Thursday, July 03, 2008
The Naked Philologist Writes About Medieval Lesbians
Here. As does Got Medieval. Including, but fortunately not limited to, some women who aren't medieval at all, but merely perform a strip show in a medieval cellar in Talinn. And who may not actually be real lesbians, either.
Buying Power of 14th Century Money
What was 14th century money worth in today’s dollars? That’s tricky, because it depends on what you were buying. In the second half of the 14th century, a pound sterling would:
Support the lifestyle of a single peasant laborer for half a year, or that of a knight for a week. Or buy:
Three changes of clothing for a teenage page (underclothes not included) or
Twelve pounds of sugar or
A carthorse or
Two cows or
An inexpensive bible or ten ordinary books or
Rent a craftsman’s townhouse for a year or
Hire a servant for six months
It should be obvious from the above list that the conversion rate depends a great deal on what you buy. A husbandman or yeoman servant spent most of his budget on food and clothing, which have become relatively cheap since the industrial revolution. For that basket of goods, a pound sterling might buy $500 worth of goods today. On the other hand, a knight or noble might spend a quarter of his income on servants, and much of the rest on handmade luxury goods, things that were relatively cheap then and expensive today. For that bundle of goods, a pound might buy $1,800 worth of goods today.
Support the lifestyle of a single peasant laborer for half a year, or that of a knight for a week. Or buy:
Three changes of clothing for a teenage page (underclothes not included) or
Twelve pounds of sugar or
A carthorse or
Two cows or
An inexpensive bible or ten ordinary books or
Rent a craftsman’s townhouse for a year or
Hire a servant for six months
It should be obvious from the above list that the conversion rate depends a great deal on what you buy. A husbandman or yeoman servant spent most of his budget on food and clothing, which have become relatively cheap since the industrial revolution. For that basket of goods, a pound sterling might buy $500 worth of goods today. On the other hand, a knight or noble might spend a quarter of his income on servants, and much of the rest on handmade luxury goods, things that were relatively cheap then and expensive today. For that bundle of goods, a pound might buy $1,800 worth of goods today.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
The 14th Century Social Pyramid
The following illustrates the levels of late 14th c. English society from plowman to duke. It generally follows the ranks used in the 1379 Poll Tax, supplemented at the lower levels by the Sumptuary Laws of 1363. The first estate is in italic, the second in bold. Laborers were not the bottom of medieval society: below them were those who were unable to work because of age, illness or injury, reduced to a precarious existence dependent on charity.
Most of the ranks are followed by relevant sections of the sumptuary law of 1363. This was apparently never seriously enforced and may have been repealed the following year, but does give an idea of what was considered thrifty and restrained costume for each level of society. In reality, most people who could afford to indulged in some of the luxuries this law reserved to the level above them.
The ranks are illustrated by portraits from the Canterbury Tales, from the prologue unless otherwise noted. In many cases I have had to make educated guesses as to the wealth of the people described. Just how wealthy was the merchant or the prioress?
In some cases I have been guided by Russell’s Book of Nurture, a 15th century work on etiquette and manners. At dinner he would sit a prior with a knight, and so I have placed the prioress at that level. The monk is “to been an abbot able” but currently manages a cell, or subsidiary house, so I have placed him one level lower. The Wife of Bath is, or considers herself to be, the most substantial woman in her urban parish, and I have ranked her as a “sufficient merchant”
Chaucer doesn’t say what town the guildsmen, “shaply for to been an alderman”, are from. London aldermen were quite wealthy, with an implicit property qualification that was codified in the 15th c. as £1000 in goods or in money loaned out. This would suggest an income of over £100 a year. However, London aldermen were almost always from richer and more prestigious trades than Chaucer’s pilgrims. I suspect that they are either from a smaller town than London, or Chaucer is suggesting that they have an exaggerated sense of their own importance, or both.
Edith Rickert and other writers have noticed that Chaucer’s merchant corresponds in many details to Gilbert Maghfeld, a London merchant who handled goods worth £1,150 in 1390, and loaned money to Chaucer and many others. That would put him in the upper ranks of London merchants. Records from the Court of orphanage, 1350-1497, suggest a median estate of £200-£400, so even a more typical merchant would expect an income like a substantial squire.
A mark was worth 2/3 of a pound sterling.
1) Laborers. Many peasants had only a little land, or none, and depended on paid labor for others to survive. The income from such work could be very sporadic. In household service pages had a similar position at the bottom of the household hierarchy of pay, benefits and status. Also: Monks, etc, from houses worth less than 40 pounds and other clerks without advancement.
Income: £1 10s.-<£3
Carters, ploughmen, drivers of the plough, oxherds, cowherds, shepherds, deyars (dairymen) and swineherds, and all other keepers of beasts, threshers of corn, and all manner of people of the estate of a groom attending to husbandry, and all other people that had not forty shillings of goods, "shall not take nor wear no manner of cloth, but blanket and russet (wool) of twelve pence; and shall wear the girdles of linen according to their estate; and that they come to eat and drink in the manner as pertaineth to them, and not excessively."
Clerk
Ful thredbare was his overeste courtepy;
For he hadde geten hym yet no benefice,
2) Husbandmen. A holding of 30-15 acres of arable land, a yardland or half yardland, was generally reckoned enough to support a peasant farmer and his family. A groom in household service would live about as well, perhaps receiving somewhat finer clothes than the husbandman in livery as a matter of display. Also: Poorest landed lesser merchants or artificers. Pleaders. Monks and canons from lesser houses.Income: £3-<£5
….grooms, as well servants of lords as they of mysteries and artificers, shall .... have clothes for their vesture or hosing whereof the whole cloth shall not exceed two marks (26s. 8d.), and that they wear no cloth of higher price, of their buying nor otherwise, nor nothing of gold, nor of silver embroidered, aimeled (enameled), nor of silk, nor nothing pertaining to the said things; and their wives, daughters, and children of the same condition in their clothing and apparel, and they shall wear no veil, nor kerchief, passing twelve pence a veil.
