Noble Life

After I became a knight, I found great favor with my lord. In return for my bravery in battle, he offered me his daughter, Katherine, for my wife. Katherine had a very large dowry of a castle, land, money, and serfs,. She was fair to look upon and had the usual womanly graces, so I accepted. We have been married these seventeen years, and I have grown to love and respect her very much. She takes care of the castle and the lands while I am away and ensures that everything runs smoothly. During the day I run the estate, making sure that the serfs pay their taxes and are taken care of. I also supervise the knightly training of the boys under my care . At least once a week, I go hunting in the nearby forest, usually for deer. I spend some of the time away from home  fighting in wars for my lord. At night, Katherine and I play chess and checkers. Katherine spends her day planning meals, weaving, doing embroidery, and instructing the girls who are fostering with us in the arts of being a lady. She also entertains the neighbors and hunts with me. Jacob, my oldest son, is learning to be a knight in the care of my lord, the Earl of Wedgewick. Katherine and I are currently arranging a betrothal ceremony for our daughter, Sarah. She is almost 12, and it's time we found a good husband to care for her. My younger daughter, Amy, is fostering with her Aunt Elizabeth and learning to be a lady. Our youngest child, Nicholas, will soon join his brother in knightly training.

Where They Lived

The constant threat of war during the Middle Ages caused members of the nobility to build grand stone castles to protect themselves, their families, and their serfs against a possible attack. Within the castle was a building called the Keep, where the nobleman and his family lived. This consisted of a great hall that served as an office, dining room, and dance hall. The upper floors contained bedrooms for the lord, his family, and private scholars.  These rooms were like sitting rooms where the family retired at night to play games and talk. There were stables, a large kitchen, and servants quarters within the castle walls as well. Every castle was filled with servants who did most of the day to day work for the castle and knights who defended it against attack.

What They Wore

Brighter colors, better materials, and longer jacket length were signs of greater wealth in the Middle Ages. Wealthy people wore clothing made of silk, velvet, and a heavy cloth called damask. Fur was used for linings and trimmings. Style changed dramatically over the course of the Middle Ages for the wealthy. Towards the end of the Middle Ages, it was fashionable for men to wear hose and a jacket with pleating or skirting or a tunic with a surcoat. At one point, it was fashionable for men to wear long pointy shoes. Sometimes the points were so long that they had to be tied around the ankle in order for the men to walk. Wealthy women wore linen or silk undergarments topped by a gown or surcoat. In the winter, they wore petticoats of fur (otter, cat, or miniver). Clothing was generally very versatile with reversible fabrics and detachable sleeves.

The wardrobes of the wealthy were augmented by fur trimmings and jewelry. Jewelry was lavish and often imported. Stones were uncut as stone cutting had not yet been invented. Diamonds became popular in the fourteenth century. By the mid fourteenth century, laws had been developed to control who wore what jewelry.

Clothes became a status symbol towards the end of the Middle Ages. The noble and wealthy did not want commoners to dress like them, so they made laws that forbade peasants to wear anything but "cheap cloth or a blanket". Peasants would generally not have been able to break this law, because they couldn't afford anything extravagant.

What They Ate

The wealthy ate rich and varied food during the Middle Ages. They had one servant whose job was to cook and supervise the kitchen called the chef. They took foods such as dried vegetables, salted meat, and bread and combined them with spices to create wonderful tasting concoctions for their wealthy masters. Chefs also cooked for the great feasts that nobles held for their friends, relatives, and neighbors.

Guests at a feast did not have a plate, silverwear, or even their own cup! Plates were flat pieces of stale bread called trenchers, which were shared with several other people. If you were very important, say an earl or a bishop, you only had to share with one other person. No spoons or forks were used. The food was either mush that was scooped onto a piece of bread or solid chucks that were eaten with your fingers. A belt knife used to cut meat and bread was the only utensil. In order to take a drink, a guest signaled the cup bearer to bring them the wine or ale that was shared by everyone in the room. Only a king or pope had their own cup.

The food would have been meat, bread, and vegetables seasoned with salt, pepper, and other spices imported from the Far East. Food was heavily seasoned and mashed together to help disguise the taste of salted or rotten meat and dried vegetables. While guests ate, musicians and acrobats performed for entertainment.

Childhood

Birth and infancy were the most dangerous stages of life for people in the Middle Ages. Records from the time period suggest that approximately 20% of women died during childbirth and 5% of infants died during delivery with another 10-12% dying in their first month. Healthy children were regarded as a gift from God. Most families wanted sons who would one day carry on the family name, as opposed to daughters, who would require a large dowry when they married. However, many parents probably rejoiced at the birth of a daughter as well, especially if they had been childless for many years or their infants had died.

Childbirth during the Middle Ages was very dangerous for both the mother and the infant. When the mother went into labor, she was attended by a midwife, and perhaps a doctor. If the delivery went well, so much the better, but in the event of complications the midwife could do very little. There were no Cesarean sections and no advanced medical equipment to help mother and child. Many women died during childbirth and many infants died during delivery.

