The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century IAN MORTIMER Touchstone A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 www.SimonandSchuster.com Copyright © 2008 by Ian Mortimer Originally published in Great Britain in 2008 by the Bodley Head, a division of Random House UK All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Touchstone Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. First Touchstone hardcover edition January 2010 TOUCHSTONE and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc. For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or, [email protected]. The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com. Manufactured in the United States of America 1   3   5   7   9   10   8   6   4   2 The Library of Congress has cataloged the Bodley Head edition as follows: Mortimer, Ian. The time traveller’s guide to medieval England : a handbook for visitors to the fourteenth century / Ian Mortimer. p.      cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. England—Social conditions—1066-1485. 2. England—Social life and customs—1066-1485. 3. Great Britain—History—1066-1687. I. Title. HN385 .M67 2008 942.03—dc22    2008278423 ISBN 978-1-4391-1289-2 ISBN 978-1-4391-4914-0 (ebook) For my wife, Sophie, without whom this book would not have been written and whom I would not have met had it not been for this book. Acknowledgments I would like to thank my editors Will Sulkin and Jörg Hensgen, and all their colleagues at Random House who have helped to bring this idea to fruition, and my agent, Jim Gill, for sound advice. I am very grateful also to Kathryn Warner for giving me feedback on the first draft, and to those who accommodated me on various research trips, namely Zak Reddan and Mary Fawcett, Jay Hammond, Judy Mortimer, and Robert and Julie Mortimer. I would also like to record my gratitude for the helpful suggestions which Peter McAdie and Anne Wegner made during the course of editing this book. By far my greatest debt is to my wife, Sophie. We first met in order to discuss this book in January 1995. I am deeply grateful to her not only for encouraging me to write it but also for subsequently marrying me. We now have three children: Alexander, Elizabeth, and Oliver. I am grateful to them too for teaching me things about life in all ages which one simply cannot learn from a book. Moretonhampstead, Devon March 9, 2008 Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Welcome to Medieval England 1 The Landscape 2 The People 3 The Medieval Character 4 Basic Essentials 5 What to Wear 6 Traveling 7 Where to Stay 8 What to Eat and Drink 9 Health and Hygiene 10 The Law 11 What to Do Envoi Notes Full Titles of Works Mentioned in the Notes Index The past is a foreign country— they do things differently there. L. P. Hartley, The Go-Between