In England, the Lord of Misrule – known in Scotland as the Abbot of Unreason and in France as the Prince des Sots – was an officer appointed by lot during Christmastide to preside over the Feast of Fools. The Lord of Misrule was generally a peasant or sub-deacon appointed to be in charge of Christmas revelries, which often included drunkenness and wild partying.
The Catholic Church in England held a similar festival involving a boy bishop.[1] This custom was abolished by Henry VIII in 1541, restored by the Catholic Mary I and again abolished by Protestant Elizabeth I, though here and there it lingered on for some time longer.[2] In continental Europe, it was suppressed by the Council of Basel in 1431, but was revived in some places from time to time, even as late as the eighteenth century. In the Tudor period, the Lord of Misrule (sometimes called the Abbot of Misrule or the King of Misrule)[1] is mentioned a number of times by contemporary documents referring to revels both at court and among the ordinary people.[3][4][5]
While mostly known as a British holiday custom, some folklorists, such as James Frazer and Mikhail Bakhtin (who is said to have borrowed the novel idea from Frazer), have claimed that the appointment of a Lord of Misrule comes from a similar custom practised during the Roman celebration of Saturnalia.[6][7] In ancient Rome, from 17 to 23 December (in the Julian calendar), a man chosen to be a mock king was appointed for the feast of Saturnalia, in the guise of the Roman deity Saturn.[1][6] This hypothesis has been heavily criticized by William Warde Fowler and as such, the Christmas custom of the Lord of Misrule during the Christian era and the Saturnalian custom of antiquity may have completely separate origins;[6] the two separate customs, however, can be compared and contrasted.[6][8] Many of the customs regarding the Lord of Misrule have been incorporated into modern-day Carnival and Mardi Gras celebrations.[9]
- ^ a b c Love, Suzi (20 December 2013). History of Christmases Past: History Events. Suzi Love. ISBN 9780992345686.
- ^ "Tudor Christmas, The Anne Boleyn Files". Archived from the original on 16 January 2012. Retrieved 10 January 2012.
- ^ Stow, John. "A Survey of London (1603)". British History Online. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
- ^ Hadfield, Miles & John (1961). The Twelve Days of Christmas. London: Cassell. pp. 134–135.
- ^ Higginbotham, Susan. "The Lord of Misrule Comes to Court: 1551/52". Archived from the original on 15 April 2012. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
- ^ a b c d Miles, Clement A. (25 November 2016). Christmas in Ritual and Tradition. Xist Publishing. p. 108. ISBN 9781681955988.
A striking feature of the Saturnalia was the choosing by lot of a mock king, to preside over the revels. ... This king may have been originally the representative of the god Saturn himself. In the days of the classical writers he is a mere 'Lord of Misrule', but Dr. Frazer has propounded the very interesting theory that this time of privilege and gaiety was once the prelude to a grim sacrifice in which he had to die in the character of the god, giving his life for the world. Dr. Frazer's theory, dependent for its evidence upon the narrative of the martyrdom of a fourth-century saint, Dasius by name, has been keenly criticized by Dr. Warde Fowler. ... Still, in whatever way the king of the Saturnalia may be explained, it is interesting to note his existence and compare him with the merry monarchs whom we shall meet at Christmas and Twelfth Night.
- ^ Bagshaw, Hilary B.P. (8 April 2016). Religion in the Thought of Mikhail Bakhtin. Routledge. p. 95. ISBN 9781317067450.
This appears to be an unacknowledged borrowing from Frazer, which would be hard to explain in any other way than direct or indirect transmission of Frazer's ideas. Material on Saturnalia alone might well come from a different source, but the association of Saturnalia and the medieval carnival is strongly suggestive of affiliation to Frazer. Bakhtin picks up, and reinforces, the idea taken from Saturnalia, that the festive period is a time when political order is overturned, slavery was temporarily abolished and hierarchies may have been inverted.
- ^ Jeffrey, Yvonne (27 September 2008). The Everything Family Christmas Book. Everything Books. p. 46. ISBN 9781605507835.
The Lord of Misrule was ... appointed by the king and nobility to reign over the twelve days of Christmas. ... Much of the custom surrounding the Lord of Misrule had parallels with the Roman Saturnalia, during which masters and slaves changed places, with general rowdiness abounding.
- ^ McMahon, A. Philip; Bridaham, Lester Burbank (May 1931). "Gargoyles, Chimeres, and the Grotesque in French Gothic Sculpture". Parnassus. 3 (5): 38. doi:10.2307/770541. hdl:2027/mdp.39015007224945. JSTOR 770541.