Spices, Where They Came From and James 1’s St Mary’s Guildhall Feast

Written by Chris Harris

At St Mary’s Guildhall, we have new game stations in the Medieval Kitchen and Great Hall, with two interactive games installed ready to play. The first game is based on the renowned Coventry Tapestry, which you can find hanging in the Great Hall in the Guildhall. The second game is designed around a mission to seek out and obtain certain spices, needed to flavour dishes at a feast for James I at St Mary’s Guildhall. Playing
the game will help you understand what spices were used in the kitchen in Medieval and Post Medieval times – and where in the world they came from. Find out more about the significance and history of spices below.

A Brief History of the Spice Trade
By the time of James I’s visit to Coventry in September 1617 and the feast in his honour at St Mary’s Guildhall, the Dutch East India Company was the key player in the lucrative Spice Trade with the Far East (especially the ‘Spice Islands’ of eastern Indonesia – the Moluccas Islands). Some competition came from the ‘challenger’
English East India Company.
The Dutch came to hold a monopoly on the Far East Spice Trade for almost 200 years; the English (later British) East India Company halted its interest later in James’ reign and started to focus on other Asian trade opportunities, most notably in India.
Before the Dutch and English vied for control of the early 17 th century Spice Trade, the quest to obtain direct access to the riches generated by the acquisition and selling of spices was a key factor in the European Age of Exploration. Both the Greeks and Romans had traded herbs and spices hundreds of years previously. Before this the use of various herbs and spices was recorded in Egypt as far back as c. 1500 B.C., while the trade and use of spices was also known in Ancient India and Ancient China.

Earlier in the Middle Ages new overland trade routes were opened as a consequence of Crusaders returning from the Holy Land and the Spice Trade with Europe flourished again. The Italian cities of Venice and Genoa grew rich as they capitalised on the new trade, as the hub to the rest of Europe to the west. In addition, spices had entered European markets via the Silk Routes from China to Eurasia. However, although the money to be made from spices was considerable and demand for spices was rising, the costs associated with bringing spices to Europe using the overland routes were high. As early as 1270 Marco Polo set out from Venice to find a new route to the Far East. He eventually returned from China 25 years later with many stories and new and exotic spices.
But the key breakthrough in establishing a sea route to the East was made by the Portuguese explorers of the late 15th Century. Bartholomeu Dias in 1488 was the first to sail around the Cape of Good Hope, at the southern tip of Africa. Dias was followed around the Cape by Vasco De Gama (1497-1499). De Gama then continued across the Indian Ocean to reach the Malabar Coast of southern India, itself rich with spices such as black pepper, cardamom and cloves. From there European ships in later years could sail further east to the Spice Islands and elsewhere in South East Asia.

Two ships from the fleet of Ferdinand Magellan reached the Moluccas towards the end of its west to east circumnavigation of the world, in late 1521. Magellan had been killed earlier that year in the Philippines; it was one of those ships, the ‘Victoria’, under Juan Sebasian Elcano, that eventually limped back to Spain in September 1522, laden with valuable spices. The ‘Victoria’ was the sole ship to complete the circumnavigation that had begun 3 years earlier.

The Portuguese dominated the Spice Trade through the maritime route from Europe and through establishment of a significant local presence for much of the 16th Century, although other European nations were aware of the financial opportunity associated with spices. For example, Francis Drake stopped off at the Spice Islands on his circumnavigation of the world (1577-1580) to take on a cargo of cloves. It was the Dutch, though, who were the first to challenge the Portuguese dominance towards the turn of the century, leading to the foundation of the Dutch East India Company in 1602.

Spices in Coventry
Coventry had a range of markets in the Middle Ages, with different streets hosting different types of market each day. This led to several streets in Coventry becoming known by the type of goods that the street specialised in (e.g. Butcher Row, Ironmonger Row). Only a few hundred yards away from St Mary’s Guildhall was a short passageway/small square that linked Broadgate through past Holy Trinity Church (now the Trinity Lane/start of Trinity Churchyard area). This was then known as Spicerstoke and was where it was thought the range of spices available in Coventry (brought from the ports of England) were sold – hence the name. It was close to Butcher Row and the broader grocers’ quarter.

The Allure of Spices
In the Middle Ages and early Modern Era spices were valued both for the flavour that they gave to food, but also for their rarity. They became a status symbol at the tables of the wealthy, with extensive use in the banquets and feasts of Tudor England preceding James’ reign. Food, especially through those elaborate feasts, served as a visible demonstration of wealth and influence. Dishes seasoned with exotic, rare and expensive spices showed both economic might and connections to other, distant countries. Amongst spices used in cooking in England and across Europe were pepper, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, saffron, anise, cardamom and cumin. Generally, the poor could not afford expensive spices from overseas, but pepper, in particular, was used extensively by the less wealthy when they could obtain it.

Spices were not just used to flavour food and for the display of wealth and status that their culinary uses embodied. They also had medicinal properties, either to treat specific ailments or, to provide balance to food in the humoral theory of medicine that was prevalent in the Middle Ages. Spices might also be burned like incense for their perfume, scattered on floors or applied directly to the skin for medicinal purposes.

Possible Uses of Spices at James 1’s St Mary’s Guildhall Feast
A feast fit for royalty like James would have featured a number of courses, with the food becoming richer and more exotic as the feast progressed, finishing with a course or courses dedicated to sweets and deserts. Music or entertainment would have provided an interlude between courses. The use of spices had developed in the later Tudor period to create more complex and layered flavours, so that sweet, savoury and aromatic spices might all be combined in dishes.

Common uses of spices at the time were:
Pepper – intense, spicy and pungent, most often used spice in savoury dishes
Cinnamon – used in both sweet and savoury dishes; sweet, warm and aromatic
Ginger – add warmth and fragrance to bread, sweets and meat dishes
Saffron – as today, very expensive by weight; distinct, golden colour and delicate aroma, used to colour and flavour savoury dishes, custards, bread and pastries
Nutmeg – warm, slightly sweet flavour; used in pies, meat dishes and puddings
Cloves – strong flavour, slightly sweet; used to spice meat, but also with fruit, in custards and in mulled wine.

For more detail on James 1’s visit to Coventry/feast at St Mary’s Guildhall, see: Politics of feasting in 17th Century Coventry | St Mary's Guildhall

If you haven’t been to St. Mary’s Guildhall before or recently, why not pay us a visit to view all that our special building has to offer and to test your digital game skills on our Spice Trade (or Coventry Tapestry) game?

Sources
‘The Spice Trade and the Age of Exploration’ (World History Encyclopaedia), Mark Cartwright June 2021
‘A History of the World’ Part Five the World Blows Open, Andrew Marr 2012
‘Dutch East India Company’ (World History Encyclopaedia), Kim Martins October 2023
‘Ferdinand Magellan’ (World History Encyclopaedia), Mark Cartwright June 2021
‘A brief history of spices’ (Seasoning and Spice Association)
‘Coventry: A Hidden History’ Chapter 10 Trade and industry, Iain Soden 2005
‘Streets and Roads – Spicerstoke and Trinity Row’ Historic Coventry Forum, Historic Coventry website (Rob Orland 2002 – 2025)
‘Elizabethan Spices: Unveiling the Rich Truth Behind Their Use’ (Flavor 365), Silas August 2025
‘How Elizabethan England’s Food Was Forever Transformed’ (Flavor 365) Silas August 2025
‘Spices in the Middle Ages’ (eat!history) Manon Henzon July 2020