ABSTRACT
Some 24 years later, in 1413, King Fernando wrote from Lerida asking that the same minstrels, or perhaps their descendants, along with their wives – los jutglars moros Alfuleys ab ses mullers – be sent to him at Zaragoza for an event to take place on January 12, noting in passing that they used to entertain his uncle, King Martin I. Musicians with first-hand knowledge of what “Moorish” music sounded like traveled the intricate itineraries of court minstrels throughout Europe, and musicians from the Muslim South came into direct contact with music from across Europe. In the Age of Minstrels, a minstrel might be much more than just a musician. The Catholic Monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand put an end to the remarkable musical cosmopolitanism of their predecessors and instead hired almost exclusively Iberian musicians for their chapel and court, and they no longer sent their minstrels to the “escuelas de Flandes.”.
