While comedy might seem like a modern art form, the desire to joke, pun, or play pranks on others is a basic human trait, versions of which can be found during all periods of recorded history. A few examples of Renaissance and Medieval jokes stand out as especially significant, because of what they tell us about society, and in some cases because of their own impact on history.
A Joke That Saved Two Heads
The German Peasants’ War of 1524-1525 was a large-scale, armed uprising of tenant farmers against their feudal lords, centered in the southwestern German lands of the Holy Roman Empire. The peasants’ list of grievances included heavy labor exactions, high taxes and rents, and limits to their personal freedom.
Despite being a “peasants’ revolt,” the uprising drew participants beyond just farmers. Rebel preachers provided leadership, and some free-lance professional soldiers were employed to supplement peasant armies. Despite their large numbers, the peasants were soon overcome by the nobility and their well-armed infantry, cavalry, and artillery. By the spring of 1525, the Swabian League under the leadership of Georg, Truchsess von Waldburg-Zeil was smashing peasant armies in south Germany. A comic incident involving some preachers and a mercenary took place in the waning days of this otherwise unfunny war.
On April 5, 1525, in a field near Leipheim in modern Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, Waldburg-Zeil was present as his Swabian League executed rebel prisoners. Protestant preacher Jakob Wehe, who had recently led thousands of rebels, took his medicine stoically, telling his comrades “Be of good cheer brethren…when our eyes seem to close, they are really first opening” and was beheaded.
Up next, an “old soldier” and another preacher were led to the block. The soldier quipped to Waldburg-Zeil “Doth it not seem to thee a little late in the day, noble lord, for one to lose one’s head?” (Bax, pg.105) Waldburg-Zeil took the joke well and spared both men.
The soldier’s wisecrack might not seem hysterically funny now, but perhaps you had to be there. More to the point, this incident demonstrates how the victors in the Peasants’ War decided the fate of the vanquished based on whims. The peasants who had fought to have more rights and autonomy ended up fully at the disposal of the upper classes.
The Prank That Started a Rebellion
Duke William of the French region of Normandy conquered the Kingdom of England in 1066, becoming King William I and establishing a line of monarchs whose descendants still sit on the throne today. Besides managing separate realms, William also had to contend with his quarrelsome sons. A childish prank by two of them led to a military conflict that almost killed England’s conqueror.
According to the monk and chronicler Orderic Vitalis (1075-1142), sometime in 1077-78, King William’s sons were relaxing in a home in the Norman town of Laigle. 18-year-old William Rufus and Henry (aged nine or ten) played dice in the upper gallery, while eldest son Robert (aged 27-28) and his companions were downstairs. The younger sons decided it would be funny to empty the “water” from a chamber pot onto Robert and his gang. Robert rushed upstairs to take his revenge, but the noise brought their father to the house. The king broke up the row. Robert, unable to get satisfaction, was left fuming.
While the humor of dousing your brother and his friends does not run very deep, the prank seems to have struck a serious vein of resentment in Robert. The eldest son of the Conqueror felt slighted by his father. King William had refused to give him any serious funds or responsibilities and Robert had to compete with William and Henry for his favor. If that was not enough, the old man may have coined the nickname Curthose (short pants) for the small-statured Robert. Egged on by his cronies, Robert sought to restore his honor and establish his position through open revolt.
For more than a year, Robert raided his father’s lands from a base on the outskirts of Normandy. The French king, Philip I, supported Robert to check the power of William. The conflict came to a climax at Gerberoy in January 1079.
William and Robert faced each other in hand-to-hand combat. Robert wounded and unhorsed his sire and might have slain him if William had not identified himself. Robert allowed his father to remount and leave the field. In 1080, the rebellion ended with a whimper. Robert had proved his point and allowed himself to be reconciled with his father.
King Henry’s Humor
The 56-year reign of Henry III (1216-72) can be viewed as a challenge to Machiavelli’s idea that for political survival, it is better to be feared than loved (if you cannot be both). Henry III may have inspired more mockery than fear. He was a poor soldier, was often reckless with money, and allowed himself to be dominated by his queen’s southern French clan.
Nevertheless, the king was also a mild and kindly soul. Henry would sooner feed the poor or build a church than fight for land. The king also loved jokes and pranks, presiding over a fun court with multiple jesters. At the very least, Henry’s lack of cruelty and good nature prevented him from becoming his widely loathed father.
The best testament that we have to Henry III’s sense of humor are his Fine and Patent Rolls, the official documents of his court. On a sea trip to the continent, Henry used a Fine Roll (record of debts owed to the king) to prank his servant, Peter Poitevin. Henry had it be written that Peter owed him more than £100, large quantities of wine, and “five dozen capons” (chickens). This was intended to give Peter a little scare before it was crossed out.
In a letter patent to another servant, William de Peretot, the king reminded the recipient that the clerks in the royal household were letting their hair grow too long and told William to trim it “so that we do not have to apply the scissors to your own locks.” Henry’s use of official channels for jokes suggests a casual court atmosphere.
Henry also favored broad physical humor. He once ordered a jester to be thrown into the baths fully dressed. On another occasion, while taking exercise in an orchard, the king and his retinue were squirted with grape juice, and pelted with apples and dirt, by a chaplain no less. This priest must have been intimately familiar with the king’s sense of humor since the monarch was pleased with his behavior.
