esser houses people ate off trenchers [a four day old slab of
coarse bread or a piece of wood with the middle scooped out like a
bowl], or plates of wood or pewter [made from tin, copper, and
lead]. They often shared plates and drinking vessels at the table.

Queen Eleanor, a cultivated, intelligent, and educated lady from
the continent, fostered culture and rewarded individual literary
efforts, such as translations from Latin, with grants of her own
money. She patronized Oxford and Cambridge Universities and left
bequests to poor scholars there. She herself had read Aristotle
and commentaries thereon, and she especially patronized literature
which would give cross-cultural perspectives on subjects. She was
kind and thoughtful towards those about her and was also
sympathetic to the afflicted and generous to the poor. She shared
Edward's career to a remarkable extent, even accompanying him on a
crusade. She had an intimate knowledge of the people in Edward's
official circle and relied on the advice of two of them in
managing her lands. She mediated disputes between earls and other
nobility, as well as softened her husband's temper towards people.
Edward granted her many wardships and marriages and she arranged
marriages with political advantages. She dealt with envoys coming
to the court. Her intellectual vitality and organized mentality
allowed her to deal with arising situations well. Edward held her
in great esteem. She introduced to England the merino sheep,
which, when bred with the English sheep, gave them a better
quality of wool. She and Edward often played games of chess and
backgammon.

Farm efficiency was increased by the use of windmills in the
fields to pump water and by allowing villeins their freedom and
hiring them as laborers only when needed. Customary service was
virtually extinct. A man could earn 5d. for reaping, binding, and
shocking into a pile, an acre of wheat. A strong man with a wife
to do the binding could do this in a long harvest day. Harvests
were usually plentiful, with the exception of two periods of
famine over the country due to weather conditions. Then the price
of wheat went way up and drove up the prices of all other goods
correspondingly. The story of outlaw Robin Hood, who made a living
by robbing, was passed around. This Robin Hood did not give to the
poor. But generally, there was enough grain to store so that the
population was no longer periodically devastated by famine. The