Dunstaple, Power and the mid-fifteenth century

The English career of John Dunstaple has been the subject recently of significant studies by Lisa Colton, who re-examined and extended a body of documentation first assembled by John Harvey, and by Roger Bowers, who separated from the composer a John Dunstaple senior who owned lands in Cambridgeshire, and possibly also a related John Dunstaple junior of London. But while the composer remains elusive as an individual, a set of family relationships link place the documented John Dunstaples in close proximity with John Duke of Bedford, in whose service it has long been known that the composer was employed as ‘musicus’. This paper argues the salience of the family network, as well as individual identity, in shaping a picture of Dunstable’s activities and links with patrons. It explores other aspects of the Bedford household diaspora following the duke’s death in 1435, presenting new documents illuminating the late career of Lionel Power. Finally it offers some reflections on the wider implications of these materials for the construction of the mid fifteenth century in English music history, the importance of urban networks in framing this landscape, and the networked character of the Royal Household Chapel and its members, moving beyond silos at the personal or organisational level. New documentation on the composers Thomas Damett, Nicholas Sturgeon, and John Bedyngham is also presented.