[Sca-cooks] Pennsic Iron Chef Results

[Linda M. Kalb]

At 02:47 PM 8/28/01, you wrote:
> > There's a very important difference between cooks having a contest of their
> > own accord versus fulfilling a bet or whim by their masters.  In period, no
> > one was independent and autonomous in the way we understand and experience
> > it today in our democracies.  Everyone had a master, up to the king/chief
> > monarch, whose master was God.  Everyone except the king had an earthly
> > master.  That's why Shakespeare's players were the "Lord Chamberlain's
> > men."  Though in reality they operated very independently for their day,
> > they had to have a master.  Cooks served their masters, so if they
> > competed, it would be on their masters' bet, whim, or desire.
>
>If you're thinking of terms of employment, I can't quibble with that. On
>the other hand, this sounds like the 'Great Chain of Being'. Recent
>scholars have begun to quibble with the idea that the poor iggnrnt people
>of the Middle Ages could not think of themselves outside the Great Chain
>of Being.
>
>For instance, in your example, what would be the reason for
>knights to travel from afar to enter tournaments?

Sure, many knights and most mercenaries and actors travelled a lot and
operated independently.  Did cooks?

Inga/Linda

> From what I've read,
>though rich men sometimes 'sponsored' groups of knights in tournaments
>(Henry II's son Henry, for instance, took William Marshall into his
>service for the sake of William's success in tourneys), one did not
>compete in tournaments for the glory of one's liege lord but for one's own
>glory -- and enrichment, based on ransoms, if one was good enough.
>
>
>-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa
>jenne at fiedlerfamily.net OR jenne at tulgey.browser.net OR jahb at lehigh.edu
>"Are you finished? If you're finished, you'll have to put down the spoon."
>
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