sweet cakes and pastries; cassata alla Siciliana (from Arabic qas'ah, the term for the terracotta bowl with which it was shaped), made from marzipan, sponge cake with sweetened ricotta, and cannoli alla Siciliana, originally cappelli di turchi ('Turkish hats'), fried, chilled pastry tubes with a sweet cheese filling.

Research into medieval foodways was, until around 1980, a somewhat neglected field of study. Misconceptions and outright errors were quite common among historians, and are still present in as a part of the popular view of the Middle Ages as a backward, primitive and barbaric era. Medieval cookery was described as revolting due to the often unfamiliar combination of flavors, the perceived lack of vegetables and a liberal use of spices. The heavy use of spices has been popular as an argument to support the claim that spices were employed to disguise the flavor of spoiled meat, a conclusion without support in historical fact and contemporary sources. Fresh meat could be procured throughout the year by those who could afford it. The preservation techniques available at the time, although crude by today's standards, were perfectly adequate. The astronomical cost and high prestige of spices, and thereby the reputation of the host, would have been effectively undone if wasted on cheap and poorly handled foods.

The common method of grinding and mashing ingredients into pastes and the many potages and sauces has been used as an argument that most adults within the medieval nobility lost their teeth at an early age, and hence were forced to eat nothing but porridge, soup and ground-up meat. This has been demonstrated to be an unfounded theory by historians such as Terence Scully.

The numerous descriptions of banquets from the later Middle Ages concentrated on the pageantry of the event rather than the minutiae of the food, which was not the same for most banqueters as those choice mets served at the high table. Banquet dishes were apart from mainstream of cuisine, and have been described as "the outcome of grand banquets serving political ambition rather than gastronomy; today as yesterday" by historian Maguelonne Toussant-Samat.

A page from a late-14th-century manuscript of Forme of Cury with recipes for "drepee", parboiled birds with almonds and fried onions, and the first part of a recipe for "mawmenee", a sweet stew of capon or pheasant with cinnamon, ginger, cloves, dates and pine nuts and colored with sandalwood

Cookbooks, or more specifically, recipe collections, compiled in the Middle Ages are among the most important historical sources for medieval cuisine. The first cookbooks began to appear towards the end of the 13th century. The Liber de Coquina, perhaps originating near Naples, and the Tractatus de modo preparandi have found a modern editor in Marianne Mulon, and a cookbook from Assisi found at Châlons-sur-Marne has been edited by Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat. Though it is assumed that they describe real dishes, food scholars do not believe they were used as cookbooks might be today, as a step-by-step guide through the cooking procedure that could be kept at hand while preparing a dish. Few in a kitchen, at those times, would have been able to read, and working texts have a low survival rate.

The recipes were often brief and did not give precise quantities. Cooking times and temperatures were seldom specified since accurate portable clocks were not available and since all cooking was done with fire. At best, cooking times could be specified as the time it took to say a certain number of prayers or how long it took to walk around a certain field. Professional cooks were taught their trade through apprenticeship and practical training, working their way up in the highly defined kitchen hierarchy. A medieval cook employed in a large household would most likely have been able to plan and produce a meal without the help of recipes or written instruction. Due to the generally good condition of surviving manuscripts it has been proposed by food historian Terence Scully that they were records of household practices intended for the wealthy and literate master of a household, such as Le Ménagier de Paris from the late 14th century. Over 70 collections of medieval recipes survive today, written in several major European languages.

The repertory of housekeeping instructions laid down by manuscripts like the Ménagier de Paris also include many details of overseeing correct preparations in the kitchen. Towards the onset of the early modern period, in 1474, the Vatican librarian Bartolomeo Platina wrote De honesta voluptate et valetudine ("On honorable pleasure and health") and the physician Iodocus Willich edited in Zürich in 1563.

High-status exotic spices and rarities like ginger, pepper, cloves, sesame, citron leaves and "onions of Escalon" all appear in an eighth-century list of spices that the Carolingian cook should have at hand. It was written by Vinidarius, whose excerpts of Apicius survive in an eighth-century uncial manuscript. Vinidarius's own dates may not be much earlier.

1. ^ "Bones reveal chubby monks aplenty". The Guardian. 15 July 2004. Archived from the original on 3 October 2012.

2. Eszter Kisbán, "Food Habits in Change: The Example of Europe" in Food in Change, pages 2-4.

3. Liane Plouvier, "La gastronomie dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux sous les ducs de Bourgogne: le témoignage des livres de cuisine" ^ Publications du Centre Européen d'Etudes Bourguignonnes 47 (2007).

4. Cabbage and other foodstuffs in common use by most German-speaking peoples are mentioned in Walther Ryff's dietary from 1549 and ^ Hieronymus Bock's Deutsche Speißkamer ('German Larder') from 1550; see Melitta Weiss Adamson, "Medieval Germany" in Regional Cuisines of Medieval Europe, page 163.

5. ^ Gorman, James (14 February 2018). "Debunked: The Strange Tale of Pope Gregory and the Rabbits". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 4 May 2022.

6. ^ Giraldus Cambrensis "Topographica Hiberniae" (1187), quoted in Edward Heron-Allen, Barnacles in Nature and in Myth, 1928, reprinted in 2003, page 10. ISBN 0-7661-5755-5 full text at Google Books

7. John Locke (1693), "^ Some Thoughts Concerning Education", §16-19

8. ^ "Recreating Medieval English Ales (a recreation of late-13-14th unhopped English ales)". Archived from the original on 29 August 2019.

9. Adamson (2004), page 65. By comparison, the estimated population of Britain in 1340, right before the ^ Black Death, was only 5 million, and was a mere 3 million by 1450; see J.C Russel "Population in Europe 500-1500" in The Fontana Economic History of Europe: The Middle Ages, page 36.

10. ^ Mulon, Marianne (1971). "Deux traités d'art culinaire médié". Bulletin Philologique et Historique (in French). Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques. ISSN 0775-955X.

11. The manuscripts from which early books were printed rarely survive, as a scan of introductory materials in the ^ Loeb Classical Library demonstrates, and old children's books are rare collectibles today.

12. In modern botany the of ^ Ascalon in Palestine is the shallot, A. ascalonensis (W.F. Giles, "Onions and other edible Alliums" Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society 68: (1943) pp 193-200.

13. The list, however, includes ^ silphium, which had been extinct for centuries, so may have included some purely literary items; Toussaint-Samat (2009), page 434.

Carlin, Martha; Rosenthal, Joel T., eds. (1998). Food and Eating in Medieval Europe. London: The Hambledon Press. ISBN 1-85285-148-1.

Creighton, Oliver; Christie, Neil (2015). "The Archaeology of Wallingford Castle: a summary of the current state of knowledge". In Keats-Rohan, K. S. B.; Christie, Neil; Roffe, David (eds.). Wallingford: The Castle and the Town in Context. BAR British Series. Oxford: Archaeopress. ISBN 978-1-4073-1418-1.

Dembinska, Maria (1999). Food and Drink in Medieval Poland: Rediscovering a Cuisine of the Past. Translated by Thomas, Magdalena. revised and adapted by William Woys Weaver. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-3224-0.

Eßlinger, Hans Michael, ed. (2009). Handbook of Brewing: Processes, Technology, Markets. Weinheim: Wiley-VCH. ISBN 978-3-527-31674-8. S2CID 106720072.

Fenton, Alexander; Kisbán, Eszter, eds. (1986). Food in Change: Eating Habits from the Middle Ages to the Present Day. Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers. ISBN 0-85976-145-2. S2CID 160758319.

Freedman, Paul (2008). Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11199-6.

Notaker, Henry (2017). A history of cookbooks: from kitchen to page over seven centuries. California Studies in Food and Culture. Oakland: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520294004. JSTOR j.ctt1rv6298.

Unger, Richard W. (2007). Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-1999-9. JSTOR j.ctt3fj2zx.

Woolgar, Chris M.; Serjeantson, Dale; Waldron, Tony, eds. (2006). Food in Medieval England: Diet and Nutrition. Medieval History and Archaeology. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-956335-7.

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Medieval cuisine includes foods, eating habits, and cooking methods of various European cultures during the Middle Ages, which lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. During this period, diets and cooking changed less than they did in the early modern period that followed, when those changes helped lay the foundations for modern European cuisines.

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Medieval Clothing
C lothing and fashion like everything else during the Middle Ages was dictated by the Pyramid of Power which was the Feudal System. Clothing provided information about the status of the person wearing them. This section provides information about the type of clothes and fashions worn during these times.

The History of Medieval Clothing and Clothing Sumptuary Laws The history of Middle Ages clothing provides details of the Sumptuary Laws and an overview of fashion through the ages of the period. The Sumptuary Laws distinguished seven social categories and made members of each class easily distinguished by their clothing. Only the wealthy could dress in fashionable clothing. Laws dating back to the Romans restricted ordinary people in their expenditure. A history of clothing is detailed in a timeline charting the history of fashion. Articles in this section include an overview of the major changes in dress, costume and clothing.

Medieval Clothing - Clothing worn by different people The following links provide interesting facts and information about the fashion and clothes worn by different social classes throughout the Medival period. From the 11th through the 14th centuries, medieval clothing varied according to the social standing of the people. The clothing worn by nobility and upper classes was clearly different than that of the lower class. Medival clothes provided information about the status of the person wearing them. The clothing and fashion during the times of the Middle Ages was dominated and highly influenced by the Kings and Queens of the era. Only the wealthy could dress in fashionable clothes.

Medieval Women - Fashion and Clothes
The Women's Fashion of the early Middle Ages was still influenced by the classical styles of the Greek and Roman women and their clothing was at times so tight as to display all the elegance of their form. The female clothing of the time consisted of two tunics, the under one being longer but less capacious than the other. Women also wore a long cloak over their clothing and closed shoes, which had then begun to be made pointed. During the period of 1200 - 1300 luxury was at its height when gold and silver, pearls and precious stones were lavished on clothing. During the period of 1300 - 1400 Women's coats and surcoats often trailed on the ground. Hats consisted of a frame of wirework covered over with stuff which was embroidered or trimmed with lace. During the period of 1400 - 1500 the women wore long trains to their dresses which were eventually shortened. Sleeves became long, hanging and embroidered or fringed. Fashion dictated that women's dresses and clothing became shorter and were trimmed in the most costly manner.

Medieval Clothing in Europe
Amongst European nations, during the Medival times of the Middle Ages, there was always one common standard of fashion and clothing , which varied from time to time according to the particular custom of each country, and according to the peculiarities of each race. Each European country would imitate the fashions and clothes of another but still manage to retain its own identity. In Italy, for instance, clothes and dress always maintained a certain character of grandeur, ever recalling the fact that the influence of antiquity was not quite lost. In Germany and Switzerland, clothing and garments had generally a heavy and massive appearance; in Holland, still more so. England uniformly studied a kind of instinctive elegance and propriety in clothes. It is a curious fact that Spain invariably partook of the heaviness of clothing peculiar to Germany because the Gothic element still prevailed there. Fashion in France was fickle and capricious, always ready to borrow from every quarter any style of clothes and fashion.
Medieval Clothing
The Medieval Life and Times website provides interesting facts, history and information about great people and the clothes and fashion which scatter the History books. The Medieval Times Sitemap provides full details of all of the information and facts about the fascinating subject of the lives of the people who lived during the historical period of the Middle Ages. The content of these articles on the Medival fashion provide free educational details, facts and information for reference and research for schools, colleges and homework for history courses and history coursework.

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Medieval Clothing! Get Medieval facts, information and history about Medieval Clothing. Fast and accurate facts about Medieval Clothing.

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Medieval Clothing through the Centuries

In medieval times, as today, both fashion and necessity dictated what people wore. And both fashion and necessity, in addition to cultural tradition and available materials, varied across the centuries of the Middle Ages as well as across the miles of Europe. After all, no one would expect the clothes of an 8th-century Viking to bear any resemblance to those of a 15th-century Venetian.

So when you ask the question "What did a man (or woman) wear in the Middle Ages?" be prepared to answer some questions yourself. Where did he live? When did he live? What was his station in life (noble, peasant, merchant, cleric)? And for what purpose might he be wearing a particular suit of clothes?

* More about Regional and Period Medieval Clothing

Types of Materials used in Medieval Clothing

The many types of synthetic and blended fabrics people wear today were simply not available in medieval times. But this didn't mean that everyone wore heavy wool, burlap, and animal skins. Different textiles were manufactured in a range of weights and could vary greatly in quality. The more finely woven a textile was, the softer and more costly it would be.

Materials available for use in medieval clothing included:

Various fabrics, such as taffeta, velvet, and damask, were made from textiles like silk, cotton and linen using specific weaving techniques. These were not generally available in the earlier Middle Ages, and were among the more expensive fabrics for the extra time and care it took to make them.

Colors Found in Medieval Clothing

Dyes came from rather a lot of different sources, some of them far more expensive than others.

Still, even the humble peasant could have colorful clothing. Using plants, roots, lichen, tree bark, nuts, crushed insects, mollusks and iron oxide, virtually every color of the rainbow could be achieved. However, adding color was an extra step in the manufacturing process that raised its price, so clothing made from undyed fabric in various shades of beige and off-white was not uncommon among the poorest folk.

A dyed fabric would fade fairly quickly if it wasn't mixed with a mordant, and bolder shades required either longer dyeing times or more expensive dyes. Thus, fabrics of the brightest and richest colors cost more and were, therefore most often found on nobility and the very rich. One natural dye that did not require a mordant was a flowering plant that yielded a dark blue dye. Woad was used so extensively in both professional and home dyeing that it became known as "Dyer's Woad," and garments of a variety of blue shades could be found on people of virtually every level of society.

Garments Worn under Medieval Clothing

Throughout much of the Middle Ages and in most societies, the undergarments worn by both men and women didn't substantially change.

Basically, they consisted of a shirt or under-tunic, stockings or hose, and, for men at least, some kind of underpants or breeches. There is no evidence that women regularly wore underpants, but with a matter of such delicacy that the garments became known as "unmentionables," this isn't surprising. Women may have worn underpants, depending on their resources, the nature of their outer garments and their personal preferences.

* More about Medieval Underwear

Medieval Hats, Caps, and Head Coverings

Virtually everyone wore something on their heads in the Middle Ages, to keep off the sun in hot weather, to keep their heads warm in cold weather, and to keep dirt out of their hair. Of course, as with every other type of garment, hats could indicate a person's job or station in life and could make a fashion statement.

But hats were especially important, and to knock someone's hat off his or her head was a grave insult that, depending on the circumstances, could even be considered assault.

Types of men's hats included wide-brimmed straw hats, close-fitting coifs of linen or hemp that tied under the chin like a bonnet, and a wide variety of felt, cloth or knitted caps. Women wore v eils and wimples; among the fashion-conscious nobility of the High Middle Ages, some fairly complex hats and head rolls for men and for women were in vogue.

Both men and women wore hoods, often attached to capes or jackets but sometimes standing alone. Some of the more complicated men's hats were actually hoods with a long strip of fabric in the back that could be wound around the head. A common accouterment for men of the working classes was a hood attached to a short cape that covered just the shoulders.

Medieval Nightwear

You may have heard that in the Middle Ages, "everyone slept naked." Like most generalizations, this can't be perfectly accurate -- and in cold weather, it was so unlikely as to be painfully ridiculous.

Illuminations, woodcuts, and other period artwork illustrate medieval people in bed in different attire; some are unclothed, but just as many are wearing simple gowns or shirts, some with sleeves. Though we have virtually no documentation regarding what people wore to bed, from these images we can glean that those who wore night dress could have been clad in an under-tunic -- possibly the same one they'd worn during the day -- or even in a lightweight (or, for colder weather, ultra-warm) gown made especially for sleeping, depending on their financial status.

As today, what people wore to bed depended on their resources, the climate, family custom and their own personal preferences.
Continued on page two.
Sumptuary Laws

Clothing was the quickest and easiest way to identify someone's status and station in life. The monk in his cassock, the servant in his livery, the peasant in his simple tunic were all instantly recognizable, as was the knight in armor or the lady in her fine gown. Whenever members of the lower strata of society blurred the lines of social distinction by wearing clothing ordinarily found only among the upper classes, people found it unsettling, and some saw it as downright offensive.

Throughout the medieval era, but especially in the later Middle Ages, laws were passed to regulate what could and could not be worn by members of different social classes. These laws, known as sumptuary laws, not only attempted to maintain the separation of the classes, they also addressed excessive expenditures on all sorts of items. The clergy and more pious secular leaders had concerns about the conspicuous consumption the nobility was prone to, and sumptuary laws were an attempt to reign in what some found to be distastefully ostentatious displays of wealth.

Although there are known cases of prosecution under sumptuary laws, they seldom worked. It was difficult to police everyone's purchases, and since the punishment for breaking the law was usually a fine, the very rich could still acquire whatever they pleased and pay the fine with hardly a second thought. Still, the passage of sumptuary laws persisted through the Middle Ages.

* More about Sumptuary Laws

The Evidence

There are exceedingly few garments surviving from the Middle Ages. The exceptions are the apparel found with the bog bodies, most of whom died before the medieval period, and a handful of rare and costly items preserved through extraordinary good fortune. Textiles simply cannot withstand the elements, and unless they are buried with metal, they will deteriorate in the grave without a trace.

How, then, do we really know what people wore?

Traditionally, costumers and historians of material culture have turned to period artwork. Statues, paintings, illuminated manuscripts, tomb effigies -- even the extraordinary Bayeux Tapestry -- all depict contemporaries in medieval dress. But great care must be taken when evaluating these representations. Often "contemporary" for the artist was a generation or two too late for the subject.

Sometimes there was no attempt at all to represent a historical figure in clothing appropriate to the figure's time period. And unfortunately, most of the picture books and magazine series produced in the 19th century, from which a large percentage of modern histories are drawn, are based on misleading period artwork. Many of them further mislead with inappropriate colors and the casual addition of anachronistic garments.

Matters are further complicated by the fact that terminology is not consistent from one source to the next. There are no period documentary sources fully describing garments and providing their names. The historian must pick up these bits of scattered data from a wide range of sources -- wills, account books, letters -- and interpret exactly what is meant by each item mentioned.

There is nothing straightforward about medieval clothing history.

The truth is, the study of medieval clothing is in its infancy. With any luck, future historians will break open the treasure trove of facts about medieval clothing and share its riches with the rest of us. Until then, we amateurs and non-specialists must take our best guess based on what little we've learned.

Sources and Suggested Reading

Piponnier, Francoise, and Perrine Mane, Dress in the Middle Ages. Yale University Press, 1997, 167 pp.

Köhler, Carl, A History of Costume. George G. Harrap and Company, Limited, 1928; reprinted by Dover; 464 pp.

Norris, Herbert, Medieval Costume and Fashion. J.M. Dent and Sons, Ltd., London, 1927; reprinted by Dover; 485 pp.

Houston, Mary G., Medieval Costume in England and France: The 13th, 14th and 15th Centuries.

Adam and Charles Black, London, 1939; reprinted by Dover; 226 pp.

Netherton, Robin, and Gale R. Owen-Crocker, Medieval Clothing and Textiles. Boydell Press, 2007, 221 pp.

Jenkins, D.T., editor, The Cambridge History of Western Textiles , vols. I and II. Cambridge University Press, 2003, 1191 pp.

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Medieval Clothing - What People Wore in the Middle Ages

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In medieval times, as today, both fashion and necessity dictated what people wore. And both fashion and necessity, in addition to cultural tradition and available materials, varied across the centuries of the Middle Ages as well as across the miles of Europe.

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Medieval Clothing_ Making a Statement in the Middle Ages

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1300-1400 in European fashion - Wikipedia

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Fashion in fourteenth-century Europe was marked by the beginning of a period of experimentation with different forms of clothing. Costume historian James Laver suggests that the mid-14th century marks the emergence of recognizable " fashion" in clothing, in which Fernand Braudel concurs.

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Has some interesting stuff like the courses of a feast! :-D

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Has some interesting stuff like the courses of a feast! :-D

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Everyday Life in Medieval Times Index

Children, women and people with different ways of life
How did people enjoy themselves?
Traditional Festivals and Feasts
Homework

Living History Project
Living History Project Index

Traditional Festivals and Feasts

Homework

Project on Medieval everyday life

Choose one aspect

feasting and diet

housing and village life

music

health

festivals

THE LIVING HISTORY PROJECT

Everyday Life in Medieval Times

How did people live in the Medieval world?

Most ordinary people were peasants, that meant people who lived in the country and worked on farms. They often had little freedom, and many obligations. Few were permitted to travel, while most peasants were obliged to stay on their lord's land. Ordinary people had small, thatched-roof homes, which were small, damp and dark with few windows. Most people had only one or two rooms in their houses, and they all slept in the same room. The floors were strewn with rushes or straw, no carpets!

People eat simple food, especially bread, vegetables, milk and cheese. Meat was occasionally eaten. Meat did not always taste good, because in order to preserve meat the peasants used a lot of salt. A common meal for people was the pottage, which was a kind of stew or thick soup of vegetables and pieces of meat

Wealthy people lived in more comfortable homes. The floors were paved, and the walls might have tapestries. Larger windows were possible, which meant that there was more light. However, these homes were often very drafty!

