The Lesser Chamber
This would have been Lady Joan Thweng’s chamber. A chamber is not just a bedroom, but also a living area where she would have entertained friends and family. A hatch in the ceiling led to a small room where her servants could sleep, in case they were needed in the night. This is also the room where her children would have spent their first years. As well as human guests, pets may have been found in this room. In the later medieval period it became increasingly fashionable for well-to-do ladies to keep small animals.
Cats and dogs were first brought into the home to deter mice and rats, but quickly became companion animals. A 15th-century stained glass image of Lady Beatrice de Ros in York Minster shows her accompanied by a small spaniel-type dog with bells on its collar.
Not all the animals in a room like this were invited, however. Dogs and cats carried fleas and ticks into the house, whilst woollen bed clothes were an inviting breeding ground for lice and bedbugs. The ‘stool of ease’ was the medieval commode, and popular with flies. Pests were annoying, and could spread dangerous diseases, and so medieval doctors recommended washing your body, hair and clothes regularly. According to Bartholomaeus Anglicus, writing in the 13th century, pests such as lice and fleas were born from accumulated dirt and sweat heated by the body.
