Rahere - d.1144 - Medieval Personality of the Month

Making a living as a poor villain or surf in the Middle Ages in England can't have been easy but do not think that only in Italy could a man scale the social ladder. During the early 12thC the development of spoken culture and the heritage of the newly forming English literature was producing opportunities for those with musical and poetic skill. One such character known from around the 1120's is a minstrel named Rahere.

What is known about Rahere is an interwoven history which threads between fact and fiction. A feature of poetry as well as actual historical reality, Rahere lingers, like so many ideas about the Middles Ages, as an paradigm of his era. We know that he had been the favorite courtier of Henry I but that he is also known as having been employed in a musical or clerical capacity in the Church and is named as one of the Cannons of St Paul's Cathedral from a document dating 1115.

The Book of Foundation, written within a few years after Rahere's death, explains Rahere's humble beginnings but elucidates on his intellect, wit and his inevitable potential for social escalation;

THIS man, sprung of humble lineage, when he reached the flower of youth began to haunt the household of nobles and the palaces of princes. Sewing pillows upon all elbows (Ezek. xiii. 18), he drew to friendship with himself those whom he had soothed with jokes and flatterings. And, not content with this, he approached the king's palace with some frequency and resorted to the tumults of that tumultuous court and with jocular flattery desired to attract to himself with ease the hearts of many. There he made it his business all day long to attend spectacles, banquets, jests and the rest of the trifles of the court, and, with shameless face betaking himself to the suite -- now of the king, now of the nobles -- he assiduously employed a complaisance that should please them and obtain with greater ease anything that it pleased him to seek. By these means he was well known to, intimate with, and a comrade of the king and of the great men of the court.

Rudyard Kipling wrote in his poem 'Rahere'

Rahere, King Henry's jester, feared by all the Norman Lords
For his eye that pierced their bosoms, for his tongue that shamed their swords;
Feed and flattered by the Churchmen, well they knew how deep he stood
In dark Henry's crooked counsels, fell upon an evil mood.

Rahere's most lasting legacy is his Vision and consequent Foundation of St Bartholomew's Priory and Hospital in London.

Samantha Farhall, St. Bart's Archivist, describes Rahere's achievment;

In 1118, Henry I’s wife Matilda died, followed two years later by the heir to the throne, Prince William, and his brother, half-brother and sister, who all drowned when the White Ship sank. These events inspired Rahere to live a more worthy life and to undertake religious works, including making a pilgrimage to Rome.

During his travels, Rahere became ill with ‘Roman fever’, now thought to have been malaria. Rahere prayed for recovery from his illness and vowed that if his prayer was answered he would build a hospital for the sick poor in London. He was indeed restored to health and began his journey home. On the way, Saint Bartholomew appeared to Rahere in a vision and told him: ‘I am Bartholomew, Apostle of Jesus Christ, and am come to help thee in thy difficulty. I have chosen a place in Smithfield where, in my name, thou shalt found a church… this spiritual house the Almighty Lord shall inhabit, sanctify and preserve unspotted for ever and ever.’

And so he did, and in 1123 both the Priory and Hospital were Founded. Though both institutions were escaped the Great Fire of London in 1666, no remains of the hospital that Rahere lived to see built in completion, remain. Miss Farhall does however, showcase the original Grant, dating 1137, which details Rahere as granting a Hagno Clericus and the canons and the poor in St Bartholomew’s Hospital, the use of the church of St Sepulchre.

St Bart's had a reputation for helping the sick, needy and impoverished and still carries that bench mark today in treating the traumatized and the homeless.

For further reading the excellent Tina Bird provides much information on her website:
http://www.raheresgarden.com/

See also:-
http://www.bartsandthelondon.nhs.uk/aboutus/raheres_grant.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahere

http://www.fairground-heritage.org.uk/newsite/learn/learn-barts.html

http://books.google.com/books?id=iDI2AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA63&lpg=PA63&dq=rahere+minstrel&source=bl&ots=02QoRkvRG7&sig=sv_BNv241kzWg3vc0Re2QRRtSCM&hl=en&ei=WUgqTcHmJcq2hQfFmNSkAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&sqi=2&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=rahere%20minstrel&f=false

http://books.google.com/books?id=K0UJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA263&lpg=PA263&dq=rahere+minstrel&source=bl&ots=XNB_hNqMUc&sig=WqpMMHBkjFrY7Gun1HZpXaQrgUc&hl=en&ei=WUgqTcHmJcq2hQfFmNSkAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=rahere%20minstrel&f=false

http://www.1902encyclopedia.com/L/LON/london-30.html