Hoogstraten and Flanders
From the first book in this volume:
Hoogstraten
The People of the Land
In history one must suppose that what is likely is at least more real than what is unlikely.
It was probable that the Viking Gelmel, a Jarl, was a driven man … driven by overpopulation in the inhospitable narrow valleys of his northern homeland and attracted by the broad expanse of warm forests that lay within the land he had recently pillaged. He needed to move so he did, in a year that would be later numbered about 830 A.D. He and his comrades brought their families with them.
So, when Gelmel arrived again in this southern land, he was determined to stay. He had a fortification built: a wooden stockade on an earth bank behind a shallow ditch on land that was slightly higher than its surroundings. It was not far from the location of present Hoogstraten.
Gelmel might also have brought some slaves to do the hard work, as well as a few pigs, sheep, goats, geese and chickens for his group.
He had arrived by Viking long ship so he was forced to use native materials for building. Thus, he and his band lived in a large wooden building thatched with the rushes that grew along the river (later named the Mark). His tribe wore animal skins and cooked over open fires using metal pots that they had brought with them from the North and they slept on the skins of animals thrown over piles of rushes.
They rarely washed but they were quite accustomed to body odors and would have probably been disturbed if they didn’t smell familiarly. The women cared for the band as one family: searching for berries, gathering wood and preparing food while the men hunted with spears and bows and explored the area, occasionally fighting the local inhabitants. The nightly meal of meat caught that day, skewered on knives and eaten around a roaring fire, was one where they shared talk of the past: the great victories of the Vikings, and the future: what they might accomplish in this flat warm damp land.
They ate well, gathering berries and herbs to go with the venison that the hunters brought back. After the first cold winter … when the sun came back … they planted seeds that they had brought with them for the wheat and barley that were staples of their diet. They found that most of the plants they liked to eat (cabbages, onions and leeks) grew well in the southern clime. They drank sheep and goat’s milk but in the future they would make beer and mead.
They had arrived at a new home and were content.
At the same time, about 850 A.D, Baldwin, the first Count of Flanders, was of the ruling class. He and the Counts of Leuven, who later became the Dukes of Brabant, lived in much more comfort than Gelmel but not much greater cleanliness. They washed no more frequently than the Vikings. The Counts and their families wore layers of felted woolen clothes decorated sometimes with fur. They slept on trestles, which kept them raised above the damp floor. They had woolen blankets and skins to cover themselves. Their homes had crafted wooden walls and a carefully thatched roof but the floors were still earthen covered with rugs and skins. They ate bread cooked in their kitchens with meat brought in by their hunters and they washed it all down with copious amounts of ale. They had serfs to look after them and to cater for their wellbeing. Those serfs were the original inhabitants of tied villages like Hoogstraten.
Neither the Counts of Leuven and Flanders nor their Viking immigrants would have seen much difference in their way of life.
The inhabitants wore long dress-like garments belted with a thong at the waist. Under them, throughout the Middle Ages, only the men wore under-garments (called braes), with a rolled waist, principally as protection from chafing when riding or working. Personal hygiene was very primitive. Those men who didn’t need the protection against chafing, like the clergy, wore no underwear under their heavy robes. Woolen hose was long. It reached to the waist and was held up by ribbons tied to the top of the braes for men or the top of the skirt for women. Hose was principally worn for warmth rather than cleanliness. Men generally wore a tunic over a white linen shirt to keep body sweat from fouling the tunic. Women wore a skirt and a bodice also over a linen blouse that served the same purpose as a man’s shirt. They wore no underwear.
Of course, it was inevitable that fashion came into play and, since there were no buttons until the 13th Century, fashion was satisfied by the variety of ribbons that were used for closing garments, and by bows or strips of fur such as ermine tied to the outer clothes. The peasant, of course, had no such finery. They were too busy working to survive the daily grind.
Bathing became more popular after 1200, so the population from then on smelled a great deal better, at least every few months.
