Life in a Medieval Gentry Household Alice de Bryene of Acton Hall, Suffolk, c.1360-1435

In the Middle Ages the household was such a fundamental part of the social structure that the post-1350 era has been termed ‘the Age of the Household.’ Academic studies have generally focused on the grand, itinerant households of the wealthy aristocracy, illuminating the lifestyles and pastimes of this elite class. Using the household accounts of Alice de Bryene, a widowed gentlewoman, together with bailiffs’ and stewards’ reports from her home in Suffolk and other estates further afield, this richly detailed study paints a vivid portrait of the lives of ordinary people in the medieval countryside, of festivals and feast days, marriage and monuments, family loyalties and betrayals, life and death, the rhythms of the working day and year, and the changing scene in the wider world beyond the household. [Originally published in 1999 by Sutton Publishing Limited (UK) and Routledge Kegan Paul (USA) as Medieval Gentlewoman: Life in a Widow’s Household in the Later Middle Ages by ffiona Swabey.]

1. The Medieval Household 2. Marriage and the Family 3. Estate Management 4. The Gentle Lifestyle 5. Men at the Table 6. Women at the Table 7. The Wider World 8. Considerations for the Afterlife Epilogue

ffionavon Westhoven Perigrinor is an independent scholar and Jungian psycho-analyst. Her previous publications include:Reluctant Pilgrim: the Lost Book of Margery Kempe’s Maidservant (2021) and Strange Tales from my Studio: a Psychotherapist in China (forthcoming). And under her pen-name ffiona Swabey: Eleanor of Aquitaine, Courtly Love and the Troubadours (2004) and Medieval Gentlewoman: Life in a Widow’s Household in the Later Middle Ages (1999). www.perigrinor.co.uk