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The Minstrels of the English Royal Households, 25 Edward I—1 Henry VIII: An Inventory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Richard Rastall
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Extract

The following list is an attempt to show in the most useful form what minstrels are known to me to have been in regular employment in the English Court between about 1297 and the coronation of Henry VIII in 1509. In addition, I have included a few references earlier than 25 Edward I.

Type
Research Article
Information
R.M.A. Research Chronicle , Volume 4 , 1964 , pp. 1 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Musical Association, 1964

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References

1. King of Minstrels and of Heralds: described in 29 Ed I as ‘taborer’ and ‘king's trumpeter'.Google Scholar

2. King of the Heralds of Scotland.Google Scholar

3. An apprentice ?Google Scholar

4. Doncaster and Crakestreng were the trumpeters of Earl Warrenne.Google Scholar

5. Not the Conrad above: these three gigatores were minstrels of the King of Germany.Google Scholar

6. The trumpeter ? See also the next reign.Google Scholar

7. There is not enough material to attempt to identify John or Januche with either Master John or John de Cateloyne.Google Scholar

8. Described as nakerer in 31 Ed I.Google Scholar

9. Paid for minstrelsy in this year.Google Scholar

10. There are several problems concerning these four trumpeters. As they do not appear on a list all together, it is possible that the two Johns are in fact one person. Also, the names are those of the four trumpeters listed under the king's household for this date.Google Scholar

11. On this date Stephen de Northampton left the service of Thomas and Edmund because of infirmity.Google Scholar

12. On this date William de Salisbury left the service of Thomas and Edmund.Google Scholar

1. Elias de Garsynton seems to have left the king's service for a time after Edward I's death: he was admitted to the king's wages in January, 5 Ed II.Google Scholar

2. Probably an apprentice.Google Scholar

3. Possibly the piper who appears in the next reign: this is the only reference temp Ed. II.Google Scholar

4. Perhaps an apprentice.Google Scholar

5. Also called William and Robert in error.Google Scholar

6. Perhaps identifiable with the queen's minstrel of the same name in Ed. III's reign.Google Scholar

7. As n.6, above.Google Scholar

1. Marshal of the Minstrels, 37–38 Ed. in.Google Scholar

2. Perhaps John Perrot, cornemuser: see n.4, below.Google Scholar

3. Perhaps the player of a bass shawm: see Frank Ll. Harrison, Music in Medieval Britain, London, 1958, p. 206; and the New Oxford History of Music, III, London, 1960, p.494, on bagpipes. I have found other household fools playing a pipe instrument of some sort.Google Scholar

4. Probably Perrot, piper. Possibly also the man of that name who made the eschequier taken by him as a gift to the King of France from Edward III in 1360: see L. Douet-D'arcq, Comptes de L'Argenterie des Rois de France au XIVe siècle, Paris, 1851, p. 273Google Scholar

5. Formerly minstrel of the Bishop of Ely.Google Scholar

6. Described as ‘parvus ministrallus Regis': he was probably an apprentice.Google Scholar

7. Perhaps a former minstrel of the Bishop of Ely.Google Scholar

6. See the last reign, nn. 6 and 7.Google Scholar

7. As n. 6, above: the various psaltery-players of this reign named John may not all be the same man.Google Scholar

8. See n. 4, above, for another possible identification.Google Scholar

9. Perhaps to be identified with John de Mees, who may have been a piper. The name could be ‘Cornmusere'.Google Scholar

10. In 1352 the prince employed four pipers sent to him by the Count of Eu: Hans and Soz are probably two of these.Google Scholar

11. Also Willyn, Zeulyn or Yevelyn.Google Scholar

1. For the last ten years of the reign the future Henry V lived at Court, and for the last five his father was an exile. During this period many Lancaster servants joined the service of the king, minstrels among them. Those known to be former Lancaster minstrels are: William de Bingley, William de York, Claux nakerer; those of the next reign are footnoted there. See Smith, LucyToulmin, ed., Expeditions to Prussia …. . made by Henry, Earl of Derby, in Camden Society, London, 1894.Google Scholar