By the 14th Century, Hoogstraten had grown to be a comfortable town. The thatch on roofs had given way to tiles for the more well to do and some houses had two stories. Window openings had wooden shutters and they were sometimes glazed for the rich. Curtains separated spaces in a large room for privacy and warmth but, in general, houses were cold since the wind found plenty of openings.
Homegrown grains were ground at the Count’s mill and then used as oatmeal porridge and for breads. Oil from the rapeseed mill replaced animal fats in cooking and most small homes had gardens in which vegetables were grown and in which their hens were raised. Thus, their meals had variety and were healthy. Regular washing and a very occasional bath for some of the gentry, along with the better food, made people smell a lot sweeter. Clothes were now woven well and washed. The poorer people and peasants wore clogs to keep their feet out of the ever-present mud and water.
The Count of Hoogstraten and his family, of course, had finer food and finer clothes and leather shoes. He and his family slept in trestle beds under coarse linen sheets that a farmer might not possess. Even so the castle was just as cold and draughty as any cottage in the village in the 14th Century.
- and from the second book in this volume … the fictional history of the
House of Flanders:
Desires
They brought the stag back on a trestle … it took them almost half a day. Because he wished to show others the size of his kill, although they had blooded the animal, they left the head, and its magnificent antlers, attached. That made their burden a difficult one. The animal was not only heavy but it was cumbersome and kept slipping. His peasant serfs had to stop every now and again to readjust the carcass on the trestle. He cursed their clumsiness and for a time rode ahead.
It had been a good hunt. On the first day, they had raised a number of pheasants and grouse … enough to keep his lodge in meat for several weeks. They had so many that they cooked several for themselves on the spit that night. He remembered with pleasure the dripping juices that blended so well with the ale. Then on the second day they had come across a herd of deer, but chase them as they might, they couldn’t get close enough to cull even the weakest of females. Then, when he had dismounted to rest and was watching as the serfs caught up with the riding party, he heard a movement behind him. Turning he saw the stag, now motionless, watching the same group of stragglers. Without a thought, his arm, even with a will of its own, turned, flexed and threw the spear.
He thought the stag looked surprised as the spear entered its breast. It hadn’t seen him. It moved first one step, and then a second, and then it fell down the rise, raising a cloud of dry autumn leaves with its impact. It was dead when he reached it and touched its warm flank. The spear shot had been pure luck and it had probably taken the stag’s heart but he knew he wouldn’t claim anything less than his skill as a hunter when he returned to his castle.
They spent the late afternoon raising the beast to hang from the lower limb of a tree where it could bleed. The gathering that evening around a roaring fire, dining on some delicate grouse and singing ribald songs was one that they would all remember for some time. For the peasants it was a reenactment of Carnival when nothing was forbidden. In their cups, they gave no thought to the problem of getting the stag home.
Now they knew that it was no easy task. Baldwin also knew that the party wished they could behead the beast and carry the pieces on two trestles but he was determined to show the whole animal at the castle. He took advantage of opportunities and he wasn’t about to back down on this celebration.
And it was worth it. When they finally arrived at the castle walls, the women and the children gathered around, and “oohed and aahed” at the catch. He knew that the boys were watching him in awe. He would be generous and spread the meat throughout the castle and his village … even the peasants might have a share. His stomach was full of well-roasted birds, so generosity from the hunt was easy. They would start with a feast the following day and he set the women working to butcher the animal.
Turning, Baldwin felt the strain of the hunt. He was sweaty and perhaps, he thought, he smelled a little more than usual. He needed to relax his clothes and his limbs. He would take a woman this day and again he felt pleased that he did not yet have a wife to worry him over finding a maid. He sent Gandulf into the village to choose him one. “Young and fair,” he instructed, “the last you brought was turning into a hag even while she was a child.”
Raising his tunic he untied his hose from the braes and unpeeled them from his legs. They were warm and damp and smelled riper than the stag. He tossed them and the braes aside. He would need neither if Gandulf brought back a likely wench. Instead he called for a bowl of water and taking a cloth he wiped his groin … and winced at the cold of the water. It’s painful … removing the sweat, he thought. So he didn’t wipe any other part of his body. Better to be warm and comfortable than cold and wet. He would enjoy the wench in the twists and turns and new sweat of lovemaking anyway.