Their diet contained much more meat, sometimes too much which could lead to health problems. In their kitchens, they had big fireplaces where large animals could be roasted on a spit. Wild animals were favourites on the lord's table, where hare, swans and blackbirds were eaten.

What about children, women and people with different ways of life?

If most men had little freedom, women had less rights than men, and were often considered to be the property of a man. However, married women were accorded great respect as a foundation of medieval family and so as a foundation of medieval society. Single or abandoned women had a difficult time. They were feared as a social threat, and as a potential disturbance. The best alternative to marriage for a woman was to join the Church, to go to a convent and to become a nun where she would be safe. Otherwise women might be persecuted and accused of witchcraft.

People who had different ways of life had to be careful. Traditional religious beliefs which had pre-existed Christianity were tolerated so long as they did not interfere with Catholicism. Those who disagreed with the church could be accused of heresy, excommunicated, and condemned to prison or even death. Jewish people were given special treatment. In general Jewish people were tolerated, in return for a special tax. The were only permitted to enter certain professions, but they were free to travel. Later in the medieval period, the treatment of Jews worsened, and persecution became more serious.

Children were cherished, they were the future hope of families. They were given the best and only heated room in a house, with the best choice of food. They had toys, which were relatively simple by our standards. However, there was a high mortality rate due to illness and many children died in young age.

How did people enjoy themselves?

At home people organised their own entertainment, where they might sing local and traditional songs which were accompanied by improvised music. The songs varied from village to village, and related local tales and events. In the early medieval period songs were sung in a simple way (monophony), but later in the medieval period songs became more complicated with a double melody (polyphony). Travelling troubadours and minstrels brought songs and news from village to village, with their accompanying jongleurs and their musical instruments such as the recorder, the shawm and the cittern. These songs were often comic entertainment:

The songs often told of love and heroism, sometimes in comedy and sometimes in all seriousness. Each year there were many festivals such as Midsummer to celebrate the longest day in the year.

A typical song was Here we go a-wassailing among the leaves so green

William Shakespeare in the 16 th Century left us with other interpretations of Medieval times. This extract comes from England 15 thC and it describes the feelings of people at the end of a long War called War of the Roses The war is over, and soldiers are unemployed, people are trying to adapt to peace at the end of the Middle-Ages.

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The Open Door Web Site : History : The Living History Project : Everyday Life in Medieval Times

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Everyday Life in Medieval Times Index Children, women and people with different ways of life How did people enjoy themselves? Traditional Festivals and Feasts Homework Living History Project Living History Project Index Traditional Festivals and Feasts Homework Project on Medieval everyday life Choose one aspect feasting and diet housing and village life music health festivals THE LIVING HISTORY PROJECT Everyday Life in Medieval Times How did people live in the Medieval world?

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Kids learn about daily life in the Middle Ages and Medieval times including food, clothing, school, housing, city life, and country life.

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Peasant homes were small, often just made up of one room. A peasant's hut was made of and , with a roof but no windows. Inside the hut, a third of the area was penned off for the animals, which lived in the hut with the family. A fire burned in a hearth in the centre of the hut, so the air was permanently eye-wateringly smoky. Furniture was maybe a couple of stools, a trunk for bedding, and a few cooking pots.

Women in peasant families learnt to spin wool from an early age, using wooden wheels to make clothes.

Children spent most of their time helping their parents with day-to-day activities. Rather than going to school, they worked on jobs in the house, looked after animals and helped grow food.

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Find out what life like in medieval society with BBC Bitesize History. For students between the ages of 11 and 14.

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Has ads but at least not videos

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Interesting facts and information about life and the lives of men and women in the
Medieval period of the Middle Ages

Daily Life of Medieval Nobles and Lords in the Middle Ages
The Daily Life of Medieval Nobles and Lords in the Middle Ages. Middle Ages Feudalism was based on the exchange of land for military service. King William the Conqueror used the concept of feudalism to reward his Norman supporters with English lands for their help in the conquest of England. Daily life of Nobles and Lords during the Middle ages centred around their castles or Manors or fighting for the King during times of war. The daily life of nobles is fully described in the following link:

Daily Life of a Noble Lord in the Middle Ages
Daily Life of a Knight in the Middle Ages Daily Life of a Noblewoman in the Middle Ages Daily Life of a Peasant in the Middle Ages Daily Life for Peasant Women in the Middle Ages Entertainment in the Middle Ages
Daily Life in the Middle Ages

Middle Ages era, period, life, age and times

Life for Middle Ages Men and Women

Middle Ages Manors

Middle Ages Feudalism

Medieval Work and Occupations

Medieval Life in the Middle Ages

Medieval History of the Middle Ages

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Go to this site providing information about the facts, history of the Daily Life in the Middle Ages. Fast and accurate facts about the Daily Life in the Middle Ages. Learn about the history of the Daily Life in the Middle Ages.

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by Julian Goodwyn (Janell K. Lovelace)

edited by Arval Benicoeur (Josh Mittleman) Ed: This article appeared originally in the 1997 Known World Heraldic Proceedings. It was published on the web shortly thereafter. I offer here a short supplement, presenting the name data in a slightly different format.

Masculine names listed by frequency
Masculine names listed alphabetically

Feminine names listed by frequency
Feminine names listed alphabetically

edited by Arval Benicoeur from the web version of the article.

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English Names from Pre-1600 Brass Inscriptions

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edited by Arval Benicoeur (Josh Mittleman) Ed: This article appeared originally in the 1997 Known World Heraldic Proceedings. It was published on the web shortly thereafter. I offer here a short supplement, presenting the name data in a slightly different format.

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From: Chris Laning Newsgroups: alt.fairs.renaissance Subject: (NEW!!) Faire Names for English Folk NEW RESOURCE!! Are you tired of people named "Chastity Sweetlips" or "Merlin Wolfhawk"? Do you want a source of REAL names for Elizabethan England? Here it is! Based on new studies of Elizabethan naming practices, and formulated in consultation with name specialists of the Academy of St.

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The Amazing Middle Ages The middle ages were a very interesting time it came about after the collapse of the Roman Empire. Different leaders tried their best to create their own empires, which did not last. As you read more about this period, you will discover many different things like the noble cl…

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Maps are interesting and sometimes beautiful! Here is a site that combines our study of the Middle Ages with maps!

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Our list of the best medieval maps - ten maps created between the sixth and sixteenth centuries, which offer unique views into how medieval people saw their world. These maps are arranged chronologically, which helps to reveal some of the changes that took place during the Middle Ages in how people created maps. Madaba Mosaic Map
In 542 AD, a Byzantine church was built at Madaba, Jordan. When it was built, or in the first thirty years after, a large mosaic was laid which depicted the Holy Land with Jerusalem. An earthquake struck Madaba in 746 and the town was abandoned. It was not until 1884 the mosaic was rediscovered.

Only part of the mosaic survives, but it reveals much about the Holy Land. Jerusalem, in particular, is finely detailed, showing streets and buildings.
The T-O Map of Isidore of Seville
Isidore of Seville (c. 560 - 636) was one of the leading scholars of the Early Middle Ages. Near the end of his life he wrote Etymologiae, a kind of encyclopedia of world knowledge that filled 20 volumes. Among the pages of this work is a map of the world he created. Isidore describes the world this way:

The mass of solid land is called round after the roundness of a circle, because it is like a wheel [...] Because of this, the Ocean flowing around it is contained in a circular limit, and it is divided in three parts, one part being called Asia, the second Europe, and the third Africa.

This type of map, which historians refer to as a T-O map, became the basis for many medieval maps.
The Mappa Mundi of Saint Beatus of Liébana (c.730 - c.800)
Beatus of Liébana was a monk geographer from the Iberian Kingdom of Asturias during the eighth-century. He created this world map around the year 776, basing it on the accounts given by Isidore of Seville, Ptolemy and the Holy Bible.

The original version of this map does not survive, but several copies were made, including the one shown here, which comes from the monastery of St.Sever in France. Some interesting details including placing the Garden of Eden at the end of Asia and locating a fourth continent beyond Africa.

See also: The Osma Beatus Map: A Medieval and Christian View of the World
Tabula Rogeriana
Muhammad al-Idrisi (1099-1165 or 1166) was born in the north African town of Ceuta but spent much of his early life traveling around the known world, going as far as York in England, Hungary and Anatolia. He settled on the island of Sicily and began working for the Norman King Roger II. In 1154 he created for him the Tabula Rogeriana, which offers a description of the world and over 70 maps of various places. The centre-piece of this book is his world map, which depicts Europe, Asia and the northern part of Africa (the southern part of the world is at the top of the map). Al-Idrisi states that it shows "the seven climatic regions, with their respective countries and districts, coasts and lands, gulfs and seas, watercourses and river mouths."

See also: Al-Idrisi and His World Map (1154)
Matthew Paris' Map of Britain
Matthew Paris (c. 1200 - 1259) is one of the most well-known people from 13th century England. This Benedictine monk wrote many works and illustrated them himself. He also created several maps, including this one of Britain which he drew around 1250. This map features over 250 place names and includes such features as Hadrian's Wall and Mount Snowdon in Wales. You can read more about this map from the British Library.

See also: "Queen of All Islands": The Imagined Cartography of Matthew Paris's Britain
Hereford Mappa Mundi
Created around 1290, this large map of the world is another version of the T-O map but much more detailed. Owned by Hereford Cathedral for hundreds of years, they almost sold it off in the 1980s, but a public outcry led to a £3 million donation which created a new home for the map in Hereford.

In his book On the Map: A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks, Simon Garfield gives his own own vivid description of the Hereford Mappa Mundi: "The map is frantic - alive with activity and achievement. Once you grow accustomed to it, it is hard to pull yourself away. There are approximately eleven hundred place-names, figurative drawings and inscriptions, sourced from biblical, classical and Christian texts...In its distillation of geographical, historical and religious knowledge the mappa serves as a itinerary, a gazatteer, a parable, a bestiary and an educational aid. Indeed, all history is here, happening at the same time: the Tower of Babel; Noah's Ark as it comes to rest on dry land; the Golden Fleece; the Labyrinth in Crte where the Minotaur loved. And surely for contemporaries - locals and pilgrims - it must have constituted the most arresting freak show in town. With its parade of dung-firing animals, dog-headed or bat-eared humans, a winged sphinx with a young woman's face, it seems closer to Hieronymus Bosch than to the scientific Greek cartographers."

See also: Making a Mappamundi: The Hereford Map
The Vinland Map
Scholars are not sure if this is genuine map from the 15th century, as it was only revealed to the public in 1965 under somewhat suspicious circumstances. But if the map is real, it is the earliest depiction of North America, revealing new details about the Norse settlement of Vinland.

See also: Analysing the Vinland Map: A Critical Review of a Critical Review

See also: Vinland Map is authentic, expert confirms
The Maps of Piri Reis
The Ottoman Admiral Piri Reis (ca. 1470 - 1553/4) compiled his Book on Navigation in 1521 - it contains detailed information on navigation, and includes accurate charts and maps of Europe and the Mediterranean area. He included maps of ports such as Istanbul, Venice and Alexandria (which is displayed above). He also produced two maps of the world, the first in 1513 and the second in 1529.

See also: Piri Reis' Book on Navigation (Kitab-i Bahriyye) as a Geography Handbook
Carta Marina
This map was first printed in Venice in 1539 - it was created by the Olaus Magnus, a Swedish ecclesiastical official who lived in Italy from 1524 to his death in 1567. This map of Scandinavia is very large (125 cm tall and 170 cm wide) and is colourfully illustrated with various animals and monsters.
The Gallery of Maps
When visiting the Vatican Museum, one will enter a long hallway known as The Gallery of Maps. The gallery was commissioned in 1580 by Pope Gregory XIII, with the 40 panels created by Ignazio Danti. They depict Italy and its various regions, including this map of Sicily.

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Our list of the best medieval maps - ten maps created between the sixth and sixteenth centuries, which offer unique views into how medieval people saw their world. These maps are arranged chronologically, which helps to reveal some of the changes that took place during the Middle Ages in how people created maps.

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The Dark Ages...How Dark Were They, Really?: Crash Course World History #14

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A Day In The Life... Of A 10-Year-Old In Norman Times - Hands on History - BBC

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So cool!  Explore the Mappa Mundi (a Medieval map with strange beings!)

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So cool!  Explore the Mappa Mundi (a Medieval map with strange beings!)

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The Mappa Mundi contains over 500 drawings, depicting 420 cities and towns, 15 Biblical events, 33 plants, animals, birds and strange creatures, 32 images of the peoples of the world and eight pictures from classical mythology.

Use the icons on the left to see different versions of the map. Use the icons on the right to see items on the map.

Start Exploring

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The Mappa Mundi contains over 500 drawings, depicting 420 cities and towns, 15 Biblical events, 33 plants, animals, birds and strange creatures, 32 images of the peoples of the world and eight pictures from classical mythology. Use the icons on the left to see different versions of the map.

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The Crusades - Pilgrimage or Holy War?: Crash Course World History #15

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The Silk Road and Ancient Trade: Crash Course World History #9

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DK Find Out! | Fun Facts for Kids on Animals, Earth, History and more!

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Visit DK Find Out! to learn about dinosaurs, space, animals, nature & more. Fun learning activities for kids with videos, quizzes & galleries at DKFindOut.com

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The past, present, and future of the bubonic plague - Sharon N. DeWitte

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A recent blog post at Londonist describes "Five London Nursery Rhymes Depicting Death and Ruin." The rhymes in question have diverse origins and histories, but what seems incontrovertible from James FitzGerald's work is that they describe dark and portentous matters from English history.

Or do they? Looking closely at these rhymes, and at scholarship surrounding them, suggests other interpretations. I'll discuss one of the rhymes in particular, because it tells us interesting things about folklore and our ideas about folklore: "Ring Around the Rosie," or "Ring-a-Ring-a-Roses," as it's sometimes known.

FitzGerald's text goes like this:

Ring-a-ring-a-roses,
A pocket full of posies,
A-tishoo! A-tishoo!
We all fall down.

FitzGerald states emphatically that this rhyme arose from the Great Plague, an outbreak of bubonic and pneumonic plague that affected London in the year 1665:

Ring-a-Ring-a-Roses is all about the Great Plague; the apparent whimsy being a foil for one of London's most atavistic dreads (thanks to the Black Death). The fatalism of the rhyme is brutal: the roses are a euphemism for deadly rashes, the posies a supposed preventative measure; the a-tishoos pertain to sneezing symptoms, and the implication of everyone falling down is, well, death.

This interpretation emerged in the mid-twentieth century, and has become widespread, but it has never been accepted by folklorists, for several reasons. First, like most folklore items, this rhyme exists in many versions and variants. This allows us to ask whether the specific images associated with the plague occur in all or even most versions. It turns out they don't. Many versions have no words that sound like sneezes, and many versions don't mention falling down. For example, Iona and Peter Opie give an 1883 version (in which "curchey" is dialect for "curtsey"):

A ring, a ring o'roses

A pocket full of posies

One for Jack and one for Jim and one for little Moses

A curchey in and a curchey out

And a curchey all together

Moreover, in many versions , everyone gets up again once they have fallen down, which hardly makes sense if falling down represents death.

"Posies," or bouquets of flowers, are almost universal in the song. However, many versions do not make them portable but install them in in pots or bottles, which doesn't fit well with the plague interpretation. William Wells Newell, writing in 1883, gave several versions, including:

Round the ring of roses

Pots full of posies

The one who stoops last

Shall tell whom she loves best

and

Ring around the rosie

Bottle full of posy

All the girls in our town

Ring for little Josie

On May 16, 1939, in Wiergate, Texas, John and Ruby Lomax collected an interesting version for the Library of Congress, from a group of African American schoolgirls. You can hear it in the player below. The words were as follows:

Ring around a Rosey

Pocketful o' posies

Light bread, sweet bread, squat!

Guess who she told me, tralalalala

Mr. Red was her lover, tralalalala

If you love him, hug him!

If you hate him, stomp!

None of these versions fits the plague interpretation very well, but they do reveal other functions and meanings: the rhyme is often used as a playful courtship game in which children dance in a ring, then suddenly stoop, squat, curtsey ("curchey"), or in some cases fall to the ground. The last to do so (or the one that jumps the gun) has to pay a penalty, which is sometimes to profess love for (or hug or kiss) another child. In some versions, this child then takes up a place in the middle of the ring, representing the "rosie" or rose bush. Newell explicitly states that the game was played like this in America in the 1880s, and European analogs from the same time and later are similar. In many versions, then, the roses and posies signify what flowers often signify in traditional European culture: not suffering and death, but joy and love.

The above observations show that "Ring Around the Rosie" is a "singing-game" or a "play-party song," both of which are names for children's dance songs. Plague theorists say it's still possible that the plague was the original meaning, and that children pressed the rhyme into service for their games and dances. But there are other reasons, too, not to believe the plague story. For example, this rhyme and dance are internationally distributed, and records turn up on the European continent before they do in England. The Opies give versions from Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, among other places. Meanwhile, there's no evidence the rhyme existed in English until the late 19th Century. Newell, writing in 1883, asserted that the rhyme was known in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1790, but he gave no evidence, and none has come to light. After this unsubstantiated claim, the rhyme doesn't turn up in English until 1881. What evidence is there it survived undocumented since 1665?

The claim that the rhyme is related to pestilence is even younger; the folklorists who diligently recorded the rhyme itself in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries never mention the plague interpretation, although they surely would have had they known it. The first evidence I've seen that people were connecting the rhyme with death and disaster is from 1949, when the newspaper The Observer ran a parody of the rhyme beginning "ring-a-ring-o'-geranium, a pocketful of uranium" and referring to the bombing of Hiroshima. In 1951, we find the first direct reference to the plague interpretation: Iona and Peter Opie state that some people believe the rhyme refers to the plague, but are not themselves convinced.

Finally, there's simply no direct evidence. Even if the rhyme itself remained unrecorded for two hundred years after the plague, various types of evidence might exist: a description of children playing dancing-games referring to roses and mocking the plague, or oral traditions of the earliest informants making the link. As it turns out, though, neither of these kinds of evidence has turned up, despite meticulous day-to-day accounts of life in London in 1665, and accounts of the Plague by people who lived through it. So today's scholars want to know: how did the first person who claimed a connection between the events of 1665 and this rhyme find out about that connection, and why can't we find whatever evidence he or she had?

All this makes scholars skeptical, to say the least. In 2010 English folklorist and librarian Steve Roud noted that "the Plague origin is complete nonsense," and in the 1980s, the Opies (who first recorded and debunked the belief in 1951) wrote: "We ourselves have had to listen so often to this interpretation we are reluctant to go out of the house."

Still, the story only seems to have grown stronger in the second half of the twentieth century, and this itself is interesting to folklorists. After all, the story is itself folklore: a tale that was passed on by word of mouth first, then in writing and online media. And because it is also about folklore, folklorists classify it as "metafolklore": folklore about folklore.

If the plague story is folklore, we would expect to encounter it in different versions and variants. And so we do. The two main variants are the Londonist's claim that the rhyme refers to the Great Plague of 1665, and others' claims that it stems from the Black Death of 1347. Within these two main variants, there are sub-variants: in particular, FitzGerald and others say the 1665 rhyme originated in London, while others say it came from Eyam, a village in the English Midlands that was also infected with plague in 1665. One article even claims Eyam children sang it "while dancing around the victims!"

There are also innumerable individual versions of this story, each with its own quirks. Because the plague can infect different parts of the body and cause different symptoms, because people know about or imagine different historical health practices, and because different versions of the rhyme have different specific words, plague stories vary widely in the correspondences they find between words and plague experiences: for some, "a-tishoo" signifies a sneeze, while for others "ashes" signify cremation. For supporters of pneumonic plague, the ring is a rosy skin rash, while for supporters of the bubonic plague it's a red inflammation around a black buboe. In fact, observing the many different ways in which "Ring Around the Rosie" has been said to conform to real or supposed symptoms, it seems clear that the story did not grow from compelling evidence; rather, evidence has been gathered to support a compelling story.

Metafolkloric stories can be either accurate or inaccurate, but in either case, there's usually a compelling reason we keep telling them, or a deeper truth they express. So one question folklorists like to ask is: "What has been so interesting to people about this story?" That's a hard question to answer, but we can note certain patterns in the kinds of people who tell it. It's very appealing to historians, for whom a glimpse of the distant past in the present is always exciting. It's especially compelling to historians of the plagues themselves; in fact, standard works about the 1347 plague and the 1665 plague recount the story as fact. Part of the task of such historians is to explain how the plague has continued to influence our lives, and the chance to mention a rhyme everyone knows and connect it to this deep history is irresistible. Secondly, the story is often told by advocates for particular places. Travel blogs spread the Eyam story, while Londonist "celebrates London and everything that happens in it." Advocates for medical education and even for sanitary sewers have used the song's supposed connection to disease to suggest that their particular expertise remains relevant to anyone who has heard this common rhyme. Finally, there are many people with a love of the macabre, and nothing is more disturbing than the idea of little children playing to a description of pestilence and death.

