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Let's Eat
William, what brings you to town?
I have to serve on a jury. You know -- the king is on a tear about people taking advantage of him. So we have to do jury duty [A Boynton Story: Quo Warranto].
They called it Quo Warranto: by what warrant do you . . ? The king's men came to town and asked the question. The defendant answered. And the jury said it was like this or that. Edward I put the country through it between 1279 and 1294 (Sutherland, 1963) with Yorkshire being visited in 1279 to 1281 and again in 1293 and 1294 (English, 1996). William de Boynton served on four juries in Yorkshire between 1279 and 1281.
Quo Warranto may seem a strange place to start talking about food. But consider -- there were no refrigerators, there were no freezers, there were no grocery stores, there were no restaurants -- fast food or not. Their food was different than ours, but so was the social structure of the food supply. And a different social structure is where Quo Warrant comes in.
You could not buy it. And once you had it you could not store it. That combination made small game, including fish, a major source of nourishment. You just wandered out with bow and arrow and shot your dinner. And that is the rub. By what warrant are you hunting? When did the king give you permission to hunt on the land you hold -- without paying him? They called it 'free warren;' the king might grant it, then you could hunt with impunity and prevent others from hunting on your land. If the king had not granted free warren then you were supposed to pay for the priviledge. Three of the four trials for which William was a juror involved free warren. In one Brian was asked:
Brian son of Alan was summoned to answer the king concerning the plea by what warrant he claims to have a park at Bedale and Cotherstone, and free warren there, without licence of the king and his predecessors (English, p. 121).
Brian answered that free warren had been granted his ancestors by King John, which would have been about 75 years earlier. And the jury asserted that was true except for some land that later had been gained by Brian's father.
That was in 1279-81. One hundred years later they were still doing it. Thomas, the grandson of William, received free warren for his land from Edward III in 1365.
July 4. 1365. westminster. Membrane 8.Grant, of special grace, to Thomas de Ingelby and his heirs of free warren in all their demesne lands of Aclum in Clyveland, Aresom, Rouceby, Neuton under Ounesbergh, Snaynton and Boynton. Similar grant of free warren to Thomas de Boynton in all his demesne lands in the same places. [By K.] (Calendar of Charter Rolls, 15 Edward III-5 Henry V, 1916, pp. 191-192)
And the cost of poaching [encroaching on someone's free warren] could be very high.
Robert de Boyton and w. Mary mentioned 12 May 1275 and 1284. He was imprisoned for forest trespass at Rockingham 1279, and was in prison at Ilchester and his lands confiscated, provision being made for his w. and children, 6 Jan. 1281 (F.R.). He owed 50 m. in Northants. and Bucks. 27 May 1280 (C.R.). (Charles Moor, 1929, p. 130).
Robert, the first of the Boyntons of Boynton family, was imprisoned for forest trespass -- presumably poaching on the king's game. And John, his grandson, was excommunicated by the Archbishop of York thirty years later for poaching on the Archbishop's land -- along with other sins -- and it cost John a bundle to get back in the good graces of the Archbishop (Brown and Thompson, 1936, pp. 180-186).
Kings' continuing interest in managing the food supply is reflected in Henry IV commissioning Christopher de Boynton and friends to make sure that fishing on the major rivers of Yorkshire was according to the law.
1410. Jan. 30. Westminister. Membrane 7d
Commission to John Conyers, William Fencotes, William Vyncent, Christopher de Boynton, John Doueney and Robert Mauleverere to enquire into the capture of salmon and fry in the rivers Humber, Ouse, Done, Eyre, Derwent, Querf, Nidd, Yore, Swale and Tesse, co. York, contrary to the statute of Westminister the second and the statute of 13 Richard II, and to punish the offenders according to the statutes. (Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry IV, p. 179)
Twenty years later Henry VI appointed Christopher to a commission to oversee these same waterways.
How you got to fish and hunt is told by quo warranto.
How the fish and game got to the table is told by a 1430 cookbook, Early English Recipes. Almost 600 years old, it is from Harleian MS 249. The recipes were edited and published by Margaret Webb (1937).
And fish and game is what you find in the cook book. There are 40 recipes; the largest group is sweets, which are mostly fruit and/or honey. Here is a version of gingerbread -- first in Boynton transliteration.
Gyngerbrede
Take a quart of honey and boil it and skim it clean. Add safron and powdered pepper. Take grated bread and add until it is so stiff that it could be cut into strips. Then take powered cinnamon and sprinkle on the top. Shape it into a square for slicing. When it is sliced put "box leves" on top with cloves. To color it red add red sandal wood.
And this is the original version:
Gyngerbrede
Take a quart of hony, & seethe it, and skeme it clene; take Safroun, pouder Pepir, & throw there-on; take gratyd Brede, & make it so stiff that it wol be cut into strips; then take pouder Cinnamon, & strew ther-on y-now; then make yt square, lyke as thou wolt slice yt; take when thou slicest hyt, an caste Box leves above y-stykyd ther-on on cloves. And if thou wolt have it Red, coloure it with Saunderys y-now.
Fish, fowl and game are the chief meat dishes. The fish recipes are quite diverse including eel, oysters, salmon, and porpoises. Finally, there is the other white meat -- pork. A recipe that seems a bit strange to modern taste is [in Boynton transliteration]
Cokyntryce
Take a capon, scald it, clean it, and "smyte hem a-to in the waste across." Take a small pig, scald it, clean it, and cut it in half at the middle, also.Take a needle and thread and sew the fore part of the capon to the after part of the pig, and vice versa. Then stuff it as you would stuff a pig.Put it on a spit and roast it. When it is done "gild hem" with egg yolks, powered ginger and safron and wet with a juice of parseley."Than serve it forth for a ryal mete."
Roasted capon-pork -- sewn together and roasted. It seems a "ryal mete." We just are not very "ryal."
Onions, parsley, and some grains were the principal vegetables. Vegetarians need not look here. They used wine and ale in cooking, and there were a number of spices. The most frequently used were pepper, cinnamon and safron
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Brown, William and A. Hamilton Thompson, ed. (1936) The Register of William Greenfield Lord Archbishop of York, 1306-1315, part III, Publication of the Surtees Society.
Calendar of Charter rolls, 15 Edward III-5 Henry V., vol V. 1341-1417, For His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1916.
Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry IV, Vol. IV, 1408-1413, printed for his Majesty's Stationery Office.
English, Barbara (1996), Yorkshire Hundred and Quo Warranto Rolls, The Yorkshire Archaeological Society Record Series, volume CLI, for years 1993 and 1994.
Moor, Charles ed. (1929) Knights of Edward I, the Harleian Society.
Sutherland, Donald W. (1963) Quo Warranto Proceedings in the Reign of Edward I 1278-1294, Oxford.
Webb, Margaret (1937) Early English Recipes, Cambridge, The University Press.