Pints and Pints of Wine for the French Royals

What the French Royals Ate Sometime in the early 1930s, a strip of parchment paper dated January 21, 1552 was exhibited in London. It speaks of a one-day household account of the Chateau d'Amboise in France, where Mary Queen of Scots was living when she was betrothed to the Dauphin of France. No mention of milk being consumed for the day. But the six royal children in the chateau (three of whom one day became kings of France) consumed 25 pints of red wine and 25 pints of white wine. Members of the royal household consumed 25 pints of a cheaper red wine, while the staff were given 35 pints of cheap claret. The court must have seriously drank to their heart’s delight! The accounts also show that 75 dozen loaves were paid. The day was one of abstinence. Meat was banned and the royals consumed seafood, including pike, roach, carp, gudgeon, crawfish, sea turtle, oyster, soles, cod, white and red herrings and, strangely enough, four vipers. The bill for the day amounted 149 £ 1s 5d.