Margaret of Parma

At the table

Ordinary household diet and cooking fat

While the wealthy enjoyed complex pies and ragouts, ordinary people often used leftover scraps to make soups and kept pigs, sheep, or chickens for meat, eggs, and cheese. Cooking was primarily done using pig fat rather than butter.

What people wore

Flax harvest festival traditions

After the flax harvest, Flemish women would run through the streets dancing in large groups and stop travelers to tie flax strands around their legs or stirrups, refusing to let them pass without receiving small coins to fund a communal celebration.

Getting around

Foot messengers covered significant daily distances

In the early 16th century, messengers on foot could travel 25 to 40 kilometers daily, while professional runners sometimes covered over 60 kilometers per day.

What it cost

Daily wages of a skilled worker

In 1500, a skilled worker in the Low Countries earned 5 stuivers per day, increasing to 6 stuivers by 1525.

Music

Loud instruments at village festivals

At village festivals in Flanders, loud instruments such as trumpets, oboes, flutes, fifes, bagpipes, and drums were commonly used to entertain the crowds.

Daily life

Elementary schooling in villages

Almost every village or parish had at least one elementary school where children paid a few pennies per month per subject. Tuition for poor children was often covered by the Church or philanthropists.