Castle life. Knight's castle - a safe house in the Middle Ages

castle dwellers

The military support of such castles, at least in peacetime, was limited to the most necessary.

A completely different situation was in the castles-residences of large aristocratic families, centers of noble knightly culture. Noble families sent their offspring here to raise them, men competed for such honorary positions as kravchiy, chamberlain, steward, served as knights, advisers, employees or managers, and ladies as maids of princesses.

Light and warmth

It's nice to look out of the window of the castle into the distance on a June day, admiring the landscape. But who on a cold, damp November day on dirty, soggy roads? The inhabitants of the castle were supposed to spend the cold season in it, complaining about the hardships of winter and sighing about spring.

Who could afford it, sheathed the walls with boards or hung them with carpets. The small windows let the cold in less; large multi-vaulted windows are rare.

Lamp. 15th c.

Although glass was already known, it was rarely used for glazing even in the castles of the nobility. Instead, the windows were covered with barely light-transmitting leather or parchment, most often on wooden frames, or furs. From the draft, the cracks were plugged with straw or moss.

The candles made of stearin and paraffin known to us were invented only in the 19th century. Before that, candles were used from fat obtained from cow kidneys, or lamb fat. Beeswax candles were expensive and only then available to the owner of the castle if the raw materials were supplied by their own bees. Torches were more effective, but they produced a lot of soot, spoiled carpets and furniture, and for this reason were used only in special cases.

Pine splinter and oil lamps were cheaper - they also gave a lot of soot, burned the already meager oxygen and spread a strong rancid smell.

Heating

It was not only dark in the castles, but also very cold, and in the rock castles it was also damp.

The stone fireplace in the hall spread heat only a few meters around, and then only while the fire was burning. The place by the fire was intended for the lord of the castle, his family and honored guests. The remote ends of the hall, or rooms without fireplaces and stoves, were heated by iron baskets filled with red-hot coals, which provided only meager heat.

After the end of the 11-12 century. chimneys arose, the kitchen and living quarters were spread over different floors. The role played by the stove in improving the comfort of life in the castle is reflected in the index of the faces of the princely castle of Tyrol. Fornarius, the stoker, and no less than 11 of his assistants top the list.

Interior and furniture

The residential towers of the early Staufen times were sparsely furnished, and the furniture itself, even in the castles of large feudal lords, was simple until the end of the Middle Ages. At the same time, the design of walls, floors and ceilings was much richer, brighter and more diverse.

The entrance to the residential tower was a simple staircase leading to the second or third floor. The walls of the lower floors were either plastered with a thin layer of lime, or the masonry was left exposed. The coolness coming from the walls was welcome here, as stocks were kept on wooden shelves: fruits and bread, vegetables and herbs in baked clay vessels, other foodstuffs, in large wooden vats - a supply of water intended for emergencies. Since the water was Bad quality wine stored in barrels played a significant role.

Above the storerooms there was a kitchen with a large place for making a fire, at floor level or slightly raised, above it - a far protruding fireplace or chimney shell. The furniture was economical - a simple table for cooking, a shelf for pots, plates or food. The floor was covered with a thin fire-resistant layer of clay or lime mortar, in subsequent centuries the floor was also made of brick or stone slabs.

On the second, and sometimes even the third floor of a residential tower (or palace), there was a living room, the central point of the castle, which was dominated by a large wall fireplace. Here the walls were plastered or covered with frescoes. Tapestries served as both decoration and protection from the cold, especially luxurious ones were hung out only on holidays.

Next to the fireplace, the owner and members of his family sat on folding chairs or armchairs. If you follow the descriptions of contemporaries, then the tables were brought into the hall only for a meal, and then they were immediately taken away. They sat on stools or benches (the “chair” was invented only in the 16th century), as well as on folding chairs and stools, and also on chests. There were benches along the walls, or it was one bench that ran along the perimeter.

Above the hall in the residential tower were the sleeping chambers of the master and his seven members, under the roof - the premises of the servants. To protect from the cold, the walls were sheathed with massive, at first simple boards, but more often with fabric sheathing. The dormitory, which was common to all the servants until modern times, was unheated.

Valuable clothes and documents were kept in chests, rarely in (wall) cabinets. Other chests served to store bedding. If it was possible, the gentlemen used a four-poster bed, a canopy of fabric or wood was supposed to trap harmful insects, the beds were shorter than today, as they slept half-sitting. The servants slept on the straw, often next to the horses. The maids - on simple common beds knocked down from the boards.

Sanitation

If we follow medieval novels and epics, then Parzival, dusty after a long race, takes a bath, patronized by bathing servants. Melegants (in the novel of the same name of the Arthurian cycle, 1160-80) finds the hostess of the castle, who is not at all indignant at this, in a bathing tub, by the way, located in front of the castle under a linden tree.

In the bath or bath there were not only tubs for washing, but also a steam bath, to get steam, water was poured onto hot stones.

Steam bath. 14th c.

Baths and baths, of course, were typical of castles of high nobility and were usually located on the ground floor of a palace or residential tower, as they required a large amount of water. In the castles of ordinary knights, on the contrary, they are rarely found, and even then only on the threshold of the New Age. Soap, even if of poor quality, was a mandatory accessory, expensive soap was learned to be made already in the era of the Crusades. Various brushes, including toothbrushes, nail and ear cleaners were also required equipment and their existence can be traced through sources in individual castles. Small mirrors were famous, but they were considered luxury items, since they were only able to be made in Venice. Some, mostly noble ladies, wore wigs, dyed their hair or curled it. Well, there were also chamber pots, which at first were made of wood, later of clay.

Water supply

wells

First of all, the possibility of obtaining water from a well within the castle was considered, which gave a guarantee of fresh water in case of a siege. The well had to be dug through the rock to the aquifers, and even to the groundwater. This required wells with an average depth of 20 to 40 m, not uncommon and 70 m, in isolated cases, for example, Kuffhäuser (Kyffhäuser) in Thuringia, Homberg (Homberg) or the fortress Königstein (Königstein) in Saxony, more than 140 m. Depending on rocks and depths over the well worked for a year, sometimes three or five years. In extreme cases, the well absorbed as much money as all other buildings.

Reservoirs and filter tanks

The easiest way was to collect rainwater on the castle grounds and store it in tanks.

