Up and Down Stairs - Jeremy Musson [23]
The upper servants who ran the great households must have been men of considerable ability and have identified very closely with their masters. George Cavendish, gentleman usher for the household of Cardinal Wolsey, Archbishop of York and chancellor of England, described in detail his experiences as Wolsey’s ‘gentleman usher’. He served Wolsey both at the height of his fame and in his final disgrace, ‘contynually duryng the terme of all his troble until he died’ in 1530. Cavendish’s account gives us a glimpse into the most prestigious non-royal household on the eve of the Reformation.91
Wolsey was, according to his biographer, served by a great number of ‘noble men and worthy gentilmen of great estymacion and possessions wt no small nomber of the tallest yomen [i.e. yeomen] that he Could get in all this Realm’. The physical appearance of the servant was as important a factor in the sixteenth century as it was for footmen in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Mr Cavendish thought it quite right for a nobleman to prefer ‘any tall & comly [i.e. handsome] yoman unto his servyce’.92
Every day in Wolsey’s hall at Hampton Court there would be three tables, each seating three principal officers: a steward, who was always a doctor or a priest, a treasurer, a knight, a controller, and an esquire, all of whom carried at all times their white staffs of office. The description of one of Wolsey’s two cooks suggests the prestige of such a post: ‘Now in his privy kitchen he had a Master Cook who went daily in Damask, Sattin or velvet with a chain of gold about his neck.’ Two particularly tall yeomen were picked to stand at his gate. In addition to the never ending list of servants for every conceivable need, Wolsey maintained a considerable number of clergy and choristers, as appropriate to the household of an archbishop and chancellor of England.
In his own chamber, he had his high chamberlain, his vice-chamberlain, twelve gentleman ushers, and a small army of attendants dedicated to serving him in his private apartments, including the Earl of Derby, who had six attendants of his own. As well as a substantial secretariat, there were four footmen which were dressed ‘in riche Runnyng Cootes [coats] when so ever he rode any journey then had he a herald at arms, also a serjeant at arms’. So the list goes on, including an ‘instructer of his wards’, which was literally a teacher or tutor for the young. According to his checker rolls, Wolsey’s household numbered around 500 persons.
Mr Cavendish proudly recorded the household attendants’ appearance when he accompanied Wolsey on embassies to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V: ‘his gentilmen beyng in nomber very many clothed in lyuere cootles of Crymmosyn velvelt [i.e. livery coats of crimson velvet] of the most purest Colour that myght be invented wt chains of gold abought ther nekkes. And all his yomen and other mean officers in Cottes of ffyne skarlett.’
The progress of the embassies is portrayed in some detail, as are the entertainments that Wolsey gives the king at Hampton Court: ‘Such pleasures . . . devised for the king’s comfort & consolation as might be invented or man’s wit imagined the banquets [pudding course] were set forth with masques and mummerys in so gorgeous and costly manner that it was an heaven to behold’, along with ‘all kind of music and harmony set forth with excellent voices both of men and children’.
These descriptions give some sense of the extraordinary level of organisation in the great households that went into the grandest display at major events, involving astonishing numbers and extravagant cost. The breathless admiration of this contemporary witness illustrates the pride taken by a serving man in his own modest contribution.93
After Wolsey’s downfall, Hampton Court became a palace for Henry VIII, and it is here that the magnificence of a Tudor kitchen can be truly understood today. This is partly due to the sheer scale of the surviving Great Kitchen, built in 1530. It was