The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century (66 page)

Not every royal dinner is a feast. Here the king is dining with his closest advisers. Note the baldaquin above him, the aumbry with his silver vessels, and his minstrels.

This scene depicts a dais during a royal feast. The king is fl anked by his advisers. Servants kneel before him when presenting dishes. To his right is the “reward,” the table for the principal offi cers. Behind him stands the marshal, with his staff of offi ce.

Hanging people is often a production-line process. Several clergymen are on hand, each gallows supports up to a dozen people, and crowds look on, often including the kin of the condemned. It is a slow, ignominious death.

Medieval men see beheading as preferable to hanging. Royal family members are often granted beheading as a favor. Here the executioner, having performed his duty, has been struck with a fi t.

The village stocks serve as both a form of lockup for serious offenders and a humiliating punishment for less serious crimes. Presumably this married woman and the monk fall into the latter category.

Your physician might not actually examine you. Instead he will diagnose your condition from an inspection of your urine and the constellations of the stars.

Physicians administering medicine with a spoon. This scene is comparable with modern life. What is on that spoon, however, is almost certainly not.

Plague-stricken clergymen being blessed by a priest. Men and women in religious communities such as abbeys are especially vulnerable to infectious diseases.

After plague, leprosy is the most feared disease: “the living death,” as it is known. This leper carries a bell to warn people of his presence.

John of Arderne, the great surgeon, performing a fi stula operation. Surgeons should be able to make their patients laugh, he says. Not easy, in this situation.

Acrobats and dancers often accompany minstrels around the country. Here a woman performs to the accompaniment of pipes and a fi fe and drum.

The carol of love. Caroling is group song and dance, not just to do with Christmas. People join hands and dance in a circle, singing the chorus.

Bearbaiting is just one of many cruel sports that people enjoy. Here the bear has grabbed one dog but another has bitten its ear.