The quality of the water was improved with the help of filter tanks, in which the water first passed through a layer of gravel, crushed stone or sand.

external water supply

daily food

Nowhere were social distinctions more pronounced in medieval society than in diet. According to the remnants of food in the castles of the petty nobility, archaeologists managed to reconstruct: they naturally ate meat, but almost exclusively pork and beef. . From studies of eating habits in the late medieval Auvergne, we know that the villagers consumed an average of 26 kg of meat per person per year, the petty nobility about 100 kg - four times more than the peasant.

the most important integral part The diet throughout the Middle Ages, however, was not meat, but grain products that fell on the table like bread, porridge or beer, less often as rolls, cakes, pies, gingerbread, pretzels, the richer the house was, the brighter the bread. Mention should be made of vegetables, which became more and more diverse and were grown in each castle - in the castle garden, or household yard.

Fruits in the early Middle Ages were supplied primarily by wild varieties, from the 11th-12th centuries. - obtained from meadows planted with fruit trees. Apples and pears were often boiled, grapes were often processed into wine, vinegar, strong drinks, fruits were processed into jelly, jam, syrup. The forest gave berries, wild roses, elderberries, acorns, chestnuts, nuts. All this was available to peasants in the early and high Middle Ages, but with an increase in population density, it became more and more regulated.

A much larger role than fish played today, the classic Lenten food. The Middle Ages knew 70 days of fasting, pious Christians also fasted on Fridays and Saturdays, and especially strong believers also every Wednesday. These days meat, poultry and dairy products were taboo, and there was only one instead of two main meals.

Cloth

Drawing from Codex Manesse. Beginning 14th c.

We are accustomed to seeing knights in armor, which they naturally wore only for combat. What did the knight wear "in private"? When looking at medieval images, such as the famous Codex Manesse, the absence of a difference between men's and women's, adult and children's clothing is immediately evident. Everywhere long, ankle-length lower garments, above them a caftan, going to the floor for both women and men. Only in the 15th century the lower edge of men's clothing began to shift upwards - so much so that small differences became clearly visible.

Back in the 10th c. we would do it with ease: a woman in a long, wide dress, a man in a knee-length dress, below the pants - a kind of linen pantaloons of medium length, "trousers", the so-called stockings, are tied to them, stockings are worn on the feet. Differences in the clothes of the nobility and peasants are manifested more in quality than in cut.

Only in the 11th century women's fashion is on the move. The sleeves have become wider and longer, the belt gently shows the figure, the refined and increasingly tapering cut emphasizes the volume of the chest.

In the 13th century in France and Spain, already then the centers of Western fashion, the first worldly laws against luxury in clothing were issued. They regulated the luxury of clothing at court, in particular, by establishing how much caftans should be decorated with fur. Only in Central Europe dress laws were directed against the peasants and ordered them a simple dress, naturally only brown, blue and black tones. On the contrary, the nobility loved colorful, light colors and combined green with red, yellow with blue.

annual cycle

A knight could only fight if his peasants and the harvest in his allotment could feed him. So I had to look back at agricultural needs all the time - and this manifested itself with the change of seasons.

Summer

"Now it's harvest time, so the war will have to wait." Although summer was a good time for fighting - the days are long, food for the horses is at hand, troops can spend the night under open sky. Rivers with their low water level are easy to overcome, the roads, although dusty, are passable. For feuds, "small wars", summer was even the most suitable time: the enemy had not yet harvested, and therefore could not hope to withstand a long siege. The destruction of the harvest of such crops as grapes, vegetables on the vine should strike him especially hard, as there is little time to re-plant and grow crops again before winter. But as a rule, they still did not wage war or strife, but stayed at home, guarded their crops, ground, stored and enjoyed long warm evenings in the castle.

Autumn

The harvest is harvested, the warehouses are filled. Pets that have grown over the summer have to be slaughtered, as there are not enough supplies for them. On a fixed day, most often at St. Martin (November 11), peasants deliver dues. On sloping fields, you can arrange luxury hunting. The end of summer and the beginning of autumn were the traditional time for battles. The days became less hot, the roads less dusty. Without difficulty, it was possible to feed large masses of troops with their own, or better with a captured crop. Large knightly battles with many participants took place most often from the end of August to the end of September

Winter

In November, the time convenient for travel ended, the rains washed away the roads, the rivers overflowed and became impassable. As a rule, the fighting subsided, compromises were sought, unless, of course, the uprisings did not require intervention. Sometimes the cold had merit, for the frozen roads were passable for heavy wagons and horsemen, and the ice-covered rivers and swamps were no longer an obstacle. Those who waged war in winter ensured the element of surprise. As a rule, however, they spent the winter at home, finally staying with their wife and children. They sat closely next to each other, since only a few rooms of the castle or the manor house were heated. We talked, made a variety Board games and bones.

Spring

From Easter began the best time of the knight, who, preparing for war or strife, took part in tournaments and multi-day hunts. On Trinity, the year reached its peak with court events, weddings, festive gatherings with music, dancing, festive food. This could be followed by a spring company, a feud. Then, however, the knight returned to his castle or court to take care of the harvest.

castle dwellers

The number of people living in the castle and the relationship between them depended on the functions performed by the castle. We find the smallest number of inhabitants in "private" castles, which served primarily as a place of residence for the owner of the castle and his family. Here we meet only a minimum of servants, in extreme cases the mistress of the castle had to do the housework herself, with the support of one servant, while the owner was engaged in management. The difference from the peasant way of life in this case is hardly perceptible. Despite all the reports of ruined nobles, such cases were rather an exception. Impoverished knights are often encountered in the time of the Staufen. Most often, castles, including those belonging to ordinary knights, were the center of small estates with estates in several points, which were rarely cultivated independently. Usually, possessions were distributed among a couple of dozen, less often several hundred serfs, who paid taxes in return and performed work. In this case, the manager, sometimes with his own clerk, monitored the receipts from the peasants in kind and cash taxes from the peasants and resolved disputes between the serfs. In some castles, a separate room was allocated to the manager and clerk, often near the gate, sometimes in the forburg or in the household yard. The servants in these cases were more extensive and included, in addition to the servants and maids of the permanent cook, a couple of cooks, possibly also a stoker, blacksmith or saddler. If major construction work was coming, then carpenters and masons were hired, who during this period could also be accommodated on the castle grounds.