3) Yeoman. A yeoman farmer would hold substantially more land than the minimum required to support a family: perhaps 100 acres or more. A skilled craftsman like an ordinary master carpenter would live about as well. The middle rank of household servants, between the grooms and the squires, were ranked as yeomen or valets. While this was a common term for servants of this rank, it doesn’t seem to have been regularly used to describe the free farmers from whom those servants were recruited until the 15th century. Also: middling to poor innkeepers, married pardoners or summoners, farmers of manor or parsonage, wholesalers dealing in stock and other lesser trade, and landed lesser merchants or artificers. All other benificed curates, and parish and annual chaplains. Monks and canons from middling houses.Income: £5-<£10
People of handicraft and yeomen are not to wear cloth of more than forty shillings the whole of it, 'by way of buying nor otherwise,' nor may they wear precious stones, 'nor cloth of silk nor of silver, nor girdle, knife harnessed, ring, garter, nor owche, ribband, chains, nor no such other things of gold nor of silver nor any embroidered work or silk. The wives and children of such persons to be liable to same restrictions, it being also expressly forbidden them to wear a kerchief of silk, or of anything but' yarn made within the realm, nor no manner of fur, nor of budge, but only lamb, coney, cat, and fox.
Yeoman
And he was clad in cote and hood of grene.
A sheef of pecok arwes, bright and kene,
Under his belt he bar ful thriftily,
(wel koude he dresse his takel yemanly:
His arwes drouped noght with fetheres lowe)
And in his hand he baar a myghty bowe.
A not heed hadde he, with a broun visage.
Of wodecraft wel koude he al the usage.
Upon his arm he baar a gay bracer,
And by his syde a swerd and a bokeler,
And on that oother syde a gay daggere
Harneised wel and sharp as point of spere;
A cristopher on his brest of silver sheene.
An horn he bar, the bawdryk was of grene;
A forster was he, soothly, as I gesse.
Carpenter’s Wife: Miller’s tale
A ceynt she werede, barred al of silk,
A barmclooth eek as whit as morne milk
Upon hir lendes, ful of many a goore.
Whit was hir smok, and broyden al bifoore
And eek bihynde, on hir coler aboute,
Of col-blak silk, withinne and eek withoute.
The tapes of hir white voluper
Were of the same suyte of hir coler;
Hir filet brood of silk, and set ful hye.
And sikerly she hadde a likerous ye;
And by hir girdel heeng a purs of lether,
Tasseled with silk, and perled with latoun.
In al this world, to seken up and doun,
There nys no man so wys that koude thence
So gay a popelote or swich a wenche.
A brooch she baar upon hir lowe coler,
As brood as is the boos of a bokeler.
Hir shoes were laced on hir legges hye.
Parish Clerk: Miller’s tale
Ful streight and evene lay his joly shode.
His rode was reed, his eyen greye as goos.
With poules wyndow corven on his shoos,
In hoses rede he wente fetisly.
Yclad he was ful smal and properly
Al in a kirtel of a lyght waget;
Ful faire and thikke been the poyntes set.
And therupon he hadde a gay surplys
As whit as is the blosme upon the rys.
Miller: Reeve’s Tale
Ay by his belt he baar a long panade,
And of a swerd ful trenchant was the blade
A joly poppere baar he is in his pouche;
Ther was no man, for peril, dorste hym touche.
A sheffeld thwitel baar he in his hose.
His Wife
The person of the toun hir fader was.
With hire he yaf ful many a panne of bras,
For that symkyn sholde in his blood allye.
She was yfostred in a nonnerye;
For symkyn wolde no wyf, as he sayde
But she were wel ynorissed and a mayde,
To saven his estaat of yomanrye.
And she was proud, and peert as is a pye.
A ful fair sighte was it upon hem two;
On halydayes biforn hire wolde he go
With his typet bounden aboute his heed,
And she cam after in a gyte of reed;
And symkyn hadde hosen of the same.
Ther dorste no wight clepen hire but dame;
Was noon so hardy that wente by the weye
That with hire dorste rage or ones pleye,
But if he wolde be slayn of symkyn
With panade, or with knyf, or boidekyn.
4) Landless Squire’s estate. Landless Squire in Service or Arms. A damoisele or damsel was the female equivalent of a squire in household service, a woman of gentle birth and status, but not necessarily young or unmarried. Poorer franklins or sergeants of the country. Richest innkeepers and married pardoners or summoners. 2nd rank of farmers of manor or parsonage, wholesalers dealing in stock and other lesser trade, lesser landed merchants or artificers. Clerics as below with appropriate income, monks and canons from the wealthiest houses.
Income: £10-<£20
Esquires, and all gentlemen under the estate of a knight, and not having land or rent of the value of £100 a year, were to wear suits costing no more than 4 1/2 marks (£3). They were not to wear any 'cloth of gold, nor silk, nor silver, nor no manner of clothing embroidered, ring, broche, nor owche of gold;' they were to use 'nothing of stone, nor no manner of fur.’ The wives and daughters of these gentlemen were under similar restraint, an injunction being added against their having 'any turning-up or purfle.'
Merchants, citizens, and burgesses, artificers, people of handicraft, as well within the City of London as elsewhere, having goods and chattels to the value of £500, they, their wives and children might dress as esquires, etc., and their belongings, who had 'land to rent to the value of £100 by the year'
Squire
Embrouded was he, as it were a meede
Al ful of fresshe floures, whyte and reede.
Syngynge he was, or floytynge, al the day;
He was as fressh as is the month of may.
Short was his gowne, with sleves longe and wyde
5) Squire of lesser estate, or widow of one. Other sufficient merchant, or widow of one. Apprentices of law and attorneys of lesser estate, Middling or poor mayors of small towns. Richer franklins or sergeants of the country. Richest farmers of manor or parsonage, wholesalers dealing in stock and other lesser trade, lesser landed merchants or artificers. Cleric as below with appropriate income.
Income: £20-£66 13s. 3d
Franklin
At sessiouns ther was he lord and sire;
Ful ofte tyme he was knyght of the shire.
An anlaas and a gipser al of silk
Heeng at his girdel, whit as morne milk.
Monk
A monk ther was, a fair for the maistrie,
An outridere, that lovede venerie,
A manly man, to been an abbot able.
