Erasmus

In Tudor times it was considered bad manners to finish all the food on the table because others depended on what was left over. After a feast all the remaining food was distributed at the palace gates to the poor in the monarch’s name.

Despite depictions of loud, dirty, bad mannered Tudors there were actually very strict rules when eating at court. These were recorded by Dutch writer Erasmus in his 1534 essay De Civitate:

· Sit not down until you have washed

· Undo your belt a little if it will make you more comfortable; because doing this during the meal is bad manners

· When you wipe your hands clean, put good thoughts forward in your mind, for it doesn’t do to come to dinner sad, and thus make others sad

· Once you sit place your hands neatly on the table; not on your trencher(plate or piece of bread used as a plate in medieval times) , and not around your belly

· Any gobbit that cannot be taken easily with the hand, take it on your trencher

· Don’t wipe your fingers on your clothes; use the napkin or the ‘board cloth’

· If someone is ill mannered by ignorance, let it pass rather than point it out

....… and perhaps my personal favourite:

· Don’t shift your buttocks left and right as if to let off some blast. Sit neatly and still.

Source:

De civilitate morum puerilium, Desiderius Erasmus