Pease Pottage on the eve of the Medieval Battle of Tewkesbury?

Tewkesbury Abbey

A commemoration of the Battle of Tewkesbury of 1471 took place a few weekends ago in outlying fields of that same town, on 13-14 July. I recall that my cousin, who has been an historical re-enactor for very many years, mentioned that his Lord’s “levy” of foot soldiers always attended this particular medieval re-enactment. The success of the festival is such that participants in both the Medieval Fair and the battle re-enactment travel to Tewkesbury from all over the world. A significant date in the calendar of 'living history' events by any criteria.

Now Tewkesbury is not so far from where I live. And just one week previously I had signed up for a free six week FutureLearn online course run by the University of Leicester entitled “England in the time of Richard III”. A silly thing to do at the start of the summer holidays but there you are!  

Banners festoon Tewkesbury's buildings

That very week on my course I had learned about the long lived, on/off political and military feud between the Yorkists and Lancastrians - to decide which branch of the royal Plantagenet family would rule Britain. Since 1337, the start of the feud, England had been plunged into a sustained period of Civil War. It came to be known later as the “Wars of the Roses” - on account of the Yorkists’ white rose badge and the opposing red rose of the Lancastrians.

Historical re-enactor Colin Mutty

Over the years the fortunes of each side had often changed but finally the Yorkists gained the upper hand. Yorkist Edward Plantagenet had removed King Henry VI from the throne and was crowned King Edward IV in his place. Deposed (and many said mad) Henry VI was imprisoned but his wife, Margaret of Anjou, and son Edward of Westminster (Lancaster) - the Prince of Wales - continued their struggle for power from their base in France. However their Lancastrian army of 1471 raised from France, England and Wales was to suffer a resounding defeat at Tewkesbury. And their figurehead, Prince Edward, in whom their hopes of regaining the crown rested, was killed. Thus ending the Battle of Tewkesbury and leading to a “routing” of the Lancastrians, with no mercy shown to them. Edward IV’s brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester (and later to become King Richard III) was 19. He was an effective and loyal military campaigner on behalf of his brother the King during these troubled times and at Tewkesbury commanded the western flank of the victorious Yorkist army.

Days later Margaret of Anjou was paraded next to victorious King Edward through London before being imprisoned, and that same night King Henry VI mysteriously died in the Tower of London. Thus bringing to a conclusion that phase of the War of the Roses. 

Historical re-enactor's cooking set-up with cauldron and portable charcoal fire bowl

MedievalMorsels makes miniature medieval dollhouse food - pease pottage

I had a glorious time, meeting my cousin, enjoying the re-enactment and looking at as many medieval cooking set-ups as I could. Here’s one and my guess would be that a nutritious pottage with some bacon would have served as a filling and fitting last supper for some of those poor Lancastrians. Just like MedievalMorsels one inch scale medieval dolls house food - pease pottage - also pictured!

Hemlock, Quails and Medieval Morsels

The quail is Europe's smallest game bird, much smaller than its cousins - the partridge, pigeon or pheasant. And, as is often surprisingly the case, I happened to have such a pair in my fridge - courtesy of a well-known British supermarket. Here are the quail before cooking, and how tiny they are!

Plump quail.

Did you know that collective noun for many several quail is a "bevy" and this term can be used for beauties, ladies, maidens as well as larks and doves? The explosion of collective nouns in the English language is just amazing - you need only explore  http://en.wiktionary.org/

In Medieval times quails may have been popular eating with noble ladies at dinner, but they would have hardly provided more than a mouthful or two of meat for a hungry prince, or a growing squire, or an aspiring knight in training. Quails were rare, reserved for aristocratic dining.

And here's why. They first arrived on the medieval menu in England via France - netted and shipped live to British shores in little cages complete, it is recorded, with grain and water for their journey. Given all this effort, they must have commanded a very high price and be bound for some of the richest households in the kingdom.

MedievalMorsels' range of one inch scale dollhouse miniature foods now includes it namesake "morsel" if you will, the brazier, spit or oven roasted quail! The daintiest 12th scale poultry I need ever model for a Medieval or Tudor dolls house setting because I am not about to  recreate the song bird repertoire eaten in Medieval times!

MedievalMorsels poorly plucked quail, delicate 12th scale dolls house food 

Despite its small size, the European Quail is a migratory bird capable of flying phenomenal distances.  It could be netted at known feeding points en route, or where it fell exhausted to the ground after literally making landfall (fall - get it?) after a long sea passage.

Quail's migration is mentioned in Exodus: "And it came to pass at even(ing), the quails came up and covered the camp." But therein lies a surprise, read on below.