The military support of such castles, at least in peacetime, was limited to the most necessary. So in 1425, both co-owners of the castle of Reichelsberg (Reichelsberg) in the Lower Franconian Aub (Aub) entered into an agreement that each of them exposes one armed servant, and two gatekeepers (Türmann and Torwart) and two guards are paid jointly. The situation in the service castles of large feudal lords was similar in the late Middle Ages. The owner of the castle was most often represented by the manager, who was assisted by one or two clerks. For administrative needs, one or two rooms were allocated, most often in a palace. In 1366, to protect the castle of Lichtenegg, the owner put up a gatekeeper, two guards, five armed servants with two horses, in addition, the cook had to provide for the needs of employees and their families. The manager had to pay for other domestic servants himself.

A special position was occupied by large imperial castles, erected in the 12th - early. 13th c. at the nodal points of the Staufen empire. For example, Nuremberg, Kaiserslautern, Hagenau, Oppenheim (Nürnberg, Kaiserslautern, Hagenau, Oppenheim). They served as imperial control centers and military strongholds. But here, too, the number of ministerials performing administrative or military functions was modest - even in large imperial castles there were hardly more than 20 of them. Initially, they were obliged to carry out permanent service in exchange for flax. At first, they were most likely located in the buildings of the core of the castle or forburg. However, due to cramped living conditions, already in the 12th century. they built themselves residential towers outside the walls of the castle. Thus, real military settlements arose near the castles. The obligation of garrison service gradually softened, and over time began to extend only to a period of military danger. And since they often received fiefs from different masters, garrison service became completely impossible.

A large number of courtiers required a corresponding number of both simple servants and specialists: cooks, bakers, butchers, blacksmiths, saddlers, carpenters, masons, not least carvers, artists, jewelers. They can be found here and there in the castles of the low nobility, but here they usually did not have their own workshops.

Light and warmth

The walls only partially protected from the cold; without heating, they cooled down and absorbed moisture. Who could afford it, sheathed the walls with boards or hung them with carpets. The small windows let the cold in less; large multi-vaulted windows, which are found only in the halls of large castles, were not walled up as early as the 13th-14th centuries, when the climate became harsher. In place of large window openings, small rectangular windows appeared, sometimes arranged in groups. Representative buildings received large windows, divided in half or crosswise, while at least the upper part was glazed.

Lamp. 15th c.

Although glass was already known, but even in the castles of the nobility, the so-called "forest glass" ("Waldglas") was used for glazing, which could only be processed into milky-cloudy round washers that let in only a minimum of light. Most knights, however, could not afford such glass. Instead, the windows were covered with barely light-transmitting leather or parchment, most often on wooden frames, or furs. From the draft, the cracks were plugged with straw or moss. This made the already gloomy rooms even darker - endless months in semi-darkness: if somewhere our idea of the gloomy Middle Ages is true, it is here.

Dark rooms could only be provided with low lighting. The candles made of stearin and paraffin known to us were invented only in the 19th century. Before that, candles were used from fat obtained from cow kidneys, or lamb fat. Beeswax candles were expensive and only then available to the owner of the castle if the raw materials were supplied by their own bees. Torches were more effective, but they produced a lot of soot, spoiled carpets and furniture, and for this reason were used only in special cases.

Pine splinter and oil lamps were cheaper - they also gave a lot of soot, burned the already meager oxygen and spread a strong rancid smell.

Heating

It was not only dark in the castles, but also very cold, and in the rock castles it was also damp.

While the nobility could escape on the heated ground floor, it was much more uncomfortable in small castles. The stone fireplace in the hall spread heat only a few meters around, and then only while the fire was burning. The place by the fire was intended for the lord of the castle, his family and honored guests. The remote ends of the hall, or rooms without fireplaces and stoves, were heated by iron baskets filled with red-hot coals, which provided only meager heat.

Simple limestone stoves are also found in modest houses, which even the nobility had until the 11th century. of only two rooms, which, however, was already a big step forward compared to single-space houses. In the kitchen part, most often wooden, food was cooked on an open fire. The back, stone, side of the stove heated the adjoining room, which thus remained smoke-free.

After the end of the 11-12 century. chimneys arose, the kitchen and living quarters were spread over different floors. The fireplace in the hall was often combined with a tiled stove. Tiled slabs, the existence of which has been proven since the 12th century, were made from simple clay. They retained and distributed heat better and at the same time were not so fire hazardous. Soon they began to be faced with baked clay tiles, which increased the surface area and retained heat better. Later, tiles began to be covered with glaze and decorated with various patterns.

One of the oldest images of tiles is found in the so-called Zurich armorial list (Züricher Wappenrolle) as a decoration of the helmet (!) of the Swiss knight "Stubenwied". The role played by the stove in improving the comfort of life in the castle is reflected in the index of the faces of the princely castle of Tyrol. Fornarius, the stoker, and no less than 11 of his assistants top the list.

Interior and furniture

The entrance to the residential tower was a simple staircase leading to the second or third floor. The walls of the lower floors were either plastered with a thin layer of lime, or the masonry was left exposed. The coolness coming from the walls was welcome here, as stocks were kept on wooden shelves: fruits and bread, vegetables and herbs in baked clay vessels, other foodstuffs, in large wooden vats - a supply of water intended for emergencies. Since the water was of poor quality, wine stored in barrels played a significant role.

Sanitation

Sanitation, water supply and personal hygiene were closely linked in the castles. Where water had to be obtained with difficulty from wells, taken from cisterns or delivered several kilometers away, its economical use was the first covenant. More important than personal hygiene was then the care of animals, especially expensive horses. Therefore, it is not surprising that the townspeople and villagers wrinkled their noses in the presence of the inhabitants of the castles. Back in the 16th century. the chronicle substantiated the resettlement of the nobility from the castles with the argument: "So that we have a place to wash." Since the then city baths were not limited to body care, but included in their repertoire the services of a modern "massage parlor", it is difficult to say with certainty what the knights were really looking for.

If we follow medieval novels and epics, then personal hygiene was of high value. Dusty after a long ride, Parzival takes a bath, guarded by bathing attendants. Melegants (in the novel of the same name of the Arthurian cycle, 1160-80) finds the hostess of the castle, who is not at all indignant at this, in a bathing tub, by the way, located in front of the castle under a linden tree. The epic hero Biterolf arranges joint bathing "86 or more", and once 500 knights at once - in a tub installed in the hall. In the “Naked Ambassador” shvanka, the protagonist was sent with his news to the bathhouse. Logically assuming that the owner of the castle washes there, the ambassador strips naked and enters the room, but finds there the whole knightly family with maids - also dressed. They retired to a warm bath only because of the cold weather. And the story is not at all a joke, how in 1045 several people, including the Bishop of Würzburg, died in the bathing tub of Persenbeug Castle after the ceiling of the bath collapsed

In the bath or bath there were not only tubs for washing, but also a steam bath, to get steam, water was poured onto hot stones.