Ful many a deyntee hors hadde he in stable,
And whan he rood, men myghte his brydel here
Gynglen in a whistlynge wynd als cleere
And eek as loude as dooth the chapel belle.
Therfore he was a prikasour aright:
Grehoundes he hadde as swift as fowel in flight;
Of prikyng and of huntyng for the hare
Was al his lust, for no cost wolde he spare.
I seigh his sleves purfiled at the hond
With grys, and that the fyneste of a lond;
And, for to festne his hood under his chyn,
He hadde of gold ywroght a ful curious pyn;
A love-knotte in the gretter ende ther was.
His heed was balled, that shoon as any glas,
And eek his face, as he hadde been enoynt.
He was a lord ful fat and in good poynt;
His eyen stepe, and rollynge in his heed,
That stemed as a forneys of a leed;
His bootes souple, his hors in greet estaat.
Now certeinly he was a fair prelaat;
Wife of Bath
Of clooth makyng she hadde swich an haunt,
She passed hem of Ypres and of Gaunt.
In al the parisshe wif ne was ther noon
That to the offrynge bifore hire sholde goon;
And if ther dide, certeyn so wrooth was she
That she was out of alle charitee.
Hir coverchiefs ful fyne weren of ground.
I dorste swere they weyeden ten pound
That on a Sonday weren upon hir heed.
Hir hosen weren of fyn scarlet reed,
Ful streite yteyd, and shoes ful moyste and newe.
Boold was hir face, and fair, and reed of hewe...
Upon an amblere esily she sat,
Ywympled wel, and on hir heed an hat
As brood as is a bokeler or a targe,
A foot-mantel aboute hir hipes large,
And on hir feet a paire of spores sharpe.
In felaweshipe wel koude she laughe and carpe.
6) Knight bachelor, squire that ought to be knight (40 pounds or more from lands), widow of these, Commander of Hospitalers, Middling apprentice of law or attorney, rich mayor of small town, municipal officer of large town, great merchant, or cleric as below with appropriate income.
Income: £66 13s. 4d.-< £200
…esquires having two hundred marks a year and upwards in land or rent might ' take and wear clothes of the price of five marks (£3 6s. 8d.), the whole cloth, and cloth of silk and of silver, ribband, girdle, and other apparel reasonably garnished of silver. Their wives and children might also wear ' fur turned up of miniver, without ermine or letuse but they might not wear any precious stones, except upon their heads.
Knights who had land or rent within the value of £200 by the year might wear six-mark cloth, but 'of none higher price. They might not wear cloth of gold, nor cloak, mantle, or gown that was furred with miniver nor sleeves of ermine, nor anything that was set with precious stones, excepting the head-dress; they were not to use any 'turning up of ermines, nor of letuses, nor clieres.'
Merchants, etc, who had goods and chattels to the value of £1000 might dress as esquires and gentlemen who had rent in land to the extent of £200 a year.
All clerks whose degree in college or church, and the clerks of the king whose position required the use of fur, might do according to the constitution of their society. All other clerks having 200 marks a year out of land might do as knights having the same rent; and clerks having less than this amount from rent were to be subject to the same restriction as esquires with £100 a year of rent. It was also provided that 'all knights and clerks who by this ordinance may wear fur in winter, shall wear lawn in summer.'
Knight
His hors were goode, but he was nat gay.
Of fustian he wered a gypon
Al bismotered with his habergeon,
For he was late ycome from his viage,
And wente for to doon his pilgrymage.
Merchant
A marchant was ther with a forked berd,
In mottelee, and hye on horse he sat;
Upon his heed a flaundryssh bever hat,
His bootes clasped faire and fetisly.
His resons he spak ful solempnely,
Sownynge alwey th' encrees of his wynnyng.
Guildsmen: Dyer, Haberdasher, Weaver, Tapestry Maker, Carpenter.
Ful fressh and newe hir geere apiked was;
Hir knyves were chaped noght with bras
But al with silver; wroght ful clene and weel
Hire girdles and hir pouches everydeel.
Wel semed ech of hem a fair burgeys
To sitten in a yeldehalle on a deys.
Everich, for the wisdom that he kan,
Was shaply for to been an alderman.
For catel hadde they ynogh and rente,
And eek hir wyves wolde it wel assente;
And elles certeyn were they to blame.
It is ful fair to been ycleped madame,
And goon to vigilies al bifore,
And have a mantel roialliche ybore.
Prioress
Ful fetys was hir cloke, as I was war
Of smal coral aboute hire arm she bar
A peire of bedes, gauded al with grene,
And theron heng a brooch of gold ful sheene,
On which ther was first write a crowned a,
And after amor vincit omnia.
6) Baron, banneret, widowed baroness or banneress, knight able to spend as baron, Prior of Hospitalers in England, Alderman of London, mayor of great town, sergeant or great apprentice of the law, married advocate, notary or procurator, abbot without mitre, prior, prioress, dean, archdeacon, provost, precentor, chancellor, treasurer, or parson with benifice or office worth appropriate income.
Income: £200 £.-<£340 .
All knights and ladies having land or rent exceeding the value of 400 marks by the year, and not more than £1000 a year, might wear what they liked, except ermine and letuse, and apparel adorned with pearls and precious stones, though they might wear jewels in their head-dresses.
Man of Law
He rood but hoomly in a medlee cote.
Girt with a ceint of silk, with barres smale;
Of his array telle I no lenger tale.
7) Earl, widowed countess, mayor of London, Justice of either of the two Benches and former justices, the chief Baron of the Exchequer, bishop, mitred abbot or prior, abbots or priors who are peers or priors of cathedral churches.
Income: over 340£
8) Dukes and Archbishops
Income: thousands of pounds.
Most of the ranks are followed by relevant sections of the sumptuary law of 1363. This was apparently never seriously enforced and may have been repealed the following year, but does give an idea of what was considered thrifty and restrained costume for each level of society. In reality, most people who could afford to indulged in some of the luxuries this law reserved to the level above them.
The ranks are illustrated by portraits from the Canterbury Tales, from the prologue unless otherwise noted. In many cases I have had to make educated guesses as to the wealth of the people described. Just how wealthy was the merchant or the prioress?
