One of the main ways that Lords would entertain themselves and guests was by holding medieval banquets and feasts that took place in the Great Hall of a Castle. The Lord and Lady ate the rich food and wine served by squires with their important guests and family at the high table.
The Lord and Lady would sit sometimes sit under a canopy which was usually emblazoned with their coats of arms and emblems as they enjoyed the Medieval Castle Entertainment. It was usually some poor soul’s job to taste the food of the medieval lord before he ate it to check that it had not been poisoned.
In between courses at a medieval banquet Heralds would play their trumpets when each course arrived, as food such as roast swan, boars head, salted fish, and subtlety was brought to the high table.
The Medieval Castle Entertainment also provided Minstrels who would play the music requested by the Lord and Jesters would tell humorous stories and jokes to try to make people at the High Table laugh.
Hunting was popular with medieval Lords and other elites and Falconry was one of the favorite past-times. Most Lords and Ladies had Falcons which were trained by a person called the Falconer to catch small animals or birds and return to them.
Falconry
Nobles and their families played games inside and outside as part of the castle’s entertainment, inside the castle they enjoyed board games such as chess and ladies also enjoyed sowing and working on fine embroidery. Singing and dancing were also popular inside a medieval castle.
Tournaments or mock battles were regularly held inside the grounds of a medieval castle. The most popular contest at a medieval tournament was the medieval joust.
In the medieval joust, two horses called Chargers were mounted by knights and charged at each other at great speed, each knight was trying to knock the other knight from his horse. Medieval jousts often went to the ground if both knights were knocked from their horses.
There were plenty of things to do to keep oneself entertained in a medieval castle and we have just touched on some of the many past-times that people enjoyed in medieval times!