Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776: June 2011 (Sixth) EditionReilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776: June 2011 (Sixth) Edition
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
The King's family, immediate circle, and most distinguished guests
dined elegantly in the Great Hall at midday. They would first wash their
hands in hot water poured by servants over bowls. The table had silver
plate, silver spoons, and cups of horn, crystal, maple wood, or silver
laid on a white cloth. Each guest brought his own knife in a leather
sheath attached to a belt or girdle. A procession of servitors brought
the many dishes to which the gentlemen helped the ladies and the young
their seniors by placing the food in scooped-out half-loaves of bread
that were afterwards distributed to the poor. A wine cup was handed
around the table. In the winter after dinner, there would often be games
of chess or dice or songs of minstrels, and sometimes dancing, juggler
or acrobat displays, or storytelling by a minstrel. In the summer there
were outdoor games and tournaments. Hunting with hounds or hawks was
popular with both ladies and gentlemen. The King would go to bed on a
feather mattress with fur coverlet that was surrounded by linen
hangings. His grooms would sleep on trundle beds in the same room. The
queen likewise shared her bedchamber with several of her ladies sleeping
on trundle beds. Breakfast was comprised of a piece of bread and a cup
of wine taken after the daily morning mass in one of the chapels.
Sometimes a round and deep tub was brought into the bedchamber by
servants who poured hot water onto the bather in the tub. Baths were
often taken in the times of Henry III, who believed in cleanliness and
sanitation. Henry III was also noted for his luxurious tastes. He had a
linen table cloth, goblets of mounted cocoa-nut, a glass cup set in
crystal, and silk and velvet mattresses, cushions, and bolster. He had
many rooms painted with gold stars, green and red lions, and painted
flowers. To his sister on her marriage, he gave goldsmith's work, a
chess table, chessmen in an ivory box, silver pans and cooking vessels,
robes of cloth of gold, embroidered robes, robes of scarlet, blue, and
green fine linen, Genoese cloth of gold, two napkins, and thirteen
towels.
In the King's 1235 grant to Oxford, the Mayor and good men were
authorized to take weekly for three years 1/2 d. on every cart entering
the town loaded with goods, if it was from the county, or 1d. if it came
from outside the county; 1/4 d. for every horse load, except for
brushwood; 1/2 d. on every horse, mare, ox, or cow brought to sell; and
1/2 d. for every five sheep, goats, or pigs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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