Rest Not in Peace

S
everal years ago when Dan Runyon, professor of English at Spring Arbor University, learned that I had written an as yet unpublished medieval mystery, he invited me to speak to his fiction-writing class about the trials of a rookie writer seeking a publisher. He sent sample chapters of Master Hugh’s first chronicle,
The Unquiet Bones
, to his friend, Tony Collins. Thanks, Dan.

Thanks to Tony Collins and all those at Monarch who saw Master Hugh’s potential. And thanks especially to my editor, Jan Greenough, who excels at asking questions such as, “Do you really want to say it that way?” and, “Wouldn’t Master Hugh do it like this?”

Dr. John Blair, of Queen’s College, Oxford, has written several papers about Bampton history. These have been invaluable in creating an accurate time and place for Master Hugh. Tony and Lis Page have also been a wonderful source of information about Bampton. I owe them much.

Ms. Malgorzata Deron, of Poznan, Poland, offered to update and maintain my website. She has done an excellent job. To see the result of her work, visit www.melstarr.net

Angelus Bell:
rung three times each day, dawn, noon, and dusk. Announced the time for the Angelus devotional.

Arbolettys:
a cheese-and-herb egg custard.

Ascension Day:
forty days after Easter; May 25 in 1368.

Bailiff:
a lord’s chief manorial representative. He oversaw all operations, collected rents and fines, and enforced labor service. Not a popular fellow.

Boar in confit:
honey-glazed pork fillets, served cold.

Bodkin:
a sharp, slender tool for punching holes in leather and heavy cloth.

Book of Hours:
a devotional book, usually elaborately decorated and illustrated.

Boss:
the decorative junction in a ceiling where the barrel vaulting joins.

Braes:
medieval underpants.

Buttery:
a storage room for beverages stored in butts, or barrels. A butler would be in charge of it.

Cabbage with marrow:
cabbage cooked with bone marrow, breadcrumbs, and spices.

Candlemas:
February 2. Marked the purification of Mary. Women traditionally paraded to church carrying lighted candles – hence the name. Tillage of fields resumed this day.

Capons farced:
chicken stuffed with hard-boiled egg yolks, currants, chopped pork, breadcrumbs, and spices.

Chamberlain:
the keeper of a lord’s chamber, wardrobe, and personal items.

Chardewarden:
pears cooked in wine sauce with breadcrumbs and spices.

Charlet of cod:
fish beaten to a smooth paste, then cooked with wine, vinegar, ground almonds, sugar, and spices.

Chauces:
tight-fitting trousers, often of different colors for each leg.

Chewet:
a meat or fish pie, rather like a pasty.

Claret:
originally a yellowish or pale-red wine from the Bordeaux region.

Commissioner of Laborers:
Officials chosen to enforce the Ordinance of Laborers, which limited wages to pre-1348 levels.

Coney in cevy:
rabbit stewed with onions, breadcrumbs, and spices in wine vinegar.

Cormarye:
pork roasted after marinating in red wine and spices.

Cotehardie:
the primary medieval outer garment. Women’s were floor length; men’s ranged from thigh to ankle.

Cresset:
a bowl of oil with a floating wick used for lighting.

Crispels:
pastry made with flour, sugar, and honey, and fried in lard or oil.

Cyueles:
deep-fried fritters made of a paste of breadcrumbs, ground almonds, eggs, sugar, and salt.

Dexter:
a war horse; larger than pack horses and palfreys. Also, the right-hand direction.

Dirge:
a song or liturgy of grief and lamentation.

Eels in bruit:
eels served in a sauce of white wine, breadcrumbs, onions, and spices.

Egg leech:
a thick custard, often enriched with almonds, spices, and flour.

Farthing:
one fourth of a penny; the smallest silver coin.

Fast day:
Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday; not the fasting of modern usage, when no food is consumed, but days upon which no meat, eggs, or animal products are consumed.

Fewterer:
the keeper of a lord’s kennels and hounds.

Garderobe:
the toilet.

Gathering:
eight leaves of parchment, made by folding the prepared hide three times.

Gentleman:
a nobleman; the term had nothing to do with character or behavior.

Grocer:
a wholesaler of staples.

Groom:
a household servant to a lord, ranking above a page and below a valet.

Haberdasher:
a merchant who sold household items such as pins, buckles, buttons, hats, and purses.

Hallmote:
the manorial court. Royal courts judged free tenants accused of murder or felony; otherwise manorial courts had jurisdiction over legal matters concerning villagers.

