and footsore, making the slow _bourgeois_ laugh while the heart was bitter within; such must have been the daily fate of many amongst the humbler minstrels at least[196]. And at the end to die like a dog in a ditch, under the ban of the Church and with the prospect of eternal damnation before the soul. Kings and nobles were not accustomed to depend for their entertainment merely upon the stray visits of wandering minstrels. Others more or less domiciled formed a permanent part of the household. These indeed are the minstrels in the stricter sense of that term--_ministri_, _ministeriales_. In Domesday Book, as we have seen, one Berdic bears the title of the _ioculator regis_. Shortly afterwards Henry I had his _mimus regis_, by name Raherus, who made large sums by his _suavitas iocularis_, and founded the great priory of St. Bartholomew at Smithfield[197]. Laying aside his parti-coloured coat, he even became himself the first prior of the new community. The old spirit remained with him, however; and it is recorded that the fame of the house was largely magnified by means of some feigned miracles which Raherus put forth. Richard I was a noted lover of song, and the names of more than one minstrel of his are preserved. There was Ambroise, who was present at Richard’s coronation in 1189 and at the siege of Acre in 1191, and who wrote a history, still extant, of the third crusade[198]. And there was that Blondiaux or Blondel de Nesle, the story of whose discovery of his captive master, apocryphal though it may be, is in all the history books[199]. Henry III had his _magister Henricus versificator_ in 1251[200], and his _magister Ricardus citharista_ in 1252[201]. A harper was also amongst the _ministri_ of Prince Edward in the Holy War[202], and when the prince became Edward I, he still retained one in his service. He is mentioned as Walter de Stourton, the king’s harper, in 1290[203], and as the _citharista regis_ in 1300[204]. Edward II had several minstrels, to one of whom, William de Morlee, known as _Roy de North_, he made a grant of land[205]. By this time the royal minstrels seem to have become a regular establishment of no inconsiderable numbers. Under Edward III they received 7¹⁄₂_d._ a day[206]. A little later in the reign, between 1344 and 1347, there were nineteen who received 12_d._ a day in war, when they doubtless formed a military band, and 20_s._ a year in peace. These included five trumpeters, one citoler, five pipers, one tabouretter, two clarions, one nakerer, and one fiddler, together with three additional minstrels, known as waits[207]. The leader of the minstrels bore the title of _rex_, for in 1387 we find a licence given by Richard II to his _rex ministrallorum_, John Caumz, permitting him to pass the seas[208]. Henry V had fifteen minstrels when he invaded France in 1415, and at a later date eighteen, who received 12_d._ a day apiece[209]. At the end of his reign his