![]() Metal was used to reinforce corners, for decorative handles, and for locks. Generally, most furniture was made out of wood, which could be carved, gilded, or otherwise decorated. Wooden stools and benches were the most common seats. Each of the great chambers included tables, but in many cases they were probably only boards on top of trestles this structure allowed them to be stored when the room was used for something else and made them easier to move when the lord relocated. When a lord arrived in a castle, his servants took the clothes out of the chests and hung them from wooden rods suspended from the walls. Almost all household goods were placed in chests for storage or moving, includingĬlothes, documents, pots, and pans. Probably the most common form of medieval furniture was the chest. Then heavy curtains were hung all around the bed for decoration and warmth. A long pillow called a bolster stretched the width of the bed, and a feather pillow or two was set on top of it. Linen sheets, wool blankets, quilts, and furs were laid on top of these mattresses. The first was likely of straw, the second of wool, and the third of goose down-essentially going from hardest to softest. A wooden bedstead with cords woven across it provided a base for several layers of mattresses. Among the most valuable and important furnishings were those for the bedchamber. When the countess of Leicester decided to stay at Dover Castle in 1265, she arrived with a baggage train that required more than 140 horses to transport it, and more goods were sent later. Source: Hans-Werner Goetz, Life in the Middle Ages from the Seventh to the Thirteenth Centuries, translated by Albert Wimmer, edited by Steven Rowan (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1993), p. ![]() This excerpt from section sixty-two lists some of the duties of a medieval steward.Įvery official is to report annually on our total yield: how much profit he made with the oxen in the service of our cowherds, how much he made off the manses to provide plowing, how much from pig tax and other taxes he collected, how much he has received in fines and how much for keeping the peace, how much for game caught without our permission in our forests, how much from fines, from mills, forests, pastures, how much toll from bridges or ships, how much rent from freemen and tithing areas on cultivated lands belonging to the crown, the income from markets, vineyards and from the wine tax, how much hay was harvested, how much wood and how many torches, shingles and various other lumber, how much was harvested from abandoned fields, the amount of vegetables, millet, wool, flax and hemp, fruit, and nuts, how much was harvested from grafted trees and gardens, in beet fields and in fish ponds, how many skins, pelts, horns were collected and how much honey, wax, fat, tallow and soap, how much profit was made from blackberry wine, spiced wine, mead, vinegar, beer, cider and old wine, old and new harvest, chickens, eggs, geese, how much was taken in by fishermen, smiths, shieldmakers and shoemakers, how much money was made with kneading-troughs, chests or shrines, how much turners and saddlers took in, how much profit was made by ore and lead mines, how much was collected from other people who had tax obligations, how many stallions and breeding mares they had all this is to be presented to us by Christmas in the form of a detailed, exact and clear list, so that we will know what and how much of each we own. The Gafitulare de mllu is a ninth-century manuscript that describes the appropriate management of the properties belonging to the king of the Franks. The baggage trains involved could be enormous for example, MANAGING A LORDSHIP Many medieval lords lived itinerant lives, and when they moved they brought their favorite and most valuable furnishings with them. The furnishings of a medieval castle varied depending on who was in residence. The castle was not a place to seek privacy.įurniture. Since the staff of a major castle could include at least two dozen household officials, another dozen knights, and other aristocrats, several dozen foot soldiers, and assorted servants and spouses, the keep could also become quite crowded. Even the lords and ladies of castles, when they were in residence, often shared a room with a servant or conducted some business in the same rooms in which they slept. For example, the women may have slept in the bedchambers while the male servants, courtiers, and soldiers slept in the great hall. Soldiers, servants, and even lords- and ladies-in-waiting were expected to sleep in groups segregated by sex. Most of the rooms were multifunctional, and the keep was the primary living space in the castle. ![]() The medieval keep did not allow much personal privacy. Lords and Ladies: Castle Furnishings and Management
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