However grim and severe the thirteenth century baron might be in his public duties, at dinner-time it was all wine, laughter and song.
The English barons of the thirteenth century were men lordly and stern, knights bold enough to present King John with the Great Charter at Runnymede in 1215, and to bring John’s son Henry III to heel at the Battle of Lewes in 1264. But they could afford to unbend a little at home, where they kept a splendid and lively table.