In some cases I have been guided by Russell’s Book of Nurture, a 15th century work on etiquette and manners. At dinner he would sit a prior with a knight, and so I have placed the prioress at that level. The monk is “to been an abbot able” but currently manages a cell, or subsidiary house, so I have placed him one level lower. The Wife of Bath is, or considers herself to be, the most substantial woman in her urban parish, and I have ranked her as a “sufficient merchant”
Chaucer doesn’t say what town the guildsmen, “shaply for to been an alderman”, are from. London aldermen were quite wealthy, with an implicit property qualification that was codified in the 15th c. as £1000 in goods or in money loaned out. This would suggest an income of over £100 a year. However, London aldermen were almost always from richer and more prestigious trades than Chaucer’s pilgrims. I suspect that they are either from a smaller town than London, or Chaucer is suggesting that they have an exaggerated sense of their own importance, or both.
Edith Rickert and other writers have noticed that Chaucer’s merchant corresponds in many details to Gilbert Maghfeld, a London merchant who handled goods worth £1,150 in 1390, and loaned money to Chaucer and many others. That would put him in the upper ranks of London merchants. Records from the Court of orphanage, 1350-1497, suggest a median estate of £200-£400, so even a more typical merchant would expect an income like a substantial squire.
A mark was worth 2/3 of a pound sterling.
1) Laborers. Many peasants had only a little land, or none, and depended on paid labor for others to survive. The income from such work could be very sporadic. In household service pages had a similar position at the bottom of the household hierarchy of pay, benefits and status. Also: Monks, etc, from houses worth less than 40 pounds and other clerks without advancement.
Income: £1 10s.-<£3
Carters, ploughmen, drivers of the plough, oxherds, cowherds, shepherds, deyars (dairymen) and swineherds, and all other keepers of beasts, threshers of corn, and all manner of people of the estate of a groom attending to husbandry, and all other people that had not forty shillings of goods, "shall not take nor wear no manner of cloth, but blanket and russet (wool) of twelve pence; and shall wear the girdles of linen according to their estate; and that they come to eat and drink in the manner as pertaineth to them, and not excessively."
Clerk
Ful thredbare was his overeste courtepy;
For he hadde geten hym yet no benefice,
2) Husbandmen. A holding of 30-15 acres of arable land, a yardland or half yardland, was generally reckoned enough to support a peasant farmer and his family. A groom in household service would live about as well, perhaps receiving somewhat finer clothes than the husbandman in livery as a matter of display. Also: Poorest landed lesser merchants or artificers. Pleaders. Monks and canons from lesser houses.Income: £3-<£5
….grooms, as well servants of lords as they of mysteries and artificers, shall .... have clothes for their vesture or hosing whereof the whole cloth shall not exceed two marks (26s. 8d.), and that they wear no cloth of higher price, of their buying nor otherwise, nor nothing of gold, nor of silver embroidered, aimeled (enameled), nor of silk, nor nothing pertaining to the said things; and their wives, daughters, and children of the same condition in their clothing and apparel, and they shall wear no veil, nor kerchief, passing twelve pence a veil.
3) Yeoman. A yeoman farmer would hold substantially more land than the minimum required to support a family: perhaps 100 acres or more. A skilled craftsman like an ordinary master carpenter would live about as well. The middle rank of household servants, between the grooms and the squires, were ranked as yeomen or valets. While this was a common term for servants of this rank, it doesn’t seem to have been regularly used to describe the free farmers from whom those servants were recruited until the 15th century. Also: middling to poor innkeepers, married pardoners or summoners, farmers of manor or parsonage, wholesalers dealing in stock and other lesser trade, and landed lesser merchants or artificers. All other benificed curates, and parish and annual chaplains. Monks and canons from middling houses.Income: £5-<£10
People of handicraft and yeomen are not to wear cloth of more than forty shillings the whole of it, 'by way of buying nor otherwise,' nor may they wear precious stones, 'nor cloth of silk nor of silver, nor girdle, knife harnessed, ring, garter, nor owche, ribband, chains, nor no such other things of gold nor of silver nor any embroidered work or silk. The wives and children of such persons to be liable to same restrictions, it being also expressly forbidden them to wear a kerchief of silk, or of anything but' yarn made within the realm, nor no manner of fur, nor of budge, but only lamb, coney, cat, and fox.
Yeoman
And he was clad in cote and hood of grene.
A sheef of pecok arwes, bright and kene,
Under his belt he bar ful thriftily,
(wel koude he dresse his takel yemanly:
His arwes drouped noght with fetheres lowe)
And in his hand he baar a myghty bowe.
A not heed hadde he, with a broun visage.
Of wodecraft wel koude he al the usage.
Upon his arm he baar a gay bracer,
And by his syde a swerd and a bokeler,
And on that oother syde a gay daggere
Harneised wel and sharp as point of spere;
A cristopher on his brest of silver sheene.
An horn he bar, the bawdryk was of grene;
A forster was he, soothly, as I gesse.
Carpenter’s Wife: Miller’s tale
A ceynt she werede, barred al of silk,
A barmclooth eek as whit as morne milk
Upon hir lendes, ful of many a goore.
Whit was hir smok, and broyden al bifoore
And eek bihynde, on hir coler aboute,
Of col-blak silk, withinne and eek withoute.
The tapes of hir white voluper
Were of the same suyte of hir coler;
Hir filet brood of silk, and set ful hye.
And sikerly she hadde a likerous ye;
And by hir girdel heeng a purs of lether,
Tasseled with silk, and perled with latoun.
In al this world, to seken up and doun,
There nys no man so wys that koude thence
So gay a popelote or swich a wenche.
A brooch she baar upon hir lowe coler,
As brood as is the boos of a bokeler.
Hir shoes were laced on hir legges hye.
Parish Clerk: Miller’s tale
Ful streight and evene lay his joly shode.
His rode was reed, his eyen greye as goos.
With poules wyndow corven on his shoos,
In hoses rede he wente fetisly.
Yclad he was ful smal and properly
Al in a kirtel of a lyght waget;
Ful faire and thikke been the poyntes set.
And therupon he hadde a gay surplys
As whit as is the blosme upon the rys.
