What Is: A Reeve

 Among the group of travelers in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is someone known only as the Reeve.  Unlike some of the other pilgrims, his name is never given.  All we know about him is that he's an older, irascible gentleman, a former carpenter, who's not at all amused by the Miller's tale featuring a stupid, old carpenter.

So, what's a reeve?

English kings and nobles in Saxon, Norman and Plantagenet times had a number of officials to assist them in managing their realms and extensive estates.  In Anglo-Saxon times, a reeve would have been a high official, second only to the earl or lord of a manor, and possibly of a good family himself.  He was a combination administrator, steward and magistrate, with wide-ranging powers.  Depending on what he was appointed to oversee, there were high-reeves, town reeves, port reeves, and shire-reeves, the forerunners of today's sheriffs.  However, by the time the Plantagenets took over in England, a reeve had slid further down the social scale.  Rather than being an official with wide-ranging powers, second only to a titled nobleman or lord of a manor, he was now an assistant to the bailiff or steward who had taken over that position.  Often, a reeve was merely an overseer of a large estate.  Generally, he was a peasant who rented his land from the lord, and supervised the other peasants.  Sometimes, he was elected to his post by the peasants on the manor, or appointed by the lord or bailiff.  Because manorial courts did more than just settle disputes and punish offenders, a reeve was often the executive arm of the court, enforcing decisions about which fields were planted when, who owed what, and who was entitled to compensation for something else.

Just knowing these few details helps us to know a bit more about Chaucer's reeve, and others in a similar social position.  Today the word peasant conjures up images of a downtrodden country yokel, filthy, ignorant and poverty-ridden.  However, some peasants could be quite prosperous, working several different portions of land on their lord's estate and able to make a comfortable living for themselves and their families.  Some were skilled tradesman, such as a carpenter, and supplemented their living and social standing through this trade.  A prosperous and hard-working farmer, wise in the ways of the world, who was also a talented carpenter, would have been trusted by his fellow villagers and his lord.  He would've been an obvious choice for a reeve, both because of his keen administrative and business sense, but also because he would have had a few people skills.  He would've been the type to not suffer fools gladly, and not be taken as a fool simply because of his lowly standing in life.  And, for many a common person, the only bucket-list trip they would ever have in their life would be a pilgrimage to a local shrine, or maybe even a shrine on the Continent if they were very thrifty and quite lucky.  They wouldn't want their vacation spoiled by a snarky fellow traveler trying to make a point.