At that Gandulf returned, pushing a young girl ahead of him through the doorway.
Gandulf had done well, although the young woman was darker than he would have liked. Her curls fell across her face as she stood quivering where Gandulf had thrust her in front of him.
He bent forward and raised her head. Passing pretty, he thought. “Come here, girl,” he said, moving towards his trestle bed. “Afterwards you will eat well.”
Lying sideways on the blanket overlying the rushes he took off the girl’s rough shift and made her lie beside him. She shivered at first. She was, he realised, new. No one had touched her before and everything was strange to her even though she must have seen her father and mother bucking together at night. So, smoothing her shoulders and her stomach, he took a gentle time showing where her hands should grasp him. “Touch me long and squeeze if you feel it,” he said as he sucked the nipples of her slim breasts and searched between her legs. She was an apt pupil and under her roaming hands he began to feel a comfortable urge in his belly and when she, in turn, jerked as he touched her deep, he knew that this time Gandulf had done very well and perhaps he would bring back this maid again. When he raised himself above her and thrust himself into her the first time, she cried out with pain but her arms clasped him more strongly around his body as she bucked against his thrust. “She enjoys the game,” he thought and he thrust again and again. Then throwing her head back, she cried out in joy and he released his fluid into her. They lay quiet and both slept and then, when they awoke, they went at it again and again.
-------------------
The time was 860 A.D. Baldwin was Count of the area and he did his king’s business, in collecting taxes and managing the farms in the parishes around Bruges, Oudenburg and Aardenburg. Just 21 he had inherited the position when his father, Audacer, died a few months before. Baldwin was not married and soon he would have to undertake a journey to find a suitable wife to gain an heir. Presently, however, he enjoyed himself and if a child came, the child added one to the population of his castle as they had done before. They were always in need of more hands.
Baldwin lived well, his castle was secure: his serfs made sure of that, and he had plenty of skins to make it comfortable even when the winter winds blew. Woolen blankets covered his bed and he had it raised above the floor. More hanging woolen blankets protected his rooms from the cold air. His kitchen was well equipped and his cooks knew his tastes even to the wheat bread that they cooked for him and the ales that they brought. He really asked for nothing, except for the nagging question of a wife and heir. In the morning, he pulled on his hose and tied them into his shift. The ribbon always gives me trouble, he thought but the hose were warm He was not riding today so he had no need of braes. He enjoyed feeling the air move against his body and under his groin as he walked and his balls felt much the better for not being tethered. The thought brought back the girl to his mind. Perhaps I should find her name, he thought. Gandulf would know and it would be easier to call for her again.
He donned a clean-washed linen shirt laid at his door and he added his tunic. As he straightened it he thought, Today, I will correct the problem of getting a wife and perhaps I’ll start by following on the idea of seeing Judith. If she is anything like last evening’s girl, I could do worse. He grinned to himself.
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Hoogstraten
The People of the Land
In history one must suppose that what is likely is at least more real than what is unlikely.
It was probable that the Viking Gelmel, a Jarl, was a driven man … driven by overpopulation in the inhospitable narrow valleys of his northern homeland and attracted by the broad expanse of warm forests that lay within the land he had recently pillaged. He needed to move so he did, in a year that would be later numbered about 830 A.D. He and his comrades brought their families with them.
So, when Gelmel arrived again in this southern land, he was determined to stay. He had a fortification built: a wooden stockade on an earth bank behind a shallow ditch on land that was slightly higher than its surroundings. It was not far from the location of present Hoogstraten.
Gelmel might also have brought some slaves to do the hard work, as well as a few pigs, sheep, goats, geese and chickens for his group.
