It is obvious that this practice of travelling must have brought the local players into rivalry with those hereditary gentlemen of the road, the minstrels. Possibly they had something to do with provoking that _querelosa insinuatio_ against the _rudes agricolae et artifices diversarum misterarum_ which led to the formation of the royal guild of minstrels in 1469. If so, the measure does not seem to have been wholly successful in suppressing them. But the minstrels had a better move to make. Their own profession had fallen, with the emergence of the _trouvère_ and the spread of printing, upon evil days. And here were the scanty remnants of their audiences being filched from them by unskilled rustics who had hit upon just the one form of literary entertainment which, unlike poetry and romance in general, could not dispense with the living interpreter[537]. What could they do better than develop a neglected side of their own art and become players themselves? So there appear in the _computi_, side by side with the local _lusores_, others whose methods and status are precisely those of minstrels[538]. The generosity of Henry the Sixth at the Christmas of 1427 is called forth equally by the _entreludes_ of the _jeweis de Abyndon_ and the _jeuues et entreludes_ of _Jakke Travail et ses compaignons_. By 1464 ‘players in their enterludes’ were sufficiently recognized to be included with minstrels in the exceptions of the Act of Apparel[539]. Like other minstrels, the players put themselves under the protection of nobles and persons of honour. The earliest upon record are those of Henry Bourchier, earl of Essex, and those of Richard, duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard the Third. Both companies were rewarded by Lord Howard in 1482. The earls of Northumberland, Oxford, Derby, and Shrewsbury, and Lord Arundel, all had their players before the end of the century[540]. The regulations of the _Northumberland Household Book_, as well as entries in many _computi_, show that by the reign of Henry the Eighth the practice was widespread[541]. Naturally it received a stimulus when a body of players came to form a regular part of the royal household. Whether Richard the Third retained his company in his service during his brief reign is not upon record. But Henry the Seventh had four _lusores regis, alias, in lingua Anglicana, les pleyars of the Kyngs enterluds_ at least as early as 1494. These men received an annual fee of five marks apiece, together with special rewards when they played before the king. When their services were not required at court, they took to the road, just as did the minstrels, _ioculator_, and _ursarius_ of the royal establishment. In 1503 they were sent, under their leader John English, in the train of Margaret of Scotland to her wedding with James the Fourth at Edinburgh, and here they ‘did their devoir’ before the Scottish court[542]. Henry the Eighth increased their number to eight, and they