CLASSIFICATION


The two lists in the household books classify the members of the
household in different ways--one list according to function and the
other, apparently, according to length of service. The first is the
system according to which the schedule of names conjecturally dated
December 1368 [Footnote: Printed as number 53 of the Chaucer Records
(page 162).] was made, and the latter is the system governing the list
of September 1, 1369 (_number_ 58 Chaucer _Records_, page
_172_.) A glance at the second of these and comparison with the
first will show how it was made up. It classifies the esquires in two
groups--"esquiers de greindre estat" and "esquiers de meindre degree."
Looking at the names of the "esquiers de greindre estat" we notice that
the first thirteen are names which appear in the group of "esquiers" of
1368, that the next ten are identical--even in the order of
occurrence--with the list of "sergeantz des armes" of 1368, that the
following seven are the first seven in the list of "sergeantz des
offices parvantz furrures a chaperon" of 1368 (in the same order), that
then Andrew Tyndale who in 1368 was an "esquier ma dame" appears, and is
followed by the rest of, the "sergeantz des offices parvantz furrures,"
etc., (in the same order as in 1368) that the next six were in 1368
"esquiers ma dame," and that finally occur ten names not found in the
lists of 1368. From this comparison it is clear that the list of 1369
was made up from a series of lists of different departments in the
king's household.