Books have been written about the symbolism of bald heads, court fools and jesters, jesters who were entertainers and minstrels
and the significance of asses ears on hoods. Most fools and jesters were men. I have included the few women jesters from the
internet for balance.
King's 'fools' fell into one of two categories; those that were simple and needed looking after and the clever, witty ones who lived
on their quips. There is evidence that the fool existed in medieval England in the surviving accounts of Hirard, the jester for the Saxon
King Edmund Ironsides (referred to as a joculator) as well as Rahere, who was Henry I’s jester and referred to as a minstrel. There
is some doubt as to whether English fools actually wore the earred hoods, bells and parti-coloured clothes or whether they were
used as symbols that people would understand. As yet there is no trace in early contemporary records and few images.
Foolishness is symbolized by the jester. Fools were thought of as low status, untrustworthy, clumsy and stupid. There was a long
European tradition of satirical works on fools going back to the twelfth century, and the word fool had, at the time, an underlying
Christian religious meaning of sinner, unbeliever, backslider. The root of the word "fool" is from the Latin follis, which means
"bag of wind" or that which contains air or breath. So sometimes the fool is playing a bagpipe. |
 standard jester outfit on a button |
Jesters clothes were always showy, often out-of-date, whether expensive or cheap, inapprpriate to the scene he is depicted in. |
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| Crude and indecent behaviour was expected of fools. |
 15th century, France |
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 12th century misericord
Alsace, France |
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 1345-1355 moral Bible, France |
 14th century Bohemia |
“the strange position of the damaged left hand
indicates that ‘the master’probably held another musical instrument... the musician has a sleigh bell attached to his dress"
‘The Image of the Fool in Late Medieval Bohemia’,
in: Umění/Art LXIV, 2016, 354–370 |
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 14th century France; this may be a horn and tabor
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 1420's France
IMAGE CREDIT LEEDS UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
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A closely-cropped head was a sign
of low birth and considered to be ugly. |
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 c 1430 Hague, Belgium |
 c.1450 England |
 1450-1475 Troyes, France |
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 15th century France
playing card 'buffoon' |
 15th century Germany jester playing pipe |
 1464 Roskilde cathedral, Denmark
jester playing pipe and bones |
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One Tarot card character is Death.
In the
Middle Ages
Death is often
shown in Jester's
garb because
"The last laugh is reserved for
death."
Also, Death
humbles everyone just
as jesters make fun of
everyone
regardless
of their standing in society. |
 possible taborer, misericord
[broken arm] |
 1457 |
 1467 Germany |
 1478 Italy, drummer |
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 15th century mirror back, France |
 15th century manuscript France |
 [unknown] |
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 15th century manuscript France |
 c.1440 France |
 1475-1480 Paris / the Loire region, France fol 7 |
 jester in tree |
 1480 Skivholme, Denmark |
 1480 house book from Wolfegg Castle, Germany |
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 1517 Germany 'natural fool' |
 1520 Beverley Minster, England, misericord |
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 1520 Bruges, Belgium |
'The tournament opponents with lances
on opposite sides. On the horse's tournament
blanket depictions of fools, including one with
a one-handed flute and cylinder drum'
1543 -1587 Germany
'a mounted jester with a
one-handed flute and drum' |
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 1570 band of jesters playing for Feast of Fools |
'Feast of Fools’ portrays a spectacular festival held in Antwerp, August 1561, although the festival began around 1200. The lower clergy and laity dressed up, ofen as donkeys/asses for the day.
In the original painting Brueghel interprets a play ‘Sotte Bollen’, performed at the festival. The Flemish word “sottebol” denotes a ballheaded fool: all the people are ballheaded, without hair. The Flemish association of ball-heads with foolishness is based on an old Flemish proverb, ‘His head turns foolish’.
This feast, never widespread, was largely confined to cathedrals and collegiate churches in northern France. |
 fool playing a pipe from
'
Feast of Fools' |
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 1572 edition of 'Ship of Fools'
[jester bent over pipe]
Basle, Switzerland |
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 Richard Tarleton (died 1588) Norwich, England |
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The symbolism of the jester being a fool still lingered into Victorian times. |
 1867 children's book
Mary Evans Picture Library
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 2023 Jester from
The Bourne River Morris Men |
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| Elizabethan fools: |
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 16th century Will Sommers
fool to Henry VIII
Mary Evans Picture Library
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Elizabethan fools wore feathers in their hats – residual of the coxcomb. Feathers were fashionable at court, but may also symbolise a fool.
Shakespeare uses the term 'coxcomb' to mean a foolish or vain person. |
 17th century
Archie, fool to 2 kings
Mary Evans Picture Library |
"The vogue of the court fool seemed to have steadily increased during the fourteenth and to have culminated in the fifteenth and in the sixteenth century, when he became a highly significant figure not only in social life, but still more in art and literature..." |
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In 2015, the town of Conwy in north Wales appointed Russel Erwood (aka Erwyd le Fol)
as the official resident jester of the town and its people, a post that had been vacant since 1295. |
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Women jesters |
1275-1325 
15th century France
1450 Germany tarot card 
200AD female dancer 
15th century woman jester 
1491 Danse Macabre 
16th century Picardy, France 
16th century Picardy, France 
Maria Bárbola, from 1651 employed by the Spanish court 
