ABSTRACT
Alice’s marriage to Sir Guy Bryan had brought the promise of greater wealth and status. Many married women headed households in the absence of their husbands, but widows had the advantage of complete autonomy and ultimate accountability to no one but themselves. Status was related to wealth with which the display was commensurate. Alice’s annual income was sufficient to guarantee a modestly lavish display so that the trappings reflected her position in the local community. Gifts could be more ephemeral in the form of delicacies like the herons, swans and conies Alice occasionally gave her favored estate workers. The winter season is generally considered to have been the period for hospitality since the demands of husbandry and routine farm administration made summer a less popular time for entertaining. In the accounts of Lady Margaret Cromwell a tailor was employed to make clothes, and money was spent on dyeing worsted and livery cloth and for the cost of shoes.