Miller: Reeve’s Tale
Ay by his belt he baar a long panade,
And of a swerd ful trenchant was the blade
A joly poppere baar he is in his pouche;
Ther was no man, for peril, dorste hym touche.
A sheffeld thwitel baar he in his hose.
His Wife
The person of the toun hir fader was.
With hire he yaf ful many a panne of bras,
For that symkyn sholde in his blood allye.
She was yfostred in a nonnerye;
For symkyn wolde no wyf, as he sayde
But she were wel ynorissed and a mayde,
To saven his estaat of yomanrye.
And she was proud, and peert as is a pye.
A ful fair sighte was it upon hem two;
On halydayes biforn hire wolde he go
With his typet bounden aboute his heed,
And she cam after in a gyte of reed;
And symkyn hadde hosen of the same.
Ther dorste no wight clepen hire but dame;
Was noon so hardy that wente by the weye
That with hire dorste rage or ones pleye,
But if he wolde be slayn of symkyn
With panade, or with knyf, or boidekyn.
4) Landless Squire’s estate. Landless Squire in Service or Arms. A damoisele or damsel was the female equivalent of a squire in household service, a woman of gentle birth and status, but not necessarily young or unmarried. Poorer franklins or sergeants of the country. Richest innkeepers and married pardoners or summoners. 2nd rank of farmers of manor or parsonage, wholesalers dealing in stock and other lesser trade, lesser landed merchants or artificers. Clerics as below with appropriate income, monks and canons from the wealthiest houses.
Income: £10-<£20
Esquires, and all gentlemen under the estate of a knight, and not having land or rent of the value of £100 a year, were to wear suits costing no more than 4 1/2 marks (£3). They were not to wear any 'cloth of gold, nor silk, nor silver, nor no manner of clothing embroidered, ring, broche, nor owche of gold;' they were to use 'nothing of stone, nor no manner of fur.’ The wives and daughters of these gentlemen were under similar restraint, an injunction being added against their having 'any turning-up or purfle.'
Merchants, citizens, and burgesses, artificers, people of handicraft, as well within the City of London as elsewhere, having goods and chattels to the value of £500, they, their wives and children might dress as esquires, etc., and their belongings, who had 'land to rent to the value of £100 by the year'
Squire
Embrouded was he, as it were a meede
Al ful of fresshe floures, whyte and reede.
Syngynge he was, or floytynge, al the day;
He was as fressh as is the month of may.
Short was his gowne, with sleves longe and wyde
5) Squire of lesser estate, or widow of one. Other sufficient merchant, or widow of one. Apprentices of law and attorneys of lesser estate, Middling or poor mayors of small towns. Richer franklins or sergeants of the country. Richest farmers of manor or parsonage, wholesalers dealing in stock and other lesser trade, lesser landed merchants or artificers. Cleric as below with appropriate income.
Income: £20-£66 13s. 3d
Franklin
At sessiouns ther was he lord and sire;
Ful ofte tyme he was knyght of the shire.
An anlaas and a gipser al of silk
Heeng at his girdel, whit as morne milk.
Monk
A monk ther was, a fair for the maistrie,
An outridere, that lovede venerie,
A manly man, to been an abbot able.
Ful many a deyntee hors hadde he in stable,
And whan he rood, men myghte his brydel here
Gynglen in a whistlynge wynd als cleere
And eek as loude as dooth the chapel belle.
Therfore he was a prikasour aright:
Grehoundes he hadde as swift as fowel in flight;
Of prikyng and of huntyng for the hare
Was al his lust, for no cost wolde he spare.
I seigh his sleves purfiled at the hond
With grys, and that the fyneste of a lond;
And, for to festne his hood under his chyn,
He hadde of gold ywroght a ful curious pyn;
A love-knotte in the gretter ende ther was.
His heed was balled, that shoon as any glas,
And eek his face, as he hadde been enoynt.
He was a lord ful fat and in good poynt;
His eyen stepe, and rollynge in his heed,
That stemed as a forneys of a leed;
His bootes souple, his hors in greet estaat.
Now certeinly he was a fair prelaat;
Wife of Bath
Of clooth makyng she hadde swich an haunt,
She passed hem of Ypres and of Gaunt.
In al the parisshe wif ne was ther noon
That to the offrynge bifore hire sholde goon;
And if ther dide, certeyn so wrooth was she
That she was out of alle charitee.
Hir coverchiefs ful fyne weren of ground.
I dorste swere they weyeden ten pound
That on a Sonday weren upon hir heed.
Hir hosen weren of fyn scarlet reed,
Ful streite yteyd, and shoes ful moyste and newe.
Boold was hir face, and fair, and reed of hewe...
Upon an amblere esily she sat,
Ywympled wel, and on hir heed an hat
As brood as is a bokeler or a targe,
A foot-mantel aboute hir hipes large,
And on hir feet a paire of spores sharpe.
In felaweshipe wel koude she laughe and carpe.
6) Knight bachelor, squire that ought to be knight (40 pounds or more from lands), widow of these, Commander of Hospitalers, Middling apprentice of law or attorney, rich mayor of small town, municipal officer of large town, great merchant, or cleric as below with appropriate income.
Income: £66 13s. 4d.-< £200
…esquires having two hundred marks a year and upwards in land or rent might ' take and wear clothes of the price of five marks (£3 6s. 8d.), the whole cloth, and cloth of silk and of silver, ribband, girdle, and other apparel reasonably garnished of silver. Their wives and children might also wear ' fur turned up of miniver, without ermine or letuse but they might not wear any precious stones, except upon their heads.
Knights who had land or rent within the value of £200 by the year might wear six-mark cloth, but 'of none higher price. They might not wear cloth of gold, nor cloak, mantle, or gown that was furred with miniver nor sleeves of ermine, nor anything that was set with precious stones, excepting the head-dress; they were not to use any 'turning up of ermines, nor of letuses, nor clieres.'
Merchants, etc, who had goods and chattels to the value of £1000 might dress as esquires and gentlemen who had rent in land to the extent of £200 a year.