He had arrived by Viking long ship so he was forced to use native materials for building. Thus, he and his band lived in a large wooden building thatched with the rushes that grew along the river (later named the Mark). His tribe wore animal skins and cooked over open fires using metal pots that they had brought with them from the North and they slept on the skins of animals thrown over piles of rushes.
They rarely washed but they were quite accustomed to body odors and would have probably been disturbed if they didn’t smell familiarly. The women cared for the band as one family: searching for berries, gathering wood and preparing food while the men hunted with spears and bows and explored the area, occasionally fighting the local inhabitants. The nightly meal of meat caught that day, skewered on knives and eaten around a roaring fire, was one where they shared talk of the past: the great victories of the Vikings, and the future: what they might accomplish in this flat warm damp land.
They ate well, gathering berries and herbs to go with the venison that the hunters brought back. After the first cold winter … when the sun came back … they planted seeds that they had brought with them for the wheat and barley that were staples of their diet. They found that most of the plants they liked to eat (cabbages, onions and leeks) grew well in the southern clime. They drank sheep and goat’s milk but in the future they would make beer and mead.
They had arrived at a new home and were content.
At the same time, about 850 A.D, Baldwin, the first Count of Flanders, was of the ruling class. He and the Counts of Leuven, who later became the Dukes of Brabant, lived in much more comfort than Gelmel but not much greater cleanliness. They washed no more frequently than the Vikings. The Counts and their families wore layers of felted woolen clothes decorated sometimes with fur. They slept on trestles, which kept them raised above the damp floor. They had woolen blankets and skins to cover themselves. Their homes had crafted wooden walls and a carefully thatched roof but the floors were still earthen covered with rugs and skins. They ate bread cooked in their kitchens with meat brought in by their hunters and they washed it all down with copious amounts of ale. They had serfs to look after them and to cater for their wellbeing. Those serfs were the original inhabitants of tied villages like Hoogstraten.
Neither the Counts of Leuven and Flanders nor their Viking immigrants would have seen much difference in their way of life.
The inhabitants wore long dress-like garments belted with a thong at the waist. Under them, throughout the Middle Ages, only the men wore under-garments (called braes), with a rolled waist, principally as protection from chafing when riding or working. Personal hygiene was very primitive. Those men who didn’t need the protection against chafing, like the clergy, wore no underwear under their heavy robes. Woolen hose was long. It reached to the waist and was held up by ribbons tied to the top of the braes for men or the top of the skirt for women. Hose was principally worn for warmth rather than cleanliness. Men generally wore a tunic over a white linen shirt to keep body sweat from fouling the tunic. Women wore a skirt and a bodice also over a linen blouse that served the same purpose as a man’s shirt. They wore no underwear.
Of course, it was inevitable that fashion came into play and, since there were no buttons until the 13th Century, fashion was satisfied by the variety of ribbons that were used for closing garments, and by bows or strips of fur such as ermine tied to the outer clothes. The peasant, of course, had no such finery. They were too busy working to survive the daily grind.
Bathing became more popular after 1200, so the population from then on smelled a great deal better, at least every few months.
By the 14th Century, Hoogstraten had grown to be a comfortable town. The thatch on roofs had given way to tiles for the more well to do and some houses had two stories. Window openings had wooden shutters and they were sometimes glazed for the rich. Curtains separated spaces in a large room for privacy and warmth but, in general, houses were cold since the wind found plenty of openings.
Homegrown grains were ground at the Count’s mill and then used as oatmeal porridge and for breads. Oil from the rapeseed mill replaced animal fats in cooking and most small homes had gardens in which vegetables were grown and in which their hens were raised. Thus, their meals had variety and were healthy. Regular washing and a very occasional bath for some of the gentry, along with the better food, made people smell a lot sweeter. Clothes were now woven well and washed. The poorer people and peasants wore clogs to keep their feet out of the ever-present mud and water.
The Count of Hoogstraten and his family, of course, had finer food and finer clothes and leather shoes. He and his family slept in trestle beds under coarse linen sheets that a farmer might not possess. Even so the castle was just as cold and draughty as any cottage in the village in the 14th Century.
Desires