Title Background

Wynnere and Wastoure: When and Where?

Wynnere and Wastoure: When and Where?

The poet’s references to Sir William Shareshull, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench (line 317), and to working twenty-five years into the reign of what must be Edward III, point to treasonable activities and disturbers of the peace in 1352. The king’s knight who bore arms of three wings and who was handling winners and wasters must be Sir John Wingfield, who proposed with Shareshull to carry out a general eyre in Cheshire to restore public order in 1353, on the occasion of the visit of the Black Prince.