Peasant consumption in late medieval England: food and drink served at funerals

This is a contribution to the discussion of medieval peasants' lives as consumers. In the later middle ages, after the burial of the dead, food and drink was provided for those attending. These events were occasionally recorded in probate records, including those of peasants. Peasant funeral meals can be interpreted as community occasions, but also as opportunities for status seeking by peasant families. The food consumed reflects the hierarchy within peasant society, from a relatively affluent farmer to smallholders and the poor, but most of the evidence relates to the middling and upper ranks. The special meals at burials are compared with the routines of daily diet, and are seen in the context of other types of consumption, for example the acquisition of goods and chattels. The role of the market as a source of foodstuffs is highlighted. By an accident of the survival of documents, much of the evidence comes from fifteenth-century Yorkshire.