14th century, 15th century, court accounts, Europe, France, French, historical figure, primary source, quotes
European court and household account books are a gold mine for fool sleuths: they provide details of emoluments paid or provided to jesters, and in many cases give us names of jesters and whom they served, which might not be otherwise recorded. Here a list of...
17th century, court accounts, Europe, France, French, historical figure, primary source, quotes
An account of the French court’s expenses for 1622 gives the sum of 1,800 livres for the jester Maître Guillaume, and 1,200 for his female counterpart, Mathurine la Folle. There is no explanation for this disparity, and we can only hope it isn’t an early...
17th century, court accounts, England, English, Europe, historical figure, primary source, quotes, Stuart
In Europe, court account books are a mine of information concerning payments, in cash and kind, made to jesters. This gives us some insight into the extent to which they could be cared for, if not downright cossetted, and some indication of their clothing, which was...