Our love for the plague story goes deeper than the agendas of a few interest groups, though. Even professors who know it's not true can't resist telling it! Folklorists know better than anyone the fascination with things that are older than they seem, and with " extraordinary origins of everyday things." Some founders of the discipline of folklore espoused the theory of survivals, which held that cultural materials such as nursery rhymes preserved information from the past that was otherwise forgotten. To adherents of this theory, a shard of pottery, a riddle, or a child's jingle could be the key that unlocked the mythology of the distant past, and the folklorist's task was to interpret or decode the cryptic messages within these fragments. In fact, the irony is that the plague story resembles nothing so much as a nineteenth-century folklorist's interpretation of the rhyme, but today's folklorists often express annoyance with the tale's persistence. Maybe it reminds us too much of ourselves.

In any case, we certainly understand its appeal: in the marketplace of ideas, a good story often outsells mere facts.

Do you know an interesting story about a nursery rhyme that you're curious about? Leave us a comment below!

Resources
Several of the books cited above with links to their Library of Congress catalog records are also available elsewhere as free electronic resources. The Library of Congress can't always vouch for the quality of reproduction, the accuracy of the text, or the beauty of the presentation, but they may be useful to our readers. These items are in the public domain:
Mother Goose or the Old Nursery Rhymes, illustrated by Kate Greenaway

Ring O' Roses, by Leonard Leslie Brooke

A Journal of the Plague Year, by Daniel Defoe

The Diary of Samuel Pepys, 1659-1669, edited by Henry B. Wheatley

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Ring Around the Rosie: Metafolklore, Rhyme and Reason

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A recent blog post at Londonist describes "Five London Nursery Rhymes Depicting Death and Ruin." The rhymes in question have diverse origins and histories, but what seems incontrovertible from James FitzGerald's work is that they describe dark and portentous matters from English history. Or do they?

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Plague (Black Death) bacterial infection information and facts

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Plague is one of the deadliest diseases in human history, second only to smallpox. A bacterial infection found mainly in rodents and associated fleas, plague readily leaps to humans in close contact. Plague outbreaks are the most notorious epidemics in history, inciting fears of plague's use as a biological weapon.

Today, plague cases still pop up sporadically around the world-including in the United States or China, where a suspected case was recently reported in the Inner Mongolia region. But the disease is no longer as deadly as it can be treated with antibiotics when available.

Here's what you need to know about the plague, including how it spreads, the difference between bubonic and pneumonic plague, the most infamous plague pandemics in history, and why it's not all that unusual to see modern cases of the disease.

Stages of plague

For hundreds of years, what caused plague outbreaks remained mysterious, and shrouded in superstitions. But keen observations and advances in microscopes eventually helped unveil the true culprit. In 1894, Alexandre Yersin discovered the bacterium responsible for causing plague: Yersinia pestis.

Y. pestis is an extraordinarily virulent, rod-shaped bacterium. Y. pestis disables the immune system of its host by injecting toxins into defense cells, such as macrophages, that are tasked with detecting bacterial infections. Once these cells are knocked out, the bacteria can multiply unhindered.

Many small mammals act as hosts to the bacteria, including rats, mice, chipmunks, prairie dogs, rabbits, and squirrels. During an enzootic cycle, Y. pestis can circulate at low rates within populations of rodents, mostly undetected because it doesn't produce an outbreak. When the bacteria pass to other species, during an epizootic cycle, humans face a greater risk for becoming infected with plague bacteria.

Rats have long been thought to be the main vector of plague outbreaks, because of their intimate connection with humans in urban areas. Scientists have more recently discovered that a flea that lives on rats, Xenopsylla cheopis, primarily causes human cases of plague. When rodents die from the plague, fleas jump to a new host, biting them and transmitting Y. pestis. Transmission also occurs by handling tissue or blood from a plague-infected animal, or inhalation of infected droplets.

Bubonic plague, the disease's most common form, refers to telltale buboes-painfully swollen lymph nodes-that appear around the groin, armpit, or neck. The skin sores become black, leading to its nickname during pandemics as "Black Death." Initial symptoms of this early stage include vomiting, nausea, and fever.

Pneumonic plague, the most infectious type, is an advanced stage of plague that moves into the lungs. During this stage, the disease is passed directly, person to person, through airborne particles coughed from an infected person's lungs.

If untreated, bubonic and pneumonic plague can progress to septicemic plague, infecting the bloodstream. If left untreated, pneumonic and septicemic plague kills almost 100 percent of those it infects.

Infamous plagues

Three particularly well-known pandemics occurred before the cause of plague was discovered. The first well-documented crisis was the Plague of Justinian, which began in 542 A.D. Named after the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, the pandemic killed up to 10,000 people a day in Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul, Turkey), according to ancient historians. Modern estimates indicate half of Europe's population-almost 100 million deaths-was wiped out before the plague subsided in the 700s.

Arguably the most infamous plague outbreak was the so-called Black Death, a multi-century pandemic that swept through Asia and Europe. It was believed to start in China in 1334, spreading along trade routes and reaching Europe via Sicilian ports in the late 1340s. The plague killed an estimated 25 million people, almost a third of the continent's population. The Black Death lingered on for centuries, particularly in cities. Outbreaks included the Great Plague of London (1665-66), in which 70,000 residents died.

The cause of plague wasn't discovered until the most recent global outbreak, which started in China in 1860 and didn't officially end until 1959. The pandemic caused roughly 10 million deaths. The plague was brought to North America in the early 1900s by ships, and thereafter spread to small mammals throughout the United States.

The high rate of fatality during these pandemics meant that the dead were often buried in quickly dug mass graves. From teeth of these plague victims, scientists have pieced together a family tree of Y. pestis, discovering that the strain from the Justinian Plague was related to, but distinct from, other strains of the plague. ( Read how modern plague strains descended from a strain that arose during the Black Death pandemic.)

Plague in modern society

Plague still exists in various parts of the world, popping up sporadically and followed actively by the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most cases have appeared in Africa since the 1990s.

Between 2004 to 2014, the Democratic Republic of the Congo reported the majority of plague cases worldwide, with 4,630 human cases and 349 deaths. Scientists link the prevalence of plague in the Democratic Republic of Congo to the ecosystem-primarily mountain tropical climate. More recently, plague broke out in Madagascar in 2017, causing more than 2,300 cases.

The United States, China, India, Vietnam, and Mongolia are among the other countries that have had confirmed human plague cases in recent years. Within the U.S., on average seven human cases of plague appear each year, emerging primarily in California and the Southwest.

Today, most people survive plague with rapid diagnosis and antibiotic treatment. Good sanitation practices and pest control minimize contact with infected fleas and rodents to help prevent plague pandemics.

Plague is classified as a Category A pathogen, because it readily passes between people and could result in high mortality rates if untreated. This classification has helped stoke fears that Y. pestis could be used as a biological weapon if distributed in aerosol form. As a small airborne particle it would cause pneumonic plague, the most lethal and contagious form.

Of conservation concern, federally endangered black-footed ferrets contract another form of the plague, sylvatic plague, from nearby prairie dogs. Plague can decimate prairie dog populations, which are a critical food source for black-footed ferrets. Scientists have started to administer a vaccine to prevent plague outbreaks in prairie dogs and black-footed ferrets.

This story has been updated. It was originally published on August 20, 2019.

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Plague (Black Death) bacterial infection information and facts

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Known as the Black Death, the much feared disease spread quickly for centuries, killing millions. The bacterial infection still occurs but can be treated with antibiotics.

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Make your own cosmetics without chemicals (inspired by Middle Ages?)

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Make your own cosmetics without chemicals (inspired by Middle Ages?)

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In one class, student Jennifer Stark made cosmetics in our class together.

For more information on simple DIY recipes for skin care, hair care, and natural cosmetics, please visit Jennifer Stark's ladystarksnaturals.wordpress.com.

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Make Your Own Cosmetics Without Chemicals

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In one class, student Jennifer Stark made cosmetics in our class together. For more information on simple DIY recipes for skin care, hair care, and natural cosmetics, please visit Jennifer Stark's ladystarksnaturals.wordpress.com.

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Soap and washing: Did they have soap in medieval times?

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Getting Dressed in the 14th Century - Ploughman

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The Middle Ages: A Medieval Knight's Clothing

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Get information about Medieval fashion from the DK Find Out website for kids. Find out more about medieval costumes with interesting facts from DK Find Out

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The Medieval period in England is usually classified as the time between the fall of the Roman Empire to the beginning of the Renaissance, roughly the years AD 410-1485. For various peoples living in England, the Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Danes, Normans and Britons, clothing in the medieval era differed widely for men and women as well as for different classes in the social hierarchy. The general styles of Early medieval European dress were shared in England. In the later part of the period, men's clothing changed much more rapidly than women's styles. Clothes were very expensive and both the men and women of lower social classes continued to wear them until the garments were in such disrepair that they needed to be replaced entirely. Sumptuary laws also divided social classes by regulating the colors and styles these various ranks were permitted to wear. In the early Middle Ages, clothing was typically simple and, particularly in the case of lower-class peoples, served only basic utilitarian functions such as modesty and protection from the elements. As time went on the advent of more advanced textile techniques and increased international relations, clothing gradually got more and more intricate and elegant, even with those under the wealthy classes, up into the renaissance.

The typical women's costume of this era was a long -like a garment, pulled up to the armpit and worn over a sleeved under-garment, usually another dress. The garment was clasped front to back by fastening brooches at the shoulders. The dress could be belted or girdled, with tools and personal items suspended from the belt. Women in this period may or may not have worn a head covering. Fleeces and furs were probably used as garment lining or as warm outer garments. A simple poncho made with a neck-opening for the head could have been made from skins of domesticated sheep or cattle. There is little evidence of footwear until the late sixth and seventh centuries. Agricultural laborers shown plowing and sowing in Anglo-Saxon illustrated manuscripts work barefoot, which may indicate that footwear was not the norm until the middle Anglo-Saxon era.

Changes in Anglo-Saxon women's dress began in the latter half of the sixth century in Kent and spread to other regions at the beginning of the seventh century. These fashion changes show the decreasing influence of Northern Europe and the increasing influence of the Frankish Kingdom and the Byzantine Empire and a revival of Roman culture. Linen is used more widely for garments and under-garments. Although there is little evidence to show whether women wore leggings or stockings under their gowns, it is more than likely that leg-coverings were worn by women during this period.

Women typically wore a sleeveless overgarment, with or without a hood during this time period. The hood consisted of either a scarf wrapped around the head and neck or an unconnected head covering with an opening for the face. It was assumed that the hooded style was influenced by Near Eastern art. Women are shown wearing ankle-length, tailored gowns in contemporary art of this period. Gowns are often depicted with a distinct border, sometimes in a contrasting color. In the tenth century, women's arms are typically covered. Sleeves are seen as straight, with a slight flare at the end. Braided or embroidered borders often decorated sleeves. By the eleventh century, multiple sleeve styles had come into fashion.

Around the year 1300, there was a change in well-off women's clothing, to tighter-fitting garments, lower necklines, and more curvaceous silhouettes; "very tight lacing was used on women's clothes to create a form-fitting shape which, girdled at the hips, created a long-waisted appearance". Clothing was over-lapped and tightly bound; "The female chest was frequently exposed, yet the true structure of the female body was visually distorted...". The open surcoat, a garment with an open bodice and a skirt that trailed to the ground, became "one of the most elegant inventions of the Middle Ages...". In fact, by the end of the 14th century, the dress had replaced all garment items aside from the surcoat.

The basic garments for women consisted of the smock, hose, kirtle, dress, belt, surcoat, girdle, cape, hood, and bonnet. Each piece had designated colours and fabrics, for example "Materials used in the middle ages were woolen cloth, fur, linen, cambric, silk, and the cloth of silver or gold...the richer Middle Age women would wear more expensive materials such as silk, or linen". The development of the skirt was significant for women's medieval clothing, "The more fashionable would wear very large or wide skirts". The petticoat made way for the skirt, which quickly became a popular garment because it "wraps rather than enclosing, touches without grasping, brushes without clasping, coasts, caresses, skims, strokes".

The headdress, in various forms culminating in the hennin was an important element in women's dress, often complicated arrangements of hair and fabric, sometimes including veils over the face or hanging behind the head, this is where the bridal veil originated from. The importation of luxurious fabrics increased over the period, and their use widened somewhat spread from the top of the elite downwards, but clothing remained very expensive and relatively few items were owned except by very wealthy people.

Early Anglo-Saxon men, regardless of social rank, wore a cloak, tunic, trousers, leggings, and accessories. The short, fur-lined cloak was designed so that the skin of the animal faced outward and the fur brushed against the undergarments. However, woolen cloaks have also been found. The garment opened either at the front or at the right shoulder. A single brooch, usually circular in shape, fastened the square or rectangular cloak. Other means of fastening the cloth together included tying, lacing, or using a clasp, often made of natural materials such as thorn, bones, wood, or horns. The less prosperous wore woolen cloaks.

The tunic ended between the hip and the knee and had either long or short sleeves. Clasps were not needed to hold the tunic together because when pulled over the head it would sit snugly around the neck without the use of lacing or ties, indicating that the garment was one continuous piece. A belt or girdle was usually worn with the tunic and might have had a buckle, and, as Gale Owen-Crocker states, "pouched over the belt". Multiple tunics were worn at once so that the lower one, often short-sleeved, served as a shirt.

Trousers, traditionally worn under a short tunic or with a small cloak, were ankle length. If loose, the excess material was bunched around the waist and, as Owen-Crocker describes, "hung in folds around the legs". Garters or leggings accompanied narrow trousers. Pieces of fabric attached to the trousers forming belt loops so that the garment could be at held in place at the waist by a belt.

Leggings, usually worn in pairs, acted as additional protection for the legs. The first legging referred to as the legging proper or stocking, consisted of woven fabric or leather. The second was simply a leather of fabric used to tie on the leggings or, if worn around the shin or foot, providing warmth and protection. The lower caste wore leggings made of ripped or cut cloth from old clothes, blankets, or bags whereas the upper caste had custom made leggings. The very rich people sometimes wore jewels.

Clothing of the seventh through the 9th centuries was similar to that of previous centuries and again all classes generally wore the same clothing, although distinctions among the social hierarchy began to become more noticeable through ornamented garments. These common pieces consisted of tunics, cloaks, jackets, pants, and shoes. As in the 5th and 6th centuries, a linen shirt acted as an undergarment. Men generally wore a knee-length linen or woolen tunic, depending on the season, over their shirts. The sleeves of the tunic were long and close-fitting and excess material was pushed up the arm from the elbow to the wrist so that "rolls" were formed in the material. The neck of the tunic opened as did both sides and a belt or girdle was usually worn around the waist. According to rank, embellishments adorned the collar of the tunic, waist, or border and for peasants, or the working classes, a plain tunic with sleeves was generally worn. Examples of these decorations included, as James Planché states, "gold and silver chains and crosses, bracelets of gold, silver or ivory, golden and jeweled belts, strings of amber and other beads, rings, brooches, [and] buckles". The nobility tended to wear longer tunics than the lower social classes.

A cloak, worn over the tunic, fastened on either the breast or a shoulder with the assistance of a brooch. Once in place, the brooch was left attached to the garment so that the cloak was slipped over the head. The cloak, knee-length and rectangular in shape, was fastened so that it appeared to be pleated or folded. Hoods and collars began to appear in the 9th century, and around the same time, the cloak began to be curbed by the same belt that was worn over the tunic. The wrap-over coat also made an appearance during this era. This knee-length coat wrapped over the front of the body. Its sleeves were, as Owen-Crocker says, "deep, [with] decorated cuffs which [were] mostly straight". For the lower classes, this coat tended to be plainer than that of the nobility.

The waistcoat or jacket appeared during this time as well. For those who could afford it, the jacket was made of fur while less costly ones were made of linen. This jacket was waist-length and tended to have a broad collar.

A square crown was worn as was a longer cloak. Beginning in the 9th century, the metal of the king was inscribed and later in the century silk began to be worn by both the king and the nobility.

Well-armed Anglo-Saxon soldiers wore wrap-over coats decorated like chain mail with sleeves that narrowed at the wrists, these were often embroiled with flowers or plants. Owen-Crocker explains that the belts of commanders were elaborate, wide, and fastened by "a narrow strap which was riveted to the broad belt and passed through a buckle which was much narrower than the belt itself" leaving the end of the belt to hang down. Also attached to the belt were pouches which allowed soldiers to carry their weapons. In the 9th and 10th centuries, military attire did not differ much from that of civil attire. The only changes were in the form of short linen tunics with metal collars and the addition of a sword, spear, shield, and helmet. Weapons and clothes fittings worn on the battlefield were highly decorated with jewelry techniques, as seen in the discoveries at Sutton Hoo and in the Staffordshire Hoard; the concept of parade wear did not exist for the Anglo-Saxons.

Planché asserts that the clergy of the 9th and 10th centuries dressed similarly to the laity, except when saying mass. Beginning in the later 8th century, the clergy were forbidden to wear bright colors or expensive or valuable fabrics. Owen-Crocker mentions that their twill cloaks were generally shorter than those of the laity, reaching just below the waist, and Planché adds, that they wore linen stocking.

Planché explains that in the 11th century, shortened tunics became popular as did shorter hairstyles and beard lengths. Piercings also became fashionable for men as did golden bracelets. During this era, men continued to wear tunics, cloaks, and trousers which did not vary much from their previous counterparts. Coifs became popular head-coverings and appeared to be "flat round cap[s]". Long stockings, with feet attached, were in style, and leg bandages and shoes continued to be worn. Short boots, those only extending to the ankle, were introduced in the latter part of the century.

In the latter half of the century, warriors shaved their heads to resemble the clergy in order to confuse foreign spies. The cowl, which was covered in rings, emerged during this time and was worn under the helmet, which also had a new addition, the nose piece. The ringed knee-length tunic was slit in the front and back to allow for more comfortable riding. The length of the trousers became shorter. "Mascled armor" began to replace the traditional ringed armory. These new iron pieces were assembled to look like mesh or nets but a combination of the two patterns have been found to be used. Another variation included covering the body in rings and removing the sleeves from the tunic. Planché mentions that a "square pectoral" was added to the breast of the armor as added protection and were "quilted or covered with rings". A yellow border was added to the pectorals, sleeves, and skirts. Shields had two new adjustments: one strap looped around the arm while a second strap circled around the neck, allowing the soldier the use of both his hands.

The clergy of the 11th century had shaved heads and wore bonnets, which, according to Planché, were "slightly sinking in the centre, with the pendent ornaments of the mitre attached to the side of it". Other garments included the chasuble, the outermost liturgical vestment, which retained its shape, and the dalmatics, a tunic-like vestment with large, bell-shaped sleeves, which tended to be arched on the sides. The pastoral staff was generally found to be plain in colour and ornamentation.

The 12th century brought changes in the civil attire for the inhabitants of the British Isles. The tunic was now close fitting with a long skirt. There was, as C. Willett and Phillis Cunnington describe, a "slit up in front to the thigh level" and the sleeves, now close fitting, were "bell-shaped" at the wrist or, the "lower portion [hung] to form a pendulous cuff which might be rolled up for action". Peasants wore tunics which were shorter and the sleeves were "tubular...[and] rolled back". The tunic could be worn with or without the girdle, which now carried the sword. Neck lines were either diagonal, from the neck moving across the chest, or horizontal, from the neck to the shoulder. The super tunic, worn with a girdle, was occasionally worn alone but was never paired with the aforementioned tunic. The sleeves of this super tunic had, as the Cunningtons state, "pendulous cuffs", which were uncommon, or were "loose and often elbow-length only". The super tunic was occasionally lined with fur.

For the first half of the 13th century, linen braies were worn and then shortened to the knee in the second half of the century, which then became drawers or undergarments. Short stockings ended just below the knee and the border was occasionally decorated. Longer stockings, mid thigh length, could also be worn: as C. Willett and Phillis Cunnington say, they were "shaped to fit the leg, widening above the knee so that they could be pulled up over the braies". The stockings and girdle were tied together at a point in the top front of the stocking by which to keep it in place. Some stockings had stirrups, whole feet, or no feet. For hosiery, made of wool or leather, a "thin leather sole was attached" so that shoes would not need to be worn. Leg wear during the 12th century tended to be brightly coloured and stripes were popular.

All classes of men during the 12th century wore shoes or boots. Shoes, as the Cunningtons say, were "open over the foot and fastened in front of the ankle with a strap secured by a brooch or buckle". For the wealthy, the bands on shoes were decorated and designs were often found "over the foot or around the heel". Different styles of shoes began to appear during this era. One such, as the Cunningtons state, was "high around the ankle and slit down the sides or in front" while others were laced or had "short uppers but cut high behind the heel". Boots were most notably mid calf or knee length and laced down the front or along the inner side. These boots tended to be brightly coloured and had, in the Cunningtons' words, "turn over tops". Shorter boots, with pointed toes, were also worn and ended just above the ankle. Boots were made of leather from a cow or ox, cloth, fish skin, or, for those who could afford it, silk.