The well known Mediterranean food writer and presenter Claudia Roden recalls annual picnics at the Dunes of Agami near Alexandria, Egypt. Here quail, having fallen from the sky, were cleaned and gutted, marinaded with spices and then cooked over small fires on the beach. I doubt if this picnic practice would have been much different in Medieval and even earlier times. Now it is lucky there were no fatalities associated with Ms Roden's family picnics...

Quite inadvertently this quail (Coturnix coturnix) has a more sinister side. The Romans, very clever in almost all things, had "cottoned on" to the dangers of the migratory quail. They considered the birds unwholesome because they ate poisonous plants, notably hemlock seeds, so their flesh was known to be capable of poisoning people. Their meat acted as a proxy agent for the potentially fatal hemlock toxins. Something today medically known, after the Latin name for the quail, as "coturnism".

First described in the Bible (Numbers, 11 v31) this acute and often fatal poisoning has been observed in the Mediterranean region and the Middle East. The true incidence of coturnism is unknown, many cases  are not undiagnosed. Modern cases, not necessarily fatal if recognised in time, are occasionally written up in the medical literature. This helps to remind practising physicians that such an obscure condition really does exist. 

I cannot say if coturnism was ever the featured as the mysterious, life threatening medical condition in an episode of the "forensic" medical drama "House, MD" - once the most widely watched TV series in the world. It might have required a convoluted storyline, so as not to confuse American viewers with the unrelated Californian Quail!

Bath's gem of a bridge!

Bath's fascinating Pulteney Bridge straddles the River Avon and sits upstream of an unusually shaped weir. And why so fascinating you may ask? Old stone bridges are happily still commonplace in the British Isles, so nothing unique there. A testament to the "civil engineering" of the past, although the exceptional flooding of recent winters and summers has put some old bridges under unprecedented structural stress.

Pulteney Bridge, designed by the foremost architect of the (UK's) Georgian period Robert Adam, was completed in 1774. But it shares something in common with the much older, now "lost" medieval London Bridge. And with the surviving medieval Ponte Vecchio spanning the River Arno, in Italy's Florence.

You've probably guessed it. Bath's bridge, built for one George Pulteney, has shops lining its entire span on both sides! I find this incredibly exciting. Its simply not what I expect from a bridge at all, let alone in England! Adam had seen the Ponte Vecchio. He visited Venice as well, home to the Rialto Bridge built in Renaissance times. He obviously did not fail to notice that both were lined with buildings!

Bath's Pulteney Bridge designed by Georgian architect Robert Adam

I walked over and back on either side of Pulteney Bridge. All the time straining to peer through each narrow bridge-built establishment to glimpse, through their rear picture windows, the river beyond. I was not particularly interested in the contents of the shops you see! And it was okay for me to be enthralled. Because Bath's magnificent monument is in fact only one of four shop-lined bridges in the world.

Someone can let me know which is the fourth such bridge if they like...I don't use Wikipedia much, preferring more old-fashioned reference sources. A shelf full of Encyclopedia Britannica anyone?!

A Georgian spa town, Bath allowed high society to satisfy its "penchant" for "taking the waters". Thus following in the footsteps of the Romans who built baths and temples at these natural hot springs, dedicating them to the goddess Sulis Minerva. Bath, known in Roman times as Aquae Sulis was one of the most sought-after retirement places in Roman Britain!

The aforementioned Pulteney wanted to link his Bathtown estate on the opposite side of the Avon to Bath itself. So he had need of a bridge. Bathtown was home to certain Jane Austen when she moved there with her retired father and her mother. The novelist included Bath in some of her novels, bringing it yet more fame. Its unique Georgian crescent is much beloved of British television costume dramas and, yes, there is a Jane Austen tea shoppe!

Originally founded as Bath General Hospital by Dr William Oliver

I haven't the space here or photos to post about the Roman spa history of Bath, but mention of tea shoppes reminds me that Bath's other claim to fame is the Bath Bun, whose origin dates back to 1761. And the Bath Oliver biscuit of the same period - both invented by a Dr Oliver who founded what became the spa treatment based Royal Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases. MedievalMorsels one inch dollhouse food equivalent to the Bath Oliver is the barley bannock - both names have a nice ring to them don't they?

MedievalMorsels' dollshouse miniature 12th scale individual barley flatbreads

All this babble about the bridge....and buns. Bath's scenic weir has a claim to fame as well. It was used in the film version of Les Miserables for the character Javert's suicide, as played by Russell Crowe with his valiant shouty singing live on set and on location.

Richard III's statue has been relocated in Leicester (England)

I have mentioned in previous posts that I have a sister who lives in the centre of the city of Leicester. She has been able to witness recent developments. 

