Personne

Court chapel of René d’Anjou, 1454-1479

He is received in June 1454 as a new singer of the recently established court chapel of René d'Anjou with Thomas Leporis*, and then paid with the whole group of chapel singers for the following months until october (F-Pm Français 8588, f. 93v: "A maistre Thomas Lelievre et Phelippes Deshayes, nouveaulx chantres venuz a ladite chappelle, pour leurs gaiges des moys de juign et juillet m cccc liiii la somme de vingt quatre escus a raison de six escus par moys pour chacun... Pour ce a livres trente troys livres cy xxxiii livres" etc. ; published by Allinson 1993, p. 77, misreading "Leheure" and "Deshanes" for "Lelievre" and "Deshayes").

All later lists of the court chapel are missing, but he is clearly attested again in the service of René d’Anjou 25 years later. He indeed certainly is the "Philippon, chantre" who distributed a payment to the singers for their participation in the singing of the Advent O antiphons in January 1479 (Arnaud d’Agnel 1908, t. 2, p. 438-439, n° 2941, after F-AD 13, B 2484, f. 10 : "Don aux chantres pour leur O des advens, du roy, par la main de Philippon, chantre, vii f° vii g°"). Indeed, Paul Merkley discovered several other mentions of Philippon des Hayes in that period. It first appears that, “in 1477, Philippon was given property that had been held by a courtier who had passed away” (Merkley 2017, p. 88, with n. 175 refering to F-AD 13, B 273, f. 31v; no other information). On 25 January 1479, a letter of confirmation from René d'Anjou was issued to secure a previous gift of the office of the "sergenteries des forêts d’Anjou" that Philippon had received on an unspecified date (this entry from F-AD 13, B 274, f. 45v, transcribed id., p. 86-87 [and see Appendix below] and reproduced p. 88, bears the date of the "XXV^e jour de janvier soixante dix huit", which must be in ancient style [1479 n.s.] though Merkley keeps the year as 1478). He also received a gift of 5 florins "at approximatively the same time" (ibid., refering to F-AD 13, B 2501: "A Philippon des Hayes, chantre dudit seigneur, la somme de cinq florins qui parée baillée et prestée lui a esté par ledit Girardin, pour s’entretenir ou service d'icelui seigneur, pour ce cy pars cedule signee de sa main, cy rendue ladite somme de V florins").

There is no doubt that these four mentions in the later 1470s refer to the singer who entered the chapel in 1454. It is still unclear whether Philippon remained continuously in service during these 25 years but Y. Esquieu apparently found a mention of him in April 1462 (Esquieu 1981, p. 303, refering to F-AD 13, 307 E 210, without page number, dated 26 April 1462  – "Philippon, peut-être Philippe de Hayes, attesté en 1462, 307 E 210, non paginé, 26 avril"; the content of the document is not mentionned). On the other hand, a published list of singers including "Philippin des Hayes, chantre de la chapelle", dated 1464 (Maxe-Werly 1897, p. 1002), might more probably be a confusion with the available lists of 1454.

As Merkley rightly noticed (p. 87), Des Hayes probably never became a cleric. This is implied by the fact that René had to provide him with a civil office in the 1470s, most probably because he could not be granted the kind of ecclesiastical benefices which provided an usual complementary income to ordained court singers. Burgundian dukes did the same with their lay singers, either membres of their chapel or not, as shown by the cases of Philippe du Passage* and Adrien Basin*. This in turn might also explain the lack of documentation on Philippon during the 25 years which separate his mentions in the little available court documentation. Despite this gap, the overall impression is that he still might very well have been a central figure of the court all along these years.

Unconvincing identification to the composer of works ascribed to "Delahaye"

P. Merkley (2017, passim, summarized on p. 165-166) proposes to identify this singer with the composer of the songs ascribed to "delahaye" in the Chansonnier Nivelle de la Chaussée (Niv). In the absence of argument that would encourage to disregard the distinct (and consistent) forms of the names "Deshayes" and "Delahaye", it is safer to assume that these ascriptions refer to the older singer Jean de La Haye*.

APPENDIX

Letter of confirmation of previous "lettres de vicariat" given to Philippon des Hayes, 25 January 1479 (F-AD 13, B 274, f. 45v, after reproduction in Merkley 2017, p. 88; my emendations of Merkley's edition, p. 86-87, in italic)

Lectre par laquelle le Roy declaire que toutes ses lectres qu'il pourroit [avoir] baillé a aucuns de ses serviteurs ou à autre prejudiciables à certaines lectres de vicariat que autrefoiz il bailla à Philippon des Hayes, chantre de sa chappelle, sur les offices des quatre segrayeries(1) des deulx sergenteries ou visiteur de poix, ballances et moulins, ou greffe des eaux et forestz d'Anjou, sont nulles comme si de nulle valleur contre la teneur dudit vicariat, et tout de nouvel luy reconferme iceluy vicariat. Donné en Arle le XXVe jour de janvier soixante dix huit, l'evesque de Marseille, vous et autres presens.

(1) Ségrairie: Bois possédé par indivis soit avec l'État, soit avec des particuliers (see CNRTL)