Forme of Cury in Historical Context

Introduction

This paper is to place a single work into historical context. I chose to focus on this topic as I’d noted an increasing tendency towards using recipes from primary sources without an understanding of the context in which the recipes were created and served. While it is important to understand ingredients and cooking techniques employed in making the food, it is equally important to understand the culture and time in which a cuisine was developed.

I chose Forme of Cury as it has a very definite timeline and it’s during a particularly interesting period of time in English History. I will cover not only the events surrounding the reign of Richard II, but will also discuss some of the major works of art and literature that were produced during his reign.

The intent of this work is to provide a better understanding of the environment in which the recipes were created, focusing primarily on the reign and court of Richard II. You will note that we will not be discussing Forme of Cury beyond defining what publication we’re discussing as the purpose of this paper is to provide more detailed information about the environment that the recipes were developed in, not to analyze Forme of Cury.

Forme of Cury

The Forme of Cury, which is a collection of various rolls from the cooks of Richard II and is attributed to the “Master Cooks of Richard II”. It is one of the most, if not the most, commonly used reference for those who are interested in English cookery of the 14th century. There is an accessibility to the recipes that makes Forme so attractive, I believe that it is because the language is still recognizable to a modern English-speaker and there are online translations available for those who struggle with the language. The ingredients are also familiar and the flavors wouldn’t be entirely unpleasant to a modern diner.

The name Forme of Cury is an invention of Samuel Pegge, who named it thus in his 1780 publication of this work. The name roughly translates to “The Form of Cookery”. The word ‘Cury’ (also kewery), according to the Oxford English Dictionary means either cookery or a cooked food; a dish and made its first appearance in 1387 in Polychron by Higdon (‘cury’).

Pegge’s book is a compilation of several known manuscripts that were attributed to the cooks of Richard II: British Library MS Additional 5016, a roll copied ca. 1425, and Morgan Library MS Bühler 36 (Keiser 411). Another manuscript has since been discovered and was subsequently included in more recent editions of Forme of Cury, it is Rylands Library MS English 7 (copied ca. 1375) (Keiser 411).

During the early eighteenth century, the antiquarian movement discovered and published a number of historical cookbooks. It was during this time that a number of primary sources were 2 published (in the interest of preserving the documents), including Martin Lister’s 1705 edition of the work attributed to Apicius. Samuel Pegge was another noted antiquarian who saw his work as a continuation of Lister’s work in preserving ancient and medieval culinary documents.

In 1985, Constance B. Hieatt and Sharon Butler produced a more scholarly analysis of Forme of Cury: Curye on Inglysch: English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth Century (Including The Forme of Cury). This version is the one most commonly used by those interested in English cuisine of the 14th century. While this version is not without its flaws, it remains the most easily accessible version of Forme of Cury.

Richard II (1377-1399)

End of the reign of Edward III

Richard II was born in 1367, in Aquataine, in the last years of the reign of his grandfather, Edward III. Richard’s father was Edward the Black Prince, who unfortunately pre- deceased his father, but only after securing his son’s place as heir to the throne through a deal struck with Edward III and John of Gaunt1.

Edward III, had a remarkable reign that ended disappointingly. Edward III had succeeded in restoring royal authority, which Richard’s great-grandfather, Edward II, had all but destroyed during his reign. He also made the Kingdom of England into a formidable military power. Towards the end of Edward III’s life, sadly, his previous achievements were marred by accusations of corruption within his court and his general inactivity in matters both domestic and abroad due to his increasingly poor health.

The year before Richard II ascended to the throne, Parliament convened by request of Edward III as he required additional funds to be allocated to his court. Once convened, the Parliament had another agenda: to address the corruption within the court of Edward III. Called “The Good Parliament”, their purpose was to reform the government, address the corruption within the court, and perform a full accounting of the royal finances. The primary opponent to the purpose of this Parliament was John of Gaunt, who argued against their proposals in support of allowing the Royalty to exist without constraints. He was unsuccessful in swaying Parliament and its reforms were passed.

1 John of Gaunt (John of Ghent), First Duke Lancaster, was the third surviving son of Edward III and Philippa of Hainault. He was born in Ghent, which was then Anglicized to “Gaunt”. He became the richest man in England and wielded an immense amount of power until his abrasive personality and inter-personal struggles made him an unlikeable object of ridicule. Most famously, John of Gaunt was a sponsor of Geoffrey Chaucer and brought Chaucer into the King’s inner circle. 3

Establishment of Richard II’s Regency Council

As his uncle, John of Gaunt was the logical choice to act as Richard II’s Regent, however, John of Gaunt was not considered to be the best choice due to his lack of popularity among the nobility. The ultimate solution was to allow Richard II to exercise his rights and responsibilities as King with the establishment of a number of councils that were made up of several members of the nobility, but specifically excluded John of Gaunt.