Hanoney:
eggs scrambled with onions and fried.

King’s Eyre:
a royal circuit court, presided over by a traveling judge.

Kirtle:
a medieval undershirt.

Lammas Day:
August 1, when thanks was given for a successful wheat harvest. From Old English “loaf mass.”

Leech:
a physician.

Liripipe:
a fashionably long tail attached to a man’s cap and usually coiled atop the head.

Lychgate:
a roofed gate over the entry to a churchyard under which the deceased would rest during the initial part of a medieval funeral.

Malmsey:
the sweetest variety of Madeira wine, originally from Greece.

Mark:
a coin worth thirteen shillings and four pence (i.e. 160 pence).

Marshalsea:
the stables and their associated accoutrements.

Maslin:
bread made with a mixture of grains, commonly wheat and rye or barley.

Matins:
the first of the day’s eight canonical hours (services). Also called Lauds.

Nones:
the fifth daytime canonical office, sung at the ninth hour of the day (i.e. mid afternoon).

Page:
a young male servant, often a youth learning the arts of chivalry before becoming a squire.

Palfrey:
a riding horse with a comfortable gait.

Pantler:
a valet in charge of the pantry.

Pantry:
from the French word for bread,
pain
. Originally a small room for bread storage. By the fourteenth century other items were also stored there.

Passing Bell:
ringing of the parish church bell to indicate the death of a villager.

Pears in compost:
pears cooked in red wine with dates, sugar, and cinnamon.

Portpain:
a linen cloth in which bread was carried from the bakehouse to the hall.

Pottage:
anything cooked in one pot, from the meanest oatmeal to a savory stew.

Pottage of whelks:
whelks boiled and served in a stock of almond milk, breadcrumbs, and spices.

Poulterer:
a manor employee in charge of chickens, ducks, and geese.

Reeve:
an important manor official, although he did not outrank the bailiff. Elected by tenants from among themselves, he had responsibility for fields, buildings, and enforcing labor service.

Remove:
a dinner course.

Rice moyle:
a rice pudding made with almond milk, sugar, and saffron.

Rogation Sunday:
the Sunday before Ascension Day. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were Rogation Days, also called “gang days.” A time for beseeching God for a good growing season.

Runcie:
a small, common horse of lower grade than a palfrey.

St Benedict’s Day:
June 11.

St Beornwald’s Church:
today the Church of St Mary, in the fourteenth century it was named for an obscure Saxon saint.

St Boniface’s Day:
June 5.

St John’s Day:
June 24.

St Stephen’s Day:
December 26.

Screens passage:
a narrow corridor which screened the hall from the kitchen and from which the buttery and pantry were accessed.

See:
the authority or jurisdiction of a bishop.

Set books:
the standard textbooks used by medieval undergraduates.

Shilling:
twelve pence. Twenty shillings made a pound, although there was no pound coin.

Sinister:
the left-hand direction.

Sobye sauce:
a sauce for fried fish made with white wine, raisins, breadcrumbs, and spices.

Solar:
a small room in a castle, more easily heated than the great hall, where lords preferred to spend time, especially in winter. Usually on an upper floor.

Sole in cyve:
fish boiled and served in a yellow onion sauce.

Statute of Laborers:
following the first attack of plague in 1348–49, laborers realized that because so many workers had died, their labor was in demand, and so demanded higher wages. In 1351 Parliament set wages at the 1347 level. Like most attempts to legislate against the law of supply and demand, the statute was generally a failure.

Steward:
the chief officer of a manor. Occasionally a steward would have authority over all manors belonging to his lord.

Stockfish:
the cheapest salted fish, usually cod or haddock.

Stone:
fourteen pounds.

Subtlety:
an elaborate confection, made more for show than for consumption, often served between removes.

Toft:
land surrounding a villager’s house, often used for growing vegetables and keeping chickens.

Valets:
the highest-ranking servants to a lord.

Verderer:
the forester in charge of a lord’s forest.

Villein:
a non-free peasant. He could not leave his land or service to his lord, or sell animals without permission. But if he could escape his manor for a year and a day, he would be free.

Void:
dessert – often sugared fruits and sweetened wine.

Week-work:
the two or three days of labor per week (more during harvest) which a villein owed to his lord.

Whitsuntide:
White Sunday; ten days after Ascension Day, seven weeks after Easter. In 1368, June 4.

Yardland:
about thirty acres. Also called a virgate and, in northern England, an oxgang.