Revealed what the royal luxury really looked like

The nobles warmed and why they slept while sitting, the guide of the Vilnius Castle State Cultural Reserve told Nerilė Urbonaitė.

– How can we live every day that we really live like kings – Vytautas the Great and others?

– The castles were not built for amenities because it was a defensive matter. To make it more comfortable, somehow confused them. If you had a bed in the Middle Ages, you were a complete ruler in every sense. We know for sure that Vytautas had a bed. In one letter, 600 years ago, he mentioned that he received a letter when going to bed.

The beds, like furniture, then did not. We know that Jogaila had a bed, that Barbora Radvilaitė’s stepdaughter, Sigismund the Old, had a bed with canopies – perhaps even promoted as a throne – since drafts were drawn in the grounds, it was just more effective to sleep above. And in the Middle Ages, the windows were also complicated – there was no glass, there was a pig’s bladder or some paper, waxed fabric. It really worn, lay, hung both fur and tapestries in later times in the Palace of the Rulers. But people were still looking for that heat.

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– If I want to sleep royal, how do our nobles do, how do I do it?

– Sleep in half lying because they were very afraid of attack. It used to be that I would be better awake, but I would stay alive until morning. The nobles didn’t really have beds because the ruler’s business was a bed. They slept on the hay, on the bench or in the chests, which was very convenient: traveling – you brought the chest, dressed there in some clothes, put in and sleep. The bed only appeared only in the 16th century. in the second half. It resembled a tall cabinet on high legs. Then you close the door from rodents or for privacy as the servants are constantly nearby. The furniture itself we imagine now appeared much later.

– Can we assure you that nobles never sleep alone?

– Sigismund Augustus, I think Barbora was really sleeping because it is such a more advanced couple – more like today. There was a lot of love for Gediminas.

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– Is it more of our imagination that nobles received a separate room and complete privacy?

– There were secretaries, fireplace creators, advisers. The curtain protected from gaze and privacy, as it was constantly 24 hours. daily, seven days a week around the servants.

– Like you mentioned, the bed is not only comfortable but also status. When you enter the bedroom could you decide on another person’s status?

– Because there were very few of those beds, I think that if the ruler Vytautas writes that I got your letter when I go to bed, it already means something. He solemnly announces this maybe even competitors.

– Were there any other funny nuances related to sleeping?

– Yes, because not everyone had beds. The nobles slept on the bench, but the chests were much more comfortable and also gave privacy. Even the first beds were tall, on high legs – the same chests, just raised.