Steam bath. 14th c.

Baths and baths, of course, were typical of castles of high nobility and were usually located on the ground floor of a palace or residential tower, as they required a large amount of water. In the castles of ordinary knights, on the contrary, they are rarely found, and even then only on the threshold of the New Age. Soap, even if of poor quality, was a mandatory accessory, expensive soap was learned to be made already in the era of the Crusades. Various brushes, including toothbrushes, nail and ear cleaners were also required equipment and their existence can be traced through sources in individual castles. Small mirrors were famous, but they were considered luxury items, since they were only able to be made in Venice. Some, mostly noble ladies, wore wigs, dyed their hair or curled it. Naturally, medieval women used cosmetics, even if the make-up was sticky and not particularly waterproof.

Delicate topic. On the plains already in the early Middle Ages, hygienically progressive toilets were arranged in monasteries - the running water of rivers and streams was used for washing. But in high castles this method was impossible. In some residential towers, tower-like extensions are found, possibly used as outhouses. Below, at the base of the tower, or even below its level, feces collected. If the well or cistern was too close to the cesspool, the water could be contaminated with bacteria. The consequences were infections and diarrhea, pathogenic microbes again fell into the water and the circle closed. Real progress occurred during the Staufen period: things began to be done simply behind the fortress wall. To do this, the outhouses were arranged on the wall: either the shaft was built into the wall, or the outhouse in the form of a bay window protruded from the wall. Feces went either in free fall, or through wooden or stone pipes into the castle moat, sometimes into cesspools.

From the inside, the outhouses were at first open for viewing, later they began to be closed with a door, turning them into " secret room". But what about in winter, at sub-zero temperatures? Well, there were also chamber pots, which at first were made of wood, later of clay.

Water supply

As long as the castles or fortified houses of the nobility were located in a long-settled valley, water supply from the nearest stream, spring or shaft well was not a big problem. The situation changed in the 11th-12th centuries, when castles began to be built on the tops of mountains or hard-to-reach mountain plateaus. The probability in the narrow area of the castle - and the castle grew in height - to find a source decreased to zero and was perhaps higher only in castles located on a ledge of a mountain slope - for example, Neideck Castle in Upper Franconia. And a castle without its own water supply in the event of a siege was practically useless

wells

First of all, the possibility of obtaining water from a well within the castle was considered, which gave a guarantee of fresh water in case of a siege. The effort was correspondingly great. The well had to be dug through the rock to the aquifers, and even to the groundwater. This required wells with an average depth of 20 to 40 m, not uncommon and 70 m, in isolated cases, for example, Kuffhäuser (Kyffhäuser) in Thuringia, Homberg (Homberg) or the fortress Königstein (Königstein) in Saxony, more than 140 m. Depending on rocks and depths over the well worked for a year, sometimes three or five years, while technical difficulties increased, especially the supply of fresh air, increased disproportionately. In extreme cases, the well absorbed as much money as all other buildings.

Reservoirs and filter tanks

If the construction of a well was not possible (as, for example, in the Jura region, Juragebiet in the Alps) or its cost exceeded the possibilities of the owner of the castle, then a backup solution had to be found. The easiest way was to collect rainwater on the castle grounds and store it in tanks. Through pipelines, open or closed, rain and melt water was collected from the roofs. Large wooden bathtubs, special rooms or pits served as a water collector, in large castles stone cisterns, reaching, as in the castles of the Crusaders in the Holy Land, the size of an entire hall. In small castles, they were satisfied with small cisterns, completely or partially carved into the rock, tapering to the top, as in the Upper Franconian castle of Roenhan (Rotenhan) or the West Palatinate Altdan (Altdahn).

The quality of the water was improved with the help of filter tanks, in which the water first passed through a layer of gravel, crushed stone or sand.

external water supply

Even filtered water becomes brackish over time, in a hot period the cistern can also dry out quickly. In addition, cisterns were built rather in case of a siege or emergency, while fresh water from streams and springs was usually used, even if it had to be delivered with efforts several kilometers away.

Only rarely was it possible to shift this burden onto the peasants. As a rule, every morning one or two servants or maids were sent to the valley, who delivered water to the castle either by themselves or on the back of a donkey - donkey trails can now be found near many high-rise castles. What seems unbearable to us now was normal everyday life in the Jura or Franconian Switzerland until the beginning of the 20th century, the peasants here had to carry water 4 km from the river valley to the mountains.

If the castle was located on a ledge of a mountain slope, the owner of the castle had funds and there was a source higher up the slope, then a water pipe could be built from wood and clay. This decision, however, was of no value in the event of a siege, since the water supply could easily be cut from the outside. Whether such devices were used in the Middle Ages is not exactly known - the few surviving water pipes come from modern times, when the defensive task of castles receded into the background. How high the interest in fresh water was is shown by the example of the Berwartstein castle (Berwartstein): Although the castle has an 80 m well, in the 16th century. due to the poor quality of the water, a water pipe was built leading to the base of the mountain, from where water was already delivered on foot.

The example of Berwartstein clearly shows that they did not rely on one method of extracting water: in the event of a siege, the castle had to be as autonomous as possible - the well perfectly solved this problem, the cistern provided water for a limited period.

daily food

Nowhere were social distinctions more pronounced in medieval society than in diet. In the early Middle Ages, when the nobility lived in villages or in their vicinity, it is possible to distinguish between the housing of the nobility and the housing of peasants even by food waste. Food was the most important attribute of status - the aristocracy and the rest of the population differed much less in clothing, housing, than in food.

If a simple knight found himself at the master's table, then he could already congratulate himself, even if it was an everyday meal, and not a holiday. To quote Wolfram von Eschenbach, "where my lord is addressed to me, that is, at home. even mice have no reason to celebrate."

If a simple knight in the 14th or 15th centuries. owned his own castle, he managed to greatly advance the social ladder. According to the remnants of food in the castles of the petty nobility, archaeologists managed to reconstruct: they naturally ate meat, but almost exclusively pork and beef. Peasants ate pigs and cows too, but the beef was tough and came from their old draft animals. To get the full nutritional value of meat, both peasants and knights boiled it. The game played only a subordinate role. Thus, one does not have to talk about significant qualitative differences in the nutrition of knights and peasants. A different picture emerges if we look at the quantitative differences. From studies of eating habits in the late medieval Auvergne, we know that the villagers consumed an average of 26 kg of meat per person per year, the petty nobility about 100 kg - four times more than the peasant.

