into Bretagne. Returning into England, after various conflicts, "Fulco resortid to one John of Raumpayne, a Sothsayer and Jocular and Minstrelle, and made hym his spy to Morice at Whitington." The privileges of this character we have already seen, and John so well availed himself of them, that in consequence of the intelligence which he doubtless procured, "Fulco and his brethrene laide waite for Morice, as he went toward Salesbyri, and Fulco ther woundid hym: and Bracy," a knight, who was their friend and assistant, "cut off Morice ['s] hedde." This Sir Bracy being in a subsequent rencounter sore wounded, was taken and brought to King John; from whose vengeance he was, however, rescued by this notable minstrel; for "John Rampayne founde the meanes to cast them, that kepte Bracy, into a deadely slepe; and so he and Bracy cam to Fulco to Whitington," which on the death of Morice had been restored to him by the Prince of Wales. As no further mention occurs of the minstrel, I might here conclude this narrative; but I shall just add, that Fulco was obliged to flee into France, where assuming the name of Sir Amice, he distinguished himself in justs and turnaments; and, after various romantic adventures by sea and land, having in the true style of chivalry rescued "certayne ladies owt of prison," he finally obtained the king's pardon, and the quiet possession of Whitington Castle. In the reign of King Henry III. we have mention of Master Ricard, the king's harper, to whom in his thirtysixth year (1252) that monarch gave not only forty shillings and a pipe of wine, but also a pipe of wine to Beatrice his wife.* The title of Magister, or Master, given to this "Et * Burney's Hist. ii. p. 355.-Rot. Pip. An. 36 H. III. in uno dolio vini empto & dato MAGISTRO RICARDO Citharistæ Regis, xl. sol. per br. Reg. Et in uno dolio empto & dato Beatrici uxori ejusdem Ricardi." minstrel, deserves notice, and shows his respectable situation. V. The Harper, or Minstrel, who was so necessary an attendant on a royal personage, that Prince Edward (afterwards King Edward I.) in his crusade to the Holy Land, in 1271, was not without his harper, who must have been officially very near his person; as we are told by a contemporary historian,* that, in the attempt to assassinate that heroic prince, when he had wrested the poisoned knife out of the Sarazen's hand, and killed him with his own weapon; the attendants, who had stood apart while he was whispering to their master, hearing the struggle, ran to his assistance, and one of them, to wit his harper, seizing a tripod, or trestle, struck the assassin on the head and beat out his brains.† And though the prince blamed him for striking the man after he was dead, yet his near access. shows the respectable situation of this officer; and his affectionate zeal should have induced Edward to entreat his brethren, the Welsh bards, afterwards with more lenity. Whatever was the extent of this great monarch's severity towards the professors of music and of song in Wales; whether the executing by martial law such of them as fell into his hands was only during the heat of conflict, or was Walter Hemmingford, (vixit temp. Edw. I.) in Chronic. cap. 35, inter V. Hist. Ang. Scriptores, vol. ii. Oxon. 1687. fol. pag. 591. "Accurrentes ad hæc Ministri ejus, qui a longe steterunt, invenerunt eum [scil. Nuntium] in terra mortuum, et apprehendit unus eorum tripodem, scilicet CITHAREDA SUUS, & percussit eum in capite, et effundit cerebrum ejus. Increpavitque eum Edwardus quod hominem mortuum percussisset." Ibid. These Ministri must have been upon a very confidential footing, as it appears above in the same chapter, that they had been made acquainted with the contents of the letters which the assassin had delivered to the prince from his master. continued afterwards with more systematic rigour ;* yet in his own court the minstrels appear to have been highly favoured; for when, in 1306, he conferred the order of knighthood on his son and many others of the young nobility, a multitude of minstrels were introduced to invite and induce the new knights to make some military vow, (x). And Under the succeeding reign of King Edward II. such extensive privileges were claimed by these men, and by dissolute persons assuming their character, that it became a matter of public grievance, and was obliged to be reformed by an express regulation in a. D. 1315, (y). Notwithstanding which, an incident is recorded in the ensuing year, which shows that minstrels still retained the liberty of entering at will into the royal presence, and had something peculiarly splendid in their dress. It is thus related by Stowe: (z) "In the year 1316, Edward the Second did solemnize his feast of