Beds through the ages

Roman bed frames were quite simple, and were made from wood or iron. Rich
Romans liked to cover them with exotic fabrics. The Roman poet Martial tells of one
man who pretended to be ill so that people would visit him in bed and admire his
covers. Only poor couples slept together Rich people preferred separate bedrooms.

With the fall of the Roman Empire, the age of elegant bedrooms was over. Most
Saxon and Viking families lived in single-roomed, smoky homes which they shared
with their animals. The benches they sat on by day served as their beds at
night.Larger Saxon houses had sleeping platforms raised at one end, perhaps
reserved for women or important guests. When Saxon people "made a bed", they
did exactly that. They took a sack or animal skin and filled it with leaves, straw or
other material. Pea pods were sometimes used, which must have been rather
lumpy. We can get an idea of how the Saons made their beds from the words they
used for bed and mattress: Baence(bench) and streow (straw). A bed that was more
luxurious than just straw on a bench was called a "cot" or "crib".

Roman bed

Viking bed
The medieval people, "bed" meant "mattress" or "bedding".Poor people laid their
straw "bed" on the floor, or on a simple board. Only the rich had proper bedsteads.
A well-dressed bedstead had cords supporting a feather mattress, and was
curtained off to keep out draughts and prying eyes. Red bed-curtains were popular,
but many kings and queens preferred green.

Medieval beds were made to be portable. When a lord and lady travelled to their
various castles and houses, they often took their own beds with them. Visiting
guests also sometimes arrived with their own bed, which were set up in any
convenient room. While the servants bedded down on the floor of the great
chamber, the lord and lady retired to smaller (and more private) room called the
privy chamber.

If you were to peep under a large medieval bedstead, the chances are that you
would find a smaller bed hidden beneath. This low bed, called a "trundle" or
"truckle" bed, often had casters or wheels. It was kept out of the way during the day
and "trundled out" at night for a servant or child to sleep on.

Medieval Monks slept in long dormitories called dorters. The monks followed
monastery rules which had been written by St Benedict of Nursia in 515. These said
that monks should have separate beds. They were to sleep fully clothed, and not
take off their belts. However, monks were not to take knives to bed with them, in

case they cut themselves while asleep.

Medival bed
By Tudor times, many ordinary people could afford to buy proper framed bedsteads.
Sleeping on chests, boards or rough straw sacks on the hall floor gradually became
a thing of the past. Some beds were magnificent structures with the head, roof and
posts beautifully carved from wood. Others were quite simple, more like the trundle
bed mentioned above.

When William Shakespeare died in 1616, he left his "second-best bed and the
furniture" to his wife, Anne Hathaway. The "furniture" meant the bedding and
curtains. Anne was no doubt delighted. Beds were often a man's most valuable
possessions. and the great playwright's bed was probably richly carved and
curtained with costly fabrics. But she might have preferred his first-best bed!

A Tudor bed required regular attention. The base of the bed was held together by
stretched cords, which were tightened with a special lever called a "twitch". "Bed
staffs" were another essential tool. These were stuck in holes down the sides of the
bed. They prevented the thick feather mattresses flopping over the edge and the
occupants rolling out.

When people in Tudor times stayed at inns or HOSTELS, they were expected to
share their beds with complete strangers. If a richer person turned up, a poor
traveller was thrown out of bed to make space. As Shakespeare wrote in The

Tempest:"Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows."

Tudor bed
Stuart times Bed Samuel Pepys wrote in his famous diary that he hated sleeping in
beds without curtains. He called them "naked beds". But in living rooms, "day beds"
without curtains were fashionable. These were couches where people could rest
during the day. When travelling, Pepys sometimes had to spend the night on a
"naked " daybed while his wife and her maid shared the proper bed.

Georgians Bed In the time of James I (1603-25), rich families copied the French
fashion for "covered beds", which were completely surrounded by drapes. The
curtains, roof and quilt were often all covered in the same fabric. King Louis XIV of
France had 413 beds, some of them embroidered with pearls and gold.

In the 1750s, elaborately carved woodwork replaced the old covered bed. Designers
like Thomas Chippendale published books of exotic patterns for furniture-makers to

copy. But in the 1780s, designs became simpler and Chippendale's beds started to

look old-fashioned.

Georgian bed

Victorians beds were sometimes so high off the ground that special bed steps were
needed to climb into them Queen Victoria's bed at the Brighton Pavilion had seven
mattress! In bed, ladies wore bonnets and long nightdresses. Men wore nightshirts
until pyjamas were invented in the 1890s.

The Victorians could sleep in comfort after the 1820s, when mattresses were first
fitted with coiled springs. Metal bedsteads became popular, and the best beds were
made from brass. Servants had to spend hours polishing them, but they looked
beautiful. Metal beds were also healthier than wooden ones, as they attracted fewer
bedbugs.

Many sorts of portable beds were now available. Travellers carried hammocks or
camp beds. The Duke of Wellington slept in his camp bed even when he was at
home. The first sleeping carriages were introduced on overnight trains from London
to Scotland in 1873, forty years after they became available in The USA

Victorian bed