The most important part of the diet throughout the Middle Ages, however, was not meat, but grain products that fell on the table like bread, porridge or beer, less often as rolls, cakes, pies, gingerbread, pretzels. In normal times, the difference between a knight and a peasant here was not very great and was rather expressed in quality: the richer the house was, the lighter the bread - from the black bread of the peasants to white wheat bread. Grain products completely covered the need for food of a representative of the nobility and almost completely those of a peasant. The crop failure and the steadily following price increase directly hit the lower strata and made obvious a measure unknown to us: the position on the social ladder during a period of scarcity of food determined who would live and who would die.

Compared to grain, all other foods, even meat, were only a condiment, whose ratio, however, spoke of the quality of life and its duration: grain could only cover the basic need for calories, but not for vitamins. First of all, we should mention vegetables, which became more and more diverse and were grown in every castle - in the castle garden, in the forburg or the household yard.

Heavily spiced food was especially loved. All segments of the population, at least theoretically, had access to all local spices in all the latitude unusual for us - partly as a substitute for expensive salt. It was different with spices coming from the Mediterranean basin, West Africa or Far East. A small jar of saffron cost as much as a cow, a pound of nutmeg at least 7 bulls, for pepper, ginger or cinnamon they gave biting prices. For those who wanted to demonstrate wealth, there was a wide field, they did not save on this and even peppered wine.

Cloth

Drawing from Codex Manesse. Beginning 14th c.

In the 11th century women's fashion is on the move. The sleeves have become wider and longer, the belt gently shows the figure, the refined and increasingly tapering cut emphasizes the volume of the chest. In the 12th century figure-hugging development continues, the waist and bust are modeled with lacing. "Up from the waist, almost open and completely naked" (Konrad von Würzburg) - a picture that shocked contemporaries and descendants. Below the waist, the dress fell in wide folds, now it reaches the floor, and when walking it has to be supported. The sleeves grew and also reached the floor; They were not only decoration, but practically served as a scarf, not least as a pledge of high love. The last cry of the beginning of the 13th century. there was a tail, a train sometimes of surprising length, worn on special occasions, for example, for dancing. A successful model, which was soon imitated by peasant women. In 1240, the papal Legat Latinus terrified the ladies, because he wanted to limit the length of the train: "It was more terrible for the ladies than death" (Salimbene from Parma, Chronicle).

Men's fashion adjusted, The length of the underwear and caftan grew after 1100 and eventually also reached the floor. Around 1300, a practical knee-length dress was worn by servants and peasants, as well as knights in everyday life. Men's caftans differed from women's caftans in front and back, which made riding easier. Even the long sleeve was adopted, the upper part of the body was also laced up. Outerwear was often shortened in front to reveal the pride of male beauty, "knight's legs". "Crimson pants were worn by the brave. My God! How beautiful were their legs!" (Gottfried of Strassburg).

The Church marched on cheerful costumes, she protested against open male legs (especially if the gentlemen "put only a pair of boots on their bare feet"), as well as obscene women's clothes, "which expose lovers to all that she can offer them" ( Thietmar von Merseburg, "Chronicon", early 11th century). The church seems to have been successful during the 13th century. the extravagance of fashion was reduced, unnecessary decorations were abandoned. On the other hand, tombstone and church images serve as proof of this, which do not fully correspond to literary evidence.

In the 13th century in France and Spain, already then the centers of Western fashion, the first worldly laws against luxury in clothing were issued. They regulated the luxury of clothing at court, in particular, by establishing how much fur should be decorated with caftans. It was only in Central Europe that the clothing laws were directed against the peasants and prescribed them a simple dress, naturally only in brown, blue and black tones. On the contrary, the nobility loved colorful, light colors and combined green with red, yellow with blue. In the end, there was also a fashion for fabrics, colorfully decorated already during production, with a multi-colored pattern or striped. They also often wore colorful stockings.

For the nobility, clothing meant status. If, during the High and Late Middle Ages, practical cuts increasingly lost out, and impractical, sometimes grotesque forms developed, then this sends a clear message - the nobility did not have to work. And if court luxury manifested itself in bright, expensive clothes, then the decline was most manifested in wearing a peasant-practical dress: "Wherever I look, no one is happy anymore ... Proud knights wear a peasant dress." - He speaks already in the beginning. 13th c. Walther von der Vogelweide in one of his maxims.

annual cycle

"Every day you need to take care and worry about tomorrow, be always on the move, all the time in anxiety. Here a field must be dug up and again dug up, something must be done in the vineyard. Trees must be planted, meadows must be watered, stones must be cultivated on one piece of land , sow, fertilize, gather ears, grind, now it's time for the harvest, now again the grape harvest. If the year is bad, which is not uncommon in our barren area, then terrible need reigns. This is how Ulrich von Hutten describes it as early as the beginning of the 16th century. everyday life paternal castle Steckelberg. Even at a time when the money economy has moved far ahead, "chivalrous" everyday life clearly depends on the laws of nature and agriculture. Both the individual knight and the entire medieval society as a whole depended on the harvest in agriculture, where 90% of the population worked. A knight could only fight if his peasants and the harvest in his allotment could feed him. So I had to look back at agricultural needs all the time - and this manifested itself with the change of seasons.

Summer

"Now it's harvest time, so the war will have to wait." The Franks were already striving to finish their spring campaigns before the summer, in order to be able to take care of the harvest. At the same time, summer was a good time for battles - the days are long, food for horses is at hand, troops can spend the night in the open. Rivers with their low water level are easy to overcome, the roads, although dusty, are passable. For feuds, "small wars", summer was even the most suitable time: the enemy had not yet harvested, and therefore could not hope to withstand a long siege. The destruction of the harvest of such crops as grapes, vegetables on the vine should strike him especially hard, as there is little time to re-plant and grow crops again before winter. But as a rule, they still did not wage war or strife, but stayed at home, guarded their crops, ground, stored and enjoyed long warm evenings in the castle.

Autumn

Winter

In November, the time convenient for travel ended, the rains washed away the roads, the rivers overflowed and became impassable, storms dominated the seas - what was true for the traveler was true for the army. As a rule, the fighting subsided, compromises were sought, unless, of course, the uprisings did not require intervention. Sometimes the cold had merit, for the frozen roads were passable for heavy wagons and horsemen, and the ice-covered rivers and swamps were no longer an obstacle. Those who waged war in the winter provided themselves with an element of surprise. As a rule, however, they spent the winter at home, finally staying with their wife and children. They sat closely next to each other, since only a few rooms of the castle or the manor house were heated. We talked, board games and dice added variety.

