"Two minstrels too many?": the remunerated musician of the 16th century, from status symbol of the court to social outcast

Contemporary sources use the word “minstrel” to describe a wide social range of musical entertainers. Legal and other documents ofthe period provide a rich social tapestry of these late medieval entertainers, and point to the beginnings of the schism between court and country and the attitude(s) of Tudor society/ies to those whom they paid to sing to them. The paper investigates how the minstrel’s art was exploited and abused by non-minstrels, and how this contributed to the stigmatization ofthese “musical vagabonds”