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The Minstrels at the Court of Edward III
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
Although by the fourteenth century, minstrelsy had passed the time of its greatest glory, which had been the period of the troubadours, the courts of kings and nobles were still the centers of activity for the better class of musicians and entertainers. While the lower orders of the profession roamed the highways, picking up a living wherever and however they could, their more skilful brethren were usually attached to the households of the wealthy and powerful, where they not only received superior compensation, but frequently were able to practise their art on a higher plane than could the wanderers of the road. This was often due as much to their superior ability as to the more cultivated taste of their audiences. Edward III of England, as one of the greatest monarchs of the fourteenth century, and perhaps partly because of the influence of Queen Philippa, maintained a group of minstrels appropriate to the splendor of his court. Though we have no complete record of the personnel of his band of musicians during the half century of his reign, some facts as to their number, names, compensation, and activities have survived which enable us to visualize certain aspects of their life and work.
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References
1 Great Britain, Exchequer, Issue Roll of Thomas de Brantingham, Bishop of Exeter, Lord High Treasurer of England; Containing Payments Made out of His Majesty's Revenue in the 44th Year of King Edward III. A.D. 1370. Translated from the Original Roll Now Remaining in the Ancient Pell Office, trans. Frederick Devon (London: John Rodwell, 1835), i, 55; iii, 54 and 296; Joseph Strutt, The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England from the Earliest Period, Including the Rural and Domestic Recreations, May Games, Mummeries, Pageants, Processions, and Pompous Spectacles, Illustrated by Reproductions from Ancient Paintings in Which Are Represented Most of the Popular Diversions, ed. J. Charles Cox, (London: Methuen and Company, 1903), p. 164.
2 Society of Antiquaries of London, A Collection of Ordinances and Regulations for the Government of the Royal Household, Made in Divers Reigns. From King Edward III to King William and Queen Mary (London: Printed for the Society of Antiquaries by J. Nichols, 1790), pp. 3–4.
Among the expenses of providing robes for members of the court for the Feast of the Round Table held at Windsor in 1345, is an entry for “sixteen tunics, with as many hoods, for the King's minstrels, by the King's command.” Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas, “Observations on the Institution of the Most Noble Order of the Garter. Addressed to Hudson Gurney, Esq., F.R.S., Vice-President; Illustrated by the Accounts of the Great Wardrobe of King Edward the Third, from the 29th of September 1344 to the 1st of August 1345; and Again from the 21st of December 1345 to the 31st of January 1349,” Archaeologia, or Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, xxxi (1846), 109. These sixteen probably do not include the three waits.
3 Ibid., pp. 138–139.
4 Op. cit., i, 54–57, 296–298, 301, 447, and 453–454. In the same year we have a record of a regular salary granted by the king to another minstrel, who is not, however, specifically called “the king's minstrel.” Ibid., p. 297.
5 Frederick J. Furnivall, ed., Life Records of Chaucer, Chaucer Society. Publications, ii Series, xii, xiv, xxi, xxxii (London: K. Paul, Trench, Trübner and Co., 1900), xiv, 46.
6 Great Britain, Exchequer. Issues of the Exchequer; Being a Collection of Payments Made out of His Majesty's Revenue, from King Henry III to King Henry VI Inclusive, with an Appendix. Extracted and Translated from the Original Rolls of the Ancient Pell Office ... by Frederick Devon, Pell Records, iii (London: John Murray, 1837), p. 171.—This man was one of the heralds sent in the previous year to the continent to proclaim the tournament to be held at the feast of St. George. Ibid., p. 169. At that time he was apparently king neither of heralds nor of minstrels. As the two groups were closely associated in their work, one man frequently acted in both capacities.
7 See p. 2, supra.
8 See p. 2, supra.
9 Great Britain. Exchequer, Issue Roll of Thomas de Brantingham, i, 54.
10 Ibid., pp. 54–55.
11 Ibid., pp. 453–454.
12 For a discussion of the various types of surnames in use during the fourteenth century, see Gustav Fransson, Middle English Surnames of Occupation, 1100–1350, with an Excursus on Toponymical Surnames, Lund Studies in English III (Lund: C. W. K. Gleerup, 1935), pp. 20–30.
13 Strutt, op. cit., p. 164.
14 See p. 4, supra.
15 Great Britain, Exchequer, Issue Roll of Thomas de Brantingham, i, 55 and 297.
16 Ibid., pp. 56 and 301.
17 Ibid., pp. 56–57.
18 Ibid., p. 447.
19 Ibid., p. 489.
20 Ibid., pp. 55 and 297.
21 Ibid., pp. 55–56 and 298.
22 Ibid., pp. 56 and 298.
23 Ibid., pp. 57 and 297.
24 Furnivall, op. cit., xiv, 167.
25 Ibid.
26 Great Britain. Exchequer. Issue Roll of Thomas de Brantingham, i, 55 and 297.
27 William Sandys, Christmastide, Its History, Festivities, and Carols (London: John Russell Smith, n.d.), p. 42.
28 See supra.
29 See, for example, Léon, E. S. J., Marquis de Laborde, Les Ducs de Bourgogne (Paris: Plon Frères, 1849–1852), iii, 80 and 95–96; cf. Fransson, op. cit., p. 21.