Pentecost at Westminster, in the great hall: where sitting royally at the table with his peers about him, there entered a woman adorned like a Minstrel, sitting on a great horse trapped, as Minstrels then used; who rode round about the tables, shewing pastime; and at length came up to the King's table, and laid before him a letter, and forthwith turning her horse, saluted every one and departed." The subject of this letter was a remonstrance to the king on the favours heaped by him on his minions, to the neglect of his knights and faithful servants. The privileged character of a minstrel was employed on this occasion, as sure of gaining an easy admittance; and * See Gray's Ode; and the Hist. of the Gwedir Family in "Miscellanies by the Hon. Daines Barrington," 1781, 4to. page 386; who in the Laws, &c. of this monarch, could find no instances of severity against the Welsh. See his Observations on the Statutes, 4to. 4th edit. p. 358. a female the rather deputed to assume it, that, in case of detection, her sex might disarm the king's resentment. This is offered on a supposition that she was not a real minstrel; for there should seem to have been women of this profession (AA), as well as of the other sex; and no accomplishment is so constantly attributed to females, by our ancient bards, as their singing to, and playing on, the harp, (A A 2). In the fourth year of King Richard II. John of Gaunt erected at Tutbury, in Staffordshire, a Court of Minstrels, similar to that annually kept at Chester, (page xlii.) and which, like a Court-Leet or Court-Baron, had a legal jurisdiction, with full power to receive suit and service from the men of this profession within five neighbouring counties, to enact laws, and determine their controversies; and to apprehend and arrest such of them as should refuse to appear at the said court, annually held on the 16th of August. For this they had a charter, by which they were empowered to appoint a King of the Minstrels, with four officers to preside over them, (BB). These were every year elected with great ceremony; the whole form of which, as observed in 1680, is described by Dr. Plot:* in whose time, however, they appear to have lost their singing talents, and to have confined all their skill to wind and string music." + The minstrels seem to have been in many respects upon the same footing as the heralds : and the King of the Min *Hist. of Staffordshire, ch. 10. § 69–76. p. 433, et seqq. of which see extracts in Sir J. Hawkins's Hist. of Music, vol. ii. p. 64; and Dr. Burney's Hist. vol. ii. p. 360, et seqq. N.B. The barbarous diversion of bull-running was no part of the original institution, &c. as is fully proved by the Rev. Dr. Pegge, in Archæologia, vol. ii. no. xiii. page 86. + See the charge given by the steward, at the time of the election, in Plot's Hist. ubi supra; and in Hawkins, p. 67. Burney, p. 363-4. strels, like the King at Arms, was both here and on the Continent an usual officer in the courts of princes. Thus we have in the reign of King Edward I. mention of a King Robert, and others. And in 16 Edward II. is a grant to William de Morlee "the King's Minstrel, styled Roy de North," ,"* of houses which had belonged to another king, John le Boteler, (BB 2). Rymer hath also printed a licence granted by King Richard II. in 1387, to John Caumz, the King of his Minstrels, to pass the seas, recommending him to the protection and kind treatment of all his subjects and allies.† In the subsequent reign of King Henry IV. we meet with no particulars relating to the Minstrels in England, but we find in the Statute Book a severe law passed against their brethren, the Welsh Bards; whom our ancestors could not distinguish from their own Rimours, Minstralx; for by these names they describe them, (BB 3). This act plainly shows, that far from being extirpated by the rigorous policy of King Edward I., this order of men were still able to alarm the English government, which attributed to them "many diseases and mischiefs in Wales," and prohibited their meetings, and contributions. When his heroic son, King Henry V., was preparing his great voyage for France, in 1415, an express order was given for his minstrels, fifteen in number, to attend him :‡ and eighteen are afterwards mentioned, to each of whom he allowed xiid. a-day, when that sum must have been of more than ten times the value it is at present. § Yet when he entered London in triumph after the battle of Agincourt, * So among the heralds Norrey was anciently styled Roy d'Armes de North. (Anstis, ii. 300.) And the Kings at Armes in general were originally called Reges Heraldorum, (ibid. p. 302.) as these were Reges Minstrallorum. Rymer's Fœdera, tom. vii. p. 555. § Ibid. p. 260. |