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which discussion of the most sophisticated concepts then available to civilization accompanied the consumption of delicacies.
Two contemporary descriptions of ladies at court attest to this change. The first is "A Rhyme of Fair Ladies", an Anglo-Norman satire of the thirteenth century. The writer takes a critical view of noble ladies disporting themselves in a castle hall - but in attacking the women reveals much about their lifestyle and demeanour.
The writer - presumably a cleric - describes initially the approach of the women to the feast, assembling in an ante-chamber, each noting the other's headgear, usually in this era consisting of the horned style imported from the east. Their arms are displayed to good effect, as they make sure everyone notes their kerchiefs of silk and cambric - yet another eastern importation - or their buttons of coral and amber. Their talking does not cease as long as they are in the hall, including their mockery of any unfortunate squire who happens by. The women are amply served from kitchen and cellar with snacks and drinks brought to them by two valets.
Having consumed their aperitifs amidst much laughter and exchange of secrets, the ladies descend the stairs into the main hall, hand in hand.
At the main meal they refrain from food altogether, but instead sit coyly, showing their faces, competing to see who can gain the most attention. Then, having demonstrated the front (of their costumes), they devise some excuse to turn away from the table, to show off the costly workmanship on their backs.
All this accomplished, they retire to their bower to entertain each other with the subtleties of needlework, whereof they loved to talk. One style much in favour included Saracen style embroidery, notes the author.
And so the feast accomplished, they set themselves to the work of preparing themselves and their costumes against the next such gathering.14
Lives so dedicated to fashion and the arts of social intercourse would have been unimaginable at the grimmer Saxon and Carolingian courts of preceeding centuries.
This pales into insignificance, however, in comparison to Rolandino of Padua's description of a Court of Love held at Treviso in about 1214.
Invitations were issued by the Podesta of Padua, Albizzo da Fiore, to the greatest knights and ladies in the district. These dames and damsels garrisoned a fantastic castle built for the occasion. Their fortress was apparently a huge stage composed of costly furs and cloths - vair, samite, brocade of Baghdad and ermines. The ladies dressed with helmets studded with emeralds and pearls. The men who assaulted the castle did so with missiles made of fruits and pies, as well as vases of sweet smelling liquids including eastern spices and essence of fruits such as cardamons, cinnamon and pomegrenates.
Contemporary images of such Castles of Love show that they were large and elaborate enough to contain as many as a dozen ladies, and the gates were tall enough for the men to ride into them on horseback.
Unfortunately, on this occasion, knights of Venice and Padua who were in the besieging army became jealous of each other's success, and the fighting turned real. The event had to be halted, but too late to prevent the triggering of bitter emnities between the rival nobles which later on developed into full scale war.15
As so often in medieval noble life, there was only ever a thin line separating the refinement and cultivation of court life from the barbarity of men's main passion throughout those centuries: bloody war.
A MAJOR CHANGE IN EATING HABITS
William of Malmesbury attributes a major change in eating habits to the effect of the Crusades. He says that Robert Earl of Mellent introduced to England, and eventually throughout central Europe, the idea of one substantial meal per day, an idea adopted "...from Alexius, Emperor of Constantinople, on the score of his health..."
Post Crusade food is also much more labour intensive, not only because of sugar, but also because of its increasing elaboration. It requires cultivation of a wider range of vegetables, such as herbs. This in turn suggests both a larger labour force to tend the crops, and a more sedentary lifestyle, in order to farm and harvest the foods.
As well, there is the need for a more knowledgable workforce - and often these were women, who are frequently shown in illuminations doing skilled work such as pruning and tending gardens. The knowledge of the powers of herbs is more frequently associated with women during the later middle ages than with men, as evidenced by the witchcraft trials of the late fifteenth century on.
Of course, these changes at the upper end of medieval society would have had little impact on the food habits of the peasants for centuries. Their food continued to be characterised by monotony, scarcity and lack of nutrition. All three of these are represented in an eleventh century document setting out the food to be given to workers employed for the harvest. The workers' diet on the first day of reaping consisted of bread, beer, potage of peas or beans, flesh, cheese and three loaves of wheat and rye split between two men. The food for the second day consisted of bread potage, water, herrings and cheese. And so on, for as long as the harvest took. For those who undertook carrying a load of grain on the back to the abbey storehouse, there was the reward of an extra second rate loaf of bread.16
As a result of the demand for spices, a thriving trade developed with the East, partly through the Mediterranean by Venetian and Genoese vessels. The German Hanseatic League established an exchange port at Visby in the island of Gotland, 100 km east of Sweden. They delivered delicacies from Russia and the Far East to England, through the Steelyard docks. Foreign domination of trade continued until the fourteenth century, so foreign merchants and buyers of English wool were at every great fair. In the fifteenth century, the English grew to take part with their own ships, and especially with cloth goods.17
City companies were set up to make sure there was fair dealing. The Pepperers of Soper Lane by 1316 had ordinances forbidding the soaking of merchandise such as saffron, alum, ginger, cloves in order to increase the apparent weight.18
Not only the food eaten from the tables, but the surroundings and equipment with which they were served improved as the result of outside contact. Centres such as Thiers in central France began to produce fine quality cutlery using metal working techniques imported by the Crusaders. Rich carpets were imported from the east from the twelfth century on. At first, westerners mistakenly used them as table coverings: it was a little while, and perhaps not without reason, that they were used in this position before finding their more normal place on the floor, amongst the rushes, the dog's droppings, table
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