28 January, 2018

The Singing Women of Lambeth and the Siege of Pevensey

A couple of nice entries I've come across in Edward II's chamber account of 1324/25.

When Edward II was in Sussex in late August 1324, he passed near Pevensey and its castle. Edward paid six pence to "a poor man of Pevensey who told the king how the castle of Pevensey was besieged by the son of Sir Simond Montfort." This is a reference to 1264, when Simon, second son of Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, besieged Pevensey Castle during the baronial wars of those years. Edward II's father the future Edward I turned twenty-five in 1264, and the king of England was Henry III, Edward II's grandfather and the brother-in-law of Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester (who was killed at the battle of Evesham in August 1265). The entry implies that Edward II, who wasn't born until twenty years after these events, had never heard about the siege of Pevensey before. Simon de Montfort the younger, who carried out the siege, was his father's first cousin. Sixty years later, the locals were still talking about it.

There are at least three and possibly even more entries in the account to fisherwomen of Lambeth, "singing often in the Thames" whenever Edward II passed there between his palace of Sheen and Westminster. On 24 May 1324, Edward gave the women five shillings for "singing in the company of Burgeys de Till," one of his chamber squires. On 3 June they got another three shillings for "singing in the Thames," given to them by Edward's chamber valet Syme Lawe. And on 4 November they were at it again, when they got two shillings for "singing often in the Thames" whenever the king passed them. Isn't this adorable? It reminds me of another entry in Edward's chamber account of July 1326, when he gave money to a fisherman called John of Walton (i.e. Walton-on-Thames) "who sang before the king every time he passed through these parts by water."

One more rather random but very cute thing: one of Edward's many chamber valets was called Little Colin. His name is sometimes written in English, Litel Colle, and sometimes in French, the language of the chamber account, Petit Colle.

And finally, I've written before about Anneis de May and Johane Traghs, wives of two of Edward's chamber valets who themselves were admitted to wages - the same wages as their husbands - and worked in the king's chamber for a few months in 1325/26. The wives of the chamber valets John Goes and Robin Curre also worked in the chamber in November 1324, both of them for one week. Robin Curre's wife was called Alis, and John's was called Beatrice. Both women were paid three pence daily, the same as their husbands, and hence were given twenty-one pence at the end of the week. As I said, Edward II, pioneer of equal pay for women...!

2 comments:

sami parkkonen said...

Wouldn't it be great to find out what they were singing? This shows once again with whom the king was at ease: the commoners. No wonder those who wanted high and mighty unreachable holy king at the office did not like king Edward II.

And I bet this must have annoyed the court musicians too to the extreme.

Anerje said...

Super 'anecdotes '. I loved the Lambeth singing women - Edward seemed to appreciate the simpler things in life.