Spring

In the end, all the words were spoken and the games played, in damp, cold castles they were looking forward to spring. The roads had only thawed out, were swampy and impassable, and there was still not enough pasture for the horses. When the cavalry grew in importance, even the Franks in 755 postponed the collection of their troops from March to May. From Easter began the best time of the knight, who, preparing for war or strife, took part in tournaments and multi-day hunts. On Trinity, the year reached its peak with court events, weddings, festive gatherings with music, dancing, festive food. This could be followed by a spring company, a feud. Then, however, the knight returned to his castle or court to take care of the harvest.

Life style

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Lenka, tell me first, how did it happen that you became the caretaker of the castle? I know that this is a very interesting and difficult story.

Actually, it's also a very long story. By the time this all happened, that is, by 2007, I had already tried many professions in my life: I worked as an English teacher, led excursions in Prague, Paris and London for several years, even sold lingerie in my friend's boutique.

Khotovina Castle, 2008

It all happened quite suddenly. I led a historical dance group for about 10 years. And once, going to one of the festivals in Romania, I met a driver who often traveled from Romania to the Czech Republic and back. It was a talkative guy. We were chatting, and suddenly he said: “You know, your English is so excellent, I have a client, I always pick her up from the airport. She is a real baroness from a castle in the village of Khotovyn. She lives in the USA, and when she comes here, she is always alone. He doesn't know anyone from the village. She will arrive in a month, I have to introduce you!”

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So in August 2007 I met Jamie Nadherny. She was, without exaggeration, the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. She was 28, I was 32. We became fast friends.

What was this castle and how did it end up in Jamie's hands?

Chotoviny Castle (Zámek Chotoviny) was built in 1770-1780 by Cardinal Kaspar Migazzi. He rebuilt the old fortress of the XIV century. The castle changed owners several times until it was bought by Jamie's distant ancestor Jan Nadgerna, who later received the title of baron.

Khotovina Castle, photo 1900

The sad history of the castle began with great-great-grandfather Jamie Erwin and his beautiful wife Leopoldina (Dinky). She was an amazing woman: she shot better than any man, smoked cigars and donated a lot to the church.

In 1938, both of Erwin's daughters took German citizenship, for which Dink and Erwin disinherited them. So the castle passed to their youngest son Wenceslas Erwin. He and his wife Sophia never harmed anyone, but after the war, Khotovina became a “nest of communists” and the castle was taken away from the family. The couple had to go to Salzburg, and later to the USA, where Jamie, the fifth child of the baron, was born.

When her father returned to the Czech Republic in 1992, he managed to return the family's property and even slightly restore the castle, which was in a completely terrible state. Jamie was the only daughter of his who wanted to keep the castle. The rest of her brothers and sisters preferred to inherit something more profitable and practical: forests, ponds and fields ...

Tell us a little about Jamie, you always spoke very warmly about her. Who was the baroness?

Maybe because Jamie was a very kind and warm person, everyone wanted to fool her.

Left to right: Peter, Baroness Jamie, Lenka

First she hired a woman from the US, let's call her S. She was supposed to look after the castle while Jamie was in the States. Despite the title, Jamie's life was no different in places from ours. Her son was seven years old, she was a single mother, constantly in conflict with her nightmare ex and graduated from university. Because of this, Jamie could not move to the Czech Republic.

I began to help S. take care of the castle, but ended up with S. completely washing her hands. So when Jamie came back from the US, she kicked her out of her job...

After that, Jamie offered me her place. To be honest, I did not feel that I was ready to take on such a responsibility: I had no economic education. On the other hand, I had a huge organizational experience: I could conduct tours in the castle, help with the organization of weddings and celebrations ... I told Jamie that I would be happy to take on the cultural part, but someone else should deal with financial issues.

Jamie said that she had such a person - a nice educated guy from the USA K., let's call him that. Looking ahead a little, K. didn't lift a finger for Jamie or the castle. A year later, he left the castle, ruining it completely and leaving us an unbearable debt of $ 85,000 "as a keepsake".

What was your first impression of the Khotovina castle?

Oh, I'm in love! No, we were completely unprepared for the amount of work that awaited us, nor for the lifestyle, but we were ready to go to any lengths for Jamie.

What is it like to live in a castle? Is there a lot of work? What was the hardest?

What most people don't understand about the castle is that as great as it looks, it's still just a huge house anyway. We even have a proverb: "A small house - few problems, a big house - a lot of problems."

Piotr, my boyfriend, moved with me to the castle to help with the household. We did field trips, organized weddings, corporate events, flower shows, whatever it took to make some money for Jamie. We ourselves did not receive a penny for our work.

In addition to work related to cultural life castle, had to perform banal household work. Every spring and autumn we washed all 86 windows of the castle, every winter we cleared the snow. Every Monday we had to wash the floors and vacuum in each of the 69 rooms of the castle ... I'm not talking about the garden and 26 hectares of park. The work was just a sea: 12-16 hours a day. And so for three years.

Were there ghosts in the castle?

Our ghost was Baroness Dinka - the same Leopoldina. At times, at night, she strolled through the bedroom, which had once been her salon. We often heard it, not only us.

In that room lay a beautiful oval-shaped carpet. He was lying on another carpet, and it was very difficult to move him, I did not succeed - I had to call Peter. But every time the tourists left the castle, and we locked the rooms until the morning, in the morning we found this carpet rolled up - Dinka wandered.

And when we washed the castle for the last time before selling it, we suddenly felt that she had left. The carpet no longer rolled up, and the building seemed empty and unfamiliar. We became uncomfortable and very sad. But when Sergei M. arrived with his wife, we showed them everything, and when we entered this room, we found that the carpet was folded again! She returned - I'm sure that Dinka would never have returned if she thought that the castle was in bad hands.

She was the good spirit of the castle.

A evil spirits were? Or what scared you?

Once in 2010, Peter told me that he was alone in the castle and was already packing his things in his room on the first floor. It was already very late, he was just preparing to move to my apartment for the winter - in winter we spent the night in another place, there was no electricity in the castle, we had to light our way with oil lamps at night.

And suddenly he heard the castle bell ringing - there was a tower with a clock and a bell in the castle. Only after a few moments Peter realized that there was no electricity, and the bell was ringing precisely from electricity. So something that happens is simply impossible! In addition, the time was "uneven" - not half, not a quarter and not an hour, two or three, that is, not the time when the bell tolls.

