When a nobleman referred to his “family”, “household” or “menie”, he included both his blood kin and all his servants and dependents. Obligations work both ways: the lord has not only to pay but feed, clothe and maintain the health of all those who serve his needs. He is also under an obligation to give alms and feed the poor. After meals the almoner will take any leftover food to the gates to give to the poor. The following illustration from the Hours of Henry VIII shows Dives feasting and denying Lazarus any food, the bottom border shows his punishment.

Household servants were not the inferior creatures they became by the Victorian era, but were often given trust, friendship and respect. A lord might employ one of knightly status as steward to oversee his estates in his absence whilst he, himself, is serving in the capacity of steward to an earl, the earl to the king. In England the hierarchy of society tended, on the whole, to work to everyone’s mutual benefit: hence the emergence of the English “yeoman”. In France where the nobility flaunted their status whilst neglecting their obligations, the oppressed peasants rose in the “Jaquerie” revolts of the later 14th century: their continuing dissatisfaction culminated in the revolution of 1789.