30 October, 2018

Their Mums Visited Them

I've written a few posts before on the blog about Edward II's chamber staff and their lives, so brilliantly illuminated by his surviving chamber accounts of the 1320s. The chamber account of 1324/5 reveals that the king's clerk Peter Pulford was visited by his mother Mariote in January 1325. Mariote also "talked to the king" and received a massive 100 shillings or five pounds as a gift from Edward.  Litel Colle (Little Colin) the chamber valet was visited by his mother Anneis in June 1325, and Jak Gryndere the wheelwright was visited by his mother Johane in October 1325. Some years earlier, Dulcia Withstaff, mother of the king's fool Robert, came to visit her son and the king at Christmas, and Edward gave her ten shillings. I think it's great to see that royal household staff kept in touch with their mothers! I've written before about the wives and sometimes the children of royal household servants coming to visit their husbands/fathers at court, and sometimes it seems that they stayed for quite a while - a few weeks or even several months. Servants were also allowed to leave court and visit their families sometimes too, and needed the permission of the king or one of his senior household officials to leave court.

If you're interested in Edward II's household staff, there's always my article ''Bought by the King Himself': Edward II, his Chamber, his Family and his Interests in 1325-26', in Fourteenth Century England X, ed. Gwilym Dodd, published February 2018. More info here.


4 comments:

sami parkkonen said...

That is our Edward, the man of the people!

I've read about some rulers who did not like commoners around their courts or palaces but Edward really comes out like a different kind of a man in this respect too. And those gifts he handed out to the mothers etc. He really liked people, at least the ordinary ones.

Undine said...

As a side note, "Dulcia Withstaff" is a lovely name. Medieval names often had a poetry to them you rarely see nowadays.

And I'd love to know what Mariote said to Edward to get five pounds from him!

Kathryn Warner said...

Sami: in my book about 1326, I write at length about Edward's numerous meetings with his subjects that year, and the way he allowed them access to the places where he stayed.

Undine: isn't it fab? My current favourite medieval name is a woman who lived in Staffordshire in 1332: Lycoricia Watterbuttes. :) :)

I know, me too Love to be a fly on the wall during that conversation!

sami parkkonen said...

Kathryn; Your book, this one too, is a MUST for all of us medieval history fans. Thank you for this one too!