If both mother and infant survived childbirth, the child was usually bathed in lukewarm water and then swaddled in warm cotton or wool fabric. If it was thought the infant would not live, it was immediately baptized by the midwife or by a man nearby, often the father. If the infant was thought to survive it was baptized several days after its birth in a local church. Here it was named, often after a close relative or a saint, and was promised to be brought up as a Christian.

After the baptism, the child was brought home and life returned to normal. The infant might be nursed at home by its mother, but more commonly was given to the care of a carefully chosen wet nurse, who would care for it until around the age of 2. At this point, children had learned to walk and were learning to talk. They returned home, where they were cared for by their mothers and nurses until they were around 7. They played games, and had toys. Medieval children had dolls, spinning tops, rattles, hobby-horses, blocks, bones, balls, whistles, puppets, and little girls had glass jewelry for dress-up. Little boys played with wooden soldiers, whips, toy horses, and had fights with wooden swords. In the winter, children of the nobility would make seats of ice and be pulled around a frozen pond by their playmates. Older boys tied animal bones to their feet to make ice skates, while girls danced in the great hall to music of lutes.

Noble children were also taught rudimentary manners and perhaps a bit of reading, writing, and dancing by their parents or tutors. At the age of about 7, boys were sent to another lord's castle to begin their training as a knight. If a boy was physically weak and unfit to become a knight, he was sent to the monastery to become a scholar or a monk. Girls were also sent to other castles, were they learned how to manage a household, care for children, weave, sew, play instruments, dance, sing, and other skills required of a marriageable young lady.

Marriage and Divorce

Members of the nobility almost never married for love. Marriages were arranged by the parents of the couple, often when both were still small children. Occasionally the future groom may have been able to choose his own bride, but his family had to approve of the girl. The two families reached an agreement in which a dowry (a payment from the bride's family to the groom or the groom's family to help offset the costs of matrimony) was settled and a wedding date was proposed. The couple was now betrothed, similar to being engaged today.

The bride was almost always several years younger than the groom. Girls were sometimes as young as 12, while their husbands were usually in their mid twenties or early thirties, though the man was sometimes as old as 50.

This was often the first time the future husband and wife had ever met or talked to each other for any length of time. Love was not a consideration in marriage, at least not at first. The families of the couple wanted to be sure that the lands and valuables of the parents would be passed into responsible hands and that the family of the other partner was respectable and of the same social class.

The couple were married in a simple ceremony unlike the elaborate marriage ceremonies today. The actual ceremony differed from place to place. In the early part of the Middle Ages, the Church was not very involved in the marriage ceremony, and it was usually conducted at home with several witnesses present. Over the course of the Middle Ages, the Church became more involved in the marriage ceremony. By the end of the period, a Christian marriage ceremony almost always accompanied a wedding.

Once the wedding was over, married life began. It was undoubtedly awkward for both the husband and the wife until they got to know each other better. Mutual friendship and respect eventually developed among most married people and sometimes the partners also grew to love each other.

The man was the head of the household in the Middle Ages and the wife was legally his property. A husband was allowed to beat his wife, as long as she did not die. Husbands had complete control over all of their wife's belongings and any other property that was owned by the family. The husband had the final say in all matters. However, many husbands asked for and heeded the advice of their wives. Often, the husband would often be gone on business trips or away at war for a good portion of the time, leaving the wife in charge of the household. In this way, women gained a previously unheard of amount of freedom.

Husbands were allowed to divorce their wives for many reasons, the most popular being adultery. Wives, on the other hand, could not divorce there husbands. Towards the end of the Middle Ages this changed slightly. Wives were allowed to divorce husbands convicted of certain crimes or who were away on a long campaign of warfare.

Recreation

The members of the nobility had the most free time of any class during the Middle Ages. The favorite pastimes of most of the nobility were hunting and falconry. The nobles kept the forests for themselves, making it illegal for any common person to hunt in the forest. Only nobles were permitted by law to kill fallow deer, roe, wild boar, and red deer. A typical hunting party included noblewomen as well, unless the prey was the dangerous wild boar. Hunting dogs also made up part of the party. These dogs were trained to find and run down prey.

Falconry was also a popular sport, and each castle had a falconer whose job was to capture, train, and care for hawks as if they were human beings. A good hawk was prized almost as much as a good warhorse and members of the nobility were known to make pilgrimages to plead for the health of a sick hawk. Hawks were used to hunt herons, ducks, cranes, partridges, and pheasants. The hawk sat on the heavy leather glove of the hunter (or huntress) until prey was sighted. Then its hood and leg straps were removed and the hawk quickly sighted the prey, killed it, and then returned to its owner.

Tourneys were another popular event during the Middle Ages. This was a gathering of knights who fought against each other. Aged knights acted as judges, awarding prizes to the winners (often the horse and saddle of the loser). Jousting was one such sport. There were also events for squires and pages to practice and develop their skills.

Other outdoor sports included playing with a ball and stick, broad jumping, archery, and putting the stone. Members of the nobility also gambled with dice and played chess and checkers.

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