31 January, 2009  Edward II and Minstrels  Here are a few
details about minstrels and other performers in Edward II's era.
This is a very, very long way from being an exhaustive list, of
course - that would fill a book! Unfortunately, the kind of
songs or music that minstrels performed before the king is
rarely stated, but I've given as much detail as I can.  Anyone
interested in medieval music definitely needs to read Richard
Rastall's fantastic thesis 'Secular Musicians in Late Medieval
England', where some of the info in this post comes from. It's
available online: Part 1 and Part 2. There's also Constance
Bullock-Davies' Menestrellorum Multitudo: Minstrels at a Royal
Feast (1978) and A Register of Royal and Baronial Domestic
Minstrels 1272-1327 (1986).  To get an idea of how generous
Edward was to his minstrels, bear in mind that a typical wage
for the majority of people in the country was 1 to 3 pence a
day. So although Edward giving a pound to a minstrel might not
sound like much, it was a few months' w