given to this minstrel deserves notice, and shows his respectable situation.

*

V. The Harper, or Minstrel, was so necessary an attendant on a royal personage, that Prince Edward (afterwards K. 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 continued afterwards with more systematic rigour ; yet in his own court the Minstrels

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 et 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.

See Gray's Ode; and the Hist. of the Gwedir Family in "Miscellanies by the Hon. Daines Barrington," 1781. 4to. p. 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.

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 K. 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 Stow (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 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, (A a.) 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 K. Richard II. John of Gaunt erected at Tutbury in Staffordshire, a Court of Minstrels, similar to that annually kept at Chester (p. xxxvi.) 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. (B b.) These were every year elected with great ceremony; the whole form of which, as observed in 1680, is described by Dr. Plott: * 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 Minstrels, 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 K. Edward I. mention of a King Robert, and others. And in 16 Edw. 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. (B b. 2.) Rymer hath also printed a licence granted by K. 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 K. Henry IV. we meet

*Hist. of Staffordshire. Ch. 10. § 69-76. p. 433. & 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 & 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. pag. 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.

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.

with no particulars relating to the Minstrels in Eng land; 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, Ministralx; for by these names they describe them. (B b. 3.) This act plainly shows that far from being extirpated by the rigorous policy of K. 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 K. 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 xii. d. 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, he, from a principle of humility, slighted the pageants and verses, which were prepared to hail his return; and, as we are told by Holingshed,‡ would not suffer "any Dities to be made and song by Minstrels, of his glorious victorie; for that he would whollie have the praise and thankes altogether given to God." (B b. 4.) But this did not proceed from any disregard for the professors of music or of song; for at the Feast of Pentecost, which he celebrated in 1416, having the Emperor, and the Duke of Holland for his guests, he ordered rich gowns for sixteen of his Minstrels, of which the parti

+ Ibid. p. 260.

Rymer, ix. 255. See his Chronicle, sub anno 1415, (p. 1170.) He also gives this other instance of the king's great modesty, "that he would not suffer his Helmet to be carried with him, and shewed to the people, that they might behold the dintes and cuttes, whiche appeared in the same, of such blowes and stripes, as hee received the daye of the battell." Ibid. Vid. T. de Elmham, c. 29. p. 72.

The prohibition against vain and secular songs would probably not include that inserted in our 2d vol. No. v. (p. 20) which would be considered as a Hymn. The original notes may be seen reduced and set to score in Mr. Stafford Smith's "Collection of English Songs for three and four voices," and in Dr. Burney's" Hist. of Music." ii. p. 384.

culars are preserved by Rymer.* And having before his death orally granted an annuity of 100 shillings to each of his Minstrels, the grant was confirmed in the first year of his son, K. Henry VI., A.D. 1423, and payment ordered out of the Exchequer.†

The unfortunate reign of K. Henry VI. affords no occurrences respecting our subject; but in his 34th year, A.D. 1456, we have in Rymert a commission for impressing boys or youths, to supply vacancies by death among the king's Minstrels: in which it is expressly directed that they shall be elegant in their limbs, as well as instructed in the Minstrel art, wherever they can be found, for the solace of his Majesty.

In the following reign, K. Edward IV. (in his 9th year, 1469), upon a complaint that certain rude husbandmen, and artificers of various trades had assumed the title and livery of the king's Minstrels, and under that colour and pretence had collected money in diverse parts of the kingdom and committed other disorders, the king grants to "Walter Haliday, Marshal," and to seven others his own Minstrels whom he names, a Charter,§ by which he creates, or rather restores a Fraternity or perpetual Gild (such as, he understands, the brothers and sisters of the Fraternity of Minstrels had in times past), to be governed by a Marshal, appointed for life, and by two Wardens, to be chosen annually; who are impowered to admit brothers and sisters into the said Gild, and are authorized to examine the pretensions of all such as affected to exercise the Minstrel profession; and to regulate, govern, and punish them throughout the realm (those of Chester excepted).- -This seems to have some resemblance to the Earl Marshal's Court among the

*Tom. ix. 336.

+ Ibid. x. 287. They are mentioned by name being ten in number: one of them was named Thomas Chatterton.

+ Tom. xi. 375.

§ See it in Rymer. Tom. xi. 642. and in Sir J. Hawkins, vol. iv. p. 366, note. The above charter is recited in letters patent of K. Charles I. 15 July. (11 Anno Regni) for a Corporation of Musicians, &c. in Westminster, which may be seen, ibid.