30 Nicolas, op. cit., pp. 138–139.
The “divers minstrels” who received £100 “of the King's gift” at the time of the marriage of his daughter, the Lady de Courcy, at Windsor, on November 6, 1367, were probably not his own personal band. Great Britain. Exchequer, Issues of the Exchequer, p. 188. See also ibid., pp. xxxix and 175.
31 Nicolas, op. cit., pp. 138–139.
32 P. 171.
33 Henry T. Riley, ed., Memorials of London and London Life in the XIIIth, XIVth, and XVth Centuries, Being a Series of Extracts, Local, Social, and Political, from the Early Archives of the City of London. A.D. 1276–1419, (London: Longmans, Green, and Company, 1868), p. 190. See also p. 198.
34 Nicolas, op. cit., p. 109.
35 Ibid., p. 113.
36 Furnivall, op. cit., xxxii, 167.
37 Great Britain. Exchequer, Issues of the Exchequer, p. 207.
38 Strutt, op. cit., p. 164.
39 Furnivall, op. cit., xiv, 46.
40 Society of Antiquaries of London, op. cit., pp. 4–9.
41 Ibid., pp. 9–11.
41a See Great Britain, Public Record Office, Calendar of the Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office, Prepared under the Superintendence of the Deputy Keeper of the Records (London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1914–1916), Edward III, xv, 425, 486, 488, Edward III, xvi, 330.
41b See ibid., Richard II, i, 179.
42 Great Britain. Exchequer, Issue Roll of Thomas de Brantingham, i, 54–57, 447, 453–454.
At least one of these minstrels had another grant, for under date of March 8, 1378, we find a confirmation “in favour of Lambekin Taborer, the late king's minstrel, of letters patent, dated 20 July, 34 Edward III” of a grant to him of 100 s. yearly at the Exchequer. Great Britain, Public Record Office, Calendar of the Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office, Prepared under the Superintendence of the Deputy Keeper of the Records (London: H. M. Stationery Office, 1895), Richard II, i, 144.
43 Great Britain. Exchequer, Issue Roll of Thomas de Brantingham, p. 489.
44 Ibid., p. 55. This is doubtless the same man as the Haukin FitzLibbin who, with “his twenty-three fellows, the King's Minstrels,” received £16 for their services at the Feast of the Order of the Garter at Windsor in 1358. See p. 604, supra. Either his 60 s. per year had not been granted at this time, or else he received additional compensation for special duties.
45 Ibid., p. 54.
46 Ibid., pp. 54–57 and 296–298.
47 Ibid., p. 57.
48 Ibid., pp. 301, 447, 453–454, and 489.
49 See, for example, Edmund K. Chambers, The Mediaeval Stage (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1903), i, 65–66.—Helen F. Rubel has shown that the unqualified condemnation which, for a long period, the church had visited upon minstrels began to give way early in the thirteenth century to a more discriminating attitude which recognized the value of minstrelsy as an innocent recreation if the performance was not vulgar. This change is first seen in the Penitential which Miss Rubel believes Thomas Chabham, subdean of Salisbury, wrote early in the thirteenth century. This work was formerly attributed to Thomas Cobham, Bishop of Worcester, and was therefore dated a century later. Helen F. Rubel, “Chabham's Penitential and Its Influence in the Thirteenth Century,” PMLA, xl (1925), 225–239.
In the fourteenth century we find a good many records of minstrels performing for members of the clergy. This patronage took two forms: members of the clergy not only entertained and listened to wandering minstrels, but some churchmen even kept minstrels as members of their households, just as did kings and prominent nobles. Piers Plowman says specifically: “Clerkus and knyзtes welcometh kynges mynstrales.” See William Langland, The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman, in Three Parallel Texts, together with Richard the Redeless. Edited from Numerous Manuscripts with Preface, Notes, and Glossary by W. W. Skeat, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886), C Text, Passus viii, 1. 97. See also Chambers, op. cit., i, 46–47, and Edward Lewes Cutts, Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages (London: Virtue and Company, 1872), pp. 288–293. In 1374 the convent of St. Swithin at Winchester, at a dinner celebrating the anniversary of Alwyne the Bishop, had six minstrels accompanied by four harpers who performed both at dinner in the great hall of the convent, and later in the prior's chamber. Some of the performers belonged to the royal household at Winchester, and some to the Bishop of Winchester. See Cutts, op. cit., pp. 289–290. We know that in 1355 the Bishop of Durham, and in 1362 the Bishop of Norwich kept minstrels, and that Richard Swinfield, Bishop of Hereford, frequently rewarded minstrels as he made his episcopal rounds. See Chambers, op. cit., i, 55–56; Johannes de Kemeseye, A Roll of the Household Expenses of Richard de Swinfield, Bishop of Hereford, during Pari of the Years 1289 and 1290. Edited by John Webb. Camden Society, Publications, lix–lxii (London: Camden Society, 1854–1855), i, 152–155. The Hosteller's Accounts of Durham Priory for 1361–1362 record a payment made to a man for playing on a lute and to his wife for singing before the monks when they were enjoying recreation at their manor of Beaurepair. See Chambers, op. cit., ii, 240. Apparently the Bishop of Durham had at least two harpers in 1306, for in that year the records of the payments made to minstrels who attended the great Westminster Feast given by Edward I show the following entries:
Le Harpeur Levesque de Duresme x. s.
