A look at how households worked 800 years ago

I am not usually a reader of Medieval history but I enjoyed Mistresses, Maids and Men by Margaret Wade Labarge because it didn’t assume that I knew more about the period than I did.

This book looks at the lives of baronial families – the ruling elite of the thirteenth century. Some of accounting records of the time for these households have survived and they give us an insight into how the people lived. Baronial households supported the family but also a raft of servants and dependents. They had responsibilities for others and received payments from tenants. They also had a position in society to uphold. The household records give us details of what was purchased and how often it was reordered as well as the price paid so that we can understand what products were used and which were most important.

The narrative covers the house as a home, the role of the mistress, how things were organised, what was eaten every day, what was drunk, what was worn, how people and goods travelled, what was different at festivals and how people amused themselves. The author mainly used the records of the de Montfort family whose mistress was the sister of Henry III and shows how, even in a time of political turmoil and rebellion the household and the annual activities remained the same.

The author writes clearly and gives you lots of fascinating details on which to reflect. What I took away from the book was the amount of effort, planning and hard work that must have gone into running one of these households and how important it was that it functioned well for the sake of all those who depended on it.

This was an interesting but quick look at this time and these households but if you want to understand society and culture as a whole at this time you would need to do a lot more reading. I enjoyed this limited glimpse though.