He ran out into the hall and saw that all five chandeliers were swinging as if under gusts of wind, and at the end of the hall Peter noticed a dark silhouette. Peter, in fact, is a very logical man, but that case really shocked him.

Well, have any funny stories happened to you?

Once we received tourists, and then one elderly lady looked out of the window and said: “You have some kind of gypsy sitting there near the fountain, you ought to drive her away!” “No, no,” Peter said quickly, “this is our baroness.” And it's just Jamie changing clothes to clean the fountain.

Did you manage to earn any money?

Here I must explain. It was obvious to all of us that Jamie's only option was to sell him. It was just a race against time: we needed to earn money for Jamie to pay off debts. Otherwise, the castle would have to be sold under the hammer, having bailed out mere pennies for it.

Khotoviny was sold in 2011 to a Russian named Sergei M. With the proceeds, Jamie bought the farm she had always dreamed of. She loved horses, taught drawing at school and painted in her own studio.

Would you repeat this experience if offered?

Of course, if you need to help a friend. Jamie and I had an amazing connection: we absolutely trusted each other, we never had a question of money, and for almost 4 years we helped Jamie for free. In fact, we lived on the funds that Peter received for his performances. Not much, but we had enough.

We really, really wanted to help Jamie in any way we could. We felt that she was abandoned, deceived and there was no one to help her. And if there is someone whom no one can help, you simply must do it, no matter what the cost. I won't say it was easy though.

It was a monstrous stress, we lost a lot of nerves, and we still have to work very hard to plug a hole in the budget ...

But, you know, it was a really amazing experience. And if it were necessary to repeat everything that we did, I would not hesitate.

If you are a fan of traveling to places with a centuries-old history that smells of archaism, take a look at what ancient castles are still inhabited by people and even ghosts.

Modern skyscrapers and designer exhibition centers are gradually replacing traditional architecture from cities. Against the background of their popularity, the desire to live in a secluded castle seems extravagant. However, in every corner of Europe you can find old houses that have been preserved thanks to the efforts of loving owners. And while they may not be as comfortable as state-of-the-art penthouses, castles have their own charm.

1. Château Plessis-Bourret, France

Its appearance is so severe that the castle is more like a defensive fortress. Its interior decoration will amaze even the most sophisticated person who is accustomed to luxurious decorations. It has not undergone any modifications: the absolute preservation of the original design makes the chateau truly unique. Plessis-Bourret was built in 1472 by Jean Bourret, who served as Minister of Finance under King Louis XI. The bribe-taker Bure was so afraid of the uprising of the inhabitants of his lands that he ordered the palace to be fenced with the widest moat in France. The drawbridge, which makes it possible to leave it, is still used for its intended purpose.

Modern owners do not hide their historical monument either from curious tourists or from filmmakers. In 2003, Penelope Cruz spent several unforgettable weeks in the castle, filming in the film "Fanfan Tulip" with Vincent Perez. Today, anyone can follow her example by renting one of Plessy-Burret's rooms as hotel room. For those who prefer five-star hotels, there are free and individual excursions with a guide lasting several hours.

2. Residence of the Queen of Great Britain in the county of Berkshire, England

Windsor Castle is the largest and most famous among the brethren that are still considered residential. Its splendor and scale frighten and amaze at the same time: on an area of 45,000 m² there is a complex of buildings with 1,000 residential premises. For 900 years, Windsor has belonged to the ruling dynasty and all its members have the right to upgrade the estate to their taste. Each new monarch expanded and expanded the area of possessions, until the adjacent hardwood forest began to be considered a Berkshire park. At the end of the last century, the Queen's residence was urgently reconstructed due to a massive fire.

The Queen of England today uses Windsor as a means of defeating other heads of state and other eminent guests. She invites them to live in rooms decorated with originals by Rembrandt and Rubens, antique candlesticks and gilded moldings on the ceiling. Who after that will be able to refuse a political request to a royal person?

3. Berkeley Castle, England

The second most populous palace in England after Windsor. At the end of the 12th century, it was bought by the Berkeley family, which is in the title of Lords. In 1327, members of an influential family involuntarily became the guards of the prison in own house. Opponents of King Edward II deposed him and placed him in Berkeley, demanding from his owners an obligation to prevent any attempt to escape. In the same year, the estate began to be distinguished from the rest of the castles in the area by a high fence instead of a moat with water that was familiar to the eye in those days. For six months, the prisoner tried to leave Berkeley twice, after which he was executed by the new ruler.

The heirs of the castle inhabit only 20% of its area: the rest is used as a hotel and a museum. But the main source of their income is cinema. Berkeley's interiors can be seen in the TV series Wolf Hall, Castle in the Country and the film The Other Boleyn Girl.

4. Edinburgh Castle, Scotland

Built on an extinct volcano, the palace rises 120 meters above sea level. Scientists have found that the first walls appeared here in the Iron Age: they were built by warriors planning a raid on the Anglian tribes. Edinburgh Castle has changed over the centuries from English to Scottish property and vice versa. Ten years ago, the British Ministry of Defense finally abandoned it. Residents of Scotland's largest tourist attraction were not affected by the decision. Since the beginning of the 20th century, a dynasty of caretakers has been living in the castle, whose only duty is to fire a cannon every hour during daylight hours.

5. Warwick Castle, England

The vast majority of the residents of the house are TV and Youtube stars. The estate, built back in 1068 by William the Conqueror, is a regular participant in the show with psychics, "ghost hunters" and magicians. It even made it into the book Haunted Houses of Great Britain and Ireland. Anyone can find footage of internal surveillance cameras with evidence of their existence on video hosting sites.

Extreme temperature fluctuations, light anomalies and mysterious rustles are arranged by the "Gray Lady" and her assistants. The pensioner, who is the heiress of the earl-owner of Warwick, is also familiar with her. For 100 years, her figure has been bumping into the inhabitants of the palace in its long corridors and scaredly shied away at the sight of children. She can't walk through walls, which is why Warwick is used to suddenly opening doors. Those who have seen her up close say that she is the ghost of an old woman dressed in a gray dress. The "Gray Lady" is assisted by the county poet Fulk Greville, who was strangled in the Water Tower in 1628. His chilling screams are heard from the Tower several times a week. In addition to this couple, there are more than 10 unidentified ghosts living in Warwick.

