The subtleties and the accompanying verses were highly symbolic, emphasising Henry’s dual role as King of England and of France and the unity between the two countries, and this message was of immense political import. The account of the coronation banquet of Henry VI records that each course had its own subtlety that was brought in with the dishes. Subtleties typically took the form of lavish tableau, with scenes and models depicting emblematic subjects, often made entirely out of confectionary, such as marzipan or other foodstuffs. A subtlety was a special type of medieval dish that served as theatrical tableside entertainment. 177vĪt the heart of the banquet were its ‘subtleties’. The third course of the coronation banquet of Henry VI: Egerton MS 1995, f. A cold ‘bakemete’, a meat pie shaped like the royal coat of arms.A ‘flampayne’, a pork pie ornamented with leopards and gold fleur-de-lis.A roasted peacock served in its plumage.A jelly sculpture containing a red antelope, wearing a crown around its neck with a golden chain.A fritter shaped like a leopard’s head with ostrich feathers.A fritter shaped like a sun with a fleur-de-lis.A ‘custade rooial’ (a type of pastry) enclosing a golden leopard.
Slices of red jelly carved with white lions.Boars heads encased in pastry castles decorated with gold.All kinds of meat and fish, including roasted beef, mutton, pigs, rabbits, chickens, swan, heron stuffed with capons, quails, curlew, larks, partridge, carp, crab, chopped eels, pike.The banquet was lavish in both its scale and the sheer variety of dishes served across its three courses. The first and second courses of the coronation banquet feast of Henry VI, recorded in a medieval chronicle of London: Egerton MS 1995, ff. Most notably, the chronicle also preserves notes about the dishes served at the banquet itself. One surviving manuscript at the British Library (Egerton MS 1995) incorporates the poem as part of a medieval chronicle of the city of London. The text is a Middle English poem in three stanzas, designed to accompany each of the banquet’s courses as they arrived into the hall (probably Westminster Hall, the traditional venue for such occasions during this period). Lydgate was well connected at the royal court throughout his literary career, and in 1429 he was commissioned to write a number of works to mark the coronation of Henry VI, including a text now known as the ‘Soteltes for the coronation banquet of Henry VI’. 1451), a prolific writer of Middle English verse often seen as a successor to Geoffrey Chaucer (d. The details of Henry’s coronation banquet are recorded in a work by John Lydgate (d. The coronation of the child Henry VI as King of England at Westminster, from the Pageants of Richard Beauchamp: Cotton MS Julius E IV/3, f.
The account is featured in an episode of The Food Programme that will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on at 12.30pm, in which Jaega Wise and Head of the Eccles Centre and food historian Dr Polly Russell explore the history of coronation eating from the 1400s to the present day. What was the food like at a medieval coronation banquet? As the coronation of King Charles III approaches, we look back over 500 years to an account of the coronation banquet served before the young Henry VI (r.
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