Separate hoods also made an appearance. They were loose with, as the Cunningtons describe, a "pointed cowl" and were attached to a robe stretching to the shoulders. The cape was usually a single piece of material and thus had to be put on over the head. The Cunningtons state that the "pointed Phrygian cap," or the "small, round cap with stalk or with a rolled brim and with or without the stalk" or the "stalked soft cap, resembling a beret" were worn. Travelers wore "hats with large brims and low crowns...over the hood" which tied under the chin. Small hats with round crowns and, the Cunningtons say, "turned-down brim, decorated with a knob instead of a stalk" were also worn, as were coifs, which was a "close fitting plain linen bonnet which covered the ears and confined the hair" and tied under the chin. The coif could be worn with other hats or hoods.

Accessories for 12th century English men became more decorated. The girdle, mid century, became more elaborate in its ornamentation and in the latter half of the century, was, "tied like a sash in front with hanging ends" or, if "long and elaborate, was fastened with ornamental buckles" as the Cunningtons depict. Wallets and purses, in the early half of the century, were hung from the girdle or the breech girdle and in the latter half were placed under the tunic, out of sight. During this era gloves became fashionable for the nobility, although they were seldom worn. Rings, brooches, buckles, clasps, and "ornamental fillets of gold and silver", according to the Cunningtons, were worn by the ruling classes. Wool, linen, and silk continued to be used, as was leather, which the peasants used for tunics and mantle and left the hair on facing outward. Garments were also embroidered during this era.

Men continued to wear both short and long tunics with a girdle; however the slit up the front was removed. A new style was introduced in this era in which the sleeves and body were cut from one piece of material. A wide armhole, which extended to the waist, was left open and the sleeves were cut in order to, as the Cunningtons state, "slope off to a narrow tight cuff at the wrist". The super tunic of the 11th century continued to be worn by the less fashionable, the lower classes of society, and the girdle was optional.

Five new styles of the super tunic were introduced in this era. The first consisted of a front and back panel which extended from the shoulders to the calf level. The two panels were sewn together or clasped together near the waist, where they were met by a slit up the front. The neck opening was large so that the tunic could be put on over the head and a belt was not usually worn with this tunic. The second new style was more "voluminous" as the Cunningtons describe it, and hung in folds to a length between the knees and the ankles. The sleeves gathered at the shoulders and extended beyond the hands. A vertical slit was cut in the upper arm of the sleeve to allow unrestrained movement. This garment, like the previous, was put on over the head and a hood was often attached. The third style was much looser than the previous ones. The sleeves could extended to just below the elbow or could be worn short and wide. A buckled belt was optional. The fourth super tunic, or garnache, was knee length and the material was cut wide at the shoulders to allow the material to "fall down on each side, predicting cape-like sleeves," as the Cunningtons put it. The sides of this tunic could be clasped at the waist, sewn from the waist to the hem, or left open and was traditionally beltless. The last style was simply sleeveless and worn with a belt. For these cloaks and hoods red, Irish cloth was popular.

Fitchets, resembling modern day pockets, also appeared in the 13th century. Vertical slits were cut in the super tunic, which did not have any side openings, to allow access to purse or keys slung from the girdle of the tunic.

During this era garments such as cloaks, mantles, and stockings remained unchanged. However, during this era, stockings were sometimes tied with narrow strips of material below the knee to hold the stocking in place. Leg bandages for the nobility became popular which criss-crossed and extended above the knee.

Men's accessories were similar to those of the 11th century. Gloves continued to be worn by the nobility and could be long, stretching to the elbow, or short, wrist length, and began to be decorated, the Cunningtons explain, "with a broad strip of gold embroidery down the back as far as the knuckles". By the end of the century, gloves were more widely worn and were ornamented with silver or gilded buttons. Calthrop also includes that long hair and neatly trimmed beards were in style for 13th century men.

Men's clothing of the 14th century was much more form fitting than its 13th century counterparts. During this era, many of the standard pieces that had been worn by the Britons evolved into new garments and took on different names. P. Cunnington explains that loose garments, such as the tunic and super tunic, from previous centuries continued to be worn by the lower classes who were less concerned with fashion. These loose garments, as C. Cunnington states, were slit up the front, had sleeves, and were worn with a girdle. In addition, they could be shortened to the hip. The gipon, also called a pourpoint or doublet, emerged during the 14th century. It replaced the tunic and was knee length and close-fitting. The gipon was not designed with any folds or gathers as the tunic was. The sleeves were long and tight and the neck was low. The bodice was padded and the garment was either buttoned or laced down the front, but for the lower classes it was only buttoned to the waist. The gipon was traditionally worn over a shirt and if worn with an outer garment, a belt was not worn. At the end of the century, the gipon was shortened to above the mid-thigh and was worn with a belt at hip level

The outer garment of this era was known as the cote-hardie and replaced the super tunic of previous centuries. This new low necked, knee length piece was tight fitting and buttoned or laced down the front to waist level, where it then "flared into a full skirt which was open in the front" as C. Cunnington describes. The complex sleeves of the cote-hardie extended, in the front, to the elbow and, in back, hung in flaps which tapered and elongated. Sleeves during this era were decorated. A belt or girdle was worn with this new garment. The less fortunate wore looser cote-hardies which did not fasten in the front. Instead, they were one piece and were put on over the head. Cloaks and capes continued to be worn as outdoor wear and didn't change from the previous century.

Men's stockings of the 14th century were lengthened and tied to the region, so that it was hidden under the skirt. Shorter stockings were tied to garters with stripes of wool or linen. Shorter boots and shoes also become fashionable. Woolen soles were added to shoes as were straps.

Gloves spread amongst the social hierarchy so that even those of the working class were wearing them in the 14th century. For this class, only the thumb and two sections existed for the fingers.

The lowest classes in the Middle Ages did not have access to the same clothing as nobility. Poor men and women working in the fields or wet or muddy conditions often went barefoot. Upper and middle-class women wore three garments and the third garment was either a surcoat, bliaut, or cotehardie. These were often lavish garments, depending on the wealth of the person wearing them, and could have trimmings in fur or silk decorated with elaborate designs. Because of the cost of fabric, the working classes hardly wore this third garment.

Another marker of the upper classes was an elaborate headdress. These could involve wires, draping fabric and pointed caps. Again, because of the cost the poor could not afford these and instead wore simple cloth veils called wimples that "draped over the head, around the neck and up to the chin". Working women wore ankle length dresses and men wore short tunics and breeches. The longer the garment, the higher in station a person was. This is evident in the sumptuary laws of 1327 which states "coming to the lowest class no serving man is to use 2½ yards in a short gown or 3 in a long one". Also, serving men such as servants or attendants usually did not wear cloaks, and for the nobles who did it served to distinguish them from the masses.

While most of the peasant women wove their fabric and then made their own clothing, the wealthy were able to afford tailors, furriers, and embroiderers. The wealthiest, such as royalty, would have "all these craftsmen on staff, sometimes one per each adult in the household".

Social status was of the utmost importance during the Middle Ages, and this idea was exemplified through fashion. For example, it was generally understood that scarlet tones, such as red and purple, were important items in the wardrobes of royalty. More specifically, these colours became reserved for Kings and Princes, and denoted luxury and wealth. The medieval sumptuary laws or "acts of apparel" were put into place to regulate the clothing choices of people during that time. Those who supported the enactment of such laws did so because the laws emphasized the differences between the classes, and clearly defined what those differences are. For example, the 1363 statute to the Clothing Law of 1337 states that wives of yeomen and handicraftsmen may not wear any veil or kerchief made of silk...the higher-status groups, however, are allowed to wear whatever imported items they want. This clearly states the understood division between the rich and poor during this era, and the importance of keeping the classes defined as separate entities. There were rules for every item of clothing; lower-class women were banned from wearing expensive veils. Only wives and daughters of wealthy men could wear velvet or satin. There was an unfair discontinuity in the rules; lower class citizens could never wear an item designated for the upper class, whereas the upper class could wear anything that suited them. For example, wives and daughters of servants were not to wear veils that cost more than twelve cents.

The most common material used was wool, with the wool ranging in texture and quality based on the type of sheep it came from. The quality could range from the very coarse and undyed for the lower class to extremely fine with designs and colour for the upper class. Linen and hemp were other fabrics used, and were utilized often by the lower classes as undergarments and head coverings. Also, silk was a popular material used by the wealthy and was imported from Asia. After the crusades, fabrics such as damasks, velvets, and satin were brought back to England, as was samite. Animal skins were also used such as "sheep-skin cloaks... in winter to keep out the cold and rain". Leather was used to produce items such as shoes, belts, gloves and armor.

The middle class could usually afford to dye their wool colours like blue and green. The wealthy could afford to add elaborate designs to their clothing as well as dying it red and black, expensive colours for the time. Purple was also considered a colour of royalty and was reserved for kings or religious figures such as the pope.

Alchin, L.K. "Sumptuary Laws of the Middle Ages". The Middle Ages Website.

Alchin, L. K. (2008-11-16). "Medieval Fashion". The Middle Ages Website.

Alchin, L.K. (2008-11-16). "Medieval Women's Clothing". The Middle Ages Website.

Cunnington, C. Willett; Cunnington, Phillis (1969). Handbook of English Medieval Costume. Plays Inc.

Hartman, Rachel (2001-10-22). "Sometimes a Codpiece is Just a Codpiece: The Meanings of Medieval Clothes". Strange Horizons.

Hell, Kyshah. "Status Through Fashion in the Middle Ages". Morbid Outlook.

Hooper, Wilfrid (1915). "The Tudor Sumptuary Laws". The English Historical Review. 30: 433-449. doi:10.1093/ehr/xxx.cxix.433.

"Medieval Fashion". Medieval Spell.

"Medieval Women's Fashion". Archived from the original on 2009-04-07.

Piponnier, Francoise; Mane, Perrine (1997). Dress in the Middle Ages. Yale University Press.

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The Medieval period in England is usually classified as the time between the fall of the Roman Empire to the beginning of the Renaissance, roughly the years AD 410-1485. For various peoples living in England, the Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Danes, Normans and Britons, clothing in the medieval era differed widely for men and women as well as for different classes in the social hierarchy.

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Shoes. Our love affair with them has spanned the ages. They get us from point A to B, help keep us fit, make us feel sexy and are symbols of prestige and status. So what were medieval shoes like? What dictated medieval shoe styles? This article looks at shoes in the High and Late Middle Ages.
Medieval shoe styles varied from England to the Continent, with many of the changes in fashion a result of the political climate. It comes as no surprise that shoe styles were often set by powerful rulers.

In the early thirteenth century, however, medieval shoes did not vary much in style; they were mainly "turn shoes", that is, leather shoes that were made inside out then turned for use. Children and adult shoes were very similar during this period. The lasts, the molds used to make shoes, were wooden up until the twentieth century and were a carpenter's work. Women's shoes changed the least, and were rarely seen because they were covered by long gowns. Ankle boots were worn mainly for work and heavy wear. After the Black Death, ankle boots were laced up at the front, and both men and women used laces and buttons to fasten boots.

Prior to the Black Death, there were a wide range of shoe styles, and shoes that were embroidered. The decoration of the period showed the influence of Byzantine embroidery with the best examples of this dating to around 1200. Some shoes even had runic inscriptions or more commonly, Latin, and many embroidered shoes were worn by royalty. Shoes were upturned and pointy until the early sixteenth century when pointed shoes fell out of fashion and shoes became more rounded.

After the Black Death ravaged Europe, reactions to fashion from those who had survived verged on the extreme. The Black Death impacted fashion and style immensely; with the former variety of styles disappearing because skilled shoes makers had died in the plague. There was also a redistribution of wealth, land and change in occupation, and with these changes, survivors demonstrated their new social status through new styles. The toes of shoes became much more pointed. This particular style, known as "Cracow" for the then capital of Poland, Kraków, or "Poulaines" for Poland itself, became increasingly popular. The style gained rapid popularity in the fourteenth century but fell out of favour by around 1490. Cracows were worn by both men and women, but the male versions were much longer. In fact, the shoes became so long and distracting that they obstructed the wearer's ability to walk! In some cases, a string was attached below the knee to assist in moving the toe points to enable walking. The string was occaisonally depicted in the art of the period.

England's King Henry IV disliked this style and tried to regulate the practice of wearing excessively long, pointy shoes. Sumptuary Laws, laws that regulated consumption, extravagance, and attire, were regulations of social status and attempts to restrict movement outside of established social ranks. In terms of shoe wear, these laws dictated the length of shoe one could wear based on their social status, i.e., nobility were permitted two foot lengths, merchants one foot length and peasants, half. Laws pertaining to shoes were created around the 1360s but these laws were not commonly enforced.

Around the late fifteenth century, the rounder toe came into fashion beginning in Italy. Boots during this period became full and baggy with an excess of leather being used in their construction. Boots made of leather were worn during winter to protect from the cold and rain. The wealthy would decorate and colour their boots and might have also had them lined with fur. Overshoes began initially as a separate trade by the mid-fourteenth century and were worn mainly by women.

Medieval fashion, like modern fashion, was a way in which to signal your place in the world. What you wore impacted how you would be treated - and little has changed over the centuries in this regard. Medieval shoe styles, while quite different from modern day fashions, and more regulated, were dictated by similar issues: politics, popular and powerful figures, economic changes, and climate. Medieval or modern, we all still sending a message every time we walk out that door. A little something to think about when you tie up your sneakers, slip your foot in a sandal, or buy a pair of expensive heels. Happy shopping!
'Grandissima Gratia': The Power of Italian Renaissance Shoes as Intimate Wear Shoes and shoemakers in late medieval Bergen and Stockholm Medieval Leather Footwear from Tallinn Medieval lingerie? Discovery in Austria reveals what really was worn under those tunics 10 Fun Fashion Facts from the Middle Ages Top Image: Armoured shoes: This late 15th century metal sabatons were part of a complete suit of armour. The narrow strips of metal would have helped the man secure his foot in a stirrup while riding. See also:

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Shoes. Our love affair with them has spanned the ages. They get us from point A to B, help keep us fit, make us feel sexy and are symbols of prestige and status. So what were medieval shoes like? What dictated medieval shoe styles? This article looks at shoes in the High and Late Middle Ages.

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It's easy to differentiate between cosmetic and medical procedures in the present day but if we take a look back at the Middle Ages, the distinction wasn't always so clear. Thanks to several prominent medical writers, we can get a glimpse of how medieval medicine viewed the use of cosmetics, and how some of these products were used.
Galen and Avicenna: Cosmetics vs. Medicine
All medieval medical writers looked to the writing of the famous Greek physician, Galen (129-216 AD). Galen's medical teachings were the gold standard until the sixteenth century and some treatments he advocated managed to remain popular (like bloodletting) until the nineteenth century. According to Luke Demaitre, in an article on medieval urban cosmetics, Galen's views on make up to enhance the appearance vs. procedures for health were well defined. He complained bitterly about the mixing of medical treatments and cosmetics in his writings, stating,
The object of the cosmetic part of medicine is to produce an enhancement of beauty, while the object of the decorative part is to preserve everything natural in the body that is naturally accompanied by beauty. The appearance of the head suffering from alopecia is ugly, as it is with the eyes when the eyelashes and the hairs of the eyebrows fall out; and these hairs contribute not only to beauty but much more to health of the parts...But to make the colour of the face whiter by means of drugs, or redder, or the hair of the head curly, or yellow, or black, or to make it much longer, as women do, and the operations like these belong to the depravity of cosmetics and not to the healing art.
What concerned Galen were the differences between services provided for health, decoratio, and services provided solely for the embellishment of looks, ars comptoria/cosmetica. Decoratio did not have the same connotation it does today - to decorate something; to medieval physicians it meant "care of" or "decorum". Decoratio was the term used for treatment of a condition that 'went against nature', diseases like leprosy and alopecia did not just make the individual ugly in appearance; but according to Galen, they also adversely affected a person's health. To Galen, there was a vast difference between curing someone who suffered in appearance and in their health and someone who sought medical assistance to alter their appearance simply to look more attractive.

However, Galen reluctantly conceded that there were certain situations where a physician could not refuse a cosmetic treatment, like when commanded to treat royalty. Galen included some of these recipes for colouring hair, and preventing baldness used on royal patrons, and cited other physicians who worked for emperors like Criton of Heraclea, the famed physician to the Roman Emperor Trajan (53BC - 117 AD) to justify his addition of these practices, in his works.

Another medical heavyweight was Persian physician, Avicenna (980-1037 AD). Avicenna produced over 450 works on early medicine, and also wrote about alchemy, astronomy, mathematics and philosophy to name but a few topics of his vast knowledge. He became a doctor at the age of 18 and his reputation as a physician made him famous. Like Galen, physicians used his medical expertise until well into the seventeenth century. However, on the topic of cosmetics, unlike Galen, Avicenna wasn't bothered by their inclusion in standard medicine and made no effort to separate the two in his work The Canon of Medicine . Medieval medical writers mainly followed Avicenna's lead on blending medicine and cosmetics until the fourteenth century.

Hair and Make-Up for Men
Cosmetic enhancement wasn't the sole sphere of women; men were definite consumers of cosmetics in the Middle Ages. Cosmetics were frequently used by men to stave off the appearance of old age. They sought treatment for baldness, paid to have their hair washed, and bought colourants to dye away greys. Says Demaitre, "Men who had their hair washed inferentially for aesthetic rather than hygienic reasons, were willing to spend money for other improvements of their appearance."

Such activities that focused on improving the male appearance were often viewed as emasculating and treated with contempt. An interesting tale of "death by vanity" is recounted in the story of Amadeus VII 'the Red', Count of Savoy (1360-1391). In 1391, Amadeus used an ointment to thicken his hair because he was balding and he died shortly afterwards at the age of 31. His physician was accused of poisoning him at the behest of his mother, Bonne de Bourbon (1341-1402). This was perhaps meant as a little warning story against vanity. Nearly all cosmetics documented for men revolve around hair loss and covering greys in order to appear youthful and attract women.
Alms for the Poor? : Make-Up and Leprosy
Another interesting medieval concern regarding the use of make-up was its ability to deceive. Make-up wasn't only used by men to look younger, or women to attract men, but also used by beggars to fool people into giving them money. By the sixteenth century, some people began to use make-up as a way to mimic the look of leprosy so that they could be granted a begging license. Ambroise Paré (1510-1590), one of the fathers of surgery, related the tale of a beggar caught in in 1520 trying to trick Paré's brother Jehan into believing he was a leper.
The beggar sat in front of a church, with several coins strewn in a handkerchief at his feet. His face was covered with large pustules, made of a certain strong glue and painted in a livid reddish fashion, approximating the colour of lepers, and he was very hideous to see, thus out of compassion everyone gave him alms. The artful imposter tightened, from beneath his cloak, a rag which he had wrapped around his neck, so as to make the blood mount to his face...After removing the rag, the surgeon washed his face with warm water, which caused all his pustules to become detached and to fall off...the beggar confessed that he knew how to counterfeit several illnesses, and that he had never found greater profit in it than when he counterfeited lepers.
Cosmetics were becoming lucrative in urban centres and situations such as these gave physicians reason to pause and consider Galen's earlier warning about the inclusion of purely cosmetic procedures with medical ones. Although most medieval medical practitioners didn't mind mixing cosmetics with medicine, a growing number began to question their part in aiding people to radically alter or fake their appearance.
Top Image: BNF Français 343 fol.3v Resources
Luke Demaitre, "Skin and the City: Cosmetic Medicine as an Urban Concern", Between Text and Patient: The Medical Enterprise in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, pp.97-120 (2011).

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Make-Up and Medicine in the Middle Ages - Medievalists.net

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A look at cosmetics and make-up in the Middle Ages.

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The Middle Ages: Medieval Smiths and Weaponry

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When you imagine a medieval man or woman, what do you see? Foul teeth? Greasy hair? Dirty, bumpy skin? Hairy armpits and sweat stench?

Well, for some of them, this might have been true. For some people today, this is still true. But medieval sources prove, that it could be and has been different for large parts of the population. Medieval people know far more than we think today.

In this article I want to talk about aspects of (female) beauty routine and cosmetics, as we find them in medieval sources (mainly the Trotula).
Concerning all the recipes I mention: I slightly changed some of them since many of them do their job in their original mixture but on a long term use will impact your health quite badly. Others are working with 3 usefull ingredients and one absolutely absurd ingredient, which does not contribute to the outcome in any way and of which I can not say, whether it is in the recipe due to faulty copying the original texts, due to superstitious reasons or simply because the author had no clue.
Also I simply left out a whole bunch of recipes which seemed to have no noticable use or impact from a modern point of science.

The daily morning routine as described in some of the texts we documented in this video:

The subject areas:
Daily wash
The rough basics: Bathing was not a daily habit in late medieval time. But the same goes for most of society up until the 50s. A quick bath with hot water and a sponge or washcloth was sill common in my grandmother's time. Medieval people visited the bathhouse maybe once or twice a week. We explain a thing or two about Viennese bath houses in our video „ In the bathhouse" and in Nikolaus' accompanying article.