A Prop Comic in King Edward’s Court
The Great Chronicle of London records how in 1469 the royal jester Woodhouse appeared before King Edward IV of England wearing thigh-high wading boots and holding a staff. The king was naturally curious about the get-up and inquired about it. The jester replied “I have passed through many countries of your realm, and in places that I have passed the Rivers have been so high that I could hardly escape through them…” (Higginbotham, ch.4). Woodhouse’s wit resembles modern topical humor, and his use of costume props was a good way to get attention. How did the rivers get so high? What did that even mean?
Edward IV had married Elizabeth Woodville in secret in May 1464. A year later, he officially made her his queen-consort. In an almost unheard-of move, the English king had married an Englishwoman. Even rarer, he married for love. In doing so, Edward ignored the advantages of a diplomatic match with a foreign princess and created a conflict between the queen’s family and England’s established magnates.
Elizabeth’s family, the Woodvilles were minor English nobility. Their new position as the king’s extended family gave them instant advancement. King Edward gave his father-in-law Richard the position of Lord Treasurer and made him Earl Rivers. Edward’s new brother-in-law was made Lord Scales. The king arranged for other members of the Woodville (now Rivers) clan to marry the heirs of England’s great aristocratic families. The Rivers were now truly high in the land.
This rapid social mobility drew resentment from many of those around King Edward. The powerful Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (the Kingmaker) lost much of his influence and gradually became the king’s enemy. The king’s own brother George, Duke of Clarence conspired with Warwick against him. Warwick brought many nobles and commoners to his side. The result was a rebellion that saw Earl Rivers beheaded by his enemies and a continuation of England’s War of the Roses. The jester Woodhouse’s gentle mockery was a pressure gauge for England’s discontent.
Two Priests and a “Witty Jew”
Gerald of Wales (1146-1223) was a Norman-Welsh churchman, English government official, and prolific writer, whose works give insight into medieval England and Wales. Besides their value for political and church history, Gerald’s writings also contain a dose of social history: the everyday manners, mores, and quirks of the people who crossed his path. Gerald’s story of a punning traveler in western England, for example, makes for a great anecdote.
While on the road to Wenlock (Shropshire), Gerald had to travel through a “narrow and steep way” called “Bad-place.” He recounted how two clerics — Archdeacon Peche and Deacon Dayville had once traveled to Shrewsbury with a Jewish man in their party. The latter “heard the archdeacon by chance saying that his deaconry began at this place which is called Bad-place and lasted til Bad-pass near Chester.” The Jewish traveler remarked, “It will be a wonder if chance brings me back safe from this country whose archdeacon is Sin (Peche), whose dean is the Devil, which you enter by a Bad-place and go out in a bad pass.”
Whether Gerald had a firsthand account of this incident, or if it was just an apocryphal joke passed around by churchmen, it is possible to glean some facts about the position of Jews in England society. Joseph Jacobs, who edited The Jews of Angevin England: Documents and Records (1893), noted how the Jew’s use of péché (sin in French) demonstrates that French was the language of English Jews. This lines up with the origin story of England’s Jewish community — they were invited to settle by William the Conqueror and came from his duchy of Normandy in France.
The Joker’s Jewish identity might not seem important in today’s England, however, in the 12th century, England’s Jews were a separate community. They had their own legal status as servants of the king and were mostly engaged in finance. The anecdote seems to suggest a cordial relationship between Jews and Christian clergy. Gerald referred to the joke as a “witty and neat remark.” The Jewish traveler’s ability to tease the clergymen suggests a level of comfort between communities. Unfortunately, this would not last. Throughout the 12th and 13th centuries, English persecution of its Jews rose until the whole community was expelled in 1290.
Bibliography:
Aird, W. (2008) Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy (c.1050-1134) The Boydell Press.
Alexander, M.V.C (1998) Three Crises in Early English History: Personalities and Politics during the Norman Conquest, the Reign of King John, and the Wars of the Roses. University Press of America
Bax, E.B. (1899) The Social Side of the Reformation in Germany: The Peasants War in Germany 1525-26. The MacMillan Company.
Carpenter, D. Henry III Fine Rolls Project. Fine of the Month: November 2011, 1. The sense of humour of King Henry III. https://finerollshenry3.org.uk/content/month/fm-11-2011.html
DeVries, K. (2022) A Military History of the German Peasants’ Revolt. Medievalists.net
Higginbotham, S. (2013) The Woodvilles: The Wars of the Roses and England’s Most Infamous Family. The History Press
Jacobs, J. (1893) (ed.) The Jews of Angevin England: Documents and Records, from
Fordham University Medieval Sourcebook: Gerald of Wales: A Witty Jew, c. 1185
https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/1185geraldwales-wittyjew.asp
Jones, T. (1959) Giraldus Cambrensis (“Gerald of Wales’, Gerald de Barri) (1146? – 1223) archdeacon of Brecon and Mediaeval Latin writer, from the Dictionary of Welsh Biography.
https://biography.wales/article/s-GIRA-CAM-1146
Mount, F. (2023, Sep. 21) Frisking the Bishops. London Review of Books Vol. 45, No.18
Southworth, J. (1998) Fools and Jesters at the English Court. The History Press.
University of Oxford, Faculty of History: Why were the Jews expelled from England in 1290?
https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/why-were-the-jews-expelled-from-england-in-1290-0
