The Open Door: Hospitality and Honour in Twelfth/Early Thirteenth‐Century England

Abstract

A renewed interest in etiquette and a growing preoccupation with rank in twelfth–century England heightened the importance of the public forum as an effective means to enhance reputation or, at the very least, to guard against shame. This article considers the significance of honour as an incentive behind hospitality in twelfth/early thirteenth–century England. The analysis is threefold and examines, first, how individuals were judged on their willingness to receive guests, secondly, the limits to their generosity, and thirdly, whether the outsider’s rejection of hospitality injured the host’s reputation.