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EDWARD I. 29 |
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the bridegroom, among 426 minstrels, as well English as others." In 1291, in the accounts of the executors of Queen Eleanor, there is an entry of a payment of 39s., for a cup purchased to be given to one of the king's minstrels.
The highly valuable roll, preserved among the records in the custody of the Queen's Remembrancer, which has been printed for the Roxburghe Club, marks the gradations of rank among the minstrels, and the corresponding rewards bestowed upon them. It contains the names of those who attended the cour plenidre held by King Edward at the Feast of Whitsuntide, 1306, at Westminster, and also at the New Temple, London; because " the royal palace, although large, was nevertheless small for the crowd of comers." Edward then conferred the honor of knighthood upon his son, Prince Edward, and a great number of the young nobility and military tenants of the crown, who were summoned to receive it, preparatory to the King's expedition to Scotland to avenge the murder of John Comyn, and the revolt of the Scotch.
On this occasion there were six kings of the minstrels, five of whom, viz.> Le Roy de Champaigne, Le Roy Capenny, Le Roy Boisescue, Le Roy Marchis, and Le Roy Robert, received each five marks, or 31. 6s. 8d., the mark being 13s. M. It is calculated that a shilling in those days was equivalent to fifteen shillings of the present time; according to which computation, they received 50?. each. The sixth, Le Roy Druet, received only 21. The list of money given to minstrels is principally in Latin; but that of payments made to them being in Norman French, it is difficult to distinguish English minstrels from others. Le Roy de Champaigne was probably." Poveret, the minstrel of the Mareschal of Champagne," of 1290, Le Roy Capenny, " King Caupenny from Scotland," and Le Roy Robert, whom we know to have been the English king of the minstrels by other payments made to him by the crown (see Anstis' Register of the Order of the Garter, vol. ii. p. 303), was probably the " Kmg Grey of England" of the former date. Among the names we find, Northfolke, Carletone, Ricard de Haleford', Adam de Werintone (Warrington?), Adam de Grimmeshawe, Merlin, Lambyn Clay, Fairfax, Hanecocke de Blithe, Richard Wheatacre, &c. The harpers are generally mentioned only by their christian names, as Laurence, Mathew, Richard, John, Robert, and Geoffrey, but there are also Richard de Quitacre, Richard de Leylonde, William de Grimesar, William de Duffelde, John de Trenham, &c, as well as Adekyn, harper to the Prince, who was probably a Welsh bard. In these lists only the principal minstrels are named, the remaining sum being divided, by the kings and few others, among the menestrms de la commune. Harpers are in the majority where the particular branch of minstrelsy is specified. Some minstrels are locally described, as Robert ""de Colecestria," John " de Salopia," and Robert " de Scardeburghe;" others are distinguished as the harpers of the Bishop of Durham, Abbot of Abyngdon, Earls of Warrenne, Gloucester, &c.; one is Guillaume sans maniere; another, Reginald le menteur; a third is called Makejoye; and a fourth, Perle in the eghe.
■ Pages Ixix. and lxx. Introduction to Manners and Printed for the Roxburghe Club, 1841, and quoted from Household Expenses of England in the 13th and 15th Wardrobe Book, 18 Edward I. Rot. Misccll. In Turr. centuries, illustrated by original records. 4to. London. Lond. No. 56". |
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