"§ II... All Fencers, Bearwards, Common Players of Enterludes, and
Minstrels, wandering abroad (other than Players of Enterludes belonging to any Baron
of this Realm, or any other honourable Personage of greater degree, to be authorised
to play under the hand and seal of arms of such Baron or Personage): all Juglers,
Tinkers, Pedlers, &c... shall be adjudged and deemed Rogues, Vagabonds, and
Sturdy Beggars, &c.
"§ X. Provided always, that this Act, or any thing therein contained, or any
authority thereby given, shall not in any wise extend to disinherit, prejudice, or
hinder, John Dutton, of Dutton, in the county of Chester, Esquire, his heirs or assigns,
for, touching or concerning any liberty, preheminence, authority, jurisdiction, or
inheritance, which the said John Dutton now lawfully useth, or hath, or lawfully may
or ought to use within the County-Palatine of Chester, and the County of the City of
Chester, or either of them, by reason of any ancient Charters of any Kings of this
Land, or by reason of any prescription, usage, or title whatsoever."
The same clauses are renewed in the last Act on this subject, passed in the
reign of Geo. III.
(X)Edward I... At the knighting of his son, &c.] See Nic. Triveti Annales, Oxon.
1719, 8vo, p. 342.
"In festo Pentecostes Rex filium suum armis militaribus cinxit, et cum eo
Comites Warenniæ et Arundeliæ, aliosque, quorum numerus ducentos et quadraginta
dicitur excessisse. Eodem die cum sedisset RexMinistrellorum Multitudo, portantium
multiplici ornatu amictum, ut milites præcipue novos invitarrent, et inducerent, ad
vovendum factum armorum aliquod coram signo."
(Y)By an express regulation, &c.] See in Hearne's Append. ad Lelandi Collectan.
vol. vi. p. 36, "A Dietarie, Writtes published after the Ordinance of Earles and Barons,
Anno Dom. 1315."
"Edward, by the grace of God, &c., to Sheriffes, &c., greetyng. Forasmuch as... many idle persons, under colour of Mynstrelsie, and going in messages, and other
faigned busines, have ben and yet be receaved in other mens houses to meate and
drynke, and be not therwith contented yf they be not largely consydered with gyftes of
the Lordes of the houses, &c... WE wyllyng to restrayne such outrageous enterprises
and idleness, &c., have ordeyned... that to the houses of Prelates, Earles, and
Barons, none resort to meate and drynke, unlesse he be a Mynstrel, and of these
Minstrels that there come none, except it be three or four Minstrels of Honour at the
most in one day, unlesse he be desired of the Lorde of the House. And to the houses
of meaner men that none come unlesse he be desired, and that such as shall come so,
holde themselves contented with meate and drynke, and with such curtesie as the
Maister of the House wyl shewe unto them of his owne good wyll, without their
askyng of any thyng. And yf any one do agaynst this Ordinaunce, at the first tyme he
to lose his Minstrelsie, and at the second tyme to forsweare his craft, and never to be
receaved for a Minstrel in any house... Yeven at Langley the vi. day of August, in
the ix. yeare of our reigne."
These abuses rose again to as great a height as ever in little more than a
century after, in consequence, I suppose, of the licentiousness that crept in during the
civil wars of York and Lancaster. This appears from the Charter 9 E. IV., to William
Haliday,referred to above. "Ex querulosa insinuatione... Ministrallorum nostrorum
accepimus qualiter nonnulli rudes agricolæ et artifices diversarum misterarum regni