For daily hygienic routine, the Trotula suggest to their female readers, to wash the body with cloth or sponges and take a steam bath.

„ Take burning hot tiles and stones and with these placed in the steambath, let the woman sit in it. [...] Then let hot water be poured in so that steam is produced, and let thewoman sit upon it well covered with cloths so that she sweats. And when she has well sweated, let her enter hot water and wash herself very well, and thus let her exit from the bath and wipe herself off well with a linen cloth."

For washing, oftentimes a washbowl and a jug was in use.

Towels were in use to dry the body. We know this from many finds and original pictures of medieval towels in their very characteristic shawl-like form featuring woven-in blue or black stripes. Especially famous are italian Perugia-Towels and their beautiful blue and white patterns.

The face gets special attention in the Trotula. You are supposed to wash your face with french soap and then do a face scrub with wheat bran. Something you still do today. Wheat bran is a nice alternative to modern peeling lotions containing nasty microplastics.
„First of all, let her wash her face very well with French soap and with warm water, and with a straining of bran let her wash herself in the bath."
By the way, they also mention a face mask made with wheat starch. Also something still done today .

After washing the face, thorough skin care is necessary, so our lady uses a delicate hydrating cream after a recipe from the roman physician Galien. Why a roman recipe? Because Galien's works are still taught in the Viennese University in mid 14th century.

It is made from bees wax, rose oil and almond oil and feels really nice on the skin.
Deodorant:
On her temples, our lady wears a bit of violet-ointmen t against headaches.
„There are some women who have sweat that stinks beyond measure. For these we prepare a cloth dipped in wine in which there have been boiled leaves of bilberry"
So now that we are all fresh and clean, we want to keep it that way. And the Trotula also offer a recipe for that purpose:
Hair care:
We don't know, how exactly this deodorant is supposed to work. We think it might be due to the antibacterial properties of the wine and the adstringent tanning agents in the bilberry leaves that cause the pores to tighten. So it may very well be a solution for a few hours.
„After leaving the bath, let her adorn her hair, and first of all let her wash it with a cleanser such as this. Take ashes of burnt vine, [...] boil the chaff and the sowbread in water. [...] Let a pot having at its base two or three small openings be filled. Let the water [...] be poured into the pot, so that it is strained by the small openings. With this cleanser let the woman wash her head. After the washing, let her leave it to dry by itself, and her hair will be golden and shimmering."
To wash the hair (which certainly was not done every day), lye from ash was most likely used. The Trotula mention ash from vie stems to wash the hair.

Afterwards, some medieval conditioner can be used, in the original recipe this is made from lizzard grease and some nice smelling substances. But even if you could get the lizzard grease, it would not do any better work than any other kind of oil or grease to make the hair shiny and healthy. We used olive oil, spiced with lemon peel.
„But when she combs her hair, let her have this powder. Take some dried roses, clove, nutmeg, watercress, and galangal. Let all these, powdered, be mixed with rose water. With this water let her sprinkle her hair and comb it with a comb dipped in this same water so that it will smell better."
To make the hair smell even nicer, you can use this hair powder:

The powder smells really nice and kind of oriental. As a modern human, even I could imagine smelling like that occasionally.
„Also, noblewomen shouldwear musk in their hair,or clove,or both, but take care that it not be seen by anyone. Also the veil with which the head is tied should be put on with cloves and musk, nutmeg, and other sweet-smelling substances."
And you can do even more to leave a lovely smell in the air your beloved smells when you walk by:
Hair removal:
More about hair care and hair styles here.

Concerning the rest of the body hair, the hairless body was not unknown to medieval people.
„Take Greek pitch and wax, and dissolve them in a clay vessel. And these things having been dissolved, let a small drop of galbanum be added, [and] let them cook for a long time, stirring with a spatula. Likewise, take mastic, frankincense, and gumarabic, and let them be mixed with the rest. Having done this, let it be removed from the fire, and when it is lukewarmlet her smear her face; but let her take care [not to touch] the eyebrows. Let her leave it on for an hour until it becomes cold. Then let her remove it. This refines the skin and makes the face beautiful, and it removes hairs and renders every blemish well colored and clear."
A woman would use tweezers to remove unwanted facial hair or even use a medieval variation on modern waxing.

So you mix wax with different resins and gums and apply it as hot as possible to your skin. Surprisingly, some modern waxing mixes are still made from wax and resins. We did however not try this recipe for obvious reasons :-)
„In order that a woman might become very soft and smooth and without hairs from her head down, first of all let her go to the baths, and if she is not accustomed to do so, let there be made for her a steambath in this manner."
But also leg and pubic hair was removed. We can see different methods for that. Of course, you can shave it, as seen in this relief from the 13th century. But you could also tweeze the hair when your pores are open, for example after a steambath.
„Afterward let her also anoint herself all over with this depilatory, which is made from well-sifted quicklime. Place three ounces of it in a potter's vase and cook it in the manner of a porridge.Then take one ounce of orpiment and cook it again, and test it with a feather to see if it is sufficiently cooked." „Take care, however, that it is not cooked too much and that it not stay too long on the skin, because it causes intense heat."
Afterwards you have to rub your body thoroughly with towels and pinch out the hair.
Dental hygiene:
It might be quite a bit more pleasant to use depilatory cream though. The ancient and medieval version of that is rhusma turcorum. The mixture consists of (quick)lime and orpiment, has been already known in antiquity and is still in use in regions of India today.
„Likewise in order to make black teeth white, take ten drams of roasted pumice,ten drams of salt,two drams each of cinnamon and cloves,and honey as needed. Mix the pumice and salt with a suﬃcient amount of honey, and place them on a plain dish upon coals until they burn, and reduce the other spices to a powder. And when there is need, rub the teeth."
And your hair is going to fall out for sure due to the very aggressive ingredients. The lime practically disolves some of the hair, orpiment is toxic. So please NEVER attempt this at home, just use modern and safe depilatories! Even medieval people knew that the use was dangerous for the skin and put a recipe for burnt skin from this depliatory right after this recipe.
Nail care:
More about historical hair removal here.
Earspoons:
Teeth are not left to rott in medieval times. They were cleaned with the available ways as well as possible. There are some recipes for tooth powders, most of them contain rock flour, spices and salt, but also grind walnut shells or charcoal are possible ingredients. With a damp cloth, the powder is picked up and used to rub the teeth.
Decorative cosmetics:
Tooth powder like this is still in use today, though much finer and less likely to damage your dental enamel.

And of course, nails are regularly clipped with scissors like in this picture from the Lilienfeld chronicles and they are cleaned with the nail cleaner which is part of almost every extant hygiene set.

I am mentionning it scince the earspoon was a very common item. But we have not tried this tool for the love of our eardrums.

Since there are several paragraphs in the Trotula that would extend the scope of this articl, I will simply describe what I reconstructed.

Face white:
There are several recipes for face makeup which basically consist of lead white mixed with an oily or watery liquid, in parts with wax or gum arabic to make a better consistency and make the makeup storable. I particularly liked one where the lead is mixed with rose water and formed into beansized little balls which can be dissolved with rose water to apply. A nice idea that is a form of makeup storage still in use today with rouge and powders. Instead of poisonous lead white, we used modern white pigments though.
Sun screen:
Cheekstain/Blush:
The original recipes mix brazil wood with different liquids or greases. We tried it and failed as expected. Brazil wood red pigment can not simply be solved in water or grease, it has to be turned into lac dye (maybe the writer meant just that, brazil wood lac) or mixed with alum. Some of the recipes suggest the latter. But that makes the dye dangerous for cosmetic use of course. We used red ocre and it worked perfectly fine. One recipe also uses bryony, a plant that causes a skin irritation and would therefor make the skin red. Not a great idea to try that out though, folks! Application can be done with a bit of cloth, cotton wool as suggested in the recipe or just the fingers.
An ointment that the Salernitan women make that is very good for sunburn and fissures of any kind [...] Take one ounce of lily root, two ounces of white lead, mastic and frankincense- of each a half dram-, one dram of camphor, one ounce of animal grease, [and] rose water as needed. Let it be prepared thus: let the lily root, having been cleaned, be cooked in water, and once this is extracted we grind it thoroughly. And we pour in the fat, which has been liquefied on the fire and well strained and cleaned of its salt in order to dissolve it. Then we put in the white lead, which has been dissolved in the rose water and somewhat pulverized."
Lip red:
One of the recipes suggests to mix bryony with honey and rose water. That would, as in the cheek stain also cause a skin irritation and make the lips read. Please don't try this at home, bryony is poisonous! According to the recipes, you are also supposed to wash your lips with hot water twice a day and take care of them in order for them to be smooth and beautiful. A pretty modern take on lip treatments!
Jewellery and clothing:
For the application of all these cosmetics, we used a mirror that Nikolaus had made for this occasion after a find from Bavaria.
Further information: Pinterest collection beauty and hygiene Hair care and hair dos in the 14th century
Yes, you read right. A beauty-commited woman can already avoid to have her skin destroyed by sunburns and tan.
A shaving comb of the 14th century
It probably is interesting to know, that even today, some sun screens use white pigment instead of chemical filters. Yes, the pigment makes your skin white. But it also shields it from the sun. You can get rid of the skin burning and tanning UVB rays for some time. Unfortunately it does not shield you from the cancer causing and skin aging UVA rays, which is why today, chemical filters are the preferred choice.
Die Chirurgie des Meisters Henri de Mondeville Eyebrows, Hairlines, and Hairs Less in Sight - Female Depilation in Late Medieval Europe, John Friedman, 2018
And of course, a large part of morning routine is getting dressed and putting on jewellery and veils. Here we take all that is precious and expensive from our "Minnekästchen" (an intrically worked jewellery box, often part of the dower): A circlet, prayer beads, a pretty fibula, rings, veil pins with pearls on them, a silk belt with silver studs and a knife with an amber handle.
Textual sources from "The book of the civilised man", 13th century Bathing in the middle ages
Youtube Video and Article on the topic of bath houses in the 14th century

A medieval mirror - Here is the original

Excerpts from the Trotula from: https://www.amazon.de/Trotula-Translation-Medieval-Compendium-Medicine/dp/0812218086

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Walking through a museum's medieval collection will reveal many kinds weapons from that era. There seems to be all types of instruments that could be used to kill or defeat an enemy. What were the most important of these weapons - which of them had a significant impact on the Middle Ages? Here is our list of ten medieval weapons you should know about. 1. Swords
No weapon is more associated with the Middle Ages than the sword. It was used throughout the medieval world, and as Sue Brunning explains, was more than just a weapon:
Every culture that has made and used swords has viewed them as extraordinary objects. They feature predominantly in the history, cosmology and mythology of communities across the globe, from Africa to northern Europe, from East Asia to the Indian sub-continent. Their appeal is not solely attributable to humanity's timeliness fascination with death. This is clear from the spectrum of meanings attached to swords across time and space, encompassing power, wisdom, joy, protection - and fear.
For most of the Middle Ages, the sword was widely used among elite and common soldiers, with some variation between the size of its blade, and how its hilt and pommel were fashioned. Around the thirteenth century we see a change in the sword, where it blades begin to get more narrow and sharper at its point. It was because armour was becoming tougher, and the slashing style of the sword was no longer effective. It now had to be used more as a thrusting weapon, but even with these changes the sword would gradually decline as a part of vital military equipment.

The sword places first on our list of the most important weapons in the Middle Ages, not just because it was so widely used in this period, but because so many medieval cultures viewed it as a symbol of military strength and power.
2. Firearms
The weapon that would transform the medieval world into the early modern one was the gun - handguns and arquebuses wielded by individuals, and the larger artillery pieces like cannons that could strike at fortifications. The invention of gunpowder in China in the early ninth-century would trigger a series of new weapons - gradually these developments and innovations would spread from eastern Asia and fundamentally change how war was waged.

The rise of gunpowder weapons has often been talked about as a military revolution, although from our perspective it was a slow moving one, taking generations. Introduced into Europe in the early fourteenth century, even by the end of the fifteenth century these weapons could prove to be slow and difficult to wield effectively. But military commanders understood that this technology would be the dominant weapon on the battlefield, and every kingdom, state or principality was spending money and resources to build up their supplies. The states that were able to do so most effectively would emerge in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries as the key powers in Europe and Asia.

See also: 10 Moments in the Invention of Guns and Gunpowder
3. Bows
An Old English riddle:

Agob's my name, if you work it out;
I'm a fair creature fashioned for battle.
When I bend, and shoot a deadly shaft
from my stomach, I desire only to send
that poison as far away as possible.
When my lord, who devised this torment for me,
releases my limbs, I become longer
and, bent upon my slaughter, spit out
that deadly poison I swallowed before.
No man's parted easily from the object
I describe; if he's struck by what flies
from my stomach, he pays for its poison
with his strength - speedy atonement for life.
I'll serve no master when unstrung, only when
I'm cunningly notched. Now guess my name.

Combine a flexible stave of wood with strong string and you have one of the most well known weapons of the Middle Ages. There could be a lot of varieties of bows, and their effectiveness could range significantly on where and how they were used. Archers were usually found at battles or siege throughout the medieval world, but they could become a dominant force in the right circumstances. The Mongols were able to conquer much of Asia and Europe through the use of horse archers, who combined a stronger type of bow with the greater mobility of their cavalry. The English would also rely on their longbowmen to win several important battles during the Hundred Years' War. As Jim Bradbury writes, "There was no military situation in which the bow could not prove useful."
4. Spears / Lances
Kelly DeVries and Kay Smith note that "since the earliest times the spear, together with the sword, was the most important and widely used offensive weapon for both the infantry and cavalry." Essentially a long stick that ended with a blade, the spear could be held and thrusted at opponents, or thrown at them. When delivered from horseback, the weapon could be far more effective - this is how the idea of "mounted shock combat" developed, in which knights would couch the spear under their arms, and use the speed of their horses to deliver a powerful blow.

The spear of the knight evolved into the lance - the weapon we commonly associate with jousting and tournaments, another lasting symbol of the Middle Ages.
5. Trebuchets
Emerging in the twelfth century, the trebuchet was the first important development in siege machines since ancient times. It marked a great improvement over weapons like the catapult, becoming a more formidable way to attack castles and other fortifications.

Jim Bradbury explains how it worked:
A container for heavy materials was placed on one end of a whippy pole, a sling to hold the stone or other missile at the other end. The pole was on a pivot. The loaded end was winched down and released. The weight made the loaded end rise rapidly and eject its contents, the sling whipping over at the last minute to give added impetus.
While today the trebuchet is more seen as an engineering challenge for college students or a fun way throw pumpkins, in the Middle Ages it represented a new technology that forced military commanders to adapt their defences, a process that would be further enhanced by gunpowder weapons.
6. Crossbows
While this weapon existed since ancient times, it was strangely not mentioned very much in early medieval Europe. Then, in the twelfth century, the crossbow made a comeback, serving as a way for regular soldiers to fight back against the better armoured and equipped knights. Helen Nicholson describes the crossbow:
It was not a quick weapon to use, because spanning the bow (drawing back the string, locking it back with the 'trigger' and placing the arrow or bolt in position, ready to fire) took much longer than for the simple bow. But it could be used effectively by a comparative novice and was much more powerful than the simple bow. In a siege situation, or where a large group of crossbow archers were operating on a battlefield, it could be devastating, for it could pierce chainmail.
While the crossbow did get criticized as a dishonourable weapon, its use only grew in the Later Middle Ages, and by the fifteenth century cities were hosting large-scale shooting tournaments. The crossbow would remain a much used weapon, even during the coming age of guns.
7. Greek Fire
The secret weapon of the Byzantine Empire, it was responsible for several important military victories. It is such a secret weapon that even today we are not sure exactly what it was - the theories include that it was based on saltpetre or quicklime - but its effects were devastating. It was a liquid substance, that could be fired out through something like a modern-day flamethrower. Most importantly, it could not be extinguished by water, which meant that naval ships would be particularly vulnerable to its effects.

Naphtha was a similar type of weapon - at least in its effects - and was based on petroleum. This was used in the medieval Middle Eastern world. Like Greek Fire, those who wielded it had significant advantages when facing opponents that just relied on the force of their steel and iron.

8. Polearms
They were called halberds, pikes, glaives, and several other names - these were all variations on a type of weapon in which one carried a long staff that was equipped with a type of blade that could be used for cutting and thrusting. They became more prevalent in Europe around the year 1300, as it could be shown that armies that used these weapons could defeat cavalry in battle. The key was in creating formations and coordinating them on the battlefield - as a large group they could impenetrable to attack and deadly on the offensive.
9. Axes
This weapon is more associated with the Early Middle Ages, although it was still used in later centuries. While peoples like the Franks wielded smaller axes as throwing weapon, it was the larger version, used in Scandinavia, that we know so well. Jim Bradbury explains:
The battle-axe was popular with the Vikings and often called a Norse or Danish axe. Vikings sometimes named their axes, such as 'Witch' or 'Fiend', suggesting their personal nature. The Vikings used bearded axes named from the shape of the drooping lower edge, and broad axes. The latter emerged in c.1000, sometimes with a steel edge welded to the blade. The blade was narrowest at the socket, broadening to a curved edge about a foot long. 10. Daggers
Essentially a smaller version of the sword, one should not disregard it as an important weapon of war. Ranging in size from 30 to 50 centimetres (11 to 20 inches), it was a common instrument, both on the battlefield and in day-to-day use. Easy to carry - and hide - daggers could be used with a minimum of training. An attacker could wield this weapon to cut, stab or throw, often in tight situations. By the thirteenth century many versions of the dagger emerged in medieval Europe - anelace, baselard and stiletto to name a few - that differed in how the blade was fashioned or how you gripped it. Meanwhile, the misericorde got its name for being associated with the end of battles, when the victorious soldiers had to decide what to do with there defeated opponents - either offer them "mercy" and take them as prisoners, or give them a "mercy" killing.

See also: Top 10 Strange Weapons of the Middle Ages
Further Reading:
Jim Bradbury, The Routledge Companion to Medieval Warfare (Routledge, 2004)

Jim Bradbury, The Medieval Archer (The Boydell Press, 1985)

Sue Brunning, The Sword in Early Medieval Northern Europe (The Boydell Press, 2019)

Kelly DeVries and Kay Smith, Medieval Military Technology, 2nd edition (University of Toronto Press, 2012)

Jean-Denis G.G. Lepage, Medieval Armies and Weapons in Western Europe (McFarland and Co., 2005)

Sean McLachlan, Medieval Handgonnes: The first black powder infantry weapons (Osprey, 2010)

Helen Nicholson, Medieval Warfare (Palgrave, 2004)
Top Image: Morgan M.638 Maciejowski Bible fol. 29

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The Ten Most Important Weapons of the Middle Ages

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Walking through a museum's medieval collection will reveal many kinds weapons from that era. There seems to be all types of instruments that could be used to kill or defeat an enemy. What were the most important of these weapons - which of them had a significant impact on the Middle Ages?

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Food Playlist (4 videos on Food in Middle Ages!)

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Food Playlist (4 videos on Food in Middle Ages!)

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Episode 4 examines the medieval world through food! Jason is joined by food historian Chris Carr, who cooks up samples of medieval cuisine based on various l...

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A Good Roast Alows de Beef Autre Vele en Bokenade Balls or Skinless Sausages Beef Pie Beef y-Stewed Bukkenade (beef stew) Chopped Liver Cinnamon Brewet Custarde (savory quiche with meat) Drawyn Grwel Florentine Style Meat in a Baking Dish Heathen Cakes Kabobs Pompys Pumpes (meatballs) Roman Meatloaf Sausedge Stewet Beef Veal Tart with Cream

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Food Drink Daily Life through History - Time Periods - Medieval Europe

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beauty,
health &
hygiene

general
healthcare
skincare

cosmetics

body hair

cleanliness,
bathing &
perfumes

hair care

hair styles

oral care
& dentistry

intimate
feminine
hygiene

Medieval Hairstyles HAIRSTYLES - BRAIDS - CORNETTES - RAMSHORNS - EUROPEAN STYLE

FALSE HAIRPIECES & WIGS - HAIRNETS - EYEBROWS & HAIRLINE

Hairstyles Medieval movies have a great deal to answer for when it comes to the accurate portrayal of women's hair styling during the Middle Ages. Characters are usually shown with very long, flowing tresses and nothing or little more that a metal circlet around the forehead.

Reality, however, was usually far from that. This page covers hair styling and what to do about the hairline itself. To learn more about hats, crowns, circlets etc, please visit the headdresses page.

Women's hair has long been associated with sinfulness and temptation, and with medieval life centering heavily around the church, it was the general opinion that the less it was displayed, the better.

Hair in art
Any decent, God-fearing woman in England, France and some of Europe for the most part, went to great pains to conceal her hair in public. Even the upper classes and royalty restrained their hair. At right above is a detail from the Luttrell Psalter from 14th century England which shows women dressing their hair.

