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Court Jesters and the Twenty-Three Fellows, the King's Minstrels

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Although by the fourteenth century, minstrels had passed the time of it's greatest glory, which had been the period of the troubadours, the courts of kings and nobles were still the center of activities for the better class of musicians and entertainers.

While the lower orders of the profession roamed the highways, picking up a living where ever they could, their more skillful brethren usually attached to the households of the wealthy and powerful, where they not only received superior compensation, but frequently were able to practice their art on a higher plane than could the wanderers on the road. This was often due to their superior ability as to the more cultivated tastes of their audiences.

Minstrels at the Court of King Edward III.

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 to the numbers, names, compensation and activities have survived which enable us to visualize certain aspects of their life and work.

In addition to scattered references mentioning some one or two of Edward III's minstrels in connection with specific occasions, we have records from three periods in his reign which give some indication as to the number of minstrels he supported at his court at those times.

The first is from the years 1344 to 1347, when shown by the counts of Walter Wentwage, the treasure of the kings household, he had nineteen minstrels, including three waits. The second is in connection to the Feast of the Order of the Garter which was held at Windsor in 1358. Among the expenses were L16, paid “to Haukin FitzLibbin and his twenty-three fellows, the King's Minstrels, for their good services, at Windsor." This is probably the entire group of Edward III's Minstrels, for they would doubtless all be present at so splendid an affair.

The third reference is to the forty-fourth year of Edward III's reign, during which we find entries in the Issue Roll of Thomas de Brantingham of payments on a regular scale to twelve men, each of whom is designated as “The King's Minstrels." Whether these men constitute his entire band we have no way of knowing. But whatever the exact number, these figures show that he evidently had a larger group than did his predecessor, for in Edward II's Household and Wardrobe Ordinances for 1323 we read that:

“There shallbe ij trompeters and two other minstrels and sometimes more and sometime lesse, who shal play before the kinge when [it shall] please him."

As was customary in the fourteenth century, the minstrels of the household of Edward III were under the supervision of a so-called “king of the minstrels," who regulated their activities and was responsible for their good behavior. In the thirty-third year of Edward's reign, this official was William Volaunt, a herald, who acted as king both of herald's and of the minstrels.

In only one enumerations of Edward III's minstrels are we told of the instruments played by the entire group. The nineteen men that comprised the band in the years 1344 to 1347 consisted of five trumpeters, five pipers, two clarioners, one taborer, one nakerer, one citoler, one “fideler," and three waits. As waits usually played shamws, this group of minstrels employed instruments representing all the fundamental types as we classify them: brass, wood wind, reed, plucked string, bowed string and percussion.

Unfortunately, neither the musical nor the literary remains of the fourteenth century tell us what type of ensemble music was then played. Although a comparison of manuscript illuminations and instrumental “list" of the period suggests the existence of a fairly well developed ensemble performance.

We have no indication of the instruments played by “Haukin FitzLibbin and his twenty-three fellows, The King's Minstrels," at the Feast of the Order of the Garter in 1358, and in the case of the twelve minstrels listed by name at the forty-fourth of Edward III's reign, we can only surmise that Arnold le Pyper, Lambekin Taborer and Nicholas Trompour played the instruments their names seem to indicate, for during the fourteenth century, surnames were tending to become fixed, rather than indicative of the owner's occupation. For example, in the eight year of his reign, Edward granted permission to his two bagpipers, Barbor and Molan, to visit the minstrels schools on the Continent.

The names of eighteen of King Edward III's minstrels have come down to us. They illustrate all types of names borne by English minstrels in the fourteen century, which can be divided into two classes, those which indicated the owners occupation and those that did not.

In the former group belong, Arnold le Pyper, Lambekin Taborer, and Nicholas Trompour. Much more common are names that give no indication of their owners occupation. These can be devided into three groups. Names such as John de Hampton, John de Middelton, John de Bukyngham, Nicholas de Prage, Haulo de Bohem and Richard de Baath, seems to indicate the local these men or their ancestry came.

The surnames of others of Edward's minstrels gave no such indication. Typical of these are John Prat, John Absolon, Nicholas Hanneye, Richard Markham, Johan Deuenys, Haukin FitzLibbin, and Roger Trumpony. Two of Edward's minstrels, Barbor and Molan were listed without surnames, though they may have had them.

We know that minstrels regularly performed at ordinary meals in such a court as Edward III, and often played for individual members of the household, who frequently had their own personal musicians. Jenettus le Sautreour, who was the minstrel of Isabella, the King's mother as example.

Court Jesters


The tradition of the court jester, a man who would amuse courtiers and monarchs with his antics and jokes, is ancient. Most people associate jesters with medieval and Renaissance Europe, but in the fact the practice of retaining a jester or fool goes back beyond the birth of Christ.

In the modern era, jesters can still be found, although the official position of a royal jester at court is not often filled. Many fans of medieval history like to dress up as jesters, celebrating a rich and complex tradition. The court jester can also be seen symbolically in many places, including decks of cards, where he is known as the joker.

The classic uniform of a court jester includes a tri-pointed floppy hat with bells, and brightly colored uniquely patterned clothing. Many garments in the medieval age were actually quite bright and even garish by modern standards, but the court jester would have stood out, thanks to the distinctive hat and ringing of bells which accompanied every movement. Some jesters were also gifted with jewelry, beautiful clothing, and other presents in thanks for their services, and they undoubtedly would have worn their gifts to demonstrate their favor.

The position of the court jester was actually very complicated. On the surface, a jester might be taken as a mere buffoon, but he also had to walk a fine line in the court, as he had no official place in the ranks of the court. This allowed court jesters to be more free with their opinions, since their words could be considered jokes, but they had to be careful about overstepping their boundaries, as a court jester who went too far could be punished by the monarch.

In some cases, people who were disabled took up a position as court jester. The mentally disabled might find a place in medieval society by capering and frolicking at court, thereby relieving their families of a significant burden. Other court jesters were trained musicians, actors, or artists, and some of them even became trusted and valued confidants in the court.

Many court jesters were extremely intelligent and sensitive to the political and social trends of their eras. Their skilled entertainments might have included clever or subtle gibes at the enemies of the king, along with commentary on general problems in society. A court jester could also purely entertain, of course, with acrobatics, music, silly songs, and many jesters or buffoons did just that during periods of uncertainty and fear.

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