How were traveling Minstrels in the Elizabethan Era financed?
They collected money as they traveled. They might be hired by a wealthy person to perform, or they might play in the street or at fairs and gather whatever coins or goods offered to them. By the Elizabethan era, wandering minstrels were rather less common; wealthy households and courts tended to have permanent musicians on staff, as it were. They were really a medieval phenomenon. See below.
