This is the first in a series of blog posts detailing what life would have been like for the servants who worked at Tudor House. The time periods these posts will cover are: Medieval, Tudor, Georgian, Victorian and the early 20th century. As the medieval period spans from about the 5th century to the end of the 15th century, this post will focus on the latter half of the period.
During the medieval period, Southampton was a thriving port which exported wool and animal hide to France while importing wines. This trade led to many merchants gaining influence and fortune, including John Wytegod who eventually became mayor and the owner of King John’s Palace (the oldest part of Tudor House). Wealthy merchants all across the country employed domestic servants; while there are no written records of Wytegod doing so, it’s highly unlikely that a man in his position, who owned multiple properties in Southampton, would not hire servants to staff his home. These servants could have fulfilled various duties, or he may have even had differentiated servants to tend to the different household duties as some of the most affluent merchants did.
Servants at this time were often young people sent away by their families to work and develop skills to aid them later in life. Young women would have benefitted doubly from this, as the money they earned would have gone towards their wedding dowry. Others may have chosen to work as servants all their lives, rather than take up a trade or farm a rural lord of the manor’s land. These servants would have performed the everyday household tasks such as cooking or cleaning. Servants sometimes lived in their master’s home, where they were guaranteed food and somewhere to sleep.
Evidence from other parts of medieval England suggest that some merchants treated their servants very well. They sometimes left them money or clothing in their wills. Female servants were also left dowry money on occasion. Former servants who had left a merchant’s service were also remembered in wills from time to time. If the servants at King John’s Palace had a good relationship with Wytegod, or whoever owned the house during their time there, they likely had a relatively good life; a secure source of income, possible lodging with their employer and potentially a sum of money on their master’s passing.
Two major events would have also impacted the lives of the servants at King John’s Palace. The medieval period saw Southampton hit by a French raid in 1338, a year after the Hundred Years’ War began. This led to the town’s defences being strengthened, with the front of King John’s Palace being sealed up as part of the defensive wall. The county of Hampshire was also one of the earliest entry points of the ‘Black Death’ in 1348, a plague which ravaged the country.
All in all, the life of a medieval servant seems to have been better than you might imagine (other than the war and bubonic plague, that is). If you’d like to learn more of medieval life I recommend this book by Jenny Kermode, which mentions quite a bit about servants, or Terry Jones’s Medieval Lives, which looks at medieval life for everyone from a king down to the average peasant.
The Tudor Team 