All clerks whose degree in college or church, and the clerks of the king whose position required the use of fur, might do according to the constitution of their society. All other clerks having 200 marks a year out of land might do as knights having the same rent; and clerks having less than this amount from rent were to be subject to the same restriction as esquires with £100 a year of rent. It was also provided that 'all knights and clerks who by this ordinance may wear fur in winter, shall wear lawn in summer.'
Knight
His hors were goode, but he was nat gay.
Of fustian he wered a gypon
Al bismotered with his habergeon,
For he was late ycome from his viage,
And wente for to doon his pilgrymage.
Merchant
A marchant was ther with a forked berd,
In mottelee, and hye on horse he sat;
Upon his heed a flaundryssh bever hat,
His bootes clasped faire and fetisly.
His resons he spak ful solempnely,
Sownynge alwey th' encrees of his wynnyng.
Guildsmen: Dyer, Haberdasher, Weaver, Tapestry Maker, Carpenter.
Ful fressh and newe hir geere apiked was;
Hir knyves were chaped noght with bras
But al with silver; wroght ful clene and weel
Hire girdles and hir pouches everydeel.
Wel semed ech of hem a fair burgeys
To sitten in a yeldehalle on a deys.
Everich, for the wisdom that he kan,
Was shaply for to been an alderman.
For catel hadde they ynogh and rente,
And eek hir wyves wolde it wel assente;
And elles certeyn were they to blame.
It is ful fair to been ycleped madame,
And goon to vigilies al bifore,
And have a mantel roialliche ybore.
Prioress
Ful fetys was hir cloke, as I was war
Of smal coral aboute hire arm she bar
A peire of bedes, gauded al with grene,
And theron heng a brooch of gold ful sheene,
On which ther was first write a crowned a,
And after amor vincit omnia.
6) Baron, banneret, widowed baroness or banneress, knight able to spend as baron, Prior of Hospitalers in England, Alderman of London, mayor of great town, sergeant or great apprentice of the law, married advocate, notary or procurator, abbot without mitre, prior, prioress, dean, archdeacon, provost, precentor, chancellor, treasurer, or parson with benifice or office worth appropriate income.
Income: £200 £.-<£340 .
All knights and ladies having land or rent exceeding the value of 400 marks by the year, and not more than £1000 a year, might wear what they liked, except ermine and letuse, and apparel adorned with pearls and precious stones, though they might wear jewels in their head-dresses.
Man of Law
He rood but hoomly in a medlee cote.
Girt with a ceint of silk, with barres smale;
Of his array telle I no lenger tale.
7) Earl, widowed countess, mayor of London, Justice of either of the two Benches and former justices, the chief Baron of the Exchequer, bishop, mitred abbot or prior, abbots or priors who are peers or priors of cathedral churches.
Income: over 340£
8) Dukes and Archbishops
Income: thousands of pounds.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Friday, June 13, 2008
14th c. Robots II
If you like 14th c. robots (and who doesn’t?) Chaucer’s Squire’s Tale gives us not only a brass robot horse controlled by turning a pin in its ear, but both a satire of the kind of SF where the cool technology and sense-of-wonder marvels completely overwhelm the thin plot and weak characters and of the kind of fanboy who thinks it’s like the coolest story ever, dude.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
14th c. Robots
Steve Muhlberger has an interesting post on 14th c. robots, particularly a mechanical angel that greeted Richard II for his coronation in London in 1377. Much as I’d like to imagine the Tik-Tok Angel of London, clockwork seems unlikely in the context. The contrivance had to perform on cue and the moment of Richard’s arrival was unpredictable, so a puppet seems more likely than a clockwork automaton.
So I will try not to imagine Evangelion Genesis Ricardus, in which a team of moody dysfunctional anime adolescents, led by young Richard II, pilot giant clockwork automata in defense of the underground 14th c. complex of New Troy-3 from various alien menaces, periodically ducking behind gigantic mantlets to be rewound at the waterwheel-powered winding stations.
Instead I will cherish Froissart’s Horloge Amoureuse, in which a ticking clock becomes an extended metaphor for measured and enduring love. There’s something tremendously sweet about how Froissart handled this: first the wide-eyed curiosity at the wheels and foliot and whole complex mechanism, then the immediate impulse to turn it into a love-allegory.
So I will try not to imagine Evangelion Genesis Ricardus, in which a team of moody dysfunctional anime adolescents, led by young Richard II, pilot giant clockwork automata in defense of the underground 14th c. complex of New Troy-3 from various alien menaces, periodically ducking behind gigantic mantlets to be rewound at the waterwheel-powered winding stations.
Instead I will cherish Froissart’s Horloge Amoureuse, in which a ticking clock becomes an extended metaphor for measured and enduring love. There’s something tremendously sweet about how Froissart handled this: first the wide-eyed curiosity at the wheels and foliot and whole complex mechanism, then the immediate impulse to turn it into a love-allegory.
Monday, June 09, 2008
Horloge Amoureuse, by Jean Froissart
The clock is, if considered truly,
An instrument very fair and very notable,
And it is also agreeable and profitable;
For night and day it teaches us the hours
By the subtilty which it comprises
In the absence even of the sun:
On which account we should the more prize its construction,
Which the other instruments do not do,
However they may be made by art and by compass;
Therefore I hold him for valiant and wise
Who first found the use of it,
When by his sense he began and made
A thing so noble and of such great profit.
I will now talk of the state of the clock:
The first wheel which lodges there
Is the mother, and the commencement,
Which makes all the other movements move,
Of which the clock has the command and method:
Therefore this first wheel may indeed
Signify very fitly
The true desire which possesses the heart of man.
The weight well accords to the beauty.
Pleasure is shown by the cord
So fitly that it cannot be said better:
For, just as the counterpoise draws
The cord to it, and the cord drawn,
When the cord is well drawn to the right,
Draws to it, and makes it go
When otherwise it would not move;
Thus Beauty draws to itself, and awakens
The pleasure of the heart.
