forum Need someone who knows a lot about medieval times

Started March 22, 2018 by @Broken Princess

tune

My story takes place in a roughly medieval era, like in the 15th century or so. It’s in an alternate universe, so I’m not going to be completely accurate, but I’m looking for some general assistance.

• What was life like for royalty?
• What was life like for royal servants?
• What was life like in a harem (where did the various wives and children live)?
• How do titles work for nobility and what do they entail?
• Who stays in the palace aside from the royal family?

I mean, I'm pretty good at researching so I could probably find you some articles pretty quickly if you want. But the problem is, the medieval era was so long and ever-changing that I'd need some basic details about what kind of technology they have in your story and such. But first I'll answer off the top of my head:

• It was technically good living compared to everyone else. If you were not the heir to the throne, you still had a place in the palace. Usually anyone related to the royal family made up a lot of the different positions in the palace, like advisors and generals and such. But being royalty also meant a bunch of drama of your own that peasants wouldn't understand. TONS of rivalry within the country's royalty and between neighboring countries, strategic marriages and wars to gain all the thrones (and therefore all the nations) possible, murder, assassination, beheadings, political intrigue, heavy taxation, random tournaments for "amusement" but really for casting lots and wagers and possibly killing the neighboring prince in a jousting match, (XD) etc etc. Everything was a tool for the royalty to gain more power in the end.
• Servants were just servants… If you were a servant anywhere, it was probably for someone who could afford it. And if they could afford it, then you got to work at a nice place. But usually you wouldn't actually live there. At the royal palace in the capital, maybe. But for a baron or lord, no. Every lord was over a section of land, or a lordship, where they were like the mini ruler over a town. Everyone in the town and in the surrounding farms were basically given the land to live and work on for free, as long as they gave the lord a percentage of their crops or other stuff, and as long as the men would join the army when called to war. And then some people would just come to work at the actual castle every day and make an extra buck, coming home to their farm at night. Same thing for barons, except barons were over multiple lordships. And then the king was over them all.
• EXTRA DEET (detail) ABOUT KNIGHTS: Knights were usually lords' sons. At seven years old, they'd be sent away to a neighboring lordship to "apprentice" as a knight. Once they got to the age of adulthood (I think like 13?) they'd be sent to the king or baron or to whatever lordship needed them, even back to their father. The firstborn son of a lord would get all of that training too, but eventually he'd have to claim his father's title as lord when he died.
• EXTRA DEET ABOUT LADIES (lords' wives): They were the true rulers of the lord's land. The lord was frequently off on "business" (aka war and such), so the lady ran the show. Housekeeping, everything to do with taxing their lordship and such, everything duty you could think of that took running a mini kingdom. There were even recordings in history of when the lord was away and a neighboring enemy country would attack the lordship, and since the lord was away, the lady would have to basically take the position of general. So, organizing the army, ordering the army around on strategy and defending the town and castle, etc.
• Not sure what it was like in a harem… I'm guessing they all lived in the palace, but those who weren't the favorite were basically left alone.
• Besides the titles I described above, I don't know much about all the different roles in a medieval society. But I found this: http://medieval.stormthecastle.com/medieval-jobs.htm
• Not sure, but I'd guess every member related to the king (except the banished ones) who already take up important roles, perhaps his closest advisors, and a bunch of important servants. The less important servants who did grunt work probably took turns staying during the night or going home to their families (because you can't really raise a peasant family in the palace?). I think it was considered to be more of an honor for the king to give you your own manor house within the capital to call your own, rather than take up a guest bedroom in the palace. But you can do it however you want!

So that was me talking out of my butt. Take it or leave it. :P

Okay, thanks for the input!

I actually have a google doc started on court! It's something I was writing to help someone else, I'm starting up on court behavior but it covers who was in court so far, and how they'd get there. I have a couple of my babes in there for name examples but the method holds true

Bookwise I recommend
Machiavelli's The Prince (Basically a How To about ruling a country)
The Dragon Riders of Pern Books (Not in medieval times or even court but McCaffery shows a good idea of how they handle ordeals within a kingdom, Dragonquest and Dragonflight are my favorites, but Ruth the White Dragon is about a lord holder)
The Wrath and The Dawn is set in a Middle Eastern Court and does a good job showing the intrigue

Historywise
The Medicis are a good choice to research, they're not royalty (by blood) but they played politics well, they're like the real life Lannisters
Anne of Cleves was one of Henry VIII's wives, she pretty much won at getting politics to work in her individual favor
Wu Zetein Climbed from Consort to Empress

The Chinese Consorts are suprisingly well documented, like you can find what food they were given by rank so I totally recommend looking at them.

I'm not an expert, but my mother's a Tudor history buff so I've picked up how court works (mostly in the renaissance) , and I do obscene amounts of research before I do historical things.
Oh and btw at least in the 1500s
Russia- Basically the black sheep of europe, they're very different from everyone else
Eastern Europe is really conservative after they become protestant (which is early 1500s) they're generally behind the times because they're away from the other major courts
Spain- Was undergoing the reconquista in the medieval era, it wasn't united and I'm betting no one's calling it spain
France- Is the fashionable court
England- Is 2nd best
Slavic Nations- Yeah I have no idea what these guys were doing.
I don't know who you're working with or what changes you've made that I'd need to anticipate but that info might be useful

Also helpful
-This is a timeline of food if you want to make sure things are historically accurate, remember Europe doesn't have corn, tobacco, potatoes, chocolate etc until the 1500s. Lots of people make that mistake when it's so easy to avoid.
http://www.foodtimeline.org

Here's a tumblr post on the language of fans, it was mostly used in the Victorian era but in a fantasy setting if you're not using real countries it's a useful tool to use with ladies in court (Idk if it'll give you the post or if that picture's it but hey, I tried)

And finally this is the language of flowers, now the meanings can be different depending where you reference but this is a great tool for sending messages. I know Shakespeare uses it in Hamlet (Ophelia's speech is great if you understand what the flowers mean) but I don't know exactly how old it is.
http://www.languageofflowers.com

If you need any other info I'm happy to help that's just what I've got from the top of my head.