2. Marshal in E101/403/25.Google Scholar

3. Momford appears in the Account Rolls of Durham Priory, ed. J.T. Fowler, Surtees Society, 103, 1898, 3 vols.Google Scholar

4. E101/403/22, f. 29, contains an entry recording a gift to Gildeford on leaving Court, apparently for good (16–17 Ric. II).Google Scholar

5. See the next reign.Google Scholar

1. Perhaps the John Brothir who was a trumpeter of the Lancaster household.Google Scholar

2. Melton, like Guy Middleton, was probably a vigilator: for Middleton, see under the next reign.Google Scholar

3. Formerly of the Lancaster household.Google Scholar

1. John Cliff II was probably dead by the end of the reign, and almost certainly by 1423, as he does not appear in the grant in the Patent Rolls of that year.Google Scholar

2. i. e., a player of a bas instrument.Google Scholar

1. Sergeant, 1447.Google Scholar

2. Probably dead by September, 1451.Google Scholar

3. Marshal in 1448: dead by May, 1449.Google Scholar

4. Probably dead by March, 1456.Google Scholar

5. As n.4.Google Scholar

6. Called John Wykes in error, 30–31 Hen. VI.Google Scholar

7. King's minstrel from Michaelmas, 1458.Google Scholar

1. Marshal of the Trumpets, 1467.Google Scholar

2. Marshal of the Minstrels, 19 January, 1464.Google Scholar

3. Marshal of the Minstrels, 1477: dead by 24 July, 1482.Google Scholar

4. Formerly minstrel of Richard, Duke of York, the king's father, and so probably a king's minstrel from Edward's accession: dead by 4 April, 1465.Google Scholar

5. i.e., gestour. In 1477 Mason was granted the reversion of the office of Marshal of the Still Minstrels: presumably he became Marshal on John Cliff's death in 1482. See the next reign, n. 3.Google Scholar

6. Possibly a trumpeter: I have put him with the minstrels until the reign of Hen. VII.Google Scholar

7. King's minstrel from Easter, 16 Ed. IV.Google Scholar

8. Formerly minstrel of George, Duke of Clarence. Clarence was executed in 1478.Google Scholar

1. Marshal of the Minstrels in the list of minstrels at the coronation, 1483.Google Scholar

2. William Elyston in the coronation list as published by Lafontaine.Google Scholar

3. Mason appears in the coronation list as Saunder Marshall.Google Scholar

4. Perhaps the harper of Prince Edward (i. e., Edward V): see the last reign.Google Scholar

5. The list of taborers and trumpeters at the coronation does not seem to include any minstrel who was a king's minstrel at the time: and some of those listed above under minstrels may not have been royal minstrels then. But as some of them later appear as household minstrels in the reign of Henry VII, the whole list is given here.Google Scholar

1. Probably Marshal of the Trumpets by 1487–8: see Giles E. Dawson, Records of Plays and Players in Kent, 1450–1642, in Malone Society Collections, VII, Oxford, 1965, p.5.Google Scholar

2. As Glasebury became Marshal of the Minstrels by Easter, 1495, Mason was probably dead at that date.Google Scholar

3. Perhaps Jaket, trumpeter.Google Scholar

4. Marshal of the Minstrels at Easter, 1495.Google Scholar

5. Perhaps Bountas, cornettist of the Queen of Scots.Google Scholar

6. Lorydon, Markassen and Anows were transferred to the king's household after the death of Queen Elizabeth.Google Scholar

7. Marshal of the Minstrels in 1509.Google Scholar

8. Perhaps one of the two minstrels named Arnold listed with the king's household, above.Google Scholar

9. Princess Margaret married James IV of Scotland in 1503, and after that date her minstrels became part of the Scottish royal household. Continuing service is indicated here by LHTScot, which refers to vol. II (1900) of the Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, ed. Sir J. B. Paul.Google Scholar

10. Seen. 5, above.Google Scholar