Windsor Castle appears to have been the favourite residence of Henry
II. When, in 1175, he had united with him his son Henry in his crown
and prerogatives, the two kings held an assembly at Windsor, attended
by the judges, deputies of counties and districts, and all the great
officers of state. Henry also kept his ensuing Christmas with the
magnificence and display peculiar to the times, and all the ancient
sports and usages; in which the nobles and gentry of the surrounding
country assisted with much splendour at the hunt and tourney, and
bestowed lavish gifts on the spectators and the people. After the
kingdom was parcelled out into four jurisdictions, another assembly
was held at the castle, in 1179, by the two kings; and, in 1184, Henry
for the last time celebrated his Christmas in the same hall of state:
his son, who had shared the throne with him, being then dead.

For the festivals of this period the tables of princes, prelates, and
great barons were plentifully supplied with many dishes of meat
dressed in various ways. The Normans sent agents into different
countries to collect the most rare dishes for their tables, by which
means, says John of Salisbury, this island, which is naturally
productive of plenty and variety of provisions, was overflowed with
everything that could inflame a luxurious appetite. The same writer
says he was present at an entertainment which lasted from three
o'clock in the afternoon to midnight; at which delicacies were served
up which had been brought from Constantinople, Babylon, Alexandria,
Palestine, Tripoli, Syria, and Phoenicia. The sumptuous
entertainments which the kings of England gave to their nobles and
prelates at the festivals of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide
diffused a taste for profuse and expensive banqueting; for the wealthy
barons, prelates, and gentry, in their own castles and mansions,
imitated the splendour of the royal entertainments. Great men had some
kinds of provisions at their tables which are not now to be found in
Britain. When Henry II. entertained his own court, the great officers
of his army, and all the kings and great men in Ireland, at the feast
of Christmas, 1171, the Irish princes and chieftains were quite
astonished at the profusion and variety of provisions which they
beheld, and were with difficulty prevailed on by Henry to eat the
flesh of cranes, a kind of food to which they had not been accustomed.
Dellegrout, maupigyrum, karumpie, and othe