Dish-bearers and butlers 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
substantial landowners who occupied the third lay (non-religious) rank
of the aristocracy in English society, after the king and ealdormen.
Dish-bearers and butlers ranked above ordinary thegns in lists of
witnesses to charters, and they probably also carried out diverse
military and administrative duties as required by the king. No dish-
bearer or butler is known to have served in the reigns of two different
kings, suggesting that the position was a personal one which ended with
the king's death. Some went on to have illustrious careers as ealdormen,
but most never rose higher than thegn. In the later Anglo-Saxon period,
queens (example depicted) and æthelings (sons of kings) also had dish-
bearers.
Read more:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dish-bearers_and_butlers_in_Anglo-Saxon_England>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1591:
Eighty Years' War: Dutch and English forces relieved the siege
of Knodsenburg in the Spanish Netherlands, having defeated the Duke of
Parma's army in the field.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Knodsenburg>
1893:
The Corinth Canal was formally opened, bisecting the narrow
Isthmus of Corinth in Greece to connect the Ionian Sea's Gulf of Corinth
with the Aegean Sea's Saronic Gulf.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corinth_Canal>
1950:
Korean War: After American troops withdrew, North Korean forces
captured the village of Yongdong in South Korea.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Yongdong>
2007:
Pratibha Patil was sworn in as the first female president of
India.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratibha_Patil>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
caddie:
1. (Scotland)
2. (also attributively, obsolete) Synonym of cadet (“a gentleman (often
a younger son from a noble family) who joined the military without a
commission as a career”)
3. (by extension, archaic) A young man; a boy, a lad; specifically
(derogatory), one regarded as of low social status; a ragamuffin.
4. (by extension, historical) A person engaged to run errands such as
carrying goods and messages; a commissionaire, an errand boy or errand
girl, a gofer; specifically, a member of an organized group of such
persons working in large Scottish cities and towns in the early 18th
century.
5. (by extension, golf, also attributively) A person hired to assist a
golfer by carrying their golf clubs and providing advice.
6. (intransitive, golf) Chiefly followed by for: to serve as a caddie
(noun sense 2) for a golfer. [...]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/caddie>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
A just society must strive with all its might to right wrongs
even if righting wrongs is a highly perilous undertaking. But if it is
to survive, a just society must be strong and resolute enough to deal
swiftly and relentlessly with those who would mistake its good will for
weakness.
--Eric Hoffer
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eric_Hoffer>