And, because this first wheel
Has the regulation and mode of moving
By virtue of the weight which the lead gives,
Hence, according to this, it is wholly regulated,
The lead draws it, and it advances again;
And because it would go without regularity,
And too hastily, and without measure,
If it had nothing which from its gaining
Might withdraw it and bring it back,
And regulate it by its right rule;
For this purpose there was arranged by proper art
A second wheel, and so added,
Which retards it, and makes it move
Regularly and by true measure to be seen
By virtue of the foliot also,
Which continually moves it thus,
One hour to the right and then the other to the left.
Nor ought it nor can it remain at rest,
For by it is this wheel kept in order,
And by true measure retarded.
After this it is proper to speak of the dial,
And this dial is the diurnal wheel,
Which, in one natural day only,
Just as the sun makes a single circuit
Round the earth in a natural day.
On this dial, of which the merits are great,
Are described the 24 hours,
Therefore it bears 24 pins
Which cause the little bells to ring;
For they make the spring relax,
Which makes the singing-wheel heard,
And moves them very regularly,
To show the hours more clearly.
And this dial also turns and wheels round
By virtue of that mother wheel,
Of which I have told you the property,
By the aid of a little spindle
Which passes direct from the one to the other;
Thus does it move regularly and well.
Next we must say what thing is lodged
In the third part of the clock;
It is the last movement which regulates
The striking so that it may strike.
Now you must know how this is done:
By two wheels this work is perfected:
This first wheel carries with it
A counterpoise, by which it turns,
And which makes it move, as I understand it,
When the spring is brought up to the proper point.
And the second is the singing-wheel;
This has an object very manifest,
That of touching the little bells,
Whereby night and day the hours above mentioned
Are rung, be it summer or winter,
As is proper, by different songs.
And because this clock cannot
Go of itself, nor move at all,
If there is not some one to keep and take care of it;
Therefore it must have to keep it in order
A clocksmith, who, early and late,
Diligently attends to it and regulates it,
Draws up the weights again, and sets them to their duty,
And thus makes them move regularly;
Moderates and regulates the wheels,
And puts them in order so as to strike.
Moreover the clocksmith sets
The foliot, which ceases not,
The spindle, and all the pins.
And the wheel which all the little bells
Of the hours which in the dial are
To ring have a very certain order.
But though the spring may be wound up,
Still, as I understand, can very well
The clocksmith, when he has leisure for it,
Every time it pleases him,
Make the little bells ring
Without putting the above mentioned hours out of order.
Translation W. H. Smyth 1851
An instrument very fair and very notable,
And it is also agreeable and profitable;
For night and day it teaches us the hours
By the subtilty which it comprises
In the absence even of the sun:
On which account we should the more prize its construction,
Which the other instruments do not do,
However they may be made by art and by compass;
Therefore I hold him for valiant and wise
Who first found the use of it,
When by his sense he began and made
A thing so noble and of such great profit.
I will now talk of the state of the clock:
The first wheel which lodges there
Is the mother, and the commencement,
Which makes all the other movements move,
Of which the clock has the command and method:
Therefore this first wheel may indeed
Signify very fitly
The true desire which possesses the heart of man.
The weight well accords to the beauty.
Pleasure is shown by the cord
So fitly that it cannot be said better:
For, just as the counterpoise draws
The cord to it, and the cord drawn,
When the cord is well drawn to the right,
Draws to it, and makes it go
When otherwise it would not move;
Thus Beauty draws to itself, and awakens
The pleasure of the heart.
And, because this first wheel
Has the regulation and mode of moving
By virtue of the weight which the lead gives,
Hence, according to this, it is wholly regulated,
The lead draws it, and it advances again;
And because it would go without regularity,
And too hastily, and without measure,
If it had nothing which from its gaining
Might withdraw it and bring it back,
And regulate it by its right rule;
For this purpose there was arranged by proper art
A second wheel, and so added,
Which retards it, and makes it move
Regularly and by true measure to be seen
By virtue of the foliot also,
Which continually moves it thus,
One hour to the right and then the other to the left.
Nor ought it nor can it remain at rest,
For by it is this wheel kept in order,
And by true measure retarded.
After this it is proper to speak of the dial,
And this dial is the diurnal wheel,
Which, in one natural day only,
Just as the sun makes a single circuit
Round the earth in a natural day.
On this dial, of which the merits are great,
Are described the 24 hours,
Therefore it bears 24 pins
Which cause the little bells to ring;
For they make the spring relax,
Which makes the singing-wheel heard,
And moves them very regularly,
To show the hours more clearly.
And this dial also turns and wheels round
By virtue of that mother wheel,
Of which I have told you the property,
By the aid of a little spindle
Which passes direct from the one to the other;
Thus does it move regularly and well.
Next we must say what thing is lodged
In the third part of the clock;
It is the last movement which regulates
The striking so that it may strike.
Now you must know how this is done:
By two wheels this work is perfected:
This first wheel carries with it
A counterpoise, by which it turns,
And which makes it move, as I understand it,
When the spring is brought up to the proper point.
And the second is the singing-wheel;
This has an object very manifest,
That of touching the little bells,
Whereby night and day the hours above mentioned
Are rung, be it summer or winter,
As is proper, by different songs.
And because this clock cannot
Go of itself, nor move at all,
If there is not some one to keep and take care of it;
Therefore it must have to keep it in order
A clocksmith, who, early and late,
Diligently attends to it and regulates it,
Draws up the weights again, and sets them to their duty,
And thus makes them move regularly;
Moderates and regulates the wheels,
And puts them in order so as to strike.
Moreover the clocksmith sets
The foliot, which ceases not,
The spindle, and all the pins.
And the wheel which all the little bells
Of the hours which in the dial are
To ring have a very certain order.
But though the spring may be wound up,
Still, as I understand, can very well
The clocksmith, when he has leisure for it,
Every time it pleases him,
Make the little bells ring
Without putting the above mentioned hours out of order.
Translation W. H. Smyth 1851
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
A Note to Readers of my Feed
From time to time I will blog satire. As a service to my readers, such posts include the label “We don’t need no steenkin’ footnotes” to avoid confusion. If someone put the Islamofascist Green Shirts or Zombie John Chandos in their history paper after they found out about them on the internet, I’d feel bad about it. A little bit, anyway. The Livejournal feed doesn’t include the labels, alas. But if you suspect that I might be pulling your leg, then go directly to the blog. Because it’s always April 1st somewhere, and never more than a light year away.