Flowing tresses can be seen in some illuminations with some styles of costume, although it is more usual for only unmarried, young women to have hair loose.

Generally, during the bulk of the medieval period, a married woman would have covered her head with veils, wimples, cloths, barbettes, hairnets, veils, hats, hoods or a combination of them to avoid her hair showing.

The notable exception on this hair-covering trend is Italy, where women usually tied their braids criss-crossed over the top of the head. Italian women abandoned the veil considerably earlier than her other counterparts and during the 14th and 15th centuries chose to adorn the hair with elaborate plaits, beads and wound ribbons.

Elaborate hair dressing also gave a woman the opportunity to show off her taste in hair accessories.

The images shown at right are dated to 1365-1380 and show Jeanne Burbonne who has a ribbon-encased hairstyle of folded braids. It is interesting to note in this case the entire fold of hair is not encased, only the front section is tied before the remainder of the hair is brought up behind and then upwards again.

The Roman de la Rose mentions sadly the advice of Friend, which talks of how:

Broadly speaking, only a woman of very poor breeding or a prostitute did nothing with her hair and even peasant women made an effort to appear modest and decent. Only in some circumstances, like the marriage of a royal couple, can the bride be seen depicted with her hair out.

Braids and plaits
Plaited and braided hairstyles were extremely popular during the medieval period for women of all ages and all classes.

Shown at right is a detail from a painting The Nativity dated around the 1400s. It shows a young girl with a popular medieval hair style for workers- two plaits brought from the nape of the neck and crossed over the top of her head and tied together.

Not only was this style easy to dress at home oneself without assistance, it looked pleasing to the eye, was considered modest and kept the hair tied up and clean when performing manual chores.

Often these plaits were interwound with ribbon for decoration and also for securing purposes. Very often, these ribbon-encased plaits are mistaken for a padded roll of some kind with ribbon woven around it, which was not the case. Later in the later 15th century, some padded rolls attached to heart shaped hennins did have decorative features, but they are entirely different.

By the early decades of the 14th century, fashionable women in England discarded the barbette and fillet combination in favour of plaits worn in front of the ear on each side of the face. The hairstyle originated in France before the end of the 13th century.

The bust at left is dated between 1327 and 1341 is of Marie de France and shows this hairstyle although worn with a fillet.

Cornettes
Cornettes were the name often given to the hairstyle where the hair is either plaited or raised up onto the temples into horn-like shapes.

In the Townley Mysteries by the Surtees Society in 1460 a woman's hair is described-

In 1350, Bishop Gilles li Muisis was greatly displeased by the vanity of women who adopted these hairstyles which he called cornes and headdresses of a similar style known as hauchettes, and repeatedly sermonised against them.

The Van Eyck painting known as the Aldolphini Wedding dated at 1434 shows the young woman with her fashionable cow-like cornettes under a veil with rows of pleats at the edges.

Ramshorns
Around the end of the 13th century, a very popular form of hairstyle was the ramshorn, which was created by parting the hair down the centre and coiling the hair over the ears around into a scroll like that of a ram's horn.

This style became popular again in Europe in the later 15th century with the addition of silks, ribbons and veils interwoven into the side horns.

Jeweled brooches were often included as part of the dressing at the top of the head. Shown at left, a detail from the Portrait of Battista Sforza from 1465-1466 by Francesca showing the later ramshorn as it was worn by fashionable noble ladies.

This style of hairstyle was not suited to the working classes, who would have found it most impractical.

Hair Dressed European Style
While hair tended to be covered with veils and elaborate headdresses throughout France and England, veils seem to be discarded in Italy in favour of hair dressed with pearls, ribbons, beading and brooches.

As with the later ramshorn style, these hairstyles would have been worn by the upper classes only as the time and effort required to dress and finish off these hairstyles would not have suited the lifestyles of the working classes

Marian Campbell, in her publication Medieval Jewellery in Europe 1100-1500, discusses the number of 15th century paintings in Europe showing young girls without veils and with elaborately-dressed hair-

Shown at right is a detail from a painting from 1465, Pollaiulo's Portrait of a Young Woman, showing a transparent veil containing some of the hair, wrapped over the ea.rs and secured with both cords and beads with a decorative jeweled brooch at the top

Hairnets
Hairnets were known and extensively used in medieval times as the way of restraining a woman's hair. A hairnet could be used in conjunction with many of the beautiful and strange medieval headpieces.

Hairnets were almost always worn under a veil of some kind during the medieval period. During the renaissance, the hairnet known as the snood was worn alone. The snood tended to be less fine and often set with jewels.

Shown at left is a hairnet found at a London dig, dated in the 1300s, which looks like the type that is available today. Four examples of hairnets have been discovered in London excavations- one made of silk from the late 13th century and three knotted silk ones from the 14th century.

These are all the finer kind, hand knotted and with fingerloop braid around the edges which were popularly worn before the heavier mesh cauls became sturdier and jewels were attached.

Eyebrows & hairlines
During a large portion of the medieval period, the beautiful woman emphasised her high, round forehead. If a woman was unfortunate to have been naturally cursed with a low hairline, the correct and fashionable look was artificially enhanced by the plucking of the hairline back up towards the crown of the head. This look was accentuated by reducing the eyebrows to a barely-there line.

Even though plucking the eyebrows and hairline at the top of the forehead was commonplace for many women, the church was, as always, extremely unhappy about this. In Confessionale, clergymen are encouraged to ask those who came to confession:

Many books cite small tweezers made from copper alloy or silver as part of medieval toiletry sets. The tweezers above are dated from the 15th century and feature brass tweezers, an earscoop and a nail pick, all hinged to fold away when not in use.

False Hairpieces & Wigs
In a time where modesty and virtue were embraced and desired, it seems unlikely that additional hair would be called for, but it appears that wigs and false tresses were in vogue and the makers of such were regulated and had a guild of their own. Hair extensions have been found in archaeological digs dating from early times although only one or two examples date to the medieval period specifically. A plaited silk hairpiece attached to a silk fillet which was probably jeweled, was found in London and dates to second quarter of the 14th century.

The Old Woman from the Roman de la Rose offers this advice for a woman whose hair is lacking:

Stella Mary Newton, in her book Fashion In The Age Of The Black Prince, has this to say about the wearing of false hair:

None to surprisingly, the clergy tried to discourage the wearing of false hair by women by denouncing false hair as the sin of vanity. Gilles d'Orleans, a preacher from Paris in the 13th century reminded his parishioners that the wigs they wore were likely to be made from the shorn heads of those now suffering in hell or purgatory. False tresses were known to be made of flax, wool, cotton and silk.

Copyright © Rosalie Gilbert
All text & photographs within this site are the property of Rosalie Gilbert unless stated.
Art & artifact images remain the property of the owner.
Images and text may not be copied and used without permission.

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Rosalie's Medieval Woman - Medieval Hairstyles

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beauty, health & hygiene general healthcare skincare cosmetics body hair cleanliness, bathing & perfumes hair care hair styles oral care & dentistry intimate feminine hygiene Medieval Hairstyles HAIRSTYLES - BRAIDS - CORNETTES - RAMSHORNS - EUROPEAN STYLE FALSE HAIRPIECES & WIGS - HAIRNETS - EYEBROWS & HAIRLINE Hairstyles Medieval movies have a great deal to answer for when it comes to the accurate portrayal of women's hair styling during the Middle Ages.

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Primary Source with a bunch of pics of Medieval Jobs

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Primary Source with a bunch of pics of Medieval Jobs

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Good article but a bit advanced (college) FYI

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Good article but a bit advanced (college) FYI

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"Mention a court jester, and one pictures a whimsical creature in a belled hat or, perhaps, the ill-fated character in King Lear. Otto's lively, well-researched text proves that there are centuries of other examples and that the jester has a rich tradition worldwide. . . . Through anecdotes, historical details, analyses, and commentary, Otto brilliantly delineates the court jester, and quotations and illustrations do much to enhance this eminently readable text. . . . Well worth a look by avid readers with an eye for an informative yet uncommon title."
— Library Journal

"[A] lively survey of the state-sponsored mischief maker and his irrepressible, life-giving spirit. . . . In her richly detailed chapters (and an appendix listing 334 named fools in the historical record), Otto makes a vigorous case for the jester's ubiquity—from the ancient Chinese court to the Elizabethan stage to the modern corporate suite—and for the consistency of his characteristics: attachment to a particular ruler; physical or mental deformity (real or pretended); concern for the general welfare of the people; and the freedom to alert isolated kings, emperors, sultans, even popes of their 'moral halitosis.'"
—Jennifer Schuessler, Lingua Franca

"Sparkling with enthusiasm and wit, the text is sustained with Otto's love of her subject and informed by both her erudition and her very good sense of humor. Undaunted by the vastness of her subject and its resources, she presents a dazzling and entertaining collection of quotes, anecdotes, epigraphs, jokes, and comic texts. This is a fun book, bristling with pleasurable details."
—Lee Siegel, author ofLove in a Dead Language

Copyright

An excerpt from
Fools Are Everywhere
The Court Jester Around the World
Beatrice K. Otto

Read an interview with the author.

Fooling Around the World:(from Chapter 1:
The History of the Jester
Facets of the Fool and Chapter 7: Stultorum Plena Sunt Omnia, or Fools Are Everywhere)

"Who Is Not a Fool?" ["Qui non stultus?"]
—Horace (65-8 B.C.), Satires, 2.3.158

Then come jesters, musicians and trained dwarfs,
And singing girls from the land of Ti-ti,
To delight the ear and eye
And bring mirth to the mind.
—Sima Xiangru (ca. 179-117 B.C.),Rhapsody on the Shanglin Park

The jester is an elusive character. The European words used to denote him can now seem as nebulous as they are numerous, reflecting the mercurial man behind them: fool, buffoon, clown, jongleur, jogleor, joculator, sot, stultor, scurra, fou, fol, truhan, mimus, histrio, morio. He can be any of these, while the German word Narr is not so much a stem as the sturdy trunk of a tree efflorescent with fool vocabulary. The jester's quicksilver qualities are equally difficult to pin down, but nevertheless not beyond definition.

The Chinese terms used for "jester" now seem vaguer than the European, most of them having a wider meaning of "actor" or "entertainer." In Chinese there is no direct translation of the English "jester," no single word that to the present-day Chinese conjures an image as vividly as "court jester," fou du roi, or Hofnarr would to a Westerner. In Chinese the jester element often has to be singled out according to context, although the key character you does seem to have referred specifically to jesters, originally meaning somebody who would use humor to mock and joke, who could speak without causing offense, and who also had the ability to sing or dance: "The you was also allowed a certain privilege, that is, his 'words were without offence' . . . but the you could not offer his remonstrances in earnest, he had to make use of jokes, songs and dance." The term is often combined with other characters giving differing shades to his jesterdom, an acting or a musical slant, for example: paiyou, youren, youling, changyou, lingren, linglun. All could include musical and other talents, chang suggesting music, ling, playing or fooling, and pai a humorous element to bring delight. Several of these terms are too frequently translated as "actor" regardless of where they appear on the etymological chain of evolution and even though they were used long before the advent of Chinese drama.

Perhaps the earliest antecedents of the European court jester were the comic actors of ancient Rome. Several Latin terms used in medieval references to jesters (including numerous church condemnations of them), such as scurrae, mimi, or histriones, originally referred either to amusing hangers-on or to the comic actors and entertainers of Rome. Just as there is now no clear distinction between the terms for "actor" and "jester" in Chinese, so the Latin terms could merge the two. If there was no formal professional jester in Rome, the comic actors fulfilled his functions, sometimes even bearing a striking physical resemblance to what is usually considered a medieval and Renaissance archetype. With periodic imperial purges against actors for their outspokenness, many of them took to the road and fanned out across the empire in search of new audiences and greater freedom. Successive waves of such wandering comics may well have laid the foundations for medieval and Renaissance jesterdom, possibly contributing to the rising tide of folly worship that swept across the Continent from the late Middle Ages.

An individual court jester in Europe could emerge from a wide range of backgrounds: an erudite but nonconformist university dropout, a monk thrown out of a priory for nun frolics, a jongleur with exceptional verbal or physical dexterity, or the apprentice of a village blacksmith whose fooling amused a passing nobleman. Just as a modern-day television stand-up comedian might begin his career on the pub and club circuit, so a would-be jester could make it big time in court if he was lucky enough to be spotted. In addition, a poet, musician, or scholar could also become a court jester.

The recruiting of jesters was tremendously informal and meritocratic, perhaps indicating greater mobility and fluidity in past society than is often supposed. A man with the right qualifications might be found anywhere: in Russia "they were generally selected from among the older and uglier of the serf-servants, and the older the fool or she-fool was, the droller they were supposed and expected to be. The fool had the right to sit at table with his master, and say whatever came into his head." Noblemen might keep an eye out for potential jesters, and a letter dated 26 January 1535/36 from Thomas Bedyll to Thomas Cromwell (ca. 1485-1540) recommends a possible replacement for the king's old jester:

Ye know the Kinges grace hath one old fole: Sexten as good as myght be whiche because of aige is not like to cotinew. I haue spied one yong fole at Croland whiche in myne opinion shalbe muche mor pleasaunt than euer Sexten was . . . and he is not past xv yere old.

Fuller's History of the Worthies of England (1662) gives an account of the recruiting of Tarlton, jester to Elizabeth I (r. 1558-1603), that further illustrates this informality:

Here he was in the field, keeping his Father's Swine, when a Servant of Robert Earl of Leicester . . . was so highly pleased with his happy unhappy answers, that he brought him to Court, where he became the most famous Jester to Queen Elizabeth.

A dwarf-jester called Nai Teh (Mr. Little) at the court of King Mongkut of Siam (r. 1851-68), described by Anna Leonowens in Anna and the King of Siam, was similarly recruited:

He was discovered by one of the King's half-brothers on a hunting trip into the north and brought to Bangkok to be trained in athletic and gymnastic tricks. When he had learned these, he was presented to the king as a comedian and a buffoon.

A German, Paul Wüst, declined an offer of a post as jester with the sort of brazen dismissiveness that explains why he was asked. When Duke Eberhard the Bearded of Würtemburg (1445-96) invited him to be his jester he replied, "My father sired his own fool; if you want one too, then go and sire one for yourself" ("Mein Vater hat einen Narren für sich gezeugt, willst du aber einen Narren haben, so zeuge dir auch einen"). The same story is attributed to Will Somers, who uses the joke to mock Henry's predilection for chalking up wives:

His Majesty after some discourse growing into some good liking of him, said; fellow, wilt thou be my fool? who answered him again, that he had rather be his own father's still, then the king asking him why? he told him again, that his father had got him a fool for himself, (having but one wife) and no body could justly claim him from him: now you have had so many wives, and still living in hope to have more, why, of some one of them, cannot you get a fool as he did? and so you shall be sure to have a fool of your own.

The post of court jester might also appeal to somebody in need of a safe haven. The thirteenth-century French tale of Robert le Diable has him fleeing a populace baying for blood and forcing his way past the footmen to gain access to the emperor, who duly takes him under his wing as a jester, saying that nobody should be allowed to beat him. Alfred de Musset's play Fantasio (1834) is about a dandy whose job as jester allows him to escape and evade creditors, and a Scottish miscellany tells us how one of the most roguish historical jesters found his vocation:

Archie Armstrong . . . after having long distinguished himself as a most dexterous sheep-stealer, and when Eskdale at last became too hot for him, on account of his nefarious practices, he had the honour of being appointed jester to James I. of England, which office he held for several years.

Tarlton tended pigs, Archy stole sheep, and Claus Hinsse (d. 1599), jester to Duke Johann Friedrich of Pomerania (d. 1600), began his working life as a cowherd. Wamba, "son of Witless," the jester in Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, was, like Tarlton, a swineherd, and Claus Narr (Fool), one of Germany's most famous and long-serving jesters, was tending geese when he was recruited. He was jester to four Saxon electors and one archbishop during the last quarter of the fifteenth century and first quarter of the sixteenth, and there are more than six hundred stories about him. One day when the first of his patrons, Elector Ernst (d. 1486), was traveling through Ranstadt with a lot of horses and wagons, Claus became curious about all the commotion and went to see what was happening. Worried that his geese would be stolen, he secured the goslings by putting their necks through his belt while he carried the older geese under his arms. When Ernst saw him he laughed at his simplicity and decided he was a born jester. He asked Claus's father's permission to take him to court:

"That would be great, Sir! I'd be relieved of a great encumbrance thereby; the youth is no good to me—he makes nothing but trouble in my house and stirs up the whole village with his pranks." ["Sehr gern, Gnädiger Herr, ich würde dadurch eines grossen Verdrusses überhoben, denn der Junge ist mir nichts nütze, in meinem Hause macht er nichts als Unruh, und durch seine Possen wiegelt er dass ganze Dorf auf."]

Ernst then gave Claus's father twenty guilders as compensation for the strangled goslings and other gifts besides. The story is an insight into the charitable element often involved in the recruiting of "naturals." To a poor family, a natural might be a heavy burden, and it could clearly be a relief to have him taken in and looked after by a wealthy family. Generally speaking there is little to suggest that this was not done in a humane and kindly manner, although in England there was a law allowing the estates of a natural to be handed over to a person offering to care for him, which could lead to their being recruited under false pretenses.

A similar story is told of Jamie Fleeman (1713-78), the Scottish jester to the laird of Udny. He complemented his jesting duties with those of a cowherd and goose guardian, and when he one day grew irritated by the geese wandering willy-nilly, he twisted some straw rope around their necks and started walking home, unaware that they were being throttled one by one. By the time he realized it was too late, and since it was a rare breed of geese, he would have been in big trouble. So he dragged the corpses into the poultry yard and stuffed their throats with food. When asked whether the geese were safe and sound, he replied cheerfully, "Safe! they're gobble, gobble, gobblin' as if they had nae seen meat for a twalmonth! Safe! Ise warran' they're safe aneuch, if they hae nae choked themsells."

In India the same entrance requirements prevailed: make me laugh and you're in. Tenali Rama, one of the three superstar jesters of India, is said to have earned his position as jester by making King Krsnadevaraya laugh. According to one story, he contrived for the king's guru to carry him around on his shoulders within sight of the king. Outraged at the humiliation of his holy man, the king sent some guards out to beat the man riding on the guru's shoulders. Tenali Rama, smelling impending danger, jumped down and begged forgiveness of the guru, insisting that to make amends he should carry him on his own shoulders. The guru agreed, and when the guards arrived the guru was duly beaten. The king found the trick amusing enough to appoint Tenali Rama his jester. In China, despite the abundance of anecdotes about jesters once they enter royal service, there is very little background information available. Nevertheless the universal jester skills displayed by the Chinese jesters suggest that their appointment was as meritocratic as in Europe.

A description of Rabelais's Panurge encompasses many of the jester's characteristics: "Irreverent, libertine, self-indulgent, witty, clever, roguish, he is the fool as court jester, the fool as companion, the fool as goad to the wise and challenge to the virtuous, the fool as critic of the world." He could be juggler, confidant, scapegoat, prophet, and counselor all in one. If we follow his family tree along its many branches we encounter musicians and actors, acrobats and poets, dwarfs, hunchbacks, tricksters, madmen, and mountebanks.

A Cavalcade of Cavorting Fools

Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun, it shines everywhere.
—William Shakespeare,Twelfth Night (3.1.39-40)

We have all seen how an appropriate and well-timed joke can sometimes influence even grim tyrants. . . . The most violent tyrants put up with their clowns and fools, though these often made them the butt of open insults.
—Desiderius Erasmus,Praise of Folly

The court jester is a universal phenomenon. He crops up in every court worth its salt in medieval and Renaissance Europe, in China, India, Japan, Russia, America and Africa. A cavalcade of jesters tumble across centuries and continents, and one could circle the globe tracing their footsteps. But to China the laurels. China has undoubtedly the longest, richest, and most thoroughly documented history of court jesters. From Twisty Pole and Baldy Chunyu to Moving Bucket and Newly Polished Mirror, it boasts perhaps more of the brightest stars in the jester firmament than any other country, spanning a far wider segment of time. The jester's decline began with the rise of the stage actor as the Chinese theater became fully established during the Yuan dynasty. In many respects actors seem to have taken up the jester's baton not only in entertaining their patrons, but also in offering criticism and advice no less clear for being couched in wit. Perhaps only in ancient Rome did jesters and actors overlap so much.

In comparison with those of China, the numerous jesters of Europe, although flourishing for some four hundred years, are something of a dazzling display of shooting stars. Perhaps because the European court jesters were so inextricably linked with the tradition of folly that straddled the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, their time was relatively short-lived, and they died out more or less as the fashion for folly faded. But for as long as they lasted, which was no mere blip, their influence permeated court life. It is a common belief that Europe was the center of the court jester's cosmos, providing the control against which other jesters, such as they are, may be measured. Yet in a sense Europe is the exception rather than the rule, precisely because the fortunes of the European court jesters rose and fell with the tsunami-scale wave of medieval and Renaissance fool mania that engulfed the Continent. The concept of folly with all its variegated hues permeated Europe at all levels for several centuries, and it is against this backdrop of colorful and often contradictory manifestations of "folly" that the European jester must be seen. There were certainly jesters before the tidal wave began to swell, but it is on its crest that we see them come surfing in.