Guillaume le Harpour qui est ove le Patriarke ij. marc.
The “Patriarke” was Anthony Bek, Bishop of Durham and titular Patriarch of Jerusalem. See Roxburghe Club, London, Manners and Household Expenses of England in the Thirteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, Roxburghe Club, London, Publications, No. lvii (London: The Roxburghe Club, 1841), pp. 140–145.
50 See p. 605, supra.
51 See p. 603, supra.
52 See p. 605, supra.
53 This is a logical combination, as the viols would carry the melody, while the gittern, being a plucked string instrument, would mark the rhythm.
54 Thomas Wright, ed., Political Poems and Songs Relating to English History, Composed during the Period from the Accession of Edward III to That of Richard III, Rerum Britannicarum Medii Aevi Scriptores; or, Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages, No. xiv (London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1859–1861), i, 4–5, ix, 15, 19–20, and 23.
55 Thomas Rymer, F oeder a, Conventiones, Lillerae, et Cujuscunque Generis Acta Publica, inter Reges Angliae et Alios Quosvis Imperatores, Reges, Pontifices, Principes, vel Communitates; ab Ingressu Gullielmi I. in Angliam, A.D. 1066. Ad Nostra usque Tempora Habita aut Tractata. Ex Autographis, infra Secretiores Archivorum Regiorum Thesaurarias, Asservatis; Aliisque Summae Vetustatis Instrumentis, ad Historiam Anglicanam Spectantibus, Fideliter Exscripta. Primum in Lucem Missa de Mandato Serenissimae Principis Annae Reginae; Cura et Studio Thomas Rymer, Historiographi, et Roberti Sanderson, Armig, Denuò aucta, et multis locis emendata, Jussu Serenissimi Regis Georgii Tertii. Accurantibus Johanne Caley, S.R.S. et S.A.S. et Fred. Holbrooke, S.A.S. (London: Record Commission, 1821), ii, Part 2, p. 738.
56 See p. 606, supra.
57 See, for example, Francis W. Galpin, Old English Instruments of Music, Their History and Character, 2d ed. (London: Methuen and Co., 1911), pp. 274–276; and cf. Bodleian Library, MS. Bodley 264, fols. 51 v., 152, and 158. Both Marius Schneider and Theodore Gérold, who are recent contributors to the musical scholarship of the period, use manuscript illuminations and carvings in wood and stone as evidence, and Schneider goes so far as to say that pictorial sources are almost our only way of knowing how instruments were played together. Marius Schneider, Die Ars Nova des XIV Jahrhunderts in Frankreich und Italien (Berlin: Georg Kallmeyer Verlag, 1931), pp. 26–28; Theodore Gérold, La Musique au Moyen Age, Les Classiques Français du Moyen Age (Paris: Librairie Ancienne Honoré Champion, 1932), p. 288.
58 Jean Froissart, Oeuvres de Froissart: Publiées avec les Variantes des Divers Manuscrits par M. le baron Kervyn de Lettenhove: Chroniques (Bruxelles: V. Devaux et Cie., 1867–1877), ii, 407–408; xi, 179; xii, 205; xiii, 238–239; xiv, 274; xv, 293 and 419; xvii, 518; Wright, op. cit., i, 60.
59 Galpin, op. cit., p. 244.
60 Wright, op. cit., i, 87. Cf. the following stanza from another of Minot's “Songs on the Wars of Edward III”:
King Edward unto sail was ful sune dight,
With erles and barons, and many kene knight;
Thai come byfor Blankebergh on Saint Jons night.
That was to the Normondes a well sary sight;
зit trumped thai and daunced, with torches ful bright,
In the wilde waniand was thaire hertes light.
Op. cit., i, 70.
61 Froissart, op. cit., v, 260–261. As no mention is made of any dancing, this is evidently an instance of the common mediaeval practice of using dance tunes as purely musical compositions for voices or instruments or both.
62 Great Britain. Exchequer, Issues of the Exchequer, iii, 175 and 188; Froissart, op. cit., i, part 1, p. 74; Riley, op. cit., pp. 188–189.
63 See p. 610, supra.
64 Great Britain. Public Record Office, Register of Edward, the Black Prince (London: H. M. Stationery Office, 1930–1933), iii, 317; iv, 71, 90, 101, 158, 161, 162, 163, 164, 167, 228, 251–252, 304, 326, 402, 475, and 486.