The Peasant’s Revolt of1381

Tensions that had existed since the Black Death in 1348-50 between the peasantry and the landlords and nobility were reaching a fever pitch thanks to political oppression and “record levels of taxation which had been imposed during the 1370’s” (Saul 119). Lead by Wat Tyler and John Ball, this uprising lead to the deaths of hundreds of people which included those who were perceived to be part of the system of oppression (ex: lawyers, lesser officers of the Crown) but many of the casualties were due to private score-settling amongst the protesters.

Initially, Richard II attempted a diplomatic solution and met with Tyler and Ball in order to negotiate a truce. Unfortunately, this emboldened the protestors and the violence continued. Tyler and Ball were called into the presence of Richard II to be reminded of their bargain. During this meeting Tyler was killed by the Mayor of London and Richard II avoided a riot by giving clemency to the mob and allowing them to disperse.

Ultimately the solution to this was to revoke the various laws that had allowed the peasants to gather enough ground to start the protest and to eliminate the remaining cells of protestors in a series of military skirmishes. This allowed the government to re-take control to quell the revolt.

Lords Appellent (1387)

By the time of Richard II’s reign, Parliamentary practice and procedure were becoming institutionalized as part and parcel of English government. This kind of siphoning off of power was not acceptable to Richard II, who believed in the right of Kings and the priviliges of an absolute Monarch.

Richard II, was born in France, and had a great deal of good feeling towards the French court. He began to develop a policy of conciliation and sought to bring an end to the Hundred Years War. This was unacceptable to the more hawkish members of Parliament and by 1387 with England bankrupt and France threatening to invade, a change was made. The so-called “”Wonderful Parliament” (Saul 122) convened and established a “Commission of Government” to govern England” (Saul 122).

The Lords Appellant developed a foreign policy that was specifically to continue the struggle with France until such time that France surrendered to England and came under English 4 rule. The reasoning for this (and the reason for the Hundred Years War) was due to Edward III having claimed ownership of France as rightful heir to the throne as a descendent of King Philip IV of France. This claim to the throne would, in part, ensure the fortunes and lands of a number of noblemen, which is what made it such a popular stance within Parliament.

By 1388, the convening of the “Merciless Parliament” (Saul 122) and was lead in part by Glouster and Arundel (both were very strong supporters of continuing the war with France) and resulted in the execution of several of the King’s supporters for treason and other supporters exiled or dismissed from court. Prior to this event, Richard II had attempted to curry favor with a variety of noblemen in order to gain their support within Parliament. With the events of 1388, Richard II seemed to become more demure in his interactions with Parliament and through some very skillful political and social maneuvering, by 1389, Richard II had been returned to power.

Richard II seeks his revenge on the Lords Appellant (1397)

Eight years had passed since Richard II had regained power; however, he was not forgiving towards the nobles who had taken his ability to rule away from him. In 1397, Richard II was finally in a position to seek his revenge and had Glouster, Arundel, and Warwick arrested: Glouster was suffocated while awaiting trial; Arundel was beheaded for treason; and Arundel’s brother, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was exiled.

With his enemies decreasing in number, Richard II became extremely ambitious and greedy in his quest to remove all impediments to his absolute rule over England. This even included past allies such as Henry Bolingbroke (John of Gaunt’s son) and Thomas Mowbray. The threat from Bolingbroke was because he had a claim on the throne of England.

The End

Six months after Bolingbroke and Mowbray were exiled; Richard II seized their lands in England. Soon after doing this, Richard II went to Ireland. Bolingbrook then used Richard’s absence to capitalize on old relationships within the nobility, build alliances, and gain support for his bid for the English throne.

By the time Richard II returned, there was little support at home. He was seized at “Conwy castle in North Wales, taken to London, and deposed, whereupon Bolingbroke promptly has himself crowned as King Henry IV.” (Saul 123-4) Richard died five months later, under mysterious circumstances while in prison. 5

Timeline

Historical perception of Richard II

Shakespeare’s play, Richard II, has had an enormous impact on the general perception of Richard II and often overshadows the historical realities of his life. There are some significant changes to the timeline and some characters are changed in age (for a number of reasons) and Richard II’s death is presented in a more palatable, if not heroic, light. It is a typical mistake to make to assume that the play based on parts of his reign would be grounded in historical fact; however, Shakespeare often took great liberties with history when a better story was in view.

One of the great influences on the historical opinion of Richard II was Henry IV and the Lancastrians. While Richard II was certainly not a successful King, the information pushed out after his being removed from the throne focused on the less savory aspects of his life as well as fabricating other things wholesale. This was entirely for the benefit of the Lancastrians, who wanted to ensure their place in history. History is written by the victor, and it’s very fortunate that there is enough information from alternate sources that provides a more balanced view of the reign of Richard II.

Sadly, the historical perception of Richard II was greatly informed by Shakespeare and by Lancastrian propaganda and the general consensus was that Richard II was insane. In recent years, with a more objective analysis of the historical information, as well as the availability of new information, this opinion has changed.

The court of Richard II

The failure of Richard II to be an effective King rested primarily with his ineffectualness as a warrior. Richard II “possessed only the more exotic and less popular qualities of the aesthete, loving art, literature, and music, and the pleasures of the mind.” (Stow 221) This stood in sharp contrast with the court of Edward III which was a more militaristic court, more interested with providing comfort to warriors and political allies. The one point that Richard II was in agreement with his predecessors was his belief in the royal prerogative, the status of the King as the head of the nation, to the exclusion of other governmental structures (in this case, Parliament).

Starting with the period of time after the Peasant’s Revolt, Richard II surrounded himself with an inner circle made up of “youthful friends and advisers” (Stow 227), this was, in part, to establish his independence from his regents. Anthony Steel refers to this as Richard II’s “New Court Party” and “by the Spring of 1384, there was already very clearly a court…found expression in the symbolism of courtly fashion” (Stowe 227).

This fashion-centric court found its expression through clothing, accessories (Richard II is credited with creating the handkerchief), and entertainment. Additionally, Richard II 6 considered himself to be quite an expert cook. It was at his direction that Forme of Cury was compiled and published. Lorna J. Sass, who is one of the modern editors of Forme “notes that the recipes ‘reveal the lust for grandeur and exoticism characteristic of Richard’s court.’”(Stow 228)

It is just this level of extravagance that lead to the convening of the Wonderful Parliament in 1386. Within two years, Richard II’s inner circle had been essentially dissolved and Richard II was struggling for power against Parliament. Richard II couldn’t build enough support among the nobility. This was due to his penchant for playing favorites within the court. He had excluded everyone but the members of his inner circle from his favors. This meant that the majority of those whose support he needed were unwilling to give that support thanks to his excluding them from his court. It took until approximately 1391 for Richard to be able to re- assert himself as King, which had more to do with his reaching the age of 21 than by anything else.

Conclusions

The reign of Richard II would have had a profound impact on the types of recipes that were chosen for publication, particularly since Richard was the driving force behind compiling those recipes. The recipes themselves would also have been selected based on their ability to reflect Richard II’s personal tastes and style, which, if you look at every other aspect of Richard II’s court was extremely extravagant. The dishes would be the best that the court had to offer both in presentation and ingredients and would show a greater diversity of ingredients and cooking techniques than one would expect in other recipe collections of a similar vintage.

There is more in-depth research that could be done, including: Drawing parallels between Richard II’s relationship (and rivalry) with the French court with an analysis of the ingredients and compare that with contemporary French recipe collections to see whether there are significant similarities to the cuisines or only surface ones; What was the effect of Low Countries cuisine on the recipes of Richard II’s court (both he and John of Gaunt spent considerable time in the Low Countries by dint of their associations with the Burgundian Dukes; and what importance would the recipe collections have if they had been made commonly available in 1390, which is after Richard II had already started to lose his reputation and the opulence of his court had been significantly diminished.

Forme of Cury offers one of the easier timeframes to work with as the attribution gives an immediate center of time and place in which to focus. Not all works are going to be as easy to nail down. It is, however, essential to understand the environment that the recipes were created in so that a greater understanding of the recipes can be attained. This is not to say that you can’t produce perfectly passable food using medieval recipes and have zero understanding of its history, however, it deprives the modern cook knowledge of the true flavor of the cuisine. 7

Works Cited

Alexander and Binski, pp. 506–7 and 515. Only six of the statues remain, rather damaged, and the dais has been remodelled, but otherwise the hall remains largely as Richard and his architect Henry Yevele left it.

"Cury." Def.1 & 2. Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford English Dictionary, n.d. Web. 26 Jan 2014.

Keiser, George R. Review: Curye on Inglysch: English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth Century (Including the "Forme of Cury"). Speculum. 63.2 (1988): 410-412. Print.

Saul, Nigel. The Oxford Illustrated History of Medieval England. New York: Oxford University, 2001. Print.

Omrod, W. M., Ed. Fourteenth Century England, Vol. 3. Boydell & Brewer, Ltd.: Woodbridge, UK, 2004. Print.

Stow, George B. Richard II and the invention of the pocket handkerchief. Albion: A quarterly journal concerned with British studies. Vol. 27, No. 2 (Summer, 1995) pp. 221-235. Print.

Additional References

Noble, , Strauss, Osheim, et al. Western Civilization: Beyond boundaries. 6th. Boston: Wadsworth, 2008. 296. Print.

Saul, Nigel. Richard II. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1999. Print.