Although the jester died out as a court institution (if not as a function), about the sixteenth or seventeenth century in China and the early eighteenth in Europe, there have been pockets of resistance to his demise. European homes less grand than those of kings and prelates harbored jesters for a century or two longer than the courts, a domestic jester being recorded at Hilton Castle in county Durham in the eighteenth century and a Scottish jester, Shemus Anderson (d. 1833), at Murthley Castle, Perthshire. The Queen Mother's family, the Bowes-Lyons, was "the last Scottish family to maintain a full-time jester." A history of the manor of Gawsworth describes a Samuel Johnson (1691-1773) as "one of the last of the paid English jesters. . . . In addition to his being employed as jester or mirth-maker by the manorial Lord of Gawsworth, he was a welcome addition at parties given by the neighbouring country families, when he had free license to bandy his witticisms, and to utter and enact anything likely to enliven the company, and to provoke mirth and laughter."

In Persia the autocratic Shah Naseredin (r. 1848-96) had all his courtiers quaking except the jester Karim Shir'ei, whose name means "opium addict" but also implies someone of lazy or sleepy demeanor. Karim Shir'ei would ridicule the whole court, including the shah. Once the shah asked whether there was a shortage of food, and the jester said "Yes, I see Your Majesty is eating only five times a day." One member of the shah's entourage had the title Saheb Ekhtiyar ("Authorized" [by the shah]). When they were out traveling Karim Shir'ei's donkey stopped at a gate, and the jokester found a pretext to mock the courtier by addressing the ass: "If you want to stop you are Saheb Ekhtiyar [authorized], and if you want to go ahead, you are also Saheb Ekhtiyar [authorized]." Like many famous jesters before him, his name is still used as a peg for jibes and jokes.

Perhaps the most recent examples of the court jester are among the ritual clowns of African and American tribes whose mocking, corrective, and unbridled topsy-turvy antics have been documented by twentieth-century anthropologists. These are not all strictly speaking court jesters, in that they do not usually serve one master, belonging more to the whole tribe or village. Also, their license is often limited to specific periods, although during such festivals or rituals their freedoms and duties accord with those of the permanently privileged jester. However, there are some tribes that have had permanently appointed jesters, such as the African Wolof jesters and the Sioux "contrary," or heyhoka, and "jesters . . . were also attached to many African monarchs. They were frequently dwarfs, and other oddities; and their duties included besides the playing of jokes, the singing of the praises of their rulers. . . . 'But it must not be thought that these bards were mere flatterers . . . they also had licence to make sharp criticisms.'"

The court jester is universal not merely in having been at home in such diverse cultures and eras, but also in taking his pick from the same ragbag of traits and talents no matter when or where he occurs. Above all he used humor, whether in the form of wit, puns, riddles, doggerel verse, songs, capering antics, or nonsensical babble, and jesters were usually also musical or poetic or acrobatic, and sometimes all three. Some physical difference from the norm was common whether it was in being a dwarf or hunchback or in having a gawky or gangly physique or a loose-limbed agility—his movements might be clumsy or nimble, but they should be somehow exaggerated or unusual. There is a Ming dynasty description of a jester that captures this, for besides always hitting the mark with his gilded tongue, he would "unleash his body and fling his limbs around, drumming his feet and flapping his tongue; he was steeped in wisdom." "Capering" is the word that springs to mind, perhaps a physical reflection of his verbal agility:

I have seen
Him caper upright, like a wild morisco
Shaking . . . his bells.

The Importance of Being Jest Earnest

But this Will Summers was of an easie nature, and tractable disposition, who . . . gained not only grace and favour from his Majesty, but a general love of the Nobility; for he was no carry-tale, nor whisperer, nor flattering insinuater, to breed discord and dissension, but an honest plain down-right, that would speak home without halting, and tell the truth of purpose to shame the Devil; so that his plainness mixt with a kind of facetiousness, and tartness with pleasantness made him very acceptable into the companies of all men.
A Pleasant History of the Life and Death of Will Summers (1676)

In short, the King liked him so well, that he did few Things without Archy's Advice, in so much, that he could have scarce had greater Power had he been made Regent of the Kingdom.
The Ass Race (1740)

Of at least equal importance with his entertainer's cap was the jester's function as adviser and critic. This is what distinguishes him from a pure entertainer who would juggle batons, swallow swords, or strum on a lute or a clown who would play the fool simply to amuse people. The jester everywhere employed the same techniques to carry out this delicate role, and it would take an obtuse king or emperor not to realize what he was driving at, since "other court functionaries cooked up the king's facts for him before delivery; the jester delivered them raw." An informal survey of the man in the street has shown that most people will pinpoint the jester's right to speak his mind as one of his salient characteristics. I have encountered only one person who considers this to have been more myth than reality:

There are many stories which show a jester as the only person who could counsel a stubborn king, and as such the myth of the court jester suggests that jesters could act as a check on the whimsical power of absolute monarchy. . . . I have been engaged in producing and reproducing a common myth of jesters. Even though the jesters dance right next to the power of the king, the text has been depoliticized in that it has effaced the history of the fool, and elaborated on images conjured up by Erasmus, then Shakespeare, in the task of making jesting reasonable and responsible, and thus political in modern times. . . . The respected, responsible, official jesters only functioned in small historical windows of possibility, for example: fourteenth and fifteenth century Italy and around the turn of the seventeenth century in England.

Even if the jester's famous veracity were only a myth, it would have been established long before Erasmus. And we have seen the impressive extent to which jesters everywhere were allowed and encouraged to offer counsel and to influence the whims and policies of kings, by no means being limited to "small historical windows of possibility." We have seen numerous examples of a jester advising or correcting his monarch and the recorded instances are particularly abundant in China. The Chinese records give us an idea of just how effective a jester could be in tempering the ruler's excesses, for the occasions when his words of warning were either ignored or punished are heavily outnumbered by those when he was heeded and even rewarded.

It is in the nature of jesters to speak their minds when the mood takes them, regardless of the consequences. They are neither calculating nor circumspect, and this may account for the "foolishness" often ascribed to them. Jesters are also generally of inferior social and political status and are rarely in a position (and rarely inclined) to pose a power threat. They have little to gain by caution and little to lose by candor—apart from liberty, livelihood, and occasionally even life, which hardly seems to have been a deterrent. They are peripheral to the game of politics, and this can reassure a king that their words are unlikely to be geared to their own advancement. Jesters are not noted for flattery or fawning. The ruler can be isolated from his courtiers and ministers, who might conspire against him. The jester too can be an isolated and peripheral figure somehow detached from the intrigues of the court, and this enables him to act as a kind of confidant.

The jester also had humor at his disposal. He could soften the blow of a critical comment in a way that prevented a dignified personage from losing face. Humor is the great defuser of tense situations. Among the Murngin tribe of Australia it is the duty of the clown to act outrageously, ludicrously imitating a fight if men begin to quarrel. In making them laugh at him, he distracts their attention from their own fight and dispels their aggression. Quintilian (ca. 35-100) comments on the power of jesters' humor to carry the day:

Now, though laughter may be regarded as a trivial matter, and an emotion frequently awakened by buffoons, actors or fools, it has a certain imperious force of its own which it is very hard to resist. . . . It frequently turns the scale in matters of great importance. [Cum videatur autem res levis et quae ab scurris, mimis, insipientibus denique saepe moveatur, tamen habet vim nescio an imperiosissimam et cui repugnari minime potest. . . . Rerum autem saepe . . . maximarum momenta vertit.]

The foolishness of the jester, whether in his odd appearance or his levity, implies that he is not passing judgment from on high, and this may be less galling than the "holier than thou" corrective of an earnest adviser. One of the most effective techniques the jester uses to point out his master's folly is allowing him to see it for himself. Rather than contradicting the king, the jester will agree with a harebrained scheme so wholeheartedly that the suggestion is taken to a logical extreme, highlighting its stupidity. The king can then decide for himself that maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all.

The jester is in a sense on the side of the ruler. The relationship was often very close and amiable, and the jester was almost invariably a cherished rather than a tolerated presence. This leads to the kindliness of jesters: they could be biting in their attacks, but there is usually an undercurrent of good-heartedness and understanding to their words. If they talk the king out of slicing up some innocent, it is not only to save him from the king's wrath but also to save the king from himself—they can be the only ones who will tell him he suffers from moral halitosis.

The jester is also perceived as being on the side of the people, the little man fighting oppression by the powerful. By fooling wisely ("en folastrant sagement"), the jester often won favor among the people ("gaigna de grace parmy le peuple"). In the folk perception of southern India a king was hardly considered a king without his jester, and the continuing appeal of the court jester in India, in stories and comic books, is perhaps equaled only in Europe. He may have disappeared from the courts and corridors of power, but he still has a powerful hold on the collective imagination. Yet he is no rebel or revolutionary. His detached stance allows him to take the side of the victim in order to curb the excesses of the system without ever trying to overthrow it—his purpose is not to replace one system with another, but to free us from the fetters of all systems:

Under the dissolvent influence of his personality the iron network of physical, social and moral law, which enmeshes us from the cradle to the grave, seems—for the moment—negligible as a web of gossamer. The Fool does not lead a revolt against the Law, he lures us into a region of the spirit where, as Lamb would put it, the writ does not run.

In Europe and India the most eminent jesters were household names, as top-class comedians are today, and stories about their jokes and tricks circulated freely, as they still do in India—there is even a kind of lentil soup named after Birbal. The star jesters of China may also have enjoyed this celebrity status, as Ban Gu's biography of Dongfang Shuo suggests:

Shuo's jokes and sallies, his divinations and guesses, shallow and inconsequential though they are, were passed around among the ordinary run of people, and there was no stripling or cowherd who failed to be quite dazzled by them.

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Fooling Around the World: The History of the Jester

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"Mention a court jester, and one pictures a whimsical creature in a belled hat or, perhaps, the ill-fated character in King Lear. Otto's lively, well-researched text proves that there are centuries of other examples and that the jester has a rich tradition worldwide. . . .

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When we imagine a medieval or Tudor feast, we might picture a jester, the wise fool, running among the guests juggling or telling bawdy jokes while minstrels strum their lutes. But in the 11th and 12th centuries, the title 'minstrel', meaning 'little servant', was the name given to a wide range of entertainers, including singers, musicians, jugglers, tumblers, magicians as well as joculators or jesters. Both men and women were employed as minstrels and there is a record of a joculatrix called Adeline owning land in Hampshire in 1086.

In the 12th century, the title of follus or 'fool' began to be mentioned in documents, often when these jesters had been rewarded with land as payment for loyal service. A fool named Roland le Pettour was given 30 acres of land by King Henry II, probably when he retired, on condition that Roland returned to the royal court every year on Christmas Day to "leap, whistle and fart".

But noblemen and even kings did not throw daily banquets and besides, listening to the same fool or joculator every night of the year would have become tedious, so medieval jesters only performed occasionally. The rest of the year, they were expected to carry out other duties in the household, such as being keeper of the hounds, or travelling to markets to buy the livestock to feed the family, their servants and their men-at-arms.

A fool's life

Both King Edward II and Edward III had a succession of fools and called them all 'Robert' regardless of their real names. However, by the 13th century, some talented jesters were beginning to achieve superstar status. Those who were lucky enough to be employed by royalty were provided with their own horse and servants. Tom le Fol - Tom the Fool - performed at the marriage feast of Edward I's daughter Elizabeth and was given a fee of 50 shillings; this was a fortune, since a skilled thatcher could expect to earn only 2½ pence a day and you could buy a goose for 1½ pence.

Of course, most fools weren't lucky enough to come to the attention of the king. One traveller complained that no one gave him rabbit-trimmed robes or costly gifts, because he couldn't play instruments, tell jokes and stories, juggle, dance, or fart a tune - which suggests that jesters were required to be multi-talented.

But being selected as the personal jester of a medieval king or nobleman came with a serious health warning; jesters were often required to go to the battlefield with their masters to carry messages between the leaders of warring armies, demanding that a city surrender to a besieging army or delivering terms for the release of hostages. Unfortunately for the jesters, the enemy did sometimes 'kill the messenger' as an act of defiance (especially if they regarded the terms being offered as an insult) and some used a catapult or trebuchet to hurl the unfortunate messenger (or his severed head) back into his own camp as a graphic illustration of what they thought of the message.

Jesters also had a vital role to play in the battle themselves. In the early Middle Ages their job was to wage psychological warfare, boosting their army's morale the night before with songs and stories. When the two armies took up their opposing positions in preparation for battle, the jesters would cavort up and down on foot or horseback between them, calming the nerves of their own men by making them laugh at jokes, singing bawdy or insulting songs and calling out mocking abuse to their enemies in order to hearten their own soldiers and demoralise the opposition, rather like modern football supporters before a match. Some even juggled swords or lances in front of the enemy, taunting and baiting them until those with a hottest tempers broke ranks and charged prematurely to avenge the insult and kill the fool, which would weaken their defensive position.

Three types of 'fool'

As the Middle Ages progressed, three types of fool evolved. The professional fool employed by a nobleman was usually very astute, educated and generally wore normal clothes, like their masters, rather than the classic fool's costume.

But wealthy or noble families also adopted men and women who had mental illnesses or physical deformities, keeping them almost as pets for their amusement or as an act of 'Christian charity'. Often referred to as 'innocent fools' and also given titles such as 'the Queen's fool' or 'Lord X's fool', they were not paid, just provided with food, clothes and a place to sleep on the floor. If the noble family decided these poor fools no longer amused them, they were sometimes provided with a pension in the form of regular alms, though sadly many ended their days as beggars.

The third class of fools were the members of the 'Fool Societies' particularly popular in France. These were groups of amateurs who performed at Christmas or at fairs and festivals. They were generally the ones to don the classic jester's costume of a hood with ears and multi-coloured tunics, and tie bells to their shoes or clothes. They would dance and prance through the streets, some even carrying their infants on their backs.

By the Elizabethan period, jesters were beginning to move away from performing in houses to becoming comic actors on the stage and by the 17th century, it was becoming quite dangerous to have a royal patron, as Jeffrey Hudson was to discover. Jeffrey was a talented 'dwarf jester' who was encountered by Charles I when the jester jumped out from under a pie crust. Jeffrey travelled with Queen Henrietta Maria when she fled to Holland and returned with her to England to fight on horseback for the royalists during the Civil War. In spite of his size, he was skilled horseman and solider. Ever loyal to the crown, he helped to get the queen back to safety in France. However, a few months later, the brother of Lord Croft who was captain of the Queen's guard insulted Jeffrey over his height. The dwarf challenged him to a duel and shot him dead. The queen had no choice but to banish Jeffrey. On his voyage of exile, he was captured and sold into slavery. Bizarrely on his eventual return to England (if it was the same man), he was found to have gained a foot in height and in a further twist in 1679, he was accused of conspiracy in a 'papist plot'. He was finally released from prison in 1682 aged 63, dying shortly afterwards.

'Maggoty' Johnson

One of the last professional jesters was Samuel Johnson, known as 'Maggoty' because of his pockmarked face. Born in 1691, he danced, told jokes, acted and frolicked in most of the wealthy houses in England. His patron, the Duke of Montague, helped Maggoty to put on a play in London which Maggoty had written, casting himself in the lead role of Lord Flame. By all accounts the play was dire, but nevertheless was staged more than 30 times at the Haymarket Theatre. Maggoty believed he was an excellent singer, but usually performed with his facing away from the audience as he pulled such bizarre expressions when singing people would laugh - or at least he believed that was cause of their giggling.

When he died at the age of 82, he was initially buried in the churchyard, though his friends had him removed as he had requested, and reburied in woods (now known as Maggoty Wood, near Gawsworth, Cheshire) in an empty tomb he had originally designed for his much-loved female servant in her favourite woodland spot. He had asked not to be left in the churchyard, because he particularly disliked a quarrelsome old woman who was buried there, and joked that on the 'day of resurrection' she would pick a fight over his leg bones, claiming them to be hers.

You can still visit his tomb in Maggoty Wood today. The woods are owned by the National Trust, which has erected boards on which you can read both the original 1773 inscription on his tomb praising Mr Johnson's many talents and telling the tale of the leg bone, together with a rather nastier inscription which was written in 1851 in rhyming couplets and begins: "If chance has brought thee here, or curious eyes / To see the spot where this poor jester lies / A thoughtless jester even in his death / Uttering his jibes beyond his latest breath." The poem contains a stern Victorian warning to those who spend their lives playing the fool: the days of the court jester were well and truly over.
Karen Maitland is the author of The Plague Charmer (Headline Review 2016) This article was first published by History Extra in March 2017.

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When we imagine a medieval or Tudor feast, we might picture a jester, the wise fool, running among the guests juggling or telling bawdy jokes while minstrels strum their lutes. But in the 11th and 12th centuries, the title 'minstrel', meaning 'little servant', was the name given to a wide range of entertainers, including singers, musicians, jugglers, tumblers, magicians as well as joculators or jesters.

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Britannica on "Fools" (includes jesters)

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Britannica on "Fools" (includes jesters)

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fool, a comic entertainer whose madness or imbecility, real or pretended, made him a source of amusement and gave him license to abuse and poke fun at even the most exalted of his patrons. Professional fools flourished from the days of the Egyptian pharaohs until well into the 18th century, finding a place in societies as diverse as that of the Aztecs of Mexico and the courts of medieval Europe. Often deformed, dwarfed, or crippled, fools may have been kept for luck as well as for amusement, in the belief that deformity can avert the evil eye and that abusive raillery can transfer ill luck from the abused to the abuser. Fool figures played a part in the religious rituals of India and pre-Christian Europe, and, in some societies, such as that of Ireland in the 7th century bc, they were regarded as being inspired with poetic and prophetic powers. The raillery of the fool and his frequent ritual association with a mock king suggest that he may have originated as a sacrificial scapegoat substituted for a royal victim. A resemblance between the sacrificial garments of ancient ritual and the costume of a household jester in the Middle Ages-coxcomb, eared hood, bells, and bauble, with a motley coat-has been noted.

The earliest record of the use of court fools dates from the 5th dynasty of Egypt, whose pharaohs attached great value to Pygmies brought from the mysterious lands to the south, apparently employing them as dancers and buffoons. Fools were a part of many wealthy households of imperial Rome, in which imbecility and deformity fetched high prices in the slave markets. References to household fools appear increasingly in records from the 12th through the 15th century. Fools were attached to courts, private households, taverns, and even brothels. In the 18th century, household jesters declined in western Europe but flourished in Russia, and offending courtiers were sometimes degraded to court jesters.

The figure of the fool has also been important in literature and drama. The clown-player in Shakespeare's dramatic company, Robert Armin, was interested in household fools and published a historical account of them in 1605. His knowledge may have influenced the playwright, who produced some of the best-known fools in literature: Touchstone in As You Like It; Feste in Twelfth Night; and the fool in King Lear. See also fool's literature.

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Fool, a comic entertainer whose madness or imbecility, real or pretended, made him a source of amusement and gave him license to abuse and poke fun at even the most exalted of his patrons.

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Jesters (this guy has had some good videos but be warned - I haven't watched this one yet)

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Jesters (this guy has had some good videos but be warned - I haven't watched this one yet)

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What was It Actually Like to Be a Court Jester in Medieval Times?

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BEAUTY, HEALTH & HYGIENE

SKIN CARE

COSMETICS

HAIRSTYLES

BODY HAIR

CLEANLINESS

HAIR CARE

ORAL CARE & DENTISTRY

FEMININE HYGIENE

GENERAL HEALTHCARE

Medieval Cosmetics
FOUNDATION - EYELINER & EYESHADOW - LIP BALM - ROUGE

Many debate the use of cosmetics to enhance the female appearance during medieval times, but there is a considerable amount of evidence for make-up during this period.

The statue at right is dated at 1350 and shows a well-made up woman, her skin fashionably pale with plucked eyebrows, high hairline and round forehead and a rosy glow which could not be due to anything other than a generous amount of rouge. We could suspect that this was just artistic endeavours to make an attractive sculpture, but written records also support the use of cosmetics for the medieval woman.

Respectibility
Opinions varied even between members of the clergy as to the respectability of wearing cosmetics. It was felt that it was generally not a desired state, although it was mentioned that women who had been afflicted with illness and were thereby made unattractive, were excused from the sin of vanity by using cosmetics.

The desire to not repel others or their husbands was deemed an acceptable excuse for enhancement.

Thomas of Aquinas was questioned about the use of cosmetics by woman and also grudgingly conceded that for a woman to make herself as attractive as possible to her husband so that he might not stray into the sin of adultery was itself not a sin, however, it was cautioned that a woman should not make herself so beautiful that she should attract other women's husbands.

Foundation
Studies have shown that women in England 'painted their faces white' to achieve a paler-looking complexion. Women often painted their faces with blaunchet or wheaten flour or used lead-filled cosmetics. It was assured that the root of the Madonna lily would whiten the face.

