OF SIX MEDIAEVAL WOMEN 



those who accompanied her guests. How well 

 we can picture to ourselves these maidens (for 

 such is all they were), decking themselves in 

 their girdles and jewelled braid, comparing their 

 gifts, and perhaps even standing on some oaken 

 bench the better to get a view of their finery, 

 for the mirrors were small, and the girdles were 

 long, and could not otherwise be seen in all 

 their glory. When they married, the Countess 

 made gifts to them without stint, not only of 

 the beautiful and the needful for their wardrobes, 

 but also of household goods, and sometimes, 

 when she knew their parents or kinsmen to be 

 too poor to provide the usual dowry, even of a 

 sum of money. To the retainers also we find 

 the same kind and helping hand held out. If 

 any were sick they were taken care of, and, if 

 needs be, sent to some place where they could 

 the better be cured, as we read of one who, 

 suffering from gout, was sent to take healing 

 waters. To another retainer was given the 

 necessary money to pay for his son on entering 

 a monastery, another receiving the wherewithal 

 to go to his native village to attend his mother's 

 burial. Old servants, past work, were cared for 

 in the monasteries or hospitals, or given some 

 post suitable to their years. To a poor knight 

 was given money to enable him to buy a good 

 horse and armour, for poverty of purse was no 

 disgrace in the thirteenth century. At the 

 beginning of winter a distribution, organised by 

 the clergy and stewards of the rural communities 



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