When we think of medieval minstrels today, it probably conjures up images of musicians in colourful garb, performing as a backdrop to a court banquet. And yet, the real medieval minstrel was so much more than that.
Imagine a world in which access to books is very limited and most people are illiterate anyway. Those books that do exist are mostly written in Latin by a scholarly clerical elite. Even if the content of such books were read out loud to an audience, most ordinary folk wouldn’t understand what was being said.
How can stories be transmitted to a wide audience in such a world?
The answer, of course, was largely down to the minstrels. Their songs, ballads and rhymes played a crucial role in popular storytelling throughout the Middle Ages.
But who were these artists? Who was their audience? And what kind of stories did they tell?
The Early Medieval Bard
The post-Roman, pre-Norman society of early medieval England fostered a rich bardic tradition. The Britons greatly valued their bards. The more successful of them performed for the courts of petty kings and clan chiefs, singing their praises and relating tales of epic bravery. The surviving corpus of medieval poems attributed to Taliesin give us a feel as to the kind of early material covered. Stories of heroic battles, triumphant raids and mighty warlords. Although these now survive only as poems, they would originally have been performed as songs to an assembled audience at a chieftain’s banquet.
Similar bardic traditions were present within both Anglo-Saxon and Norse migrant communities that settled across England during the early Middle Ages. The Nordic skalds, Saxon scops and Celtic bards, played very similar roles. Their tales, as far as they can be reconstructed from surviving fragments, are mostly tales of heroic warriors. Exactly the kind of stories one might expect a warlord’s mead hall full of boastful warriors to savour.
Within such stories women, let alone romantic love, feature less prominently. And whilst the warriors described are brave, skilled and honourable, they lack the full range of later chivalric values.
Cultural Change
As the early Middle Ages gave way to the high Middle Ages, European culture experienced significant change. Part and parcel of this was the emergence of the medieval knight.
In terms of technology, the high medieval knight was clearly a different animal from the early medieval warrior. Rather than fighting on foot like Beowulf or Siegfreid, he typically fought on horseback as a heavily armoured cavalryman. In this capacity, he would come to dominate the battlefields of Europe.
Like the warriors of old he aspired to foster a reputation for valour, martial excellence, honour and loyalty. But now he also aspired to new values: the values of chivalry.
A knight needed to be a paladin of the Christian faith rather than just a warrior. His record as a defender of the Church could make or break his reputation. This would become especially the case after the First Crusade (1096-1099).
Another key development related to his dealings with ladies of rank and his knowledge of court etiquette. There were now new rules of chivalry he needed to observe in terms of protocol, courtesy and romance. This latter change coincided with and was even highly influenced by the emergence of chivalric romance in literature and song. And at the heart of chivalric romance lay a new kind of bard – the troubadour.
The Age of the Troubadour
The earliest troubadours can be traced to the late eleventh century. The tradition was born in southern France and its practitioners composed their verse in lyrical Occitan.
They represented a break from earlier traditions in so far as their compositions were all about chivalric romance. The passionate love of a man for a woman or, a woman for a man, within the emerging court culture of their day.
The troubadours reached the height of their popularity during the late twelfth and early thirteenth century. Indeed, over half of all surviving troubadour compositions date to between 1180 and 1220. What began as a regional fashion, localised to southern France, spread out across the courts of France, Italy, Spain and the Plantagenets.
Some troubadours were members of the nobility, composing songs for their ladies. Some were relatively poor knights, seeking the patronage of a wealthy noble.
Not all patrons were noblemen, however. Some were powerful noblewomen. Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine was a particularly important patroness of troubadours. And it would be Eleanor’s daughter, Countess Marie of Champagne who would commission Chrétien de Troyes to write his famous romance of Lancelot and Guenevere. Such powerful women were keen to hear stories about the lives of great ladies such as themselves, not just tales of knightly derring-do.
The Trobairitz
A minority of the troubadours were women. Known as trobairitz, they composed music in the same style, dealing with the same themes.
Whilst Europe had seen female composers before, they had been composers of religious music. The trobairitz, however, composed secular music about passionate romantic love. They hold the remarkable distinction of being the very first recorded female composers of secular music in European history.
Some of these women were noblewomen, sometimes married to men who were patrons of troubadours themselves. One of the most famous trobairitz was the Comtessa de Dia. Her work ‘I am Obliged to Sing’ speaks of her passionate desire for the love of a nobleman. This composition is unique in so far as a complete record of both the original music and the lyrics survive.
One trobairitz, Bieiris de Romans, famously composed a song expressing the love of one woman for another. This could be the flattery of a woman seeking to curry favour and patronage with a noblewoman of higher standing. Alternatively, it is more likely to be what it appears – a passionate expression of lesbian desire.
The Purity of Art
Many troubadours came to regard their art as possessing a creative purity that set it apart from other forms of verse and music. Rather like the poets and artists of the romanticism movement, many centuries later, they felt their creative output was something very special and different.
However, the troubadours were not the only minstrels of the high Middle Ages. Far from it. Other minstrels, of various types, also plied their trade in the courts and manor houses of Europe. However, they did not conform to the pure art of a true troubadour (although some sang troubadour songs as part of a wider repertoire). As a result, some troubadours referred to these practitioners of less worthy music as common jongleurs.
This raises the important question as to how minstrelsy was regarded during the high to late Middle Ages. What did it take to be a minstrel? How did you tell a troubadour from a jongleur? And what different forms of minstrelsy flourished in the courts of Europe?
The Art of Minstrelsy
In our time we tend to think of minstrels as musicians, playing instruments and singing ballads. But in the Middle Ages the idea of what constituted a minstrel was different.
Different types of performers are often grouped together, in medieval manuscripts, under the general heading of ‘minstrels’. The reason stems from the origin of the word itself. It derives from the Middle Latin word for ‘retainer’ – ‘minstrallis’. By the high Middle Ages this term had evolved to become a little more specific. Thus, we find it used in court records to describe anyone who supplied entertainments or leisure related services to the monarch.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that several medieval entertainers practiced a mix of performative arts. Thus, the minstrel’s profession could encompass a very wide range of talents. Many would play a musical instrument and sing. However, others might be acrobats, mimics, dancers, jesters, puppeteers, trainers of performing animals, and so forth. All such performing arts fell within the definition of minstrelsy.
Peter de Blois describes Henry II’s court as full of “entertainers, singers, dice-players, flatterers, taverners, wafer makers, actors, barbers – gluttons the whole lot of them,” All of these people, including the barbers and wafer makers, appear in the king’s accounts under the general heading of ‘minstrelli’. A minstrel, then, was any retainer associated with entertaining or indulging the king.
Musicians
Although the profession encompassed a wide variety of performers, most were musicians who played instruments and sang for a living. And, indeed, there were many such minstrels present at the royal courts and manor houses of medieval Europe.
The instruments available to them evolved over the Middle Ages. By the end of the period, they had access to a greater variety of more sophisticated instruments than ever before.
Early medieval bards typically sang accompanied by a harp. This would have been how the bard Taliesin performed his songs at the court of Rheged. The harp remained a very popular instrument with minstrels throughout the period, but it was increasingly supported by a mini orchestra of other instruments.
The instruments available included medieval fiddles, flutes, lyres, citterns, lutes, kettledrums, tabors, flageolets and even bagpipes.
At court these musicians often performed a dual role. At a feast they began by bringing the food to the tables for the guests. Then, once food was served, they began to play. They typically played on the floor of the hall alongside dancers right up until the late medieval period. Only from around this time do they start playing in their own dedicated minstrels’ galleries.
Buffoons, Fools and Jesters
Amongst, the gaggle of entertainers encountered at any given court, you’d be sure to find at least one fool.
William Rufus’ court had an especially dissolute reputation, so it’s not that surprising that he favoured bawdy buffoons to supply the court entertainment. These entertainers were later described by Thomas de Chabham as “good for nothing except gluttony and scandalmongering”.
Henry II employed an especially famous royal fool known as Roger le Pettour. He was referred to specifically as a Joculator in his time. However, he was also considered one of the king’s minstrelli. Roger became famous for performing a particular party trick at Christmas for the king. This consisted of executing a comedic jump whilst simultaneously blowing a sharp whistle and breaking wind. It was a skill deemed worthy of an annual retainer.
In 1312, on a visit to France, Edward II was entertained by Bernard le Fol and his troop of 54 naked dancers. King Edward appears to have especially enjoyed the performance of minstrels of all kinds, fools in particular. When entertained by one such fellow performing a comedy dance on a tabletop, Edward was rendered helpless in fits of laughter.
On the road
Of course, getting a job at court was what every entertainer aspired to. Since the royal court often toured the land in medieval times, aspiring minstrelli sought to waylay the royal party on the road. If they were lucky, they might get to perform for the king and earn a generous one-off fee. If they were very lucky, they might even land a permanent position and earn the king’s livery.
Henry VII has a reputation as a dour and mean-spirited monarch. However, his itineraries show that he often encountered and rewarded entertainers on the road. This even included paying a full £1 (about £650 in today’s money) to a dwarf who is not recorded as having any performing talent whatsoever. All he seems to have done is show up at court for a day. Easy money.
Being a liveried minstrel in the service of the king or a great lord clearly bought with it many benefits. However, the temptation to cash in on this gravy train by dishonest means was ever present. In 1324, we are informed that five minstrels led by David the harper, followed Edward II’s household at a distance pretending to be in his service. In this guise contemporary records inform us that they committed ‘diverse larcenies and felonies’.
Courts of Minstrels
Having large bands of itinerant entertainers impersonating the king’s men was clearly a problem. So too were wandering charlatans, masquerading as minstrels as a cover for performing larcenies and felonies.
In England, this led to various attempts to regulate the profession.
A Court of Minstrels was founded in Chester to oversee what we might regard as professional standards. When exactly the court was founded is unclear. It claimed a pedigree dating back to 1210, when it was granted its authority by the then Earl Randolph of Chester. No formal record of this can be found but it was certainly well established by the end of the Middle Ages.
Another court appears to date to the late C14th, at Tutbury, under the authority of John, Duke of Gaunt. Minstrels plying their trades in the Chester or Tutbury areas had to pay a fee to these local courts. However, both courts only really had jurisdiction over their local areas.
In 1449 Henry VI attempted to impose a more wide-ranging national system of licensing. Edward IV built on his Lancastrian predecessors’ approach by constituting a more formal national minstrel’s guild.
But how effective was all this in clamping down the disreputable elements within the profession? Given the itinerant and transient nature of many performers. the answer seems to have been, unsurprisingly, not very effective.
Civic Minstrels
Those musicians who could not get employment at court or in a manorial household might find lucrative work in civic employment.
Medieval cities and larger towns often employed small groups of civic minstrels known as waytes. The waytes received a salary and were provided with a civic livery. Some were even provided with a civic chain of office.
The waytes were musicians who performed the dual role of a watchman come entertainer. In their watchman capacity they patrolled the streets at night and, if they encountered anything untoward, raised an alarm with their instruments. For this reason, they would often use loud instruments such as the shawm, with which they became especially associated.
Aside from this duty they also played to waken the local populous on dark winter mornings. They’d provide music for civic parades and to welcome important dignitaries visiting their city.
Itinerant Minstrels
The least well documented of medieval minstrels were the wandering players who had no permanent employment. These unliveried individuals wandered from place to place plying their trade. Very often, they might follow an itinerary, playing at major summer fairs and markets where they could attract a larger audience.
These players catered for a popular audience of common folk. Consequently, the kind of songs and entertainments they offered were often frowned upon by a disapproving clergy. These were ballads for the people. And, amongst the most notorious of these, were the Robin Hood ballads. Tales of a crude common outlaw robbing rich people, humiliating abbots and murdering sheriffs. Far from the kind of thing that respectable society considered edifying.
Langland’s late fourteenth century masterpiece, Piers Ploughman, contains a section which features anthropomorphised characterisations of the seven deadly sins. One of these characters, Sloth, boasts that he doesn’t know the lord’s prayer, but he knows the ballads of Robin Hood! He also claims to know the ballad of Ranulf, Earl of Chester which, presumably, was another disreputable popular composition. This illustrates well the kind of audience Langland felt was catered for by the less reputable (but highly popular) itinerant minstrels.
Popular Minstrelsy
Sadly, only a very limited amount of popular minstrel material survives. This is largely because the lower classes who enjoyed (and often produced) such material were illiterate and hence unable to commit anything to writing. The most literate members of medieval society were clerics, the very people most likely to disapprove of this kind of shenanigans. For them, it simply wasn’t the kind of material deemed worthy of preservation for posterity.
A rare source of information for this kind of minstrelsy is contained within the Heege Manuscript. It was written around 1480, containing material used by a minstrel performing near the Nottinghamshire-Derbyshire border. What is contained therein would appear to confirm all the clerics’ worst fears. The material is bawdy, humorous and often irreverent. It is easy to see why it was so popular.
The material includes tales of killer rabbits, drinking songs, jousting bears and battling bumblebees. One skit relates how three gluttonous kings consume so much food that their bellies explode, unleashing 24 sword-fighting oxen. This latter piece of comedic surrealism was performed at a time when the real king (Edward IV) was gaining an infamous reputation for gluttonous obesity. Highly irreverent! It was truly C15th stand-up at its best!
Related articles
If you enjoyed reading this, you might be interested in reading some of my other articles on medieval life and society:
Books that Shaped Medieval England
Medieval Summer Folk Traditions
Parliament and the Birth of Democracy
The Landscape of Medieval England
The Rise of the Medieval Church
Women in the 15th Century – A Tale of Three Margarets
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References and further information
Can vei la lauzeta (full lyrics)
English Medieval Minstrel, Southworth J. Boydell Press, 2012
Minstrels and Minstrelsy in Late Medieval England, Rastall R. & Taylor A., Boydell & Brewer, 2023
The Bawdy Bard – Tom Almeroth-Williams, University of Cambridge, May 2023
The World of Eleanor of Aquitaine, ed. Catherine Léglu, Marcus Graham Bull, Boydell Press, 2005
Images
I Sing of Death by Howard Pyle 1909 (via wiki commons)
A chantar antar, comtessa de dia (via wiki commons)
Jean Fouquet- Portrait of the Ferrara Court Jester Gonella 1445 (via wiki commons)
A band of modern waits (York, 2006), Photo by A Garrod (via wiki commons)