First, to set the scene. On 23 May 2014 the long awaited outcome of a Judicial Review held earlier in March 2014, was delivered at the Royal Courts of Justice, London. The deliberations were not about where King Richard III should be buried (Leicester or York or any other place) but whether several defendants, including the Secretary of State for Justice, had a duty at common law to consult about where and how the King's remains should be re-interred. The action had been brought by the Plantagenet Alliance  a group of fifteen collateral descendants of king, who believed they should have been consulted. 

King Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485)

The Judgement found that 'there are no public law grounds for the Court interfering with the decisions in question'. 'Since Richard III's exhumation on 5 September 2012, passions have been roused and much ink has been split. Issues relating to his life and death and place of re-interment have been exhaustively examined and debated. The Very Reverend David Monteith, the Dean of Leicester Cathedral, has explained the considerable efforts and expenditure invested by the Cathedral in order to create a lasting burial place "as befits an anointed King". We agree that it is time for Richard III to be given as dignified reburial, and finally laid to rest.'

Re-located in Leicester Cathedral's precincts 

Leicester has been re-designing its city centre and cathedral precincts to create a Richard III themed pedestrian experience which links the important sites. This transformation is not yet complete. But this week Richard III's statue has this been re-located from Leicester's Castle Park to it's Cathedral precinct. He has been furnished with a new sword, replacing his dagger. 

My sister did wonder, below, what type of deliveries were expected by road back then in the 15th century. Hay? Armour? Or perhaps, most enticingly, street food in the form of MedievalMorsels? The most likely street food would have been the ever popular pie or "chewit" sold by itinerant traders. Individually sized, encased in pastry-crust and therefore easy to carry and easy to eat. 

Medieval street vendor's pie by MedievalMorsels

World Cup is on.Time for a Beer. What's so peculiar?

I was making a steak and ale pie, so I needed some dark ale with great taste to "inform" the stock. I chose Theakeston's "Old Peculier". Then I got absorbed , as I hoped the ale would be in the pie, in looking at the emblem on the bottle's neck and reading about it. 

A peculier bottle of beer devoid of contents!

Could this be the Archbishop of York?

Explained on the bottleneck, Theakston's most famous beer takes its name from the seal of the Peculier Court of Masham which was granted back in the 12th century. "It was the custom at the time for the church to administer the law, and this proved too arduous a task for the then Archbishop, who was based in York. So with due archiepiscopal aplomb, he set up the independent Peculier Court, headed up by the Peculier of Masham."

Theakston's by contrast was established in 1827 not in the 1200's. This particular "Legendary Strong Ale" is 5.6% proof and is made from barley and wheat.

Now, from earliest Medieval times cereal was needed for bread-making and to feed the animal stock that worked the land - oxen and horses later.The demand for cereals was immense in proportion to the population, because insufficient land was under cultivation. So it was fortunate that a huge new granary opened up, also in the 12th century, when Germany expanded onto the plains of Eastern Europe.

Image courtesy Medieval Woodcuts Clipart Collection

   
Beer drinkers should pay attention from this point. So plentiful and cheap were supplies of cereal from the Baltic that, courtesy of the well organised Hanseatic League traders plying their trade across the North Sea, there was now grain enough to spare in England - even for brewing!! Fermented barley, known as malt was an essential ingredient. A weak,  unfiltered and cloudy "small ale" was home brewed, often by women of the household. Drunk by all classes of medieval society, and their children, it provided some nourishment. Because water is boiled as part of the process, ale was a safer drink than water itself. Its alcoholic content would also discourage micro-organisms to some extent, although ale did rapidly go sour. Strong ale was no doubt brewed for medieval festivities, or for consumpion in alehouses.

What is the difference between ale - drunk in one form or another from the earliest times across  many civilisations - and beer I hear you ask!? Its a historical difference now rather lost in the  move to modern beer production. Ales were made long before hops first reached England's shores in 1524. The beer making process practised in continental Europe used hops, which imparted a bitter taste that balanced the sweet malted barley.

Ale drinking habits continued throughout England into Elizabethan times after 1524, when hops and beer making began to gain some ground in London. According to Anne Wilson’s book “Food and Drink in Britain” by Elizabeth I reign (1558 - 1603) even ale came to be lightly hopped, helping it keep better. Hops, now grown locally to London were no longer an expensive imported item from the Low Countries (Belgium and Holland). Annette Hope in her book “Londoners’ Larder notes that both ale and beer could be made very strong “..and London ale houses, where the ‘ale-knights’ sat all day, drinking until they fell off their stools, were a byword.” A byword for excess! 

