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ELSEVIER Journal of Medieval History 21 (1995) 387-403

Two Byzantine craftsmen in fifteenth-century London*

Jonathan Harris
University College London. Department of History. London, WCIE 6B'I, UK

Abstract

It is generally thought, largely on the basis of a Icttcr of Cardinal Bessarion, that, by the
1440s, the Byzantine Empire had been completely overtaken by the West in all spheres of
technical expertisc. This idea is challengcd the evidence of some documents the Public
Record Office in London which show that, between at least 1441 and 