Research also suggests ground lily root made a powder for faces, although it does not specify what kind of lily was recommended. The Compendium Anglicus from 1240 written by Gilbertus Anglicus recommends cyclamen root.

One recipe for a flour-based cosmetic to whiten the face comes from the L'ornement des Dames in the 13th century. The method is as follows:

' There is a white make-up that is very easy to make. Put very pure wheat in water for fifteen days, then grind and blend it in the water. Strain through a cloth, and let it crystalise and evaporate. You will obtain a make-up which will be as white as snow. When you want to use it, mix it with rosewater, and spread it on your face which has first been washed with warm water. Then dry your face with a cloth.'

Eyeliner and eyeshadow
Many books say that eyecolours and eyeliner were available during the medieval period, and it is commonly known that since early antiquity, Egyptians, Spainish women and later the woman of the Rus at Staraya Ladoga in the 10th century were using eyeliner and eyeshadow.

Paintings and sculptures for the High Middle Ages like the one at left, show women with pale and unadorned eyes and eyebrows heavily plucked.

It would seem, therefore, that although the technology to produce eyeliner and eyeshadow was available, fashion dictated that it wasn't used.

Lip balms, lipsticks and stains
Lip tinctures and balms seem to be the lip treatments most commonly referred to.

One recipe for a medieval lip balm described as a ' sweet smelling grease that will keep the lips and hands from chapping and make them moist and soft' comes from the book Secrets of Don Alessio Piemontese, published in 1557.

'Take 12 oz of fresh suet and 6oz of marjoram and pound them together. Form into balls and sprinkle with good wine. Next put into some vessel and seal it tightly so that the odor of the marjoram does not escape. Place in the shade for 24 hours and then put into water. Cook slowly, then strain. This process must be repeated 4 or 5 times always adding another 9oz of suet. Finally a little musk or civet can be added.'

There appeared also available a lip stain in use, but I have no information about those at this point.

Rouge
The ground leaves of angelica, Angelica archangelica, were the principal ingredient for the manufacture of 'ladies' red powder'. Dried flowers of the safflower, Carthamum tinctorius, were also used in the making of rouge. In a poem by a monk of Montaudon from 1180-1215AD, the writer stated that the statues of the churches complain to God:

'that there is not enough paint left to adorn them because of all the ladies who use rouge and cream.'

The Compendium Anglicus from 1240 written by Gilbertus Anglicus, mentions brazilwood chips soaked in rosewater would give a clear, pink dye which can be rubbed on the cheeks. Shown at right is the Bust of Saint Juliana Circle of Giovanni di Bartolo dated 1375.

A 13th century French song described in Love Lock'd Out, A Survey of Love, Licence and Restriction in the Middle Ages by James Cleugh refers to a peddlar who carries for sale:

'razors, tweezers, looking glasses, toothbrushes and tooth-picks, bandaus and curling irons, ribbons, combs, mirrors, rosewater... cotton with which they rouge themselves and whitening with which they whiten themselves.'

showing the large range of grooming cosmetics and tools which were in use and available at the time.

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BEAUTY, HEALTH & HYGIENE SKIN CARE COSMETICS HAIRSTYLES BODY HAIR CLEANLINESS HAIR CARE ORAL CARE & DENTISTRY FEMININE HYGIENE GENERAL HEALTHCARE Medieval Cosmetics FOUNDATION - EYELINER & EYESHADOW - LIP BALM - ROUGE Many debate the use of cosmetics to enhance the female appearance during medieval times, but there is a considerable amount of evidence for make-up during this period.

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hat _ Styles, Materials, History, & Facts _ Britannica

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DRESS ACCESSORIES TIPPETS BELTS & GIRDLES PURSES & BAGS HEADWEAR COIFS CROWNS AND CIRCLETS HATS AND HENNINS HEADDRESSES VEILS AND WIMPLES HOODS FOOTWEAR JEWELLERY GLOVES APRONS Headwear of the Middle Ages CHAPLETS & GARLANDS - FILLETS, BARBETTES & TORQUES As one might imagine, a woman's outfit was not complete without some kind of headwear.

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Unlike females in the middle ages, men didn't always wear hats, but it seem they were more likely to wear them that not. The fashion for headgear changes at least as much as the clothing fashion. At times it seems it changes more.

I have made a little overview of cool images I have found of male headgear and hair styles. Most of the images are of people from the upper classes but it isn't exclusive to that. If you want to know more about the female fashion you can find that here.
I gather pictures of head gear. I find them in illuminated manuscripts, sketches and in paintings. Some of the pictures are quite small and a bit blured, but I thought it was important to have pictures from different sources rather than just the famous high quality ones. They are organized by century and by style.
The different styles of hats and headgear

Coifs

Among working men it would seem that the coif has been one of the most common pieces of headgear from the late 1100's and fell out of popularlyt in the 1300's. It is a simple linnen coif tied under the chin. Sometimes it is worn under other pieces of headgear.

Capuchon

The capuchon in the form of hood and attached shoulder-length cape with a hole was cut in the fabric to frame the face. Sometimes they have a very long tail - it is actually the tail that is called a liripipe.

Worn from the 1100's onward. In the 1300's people started wearing them on top of their heads and that is called a chaperon.

Kufi style hats

A brimless, short, rounded cap

Strew hats

Strew hats were made in a number of shapes from the typical round crown wide brimed sun hat to conical type assoiciated with East Asia. They were worn by travlers and peasants in the field. They keep rain and sun out of your face quite effectely.

Bycoket

From the images I gather that bycockets (or chapeau à bec) became quite popular in the 1300's and 1400's. The bycocket, is what we would think of as a Robin Hood hat - it has a wide brim that is turned up in the back and pointed in the front like a bird's beak. They were worn by men and woman and was in use between the 1200's and the 1500's. They started as a hat worn by nobility but the growing merchant class took to it. Some of them have quite tall crowns.

Barretina

Baglike hat that fits right around the head. It has a padded or upturned edge and the crown is soft and hangs to the side of the head. Kind of like a small santa hat. The crown can extend into a tail - like on a night cap.

Chaperon with liripipe

From the 1300's the chaperon transformed from a utilitarian hood ( liripipe) with a small cape to becoming a complicated and fashionable hat worn by the wealthy in town settings. This came when they began to be worn with the opening for the face placed instead on the top of the head.

In the 1400's changing masculine fashion dictated that the head should go right through the visor of the liripipe and the neckpiece be raised to form a crest on the head, often on a padded ring (bourrelet). The point of the hood was then worn round the neck or round the head. Worn in this manner it was called a chaperon. Inside church or in the present of high ranking nobility men would wear them over their shoulder. I kind of think of it as a baseball cap worn backwards for fashion purposes.

Tall hats with no brim

In the 1400's quite tall what looks like felted hats come into fashion. They are mostly black.

Hats with a small folded brim

Often soft hats with the brim folded up. They seem popular in the 1400's. Sometimes the all of the edge is folded up like in the picture and sometimes it is only in the back almost like a bycoket but with a tall crown.

Round cap

Soft-crowned, round-brimmed cap or bonnet

Beret

A beret is a soft, round, flat-crowned hat.

Biretta

The biretta (Latin: biretum, birretum) is a square cap with three or four peaks or horns, sometimes surmounted by a tuft. Traditionally the three peaked biretta is worn by Roman Catholic clergy and some Anglican and Lutheran clergy.

More on medieval male headgear - useful links

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Medieval male hair and headgear - Postej & Stews

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Unlike females in the middle ages, men didn't always wear hats, but it seem they were more likely to wear them that not. The fashion for headgear changes at least as much as the clothing fashion. At times it seems it changes more. I have made a little overview of cool images I have found [...]

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How to wear a medieval "chaperone" (weird men's hat!)

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How to wear a medieval "chaperone" (weird men's hat!)

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By George Ghidrai

If we are asked to visualize a castle, most of us will come with the image of a grand building made up of stone, with several towers and an impressive keep, a massive gatehouse, battlements with arrow slits, and a deep moat surrounding the entire edifice.

However, the original castles were far removed from that romantic image.

The Motte-and-Bailey Castles - a huge success

The motte-and-bailey castle was a true European innovation. While the concept of ditches, ramparts, and stone walls as defensive measures is ancient, raising a motte is a medieval innovation.

Originally, these castles were constructed from timber and earth alone; they were cheap and easy to build and didn't require any special design. The fortification consisted of a wooden keep that was placed on a raised earthwork called a motte, overlooking an enclosed courtyard called the bailey.
Motte and Bailey Castle
As we can see, these castles included three main design elements:

1. The Motte

The Motte (the word derives from Old French) was a large earthen mound with a ditch surrounding its base. It was often artificial, meaning it had to be built by piling up earth, but sometimes it incorporated a pre-existing feature of the landscape, such as a nearby hill.

Large mottes could be as high as 30 meters and as large as 90 meters in diameter, but they were rarely used. That's because it took an enormous effort to pile up such a huge volume of earth.

The motte was flattened on top to make place for the wooden keep. The steep embankment on the side of the motte was known as a Scarp.

2. The Keep

The keep on top of the motte was the castle's primary defensive element. It was surrounded by a protective wall, originally made of wood. Small mottes could only support a simple tower but larger mottes could support more complex structures that often contained multiple rooms.

The keep on top of the motte was the castle's last line of defense and it was the place where the lord of the castle (together with his wife) inhabited.

Larger towers were often equipped with cellars and granaries, more living rooms and rooms for the watchmen and the servants appointed to keep the house.

It was not uncommon for the tower to be built and then partially buried within the mound, with the buried part forming a cellar.

3. The Bailey

The term bailey refers to a yard formed by flattening an area alongside the motte. The yard was surrounded by a wooden fence called a palisade and then a ditch. The bailey was the center of domestic life within the castle and could contain a variety of buildings, including halls, kitchens, stores, stables, a chapel, barracks, and workshops.

The bailey was linked to the motte either by a flying bridge stretching between the two, or, more commonly in England, by steps cut into the motte. Sometimes, the ditches were filled with water by damming or diverting nearby streams forming water-filled moats.

A more detailed diagram of a Motte and Bailey Castle
In practice, no two motte-and-baileys were exactly the same although most of them shared these three common elements.

For example, a castle could have had more than one bailey and a good example is Windsor Castle where several baileys flank the motte. Alternatively, some castles were designed with a single bailey and two mottes, such as Lincoln Castle. Fundamentally, the design of each castle adapted to its natural surroundings.
Aerial view of Windsor Castle. We can see the two baileys (left and right) flanking the original motte in the middle
Why were motte-and-baileys so popular?

Motte-and-bailey castles were immensely popular for nearly 200 years. The Normans were huge advocates of this type of castle design and we have already learned that motte-and-baileys were a decisive factor in the Normans successful conquest of the British Isles.

Despite the simple and relatively rough design, motte-and-baileys had excellent defensive capabilities. Attackers soon found out that the keep on top of the motte was surprisingly hard to capture as the height of the motte and the ditch surrounding it gave defenders a significant defensive advantage.

Moreover, Norman designers found that the wider the ditch was dug, the deeper and steeper the sides of the scarp could be, making life even more difficult for the attackers.

The biggest advantage of the Motte and Bailey design was how extremely cheap and easy to build it was. Designers could use an existing mound or hill for foundations which could save significant construction time.

Construction didn't require any special materials, and the work could usually be carried out by unskilled men. This meant that a motte-and-bailey castle could be built relatively quickly using local manpower and earth and timber alone as building materials. This allowed the Normans to quickly consolidate their power, then move on and conquer the next region.

As a marker of their success, almost 1,000 motte-and-bailey castles were built in England, Wales, and Scotland.

Although the motte-and-bailey design is a particularly northern European phenomenon (most castles of this type can be found in Normandy and Britain), we can also see such structures in other parts of Europe, such as Denmark, Germany, Southern Italy and occasionally beyond.

Motte-and-baileys decline

By the end of the 11th century, motte-and-bailey castles (especially those made entirely out of earth and timber) began to fall from favor. There were several reasons behind this fact.

One thing that made the motte-and-bailey design so popular was the use of wood as the primary building material, however, this also became the design's Achilles heel. Because timber burns easily, firing flaming arrows at the castle could have devastating consequences.

Sophisticated fire-launching techniques designed to burn down the castle were developed and used with great success.

Moreover, the broad base of the mottes meant that attacks could come from any direction, and raiders were quick to use this to their advantage, often surprising the defenders inside the keep.

Timber also tends to rot easily, and many of these early castles quickly ran into disrepair and were often abandoned or required significant (and often expensive) repairs and ongoing maintenance.

Small and medium mottes could not sustain a large keep, and this meant that living quarters were usually small and cramped. There was little space to house soldiers and peasants, let alone provide the stature yearned for by many nobles.

To build a large tower that could properly accommodate the lord and his servants, castles needed a large motte. However, a large motte was extremely difficult to build as it took disproportionately more effort to pile up the earth than in the case of smaller hills. As an example, a large motte is estimated to have required up to 24,000 man-days of work while smaller ones required perhaps as little as 1,000.

The cost of this design was not easily scalable and the reality of the times forced local nobles to forego the simple motte and bailey design and turn to more complex design principles to build the large castles that their status and people needed for economics, politics, and defense. To avoid the perils of fire, improve durability and increase the castle defense capability, the obvious solution was to replace (wherever possible) timber with stone.
Chateau de Gisors in Normandy, a perefect example of a motte-and-bailey castle, where the wooden tower was replced with a stone keep
What happened to the motte and bailey castles?

The Motte-and-bailey design became less popular in the mid-medieval period, and from the end of the 12th century, a new scientific approach in castle design had emerged. And with this new approach, the great era of stone castles had begun.

Some motte-and-bailey castles were abandoned or allowed to lapse into disrepair; those with wooden keeps rotted away, leaving a handful of odd shaped hills scattered across the landscape as the only indication they ever existed.

Not all were abandoned however, with many of these original motte-and-bailey castles used as foundations for the newly designed stone castles.

See also

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Motte and baileys, a decisive factor in the Norman conquest of Britain

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By George Ghidrai If we are asked to visualize a castle, most of us will come with the image of a grand building made up of stone, with several towers and an impressive keep, a massive gatehouse, battlements with arrow slits, and a deep moat surrounding the entire edifice.

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A paper model castle you can print and build

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A paper model castle you can print and build

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No download, no installation, PC or Mac; print from your web browser.

Go to Putting Your Castle Together

(Print these instructions out)

Castles were an important part of cultural, military, and political history in Europe for many centuries. Although the Vikings began raiding medieval towns and monasteries in the late 8th century, it took a while for the development of elaborate fortifications. Defenses developed from moats, mounded dirt and wooden palisades to sophisticated stone castles built as a defense against both raiders and foreign armies. Stone castles remained important until the effective use of gunpowder in the 15th century made them easy to demolish. (Other cultures, notably Asian, had their own buildings that served the same purposes as castles, but we are only dealing with European castles here.)
Typically the lord of the castle had a grant of land from the king or other higher lord, which he ruled from his castle. Peasants were bound to the land they worked, unable to go elsewhere. They owed part of their harvest, and other taxes, to the lord. From his portion, the lord had to feed himself and his family, his knights that fought for him, and various servants around the castle, and pay for other things that were needed.
The castle was for both defensive and offensive purposes. When attacked by outsiders, people from the surrounding area would take shelter in the castle. A fair number of people could live for weeks within the castle walls, if they had brought adequate provisions in with them. Essential to a castle's defense during a siege was a good, reliable well, within the castle wall or, better within the keep itself.
A castle was designed around the concept of layers, forcing the enemy to have to breach multiple obstacles or give up. To attack a castle, the enemy had to get past the palisade, if there was one, and across the moat, a deep ditch usually filled with water. To cross the moat there was a drawbridge, which could be pulled up if an enemy threatened. A good, wide moat made it more difficult to use siege engines against the stone walls, or to try to undermine the castle walls. Also, the attackers had great trouble getting their horses close to the castle, so the attackers would be on foot. All of this time they would be under fire from the fighters in the castle.
Beyond the drawbridge was a portcullis, a grate made of iron or wood in a vertical slot which could be lowered quickly to stop intruders. There were doors on the other end of the gatehouse, so that the attackers could be trapped between the doors and the portcullis, and then attacked from above.
In the ceiling with appropriately named murderholes made specifically to allow defenders to bombard attackers with trash, hot tar, burning oil, or arrows. On staircases to the guard towers-used for better sight of the battle, better vantage points for archers, and dumping tar, mud, and fire on the enemy-were spiral staircases, nearly impossible for a right-handed warrior to fight upward, but easy for a right-handed man to fight downward.
Inside the castle wall was the keep, a large, heavily-built building that was the most secure place in the entire castle. This was where the Great Hall was located, and where the private apartments of the lord and his family were, possibly with a chapel, or a solarium. If the castle walls were breached, the keep is the place everyone would run to. In many cases, if a castle were attacked by an enemy army, and the castle put under siege, the lord had already sent out messages to allies to help relieve the siege. In that case, the castle defenders were trying to hold out until help arrived. There was generally a postern gate in the castle wall, at the back or side, probably near the kitchen, for use by tradesmen bring food, etc., to the castle. It would consist of a low door, wide enough to allow only a single person through and as concealed as possible. It would be barricaded during an attack, but it also provided a "sally port"-someone inside the castle could (maybe) sneak out to get a message through, or even start a sneak attack on the besiegers.
Besides being a defensive fortification, the castle provided a base from which the lord and his knights could ride out into the surrounding countryside, to exert control of the area around the castle. To be able to arrive quickly, with armed knights at your side, at any place in the surrounding area, kept down the possibility of rebellion or outlawry, or attack by an invader. The lord's control over his grant of land-either directly or through men he appointed-was essential in keeping order. It provided some security to peasants and townspeople from bands of outlaws, but it also made sure that any rules or taxes imposed by the lord were enforced.
The castle was both a fortification and a residence, and the degree to which it was one or the other could change with the political situation. Castle were fortifications first, being built of stone, and were not comfortable to live in. The lady of the castle would add tapestries to the walls and have straw and sweet-smelling herbs strewn on the floors, to help make the castle rooms more livable. As the lord's wealth increased, he would add features to the castle to make it both more livable and more impressive.
The wife of the lord often was the one who actually ran the domestic arrangements of the castle, attending to her husband, and supervising the servants.. A noble lady was also expected to be well-learned in etiquette, embroidery, and sewing. Castles were always cold; they were made entirely out of stone, so no heat circulated or was kept inside. Fires needed constant tending all over the castle. Any opening that allowed fresh air or light also let in the cold. The amount of glass was limited; some castles had stained glass in the chapel, if the lord was rich enough to afford it.
Children were often cared for by servants until the age of seven, when they were considered small adults. At that age, they were sent off to serve in another noble's household. This both formed alliances and educated the children. Boys learned politics and falconry while girls learned manners and embroidery. The nobility would seek to arrange advantageous marriages for their children, often when the children were toddlers. Marriages were made to keep the peace, expand territory, and to make sure there would be a next generation of nobles. Girls were suitable for marriage at thirteen and boys at fifteen, but arrangements were often made years before the weddings.
Life in a castle was very different for servants, though it might still be more pleasant that working in the fields. Servants woke up before the lady of the castle, preparing food, setting the large table in the grand hallway. The kitchen of a castle was generally located outside of the keep, but near the great hall. Good food took a long time to cook and the lord, lady, and knights loved to eat a variety of it. When one meal was done, another was being prepared. The kitchen centered around two fires, one for roasting large livestock or game, and one for a large cauldron for soup and stew. People were always skinning animals, plucking birds, stirring the cauldron, tending the fire, turning the spit, or moving dishes. Feasts lasted for hours, constantly requiring more food to be brought into the great hall. Dishes were not washed in the kitchen, but outside, along with the laundry.
Peasant life was very different from life in a castle. Serfs were peasants that were forced to work the land around the castle in exchange from protection from invaders. They lived in rough huts, probably made out of wattle and daub, worked the land, and were hungry much of the time. Certain religious holidays were marked with feasts at the castle for those close enough to get there. When war threatened, the peasants would take refuge in the castle.
The peasants depended on their lords and castles more than they depended on their king. Roads between towns and cities were leftover from the Romans, so they were often broken, abandoned, and full of robbers and murders while most of the stones from centuries ago had been looted for building. Trade was difficult because travel was still problematic due to the weather; rains turned the roads to impassable mud, snow became a danger to animals and people while obscuring the road
The advent of gunpowder--and then artillery that made efficient use of gunpowder-- made it easy to attack and take over a castle. No longer useful as a defensive fortification, castles went out of use. Their stones were taken away to build roads and other buildings.

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No download, no installation, PC or Mac; print from your web browser. Go to Putting Your Castle Together (Print these instructions out) Castles were an important part of cultural, military, and political history in Europe for many centuries. Although the Vikings began raiding medieval towns and monasteries in the late 8th century, it took a while for the development of elaborate fortifications.

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Click and Explore the parts of a Medieval Castle

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Click and Explore the parts of a Medieval Castle