Essay, Research Paper: Castle Life

Castle Life


Supported by the brawn and taxes of the peasants, the feudal
baron and his wife would seem to have had a comfortable life. In many
ways they did, despite the lack of creature comforts and refinements.
Around the 12th century, fortified manor dwellings began to give
way to stone castles. Some of these, with their great outer walls and
courtyard buildings, covered around 15 acres and were built for
defensive warfare. Even during the hot summer months, dampness clung to
the stone rooms, and the lord and his entourage spent as much time as
possible outdoors. At dawn, a watchman on top of the lookout tower
blasted out a note on his bugle to awaken everyone in the castle. After
a small breakfast of bread and wine or beer, the nobles attended mass in
the chapel at the castle. The lord then went about his business. He
first may have heard the report of an estate manager (a manager of plot
of land). If a discontented or badly treated serf had fled, without a
doubt, the lord would order special people called retainers to bring him
back. This is because serfs were bound to the lord unless they could
evade him for a year and a day. The lord would also hear the petty
offenses of the peasants and fine the culprits, or, he might even
sentence them to a day in the pillory. Serious deeds, like poaching or
murder, were legal matters for the local court or royal "circuit" court.
The lady of the castle had many duties of her own. She inspected the
work of her large staff of servants, and saw that her spinners, weavers,
and embroiderers furnished clothes for the castle and rich robes for the
clergy. She and her ladies also helped to train the pages, who were
well-born boys that came to live in the castle at the age of seven
years. For seven years pages were taught in religion, music, dancing,
riding, hunting, and some reading, writing, and arithmetic. When they
turned 14, they became squires.
The lord directed the training of the squires. They spent seven
years learning the practices of chivalry and, above all this, of
warfare. At the age of 21, if they were worthy enough, they received
the distinction of knighthood.
Sometime between 9 AM and noon, a trumpet called the lord's
household to the great hall for dinner. Their, they wolfed down great
quantities of soup, game, birds, mutton, pork, some beef, and often
venison or boar slain in the hunt. In winter, the ill-preserved meat
tasted fiercely of East Indian spices, bought at enormous cost to hide
the rank taste. Great, flat pieces of bread called trenchers served as
plates and, after the meal, were tossed to the dogs around the table or
given to the poor. Huge pies, or pasties, filled with several kinds of fowl or fish, were
greatly loved. Metal, or wood cups, or leather
"jacks" held cider, beer, or wine. Coffee and tea were not used in
Europe until after the Middle Ages. Minstrels or jokers entertained at
dinner.
Hunting, games, and tournaments delighted nobles. Even the
ladies and their pages rode into the field to loose falcons at game
birds. Indoors, in front of the great open fire, there was chess,
checkers, and backgammon. Poet-musicians, called troubadours, would
often chant and sing storied accomplishments of Charlemagne, Count
Roland, or Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Dearest to the
warrior heart of the feudal lord was the tournament, an extravagant
contest of arms. Visiting knights and nobles set up their pavilions
near the lists, or field of contest. Over each tent, a banner fluttered
to show the rank of a contestant--here a count, there a marquis or a
baron. The shield of each armor-ridden warrior was emblazoned, or
decorated, to identify the bearer. The first day of the tournament, or
tourney, was usually devoted to single combats, in which pairs of
knights rode full speed at each other with 10-foot (3-meter) lances.
The tournament's climax was the melee, when companies of knights battled
in adventurous mimic warfare. A tournament cost the lord a fortune for
hospitality and rich prizes given to the victors by the "queen of the
tournament".
Tournaments had a cold and forbidding value--as practice for
feudal warfare. Some battle or raid erupted almost daily, since
medieval nobles settled their quarrels simply by attacking. If a lord
coveted land, his couriers called his vassals to make a foray, or raid,
of it. The peasants, in quilted battle coats, trudged along to fight on
foot with their pikes and poleaxes. Despite the incalculable outbreaks,
casualties were surprisingly few, as long, exhausting battles, were
rare. Warring lords usually just burned the fields and villages of
their enemies. After an encounter, the defending lord and his vassals
usually fled to the safety of the castle. The castle could withstand
many a stubborn siege.