A similar passage occurs in part iv, v. 129 (p. 136.)—But these instances are sufficient.
[Bb] [A charter ... to appoint a king of the minstrels.] Intitled Carta Le Roy de ministraulx (in Latin histriones vid. Plott. p. 437.) A copy of this charter is printed in Monast. Anglic. i. 355, and in Blount's Law Diction. 1717 (art. king).
That this was a most respectable officer, both here and on the continent, will appear from the passages quoted below, and therefore it could only have been in modern times, when the proper meaning of the original terms ministraulz, and histriones was forgot, that he was called king of the fidlers; on which subject see below, note [Ee2].
Concerning the king of the minstrels we have the following curious passages collected by Du Cange, Gloss. iv. 773:
"Rex Ministellorum; supremus inter ministellos: de cujus munere, potestate in cæteros ministellos agit Charta Henrici IV. Regis Angliæ in Monast. Anglicano, tom. i. p. 355. Charta originalis an. 1338. Je Robert Caveron Roy des Menestreuls du Royaume de France. Aliæ ann. 1357. & 1362. Copin de Brequin Roy des Menestres du Royaume de France. Computum de auxiliis pro redemptione Regis Johannis, ann. 1367. Pour une couronne d'argent qu'il donna le jour de la Tiphaine au roy des menestrels.
"Regestum Magnorum Dierum Trecensium an. 1296. Super quod Joannes dictus Charmillons Juglator, cui dominus Rex per suas literas tanquam Regem Juglatorum in civitate Trecensi Magisterium Juglatorum, quemadmodum suæ placeret voluntati, concesserat." Gloss. c. 1587.
There is a very curious passage in Pasquier's Recherches de la France, Paris, 1633, folio, liv. 7. ch. 5, p. 611, wherein he appears to be at a loss how to account for the title of Le Roy assumed by the old composers of metrical romances; in one of which the author expressly declares himself to have been a minstrel. The solution of the difficulty, that he had been Le Roy des Menestrels, will be esteemed more probable than what Pasquier here advances; for I have never seen the title of prince given to a minstrel, &c. scil.—"A nos vieux Poetes ... comme ... fust qu'ils eussent certain jeux de prix en leurs Poesies, ils ... honoroient du nome, tantot de roy, tantot de prince, celuy qui avoit le mieux faict comme nous voyons entre les archers, arbalestiers, & harquebusiers estre fait le semblable. Ainsi l'autheur du Roman d'Oger le Danois, s'appelle Roy.
"Icy endroict est cil Livre finez
Qui des enfans Oger est appellez
Or vueille Diex qu'il soit parachevez
En tel maniere kestre n'en puist blamez
Le Roy Adams (r. Adenes) ki il' est rimez.
"Et en celuy de Cleomades,
"Ce Livre de Cleomades
Rimé-je le Roy Adenes
Menestre au bon Duc Henry.