John audelay biography

John Audelay (or Awdelay; died c. 1426) was an English priest and poet from Haughmond Abbey, in Shropshire; one of the few English poets of the period whose name is known to us.

Some of the first Christmas carols recorded in English appear among his works.

Biography

The little that is known to us about Audelay's life comes mainly from Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Douce 302.

John audelay biography wikipedia

The manuscript contains the text of all sixty-two of his surviving poems. The dialect of Middle English used in MS Douce 302 is local to Staffordshire, and it has been suggested that Audelay may therefore have come from the Staffordshire village of Audley.

However, the earliest biographical record of Audelay places him in London in 1417, when he was part of the household of Richard, 7th Baron Strange of Knockin.

Strange was made to do public penance for his involvement in a brawl at St Dunstan-in-the-East church on Easter Sunday in which a parishioner was killed, and was accompa