Castles & knights
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Life in a castle
A castle was the residence for the lord, his family and his followers, while his guards, the castle’s peacetime garrison, manned the battlements. The lady took charge of the castle while the lord was away. Among their servants, who were all under the control of the chamberlain, were ladies-in-waiting, the lady’s personal assistants, and pages, who served at meal times and ran errands.
Castle residents
The castle was the family home of a nobleman or baron and his wife, the lord and lady of the castle. Among their servants, who were under the control of the chamberlain, were ladies-in-waiting, the lady’s personal assistants, and pages, who served at meal times and ran errands.
The constable, also called the castellan, the lord’s second-in-command, was in charge of the garrison, the soldiers who defended the castle. Knights swore allegiance to the lord. They fought alongside hired soldiers, men-at-arms and archers. Each knight was served by a squire, a young trainee knight. The herald delivered the king’s messages.
The steward looked after the daily running of the castle, including its finances and supplies. The treasurer collected rents and taxes and paid wages. The chaplain, who led services in the chapel, was the best educated person in the castle, so he had the extra responsibility of teaching the lord’s children to read and write and learn passages from the Bible by heart.
The chaplain was also called upon to keep records of the castle’s financial accounts and to take note of all punishments given out by the lord. Minstrels and jesters entertained dinner guests. The falconer trained falcons to catch game.
A large number of staff, servants and craftsmen catered for the Lord’s needs. Scullions helped the cook with jobs around the kitchen. The pantler was in charge of the food store, while trenchermen served meals. With water often unsafe to drink, people drank beer, made by the brewer, instead. The butler, or “bottler”, was in charge of the wine cellar.
Horses were the lord’s most valuable possessions. He had different horses for riding into battle, hunting, pulling carts or simply getting about. They were looked after in the stables by the sergeant-farrier and his stable lads, while blacksmiths made horseshoes as well as other metal objects. Armourers mended weapons and armour. The carpenter made anything from gates to hoardings. The worst job fell to the gong farmer, who cleaned out the pits under the garderobes (toilets).
Castle women
Apart from the ladies-in-waiting and a few female servants, there were far fewer women in the castle than men. Every castle had a team of seamstresses and laundresses, however, whose job was to make, mend and clean clothes for the lord and lady. They used spinning wheels to spin yarn. The operator, called a spinster, pressed the treadle with her foot, which rotated the wheel that turned a spindle, winding the woollen threads around it.
Blacksmith
The blacksmith made all kinds of vital things out of metal, including nails, chains, tools, hinges and wagon fittings. He also shod all the horses. The brick-built forge contained a fire of burning charcoal. It was kept blazing hot by blasts of air from bellows. Metal was heated on the forge. When it was red hot, the smith hammered it into shape on a heavy iron anvil. To fit a shoe on a horse, the old one was removed, untidy bits of hoof trimmed with a rasp, and the new shoe nailed firmly into place.
Armourer
Even in peacetime, the castle needed to be prepared for sudden attack. The armourer ensured that all weapons, chainmail and helmets were in good order. Swords, lances and axes were sharpened on the grindstone, while new swords were made by heating the metal in a forge and hammering it into shape on an anvil.
Kitchens
Cooks, bakers and other kitchen servants, called scullions, worked day and night to prepare food for when the lord was at home. Meat was roasted on a spit that had to be turned by hand. This was the job of a scullion called a turnspit. Stews, soups and sauces were boiled in a large cauldron slung on a hook over an open fire. A dome-shaped oven for baking bread was built into the wall near the hearth and heated with the embers from the fire.
Windmill
To make bread, grain from cereals, such as wheat or barley, had first to be ground into flour. This job was done by a windmill, which was built within the castle walls, or sometimes actually on the walls themselves. Its sails, called sweeps, caught the wind. The rotating sweeps drove a mechanism inside which turned heavy grinding stones. The ground flour dropped through to sacks in the area beneath. The sweeps were angled in such a way that they always turned anticlockwise when the wind blew.
The manor
The food for the castle came from the manor, the land owned by the lord. The local people were allowed to farm some of it for themselves, in return for cultivating the lord’s land. In the winter, food for the livestock was in short supply, so most of the animals were slaughtered. The meat was smoked or salted so that it would be preserved, then hung or stored in barrels in storerooms. Sheep also supplied wool for the seamstresses to make clothes. Creamy milk from cows was made into soft cheese or butter.
Banquets
On special occasions, great banquets were held in the Great Hall, the largest room in the castle. Servants brought in the dishes. They served the lord and lady and their guests first. They sat at the top table, which was covered by a linen tablecloth. They ate from gold and silver plates and drank from individual cups. The meat was carved at the lord’s table and the best pieces were served to him and his honoured guests.
The other diners sat at trestle tables. Their food was served up on dishes called messes. Each mess was shared between three or four people. They ate not from plates but from trenchers, slices of stale bread that soaked up the gravy (afterwards they would be given to the poor to eat). They shared their drinks from jugs. While the diners feasted, musicians played from the gallery and jesters juggled and told jokes. The banquet lasted several hours. After the lord and lady and their guests retired to bed, their followers and servants rolled themselves up in their cloaks and slept on the straw-covered floor.
Consultant: Philip Parker