MedievalMorsels 12th scale dolls house food, predominantly wheat with barley loaves, and barley bannocks

MedievalMorsels one inch scale dollhouse miniature food rye with barley flatbread loaves

 MedievalMorsels makes a range of one inch dolls house miniature foods from Medieval and Tudor times- flatbreads that used barley as an ingredient in varying proportions with rye and other grains. It also produces dainty barley bannocks that would grace a rich guildsman's dining table!

Gloucester's claims to fame!

House in Cathedral precincts

The Old Crypt Schoolroom erected in 1539 

We were in Medieval Gloucester the other day. Gloucester's fine cathedral remains partly under scaffold wraps as the long process of masonry cleaning and restoration continues.  

In 1216 the cathedral witnessed the first coronation of King Henry III at the tender age of nine. Henry III has several claims to fame. The son of (bad) King John who was forced to sign the Magna Carta, he established England's first parliament, bringing the practice of absolute monarchy to an end. He was the only English monarch to lose his crown twice but he died as monarch! First, he became unpopular with his barons and subjects and was deposed by his ruling Council. Then, as an ageing king his son - later Edward I - regained the Plantagenet crown in battle. But effectively it was his son who ruled, side-lining the king who now had time on his hands. He was a pious man, devoting himself to re-building Westminster Abbey in the new Gothic style of architecture, as well as other fine churches, in the second half of his "reign".

Some Grotesques have had a structural make-over.

Whilst speaking (writing) of Gloucester we cannot overlook the marvellous Gloucestershire Old Spots Pig, awarded "traditional speciality guaranteed status" from the EU, putting it's bacon, pork and ham products on a par with Champagne and Parma ham! The once commonplace orchard grazing pig belongs is a breed that has been formally recognised relatively recently, to protect its ancient bloodline. As it happens, the Princess Royal is Patron of the Gloucestershire Old Spots Pig Breeders’ Club, whose motto I love - "100 years of porcine perfection"!

Medieval Tudor dollhouse miniature food -12th scale cured bacon

I imagine that most home-killed medieval free-range pork was equally delicious, regardless of breed. MedievalMorsels makes one inch scale doll's house miniature bacon joints for your Medieval, Gothic or Tudor dollhouse scene.  Visit MedievalMorsels in the future when I hope to have developed other porcine products, 12th scale doll's house miniature ham and pork models!

Gloucester's other claim to fame of course is Beatrix Potter's charming children's story "The Tailor Of Gloucester". Its one of my personal favourites, after "The Tale of Peter Rabbit". I grew up with these tales, at home we had a near complete set of the little books. Tradition carries on, so when my god-daughter was born I sent her a book each year for the first years of her life. Some of Gloucester's narrow alleyways are little changed from their not so whimsical representation in this little gem of a story.

Herring in disguise -kipper or bloater?

I had a lovely lightly cured kipper or was it a bloater for breakfast (or was it lunch?) the other day. The last time some wonderful freshly preserved fish like this came into the house they were eaten before I got around to photographing them. Not so this time! 

And here they are - handsome fellas artistically posed with some red pears which set them off rather attractively don't you agree? 

 My partner often does some food shopping so surprises abound! And the connections I can with medieval eating practices seem endless, giving me food for thought, and blogging material!

Can there ever be such a thing as a fresh kipper?  Lets consider a Dark Ages or Middle Ages (Medieval) fisherman, or indeed a Renaissance times "trawler of the sea". In northern Europe herring was a popular, cheap and plentiful fish caught from earliest times - there is evidence it was fished before 1000 AD!! That's over one thousand years pursuing this versatile fish. 

Woodcut of ocean going fishing vessels dating from about 1550

A smelly job 

 But herring is an oily fish and goes bad very quickly, so immediate steps had to be taken to preserve it for transport to market. The processing on board ship involved gutting, flattening, salting and packing the fish into barrels. A very smelly and messy business I have no doubt. 

Brined "white herring" by MedievalMorsels 

Historical re-enactors' brined herring

 Peasants living close to North Sea ports in Europe, or even in medieval London, would have easy access to brined "white" herring. It was a relatively cheap "staple" food.  It offered a "fresher" and welcome alternative to the even saltier, often many-years-old, "stockfish" (salted cod). This dried fish by con trast needed the equivalent of a medieval mallet as well as long soaking (often in unclean water) to render it edible! 

Its fitting that the herring was in fact MedievalMorsel's first 12th scale dollshouse miniature food to be listed in my Etsy online shop. My maternal grandfather was a Suffolk-based drifter-man away for long periods  at sea chasing herring in the early 1900's. And I grew up in King's Lynn, Norfolk  an important Hanseatic League port for medieval merchants trading in barrels of herring and other produce from and via the North Sea!

 I will tell the tale (tail!) of medieval red herring another time. And ,yes, the kipper versus bloater thing will have to wait until then too....