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THAT LOVED TO PARTY WAS A FULL TIME JOB  rom
the time that Great Harry became king in 1509 until his death in
1547, the luxury, pomp and extravagance of his court was without
equal in Europe. A sportsman, a warrior, a hunter, a poet, musician,
and a statesman, he was a man of enormous appetites. He loved competing
in jousts and even wars. But he was also culturally aware and especially
loved creating "fantastic" feasts, celebrations, and theatrical
events that would last for days and entertain hundreds of his guests.
But politics, sex, romance and religion is not our focus here, so we return to Harry's love of food and drink.
"Between five hundred and a thousand people ate from King Henry's bounty every day; on special occasion it could rise to fifteen hundred. Feeding them required nearly as much planning, provisioning and scheduling as feeding an army on campaign. When the vast hall or great chamber was filled for dinner or supper, and the diners removed their caps to shouts out "Room for the sewer!" as the dishes were brought in, there were nearly always more mouths to be fed than anyone had foreseen". But
it was  anqueting
at
the court of Henry VIII was of gargantuan proportions. Nowhere was
the food so plentiful and varied as in England. It was said that
the English stomach had need of more food than others, and the distinctive
English habit of shameless belching at the table was an eloquent
testimony to their capacity. Sumptuary laws passed in 1517 limited
the number of dishes to seven or fewer, but as each course called
for perhaps a dozen dishes, restraint was easily mistaken for excess.
And the king himself was exempt from these restrictions. In one
"normal" day of feasting his courtiers consumed eleven carcasses
of beef, six sheep, seventeen hogs and pigs, forty five dozen chickens,
fifteen swan, six cranes, thirty two dozen pigeons and fifty four
dozen larks, six dozen geese and four peacocks. Three thousand pears
and thirteen hundred apples went to flavor the meat and fowl, while
bakers provided three thousand loaves of bread and the buttery nearly
four hundred dishes of butter.
Here is an eye witness account of one of these banquets:  ord
Gleville, The
Keeper of the Spirits, which was an appointment of great prestige,
and his staff of twenty, were responsible for assuring that there
was enough of the right kind of "spirits" to quench the court's
thirst, and in a world that considered drinking water barbaric or
lethal, this was a considerable challenge. Literally tens of thousands
of liters of spirits were delivered to court every week. Even greater
quantities were needed for holidays, weddings, celebrations such
as feasts honoring ambassadors.
IT BOGGLES OUR MIND
*Great Harry, Carolly Erickson, St. Martin's Griffin.
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bout
a year ago . . . It was a beautiful English spring day that screamed
out "Put on your tweed jacket and go for a long walk down a country
road and watch the larks ascending, feel the ancient spirits still
alive in the fields, taste the flavor of the apple tree's blossoming
in the air". So Conrad and I decided to take a long walk, during
which he always uses to point ….over there… and say…"Right
there, by that apple tree, is where Lancelot drank a tall goblet
of cider". 
he
book on
Rector Smythe's desk was obviously very very old. It's leather
cover was very worn. The good Rector knew its value to us, which
is why he was contacting Conrad, who is well known in Glastonbury
as a "spirit archaeologist". We were told that the book
was now
owned by Mrs. Crowe's younger sister, who was 93 years old, and
wanted to sell it and asked Dr. Smythe to help.
ith
a creaking of its cover we opened the book to the first page and
there written with the flourish of an accomplished hand was written:
Accounts and Ledger, Keeper of Spirits.
onrad
and I knew we had a major find in front of us; the key
to a new business. This was like finding the Lost Ark,
Excalibur, the Treasure of Montezuma, or King Tut's Tomb……
if you love the spirits that are rooted in British history….
we had just stumbled on a major treasure trove, and discovered
that Sir Nigel Gleville, Earl Of Taunton, had kept minutely
detailed records of how he kept Henry VIII's court supplied
with the finest spirits. (Note: In history any beverage
that had alcoholic content was considered "a spirit" whether
it was distilled or fermented)
ow
Rector Smythe is no dummy; he knew this was a "spirit
treasure" because he studied the book. Hegot right to
the point when he said…"Wouldn't mind ordering a
few bottles of these", as he turned the pages until he
came to some very exotic spirits that were made for the
Royal court, and tapped his finger on the page. 
enry
VIII was a highly cultured man who was fluent in French and Latin,
who composed music, a patron of the arts, kept a staff of Europe's
finest painters busy at court; he also enjoyed the renaissance thinkers
and brought Erasmus to court. He was also famous for his love life,
which was directly responsible for England's split from the Catholic
church and the establishment of the Church of England. (Note: The
Pope did not approve of his six marriages and his twelve mistresses).
o
many courses and dishes were served that for once there were "too
many to tell", and indeed too many for the guests. The King had
ordered four courses of ten pairs of dishes in each, but thoughtfully
eliminated one course of ten to reduce the time that the ambassadors
would have to sit at the table. As it was, he would have had to
partake of thirty pair of such dishes: roast capons and partridges,
civets of hare, meat and fish aspics, lark pasties and rissoles
of beef marrow, black pudding and sausages, lampreys and savory
rice, entrement of swan, peacocks, bitterns and heron "born on high,"
pasties of venison and small birds, fresh and salt water fish with
gravy of shade "the color of peach blossom," white leeks and plovers,
duck and roast chitterlings, stuffed pigs, eels reversed, frizzled
bean, finishing off with fruit wafers, pears, comfits, medlars,peeled
nuts and spiced cider".*
his
was
not only an enormous management challenge, this also required a
degree of creativity because it was expected that innovations in
spirits would appear periodically to delight the sophisticated taste
of the Royal guests.
t
is hard
to describe the intense emotions this book evoked in us. We knew
we had to have it. As we stared at the book, whose leather cover
now looked like tree bark, there in front of us was Sir Nigel
Gleville's writing with his quill pen. As we turned the creaking
pages a strong musty aroma from across five centuries filled Rector
Smythe's office. Though much of writing was faded we could still
read the details of hundreds of Royal feasts and celebrations.
It boggled our imagination, page upon page of details about wines,
brandies, ciders, and beers…including shipments made to the
Kings of other countries as gifts….and receipts of casks
of spirits as gifts from other royal courts. Some of the old paper
pages, heavy as parchment, were covered with mold spots, spilled
ink, and notes about successes and failures..
