Europe? What would I know about that?

Ok, who is more likely to know about European history; someone who lives in Europe - England in this case - or someone who's never been and only "read about it in books".

Every school child in England is put through a rigorous run-down of European history from an early age. I'm not complaining, it's just a comment. A fact, if you will. Whether or not those students remember what they learn is another matter, but in this case I do. Kind of helpful for a history major. English, from Roman occupation until now, French, revolution, Napoleonic and 20th Century, German, Pre-formation as the HRE and post-union, Russian, Medieval and from 1850 onwards. Europe as a continent, from roughly 900 AD until modern day on and off.

So I know about European history. No bravado, no false confidence. It's kind of my thing. So when my tutor - who doesn't really teach since she's always asking us questions in class rather than the other way around - made the statement that medieval upper class people had their servants sleep above them I was understandably a bit confused.

Look at it like this; you own land, you own people, you might own your own little fighting force as well. You have a title. You might even be related to your country's royal family. And you let your servants sleep above you. Really?

This is where the phrase "below stairs" came from. I've been round those old houses, courtesy of my parents' fascination with history, and I've physically seen, with my own eyes, where the servants slept. And unless I was temporarily in one of those paintings where the stairs lead in every direction except the one you thought they did, they were not above the owner's rooms.

Castles. Palaces. Manor houses. You build them as a display of opulence. Of how amazing you are. To show off. Can you imagine the King or Queen of England sleeping below their servants in Buckingham Palace? Or the ruler of the Taj Mahal not occupying the master chamber at the height of his empire's crown jewel? Or the Russian Tzar not sleeping in the royal bedroom, the highest in the building, when he stayed at the Winter Palace?

Admittedly I probably shouldn't have expected much from my tutor after her admission that she had only ever read about Europe. Or, even before that, from someone who 'teaches' a course called Nature & the Environment. That'll teach me to pick modules drunk...