Dish-bearers and butlers in Anglo-Saxon England

Dish-bearers (often called seneschals by historians) and butlers (or cup-bearers) were thegns who acted as personal attendants of kings in Anglo-Saxon England.

Royal feasts played an important role in consolidating community and hierarchy among the elite, and dish-bearers and butlers served the food and drinks at these meals.

Thegns were members of the aristocracy, leading landowners who occupied the third lay (non-religious) rank in English society after the king and ealdormen.

Dish-bearer in Medieval Latin (ML) is discifer or dapifer, and in Old English (OE) discþegn, also discðegn and discþen (dish-thegn).

[1] The French medievalist Alban Gautier states: "Both discifer and dapifer literally mean 'dish-bearer', but in the first case 'dish' should be understood as the disc-shaped object (discus), whereas in the second it refers to the culinary preparation that was inside (dapes).

Dish-bearers and cup-bearers (butlers), who served at the table, played a major role in helping to make them political successes.

The butler and dish-bearer of Edith, wife of Edward the Confessor, remained close to her when the King died and did not move to serve the new queen.

[24] In the tenth century, most dish-bearers and butlers were thegns of lesser status who never rose higher, but some members of leading families held the post before becoming ealdormen.

[12] Wulfgar and Odda were dish-bearers and leading thegns under King Æthelstan, and were promoted to ealdorman by his successor, Edmund.

[26] Under Edward the Confessor, members of the families who held most of the earldoms, those of Godwin and Leofric, did not become dish-bearers or butlers, and the positions may have become less attractive to the greatest aristocrats when they were more powerful than the court.