Sequel to The Hobbit
Peter Jackson plans to film The Hobbit and a sequel. The sequel will be a stretch, because Tolkien did not actually write a lot of details about what happened between when The Hobbit ended and The Lord of the Rings began.
Here are some of the rumored possibilities:
An Underground River Runs Through It. Gollum goes trout fishing with Smeagol. In the dark. For 90 minutes.
Hobbiton Pie. Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin come of age in this gross-out comedy. Allyson Hannigan wears a curly-haired wig and plays a girl-hobbit, with one of those typical girl-hobbit vegetation names. Like Willow.
When Aragorn Met Arwen. In this romantic comedy a friendship grows over the course of fifty years. At first, Aragorn thinks that males and females can’t really be friends, because sex always gets in the way. Especially telepathic long-distance elf sex. Arwen disagrees. About once a decade, she cries on his shoulder about her breakup with yet another elf that is only mentioned in the appendixes. Arwen’s changing hairstyles signal the passage of time: for example, in the 2970s she wears a feathered Farrah Fawcet flip. Aragorn worries about his mortality. Arwen doesn’t, because of her sunny disposition and the fact that she isn’t actually mortal. Arwen does worry that her biological clock is ticking: she’ll be 3,000 in only a couple of centuries. She fakes an orgasm in the Rivendell feast hall. “I’ll have what she’s having” is translated into Elvish for the big screen, and back into English for the subtitles.
Here are some of the rumored possibilities:
An Underground River Runs Through It. Gollum goes trout fishing with Smeagol. In the dark. For 90 minutes.
Hobbiton Pie. Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin come of age in this gross-out comedy. Allyson Hannigan wears a curly-haired wig and plays a girl-hobbit, with one of those typical girl-hobbit vegetation names. Like Willow.
When Aragorn Met Arwen. In this romantic comedy a friendship grows over the course of fifty years. At first, Aragorn thinks that males and females can’t really be friends, because sex always gets in the way. Especially telepathic long-distance elf sex. Arwen disagrees. About once a decade, she cries on his shoulder about her breakup with yet another elf that is only mentioned in the appendixes. Arwen’s changing hairstyles signal the passage of time: for example, in the 2970s she wears a feathered Farrah Fawcet flip. Aragorn worries about his mortality. Arwen doesn’t, because of her sunny disposition and the fact that she isn’t actually mortal. Arwen does worry that her biological clock is ticking: she’ll be 3,000 in only a couple of centuries. She fakes an orgasm in the Rivendell feast hall. “I’ll have what she’s having” is translated into Elvish for the big screen, and back into English for the subtitles.
Monday, June 02, 2008
Recreating a Tourney using King René’s Rules
Here’s what the Company of St. Michael has evolved over several iterations to adapt his rules to foot combat in the Society for Creative Anachronism.
After any telling blow, retreat to your end of the lists, cry your cry, and return to the fray. Do not act out amputations. The melee may start with an exchange of spear-thrusts, after which everyone switches to weapons no more than six feet long: a sword, pollaxe or short spear.
René’s rules assumed the combatants would batter each other with blunt weapons, and if a combatant was temporarily stunned his retainers would protect him until he recovered. Standard SCA rules in which the man struck pretended he was crippled or killed were not appropriate. After our first recreation we omitted the armored retainers who protected their master in René’s rules: under the adapted rules they didn’t have a lot to do or scope to enjoy themselves. (In the original, this was irrelevant: they were paid to do their job, not to have fun).
We often fight this over the barrier. Barriers didn’t become part of friendly deeds of arms until around 1500, rather later than René’s rules. However, barriers do allow good control of the melee with minimal need for marshaling. We’ve found that if some combatants have long spears at the barriers and the others don’t the others can feel like helpless targets as the spearmen poke them from a safe distance on the other side of the barriers. Sword and shield at the barrier tends to be an uninteresting fight, and I would discourage that choice if the combatant is able to use one of the other options.
Since we fight on foot we faced a fundamental choice. Should we use contemporary foot combat conventions while using as much of René’s format as made sense, or should we follow as many of his rules as possible even if they lose their purpose in the absence of horses? We eventually chose the first, and so allowed the typical weapons of foot combat. Thrusts were only rarely prohibited in contemporary foot combat so we allowed them.
If we were following the second course the weapons would be single handed swords or maces used without shields, and thrusting and blows below the waist would be prohibited.
The knight or squire of honor provides a useful way to call local holds as needed without interrupting the general combat.
After any telling blow, retreat to your end of the lists, cry your cry, and return to the fray. Do not act out amputations. The melee may start with an exchange of spear-thrusts, after which everyone switches to weapons no more than six feet long: a sword, pollaxe or short spear.
René’s rules assumed the combatants would batter each other with blunt weapons, and if a combatant was temporarily stunned his retainers would protect him until he recovered. Standard SCA rules in which the man struck pretended he was crippled or killed were not appropriate. After our first recreation we omitted the armored retainers who protected their master in René’s rules: under the adapted rules they didn’t have a lot to do or scope to enjoy themselves. (In the original, this was irrelevant: they were paid to do their job, not to have fun).
We often fight this over the barrier. Barriers didn’t become part of friendly deeds of arms until around 1500, rather later than René’s rules. However, barriers do allow good control of the melee with minimal need for marshaling. We’ve found that if some combatants have long spears at the barriers and the others don’t the others can feel like helpless targets as the spearmen poke them from a safe distance on the other side of the barriers. Sword and shield at the barrier tends to be an uninteresting fight, and I would discourage that choice if the combatant is able to use one of the other options.
Since we fight on foot we faced a fundamental choice. Should we use contemporary foot combat conventions while using as much of René’s format as made sense, or should we follow as many of his rules as possible even if they lose their purpose in the absence of horses? We eventually chose the first, and so allowed the typical weapons of foot combat. Thrusts were only rarely prohibited in contemporary foot combat so we allowed them.
If we were following the second course the weapons would be single handed swords or maces used without shields, and thrusting and blows below the waist would be prohibited.
The knight or squire of honor provides a useful way to call local holds as needed without interrupting the general combat.
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