Note 18 — Chapter IV

“Edward Frederic Mylius is fortunate, living as he does in times when justice is tempered by extreme leniency. In former times the Kings of England had no lack of power in dealing with those who slandered Royalty. To cite only one instance, King Henry the First had been lampooned by a former friend, Luke de Barre, a troubadour knight. The unfortunate man was condemned to lose his eyes on the scaffold by the hands of the public executioner.

“Many intercessions were made in his favour, but the King replied:—‘No, for this man, being a wit, a bard, and a minstrel forsooth, hath composed many ribald songs against me and sung them to raise the horse-laugh of mine enemies. Now it hath pleased God to deliver him into my hands, punished he shall be to deter others from the like petulance.’ It is not quite clear whether the sentence was carried out as arranged. Some chroniclers assert that De Barre’s eyes were in fact put out, and that he died of the torture, while others say that he cheated the executioner by dashing out his brains against the stone wall of his prison. In either case the incident shows that to libel Royalty in the twelfth century was a perilous venture.”