Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night is a recurring point in the household year at Stourton Castle, Staffordshire. The episodes associated with it show how celebration depended on circumstances beyond the calendar: fear of sickness led Margaret Pole to restrict contact with the village, while mourning and financial strain later left tenants and children with little festive provision.

A Festival Interrupted by Illness

In the spring of 1502, Margaret spent more than two months at Stourton Castle with her children as they recovered, one after another, from an illness. Ursula was the last to improve and remained easily tired and sensitive to light. Illness had also reached the village, where one child died. Fearing that visitors might bring the sickness into the castle, Margaret barred the villagers from coming for their Twelfth Night gifts. The decision brought complaints: the customary food, wine, and small gifts were withheld at a time when the cold season made them especially welcome.

Margaret did not treat the household’s recovery as proof that the danger had passed. After the last sick person was up and about, she paid for a Mass in the village church in thanksgiving, then checked on the congregation, visited the village, and confirmed that everyone in the household was well before leaving her children and returning to Ludlow. Twelfth Night thus falls within a wider period of caution, in which the usual exchange of gifts gave way to separation and close attention to health.

Mourning and Reduced Gifts

By Christmas 1505, Twelfth Night again passed without a full celebration for the tenants. Margaret said the household was still mourning the loss of her husband, Richard Pole; the village, however, remembered his former generosity, including a feast for the household and tenants and free firewood during the cold months. On Twelfth Night the children received only the smallest gifts. The contrast between Richard’s remembered provision and Margaret’s reduced observance made the household’s hardship visible to the community.

The surrounding evidence describes the expenses Margaret was trying to manage. Geoffrey was thriving with a wet nurse, but the nurse represented an additional cost. She considered the boys’ education and cleanliness essential, yet acknowledged how expensive both were. The home farm supplied food, and the household sold surplus produce, grain, hay, straw, firewood, and other goods through local trade. These details place the diminished gifts within a strained household economy, rather than presenting them as an isolated change in custom.

Significance in the Household Year

Across the two episodes, Twelfth Night registers different pressures on domestic life. In 1502, Margaret restricts the festivities to protect her children and household from illness; in 1505, mourning and the cost of maintaining the family coincide with a reduction in what the tenants receive. The villagers’ complaints and their recollection of Richard’s generosity show that these decisions affected not only the family but also the community’s expectations of its lordly household.