6. Rock of Cashel, Ireland

In the castle on the rock of Cashel lives the caretaker of the cemetery, which spontaneously arose near its walls. A group of medieval buildings built in the 12th-15th centuries adjoins the Cormac Chapel, a small Romanesque church that houses the sarcophagus of the first owner of the fortress, after whom it is named. During an unexpected attack by the enemy, the locals tried to hide in the church, but everyone was brutally killed. They were buried there, and soon new burials began to appear around the graves of the unfortunate victims. According to legend, dozens of spirits also live there.

7. Kronborg Estate, Denmark

Built in 1420, the castle on the outskirts of Copenhagen is officially listed world heritage UNESCO. In order to prevent capture by the Swedes, it was designed as a complex system of labyrinths and underground passages. Creative personalities live in Kronborg - directors, actors, screenwriters. Every spring they create a new interpretation of the theatrical production of William Shakespeare's Hamlet and present it to the audience.

8. Bran Palace, Romania

In picturesque Transylvania is the estate of the bloodiest Romanian of all time - Count Dracula. Bran is famous tourist attraction in the country, as well as a hotel with rooms in the form of wooden log cabins, decorated with tiles. The legendary vampire liked to stay there during his lifetime, but he left no trace of himself in Bran. The interior decoration of the castle has been preserved since the time of Queen Mary: she lived in it after the count and decorated it with a large number of books, porcelain and icons. The latter, according to rumors, she needed to prevent the nightly visits of the vampire.

9. Pfalzgrafenstein Estate, Germany

Even native Germans are unable to pronounce the name correctly the first time. It is located in the middle of the Rhine River: the island of Pfalzgrafenstein used to be completely deserted and uninhabited. A fortress was built on top of it as a royal customs house to check on ships passing by. Later it became the residence of the local nobility. In the 20th century, the state needed to use the Pfalzgrafenstein as a lighthouse. Now the caretaker lives there, and in order to visit him, you will have to cross the Rhine in the old fashioned way by boat.

10. Fortification of Castel del Monte, Italy

The author of this building was never found. In the 15th century, it was created as an astronomical calendar, in each room of which you can find out the time by a sundial or the date by a light calendar. There are 8 floors in Castel del Monte, 8 rooms are designed on each of them. Modern astronomers have managed to prove that the location of the fortress is really ideal for observing the starry sky. It was equipped as an observatory in which scientists live all year round.

Live in medieval castle asta wrote in November 5th, 2005

In every medieval castle there was a main room: the hall. It was a large, spacious room with rows of wooden or stone columns supporting the roof. Wooden shutters in the windows protected, albeit poorly, from cold and bad weather. Only by the 13th century did some windows begin to be glazed with greenish-white glass, a luxury that at first could only be afforded by a king or wealthy nobleman. The floor in the hall (when the hall was on the first floor) was earth or stone, but if the hall was located on the second level, the floor was often sheathed with wood. The walls in the hall were hung with tapestries, they also covered the tables and benches. On the floor lay straw mixed with fragrant herbs. From time to time the spatted straw, bones thrown, spilled beer and grease, cleaned up and replaced with new flooring.

Lord and his wife at a meal (Livre d "heures, 15th century)

During lunch, the owner of the castle and his wife sat on a stone dais on massive chairs, and everyone else sat on benches. Most of the dining tables were collapsible, after the meal they were folded and cleaned. Few rich lords could afford to have a non-separable, permanently standing table in the hall. Before the meal, the tables were covered with clean white tablecloths. Twilight always reigned in the hall - candles made of wax or animal fat and oil lamps on the walls gave meager light.

In the late Middle Ages, stone fireplaces began to be installed in castles - the stones in the fireplace heated up, and even after the fire went out, the hall remained warm for a long time. However, it was impossible to heat such a large room well with one fireplace, and it was quite cold and damp in the castle at all times of the year. The forerunner of the fireplace was an open hearth located in the center of the hall. The hearth had the shape of a circle, square or octagon and was lined with stone or brick.

Kitchen

In the 13th century, the kitchen was a room with a hearth in the center or several fireplaces, where meat was stewed or roasted on a spit. Dirty dishes were washed outside. Animals and poultry were also slaughtered in the street nearby.

The mistress of the castle looks after the work of the cook (Livre des propriétés des choses, 15th century)

When the owner of the castle arranged a big feast, temporary additional kitchens were built. Inside the castle there was usually a small garden, at one end of which fruit trees and vines were planted; and medicinal herbs and flowers - roses, lilies, violets, poppies, daffodils and gladioli - in another. Some castles also had a small trout pond.

Living spaces

In the earlier Middle Ages, all the inhabitants of the castle slept together in one room. Sleepers were separated only by curtains or screens, and much less often - wooden partitions. In later times, the owner of the castle and his wife slept in separate rooms, while the eldest son, his family, guests and the manager of the castle had their own premises. Sometimes there were holes in the walls, disguised "eyes", looking through which the owner of the castle or the manager could observe what was happening in the rooms.

The chambers of the lord and his wife were called "solar". The main piece of furniture in them was a large bed with a bottom made of interwoven ropes or strips of leather. Downy feather beds were covered with sheets, quilts and fur bedspreads. Such a bed was easily disassembled, and the owner of the castle took it with him when he traveled to his other possessions. In addition, the bed had a canopy of embroidered linen fabric, and it was usually pulled up at night. The lord's servant slept in the same room on a mat or bench.

Lying in bed, the lord receives messengers (Réponse à Charles VI et Lamentations, early 15th century)

In addition to the bed, the bedroom was furnished only with a few chests for clothes and a couple of stools. Sometimes clothes and jewelry were stored in a small dressing room that adjoined the bedroom.

In the earlier Middle Ages, not only servants, but also warriors guarding the castle slept in the common hall or towers. Later, when the castle owners began to recruit large garrisons, often consisting of mercenaries, separate rooms, dining rooms and kitchens were built for them.

Hygiene

Water for washing or drinking stood in each room in a special bowl. In addition, on the upper level of the castle there was a large tank or basin for supplying water to the lower levels. The bath at that time was a wooden tub. A washing person could hide from prying eyes with a screen or curtains.

The bathtub stands right next to the bed and is covered with a canopy (Faits et dits mémorables, 15th century)

In the summer, the bath was taken out on Fresh air, to the garden; and in the cold season they put it near the hearth. Bath and attendant accompanied the lord in all his travels and trips. People relieved themselves in the toilet adjacent to the bedroom or used such a universal thing as a chamber pot.