Up and Down Stairs - Jeremy Musson [17]
Among the other offices that Mr Russell detailed were his own, that of usher and marshal. Above all, the marshal must know the precedence of the nobility, an essential skill for upper servants well into the twentieth century, as well as ‘all the estates of the church’ and their status.
To show off his part-royal duties, he recites the hierarchy from the top, beginning with emperor, pope, and king, continuing down through the copious ranks of late medieval society. An usher or marshal must be able to seat them all appropriately: ‘a bishop, viscount, marquis, goodly earl may sit at two messes [dishes to be shared between four] if they be agreeable thereunto’. The key issue is to ‘set all according to their birth, riches and dignity’.59
Mr Russell’s treatise takes us deep into the minutiae and the mindset of the senior medieval servant. Although these elaborate rituals might seem alien to a modern reader, many practices would have been recognisable in aristocratic households up until the nineteenth century, when technology first has an impact on the roles of body-servants. Some would be recognisable even today. It is perhaps not surprising that caring for a high-status and wealthy employer should require many services that stay basically the same, despite advances in technology and changes in social values.
Noble households regularly moved between the landholdings of the head of the household, although by the end of the sixteenth century there was a greater emphasis on attendance at court. The household on the move must have been one of the great spectacles of the Middle Ages. It was divided usually into three parties. One went ahead to announce the arrival of a lord and to prepare his apartments; another, the main one, comprised the lord and his immediate household, with appropriate attendants. Then came the baggage train, with the cooks, scullions and pack horses, carrying clothes, linen, furniture and provisions for the journey.60
Appreciating the scale of this operation helps us understand the rather formulaic layout of the medieval castle and manor house, which assisted the smooth transition from house to house of the mobile household, as well as being able to absorb a visiting lord, his family and attendants. A medieval householder could call on the attendance of knights and squires, who owed military service in return for their landholdings. They made up the ‘fighting’ household, but were not on permanent alert, and could swell the numbers for a special procession.61 Later in the medieval period, a smaller group of individuals, then known as the ‘secret household’, remained in attendance on the lord, his wife and children when it did not suit him to keep house formally; this often coincided with the annual audit, when all the complex expenditure of a household was closely reviewed.62
The most elaborate household of the day, which set the standards of visual magnificence and efficiency, was of course the royal household – or, strictly speaking, households, as queens and princes each had their own, not least to emphasise their individual dignity. There is perhaps no modern equivalent of this, other than perhaps great state occasions. The households of the upper nobility naturally largely followed the pattern set by the monarchy, although on differing scales; indeed, they were mirrored in turn by the households of the gentry. Those of leading bishops and abbots played a role in setting high standards of ritual and devotion that would have been imitated by other great households.
In the larger households, the upper servants, overseen by figures such as John Russell, had the principal