Show ANCIENT MINSTRELSY I The Men Who Made Music in the Fourteenth Century I The king in those times had accompanying accomp-anying him when he went on his warlike war-like expeditions besides tht Mans of the army and expressly atU d to his own train fifteen or more min els The nobles had often large bands of I them in their houses We read in the j t household book of the Earls of North umberland of the regulations for th I minstrels and Bishop Percy one o f that family in his Hermit of Wark worth says The minstrel of thy noble house All clad in robes of blue With silver crescents on their arms Attend in order duo Trokelow the chronicler gives us avery a-very curious passage demonstrating at once the state assumed by minstrels at i this period and the free access which they had to the very presence of royalty What is more it shows that women were now accredited minstrels When Edward II in 1316 solemnized the Feast of Pentecost and sat at a table in royal state in the great hall at Westminster West-minster attended bv the peers of the realm a certain woman dressed in the habit of a minstrel riding on a great horse trapped in the minstrel fashion entered the hall and going round the I several tables acting the part of a minstrel min-strel at length mounted the steps to the royal table od which she deposited a letter Having done this she turned her horse and saluting all the company departed When the litter was read it was found to contain severe animadversions animad-versions on the kings conduct at which he was greatly offended and the doorkeepers door-keepers being called and reprimanded for admitting her they replied that it never was the custom of the kings palace to deny admission to minstrels especially on such high solemnities and feastdays Cassells History of Eng land |