In England, it was a maxim of state policy with Henry VII., whose reign there terminated the middle age, to prohibit the great liveried suites of the nobility (19 Henry VII., ch. 14) as Richard II., Henry IV. and Edward IV. had already attempted to do. But even under James I., we find ambassadors accompanied by a suite of 500 persons or 300 noblemen.[225-5]
The rich man welcomed every opportunity which enabled him to make others share in a dazzling manner the magnitude of his superfluous wealth: hence the numberless guests at weddings who were frequently entertained for weeks.[225-6] These festivities are memorable not because of the delicacies or great variety of the dishes, but because of their colossal magnitude. Even William of Orange, 1561, entertained at his wedding guests who had brought with them 5,647 horses; and he appeared himself with a suite of 1,100 men on horseback. There were consumed on the occasion 4,000 bushels of wheat, 8,000 of rye, 11,300 of oats, 3,600 eimers of wine, 1,600 barrels of beer.[225-7] In the ordinance of Münden regulating weddings, promulgated in the year 1610, it is provided, that, at a large wedding there should not be over 24 tables, nor at a small one over 14, with 10 persons at each table.[225-8]
The hospitality of the lower stages of civilization[225-9] must be ascribed as well to this peculiar kind of luxury as to mere good nature. Arabian chiefs have their noon-day table set in the street and welcome every passer-by to it.[225-10] (Pococke.) And so, distinguished Indians keep an open cauldron on the fire cooking all the time, from which every person who comes in may help himself. (Catlin.)
Compared with this luxury of the rich, the poverty found side by side with it appears less oppressive. There is no great gap between the modes of life of the different classes.[225-11] This is the golden age of aristocracy, when no one questions its legitimateness. When, later, the nobleman, instead of keeping so many servants, begins to buy costly garments for himself, he, indeed, supports indirectly just as many and even more men; but these owe him nothing. Besides, in this last kind of luxury, it is very easily possible for him to go beyond his means, which is scarcely ever the case in the former.[225-12]
[225-1] Here, as a rule, the value of the metal was greater than the form-value; and hence the medieval monasteries frequently made loans of silver vessels, where of course, the form could not be taken into consideration. On the other hand, in the case of the table service, presented by the king of Portugal to Lord Wellington, the metal cost £85,000 and the workmanship £86,000. (Jacob, Gesch. der edlen Metalle, translated by Kleinschrod, II, 5.) Compare Hume, History of England, ch. 44, App. 3. Similarly under Louis XIV. (Sismondi, Hist. des Français, XXVII, 45.) When Rome was highly civilized, C. Gracchus paid for very good silver ware, 15 times the value of the metal, and L. Crassus, (consul 95 before Christ) 18 times its value. Mommsen, R. Gesch. II, 383.
[225-2] Specimen breviarii fiscalium Caroli Magni; compare Anton, Gesch. der deutschen Landwirthsch. 244 ff.
[225-3] Turner, History of the Anglo Saxons, VII, ch. 6.
[225-4] In Homer, the kings live on nothing but meat, bread and wine: compare Athen., I, 8. In the saga-poetry of Iceland, H. Leo does not remember to have heard any other food mentioned except oat-pap, milk, butter and cheese, fish, the flesh of domestic animals, and beer. (Raumer's Taschenbuch, 1835, 491)
[225-5] Hume, History of England, ch. 49, Append. Similarly among all nations which have still preserved much of the medieval. Thus the duke of Alba, about the end of the last century, had not a single commodious hall in his immense palace, but 400 rooms for his servants, since at least all his old servants, and even their widows and families, continued to live with him. In Madrid alone, he paid £1,000 a month wages to his servants; and the son of the duke, Medina-Celi, £4,000 per annum. (Townsend, II, 155, 158.) In many palaces in Moscow, previous to 1812, there were 1,000 and more servants, unskillful, clad for the most part as peasants, badly fed, and with so little to do that perhaps one had no service to perform but to fetch drinking water at noon, and another in the evening. Even poor noblemen kept 20 and 30 servants, (v. Haxthausen, Studien, I, 59.) Forster, Werke, VII, 347, explains Polish luxury in servants, by the poorness of the servants there: a good German maid could do more than three Polish servants. Thus, in Jamaica, it was customary to exempt from the slave-tax persons who kept fewer than 7 negroes. (B. Edwards, History of the W. Indies, I, 229.) Compare Livy, XXXIX, 11. The luxury of using torch-bearers instead of candelabra lasted until Louis XIV.'s time. (Rocquefort, Hist. de la Vie privée des Français, III, 171.) Compare W. Scott, Legend of Montrose, ch. 4.
[225-6] A Hungarian magnate, under king Sigismund, celebrated his son's wedding for a whole year. (Fessler, Gesch. von Ungarn, IV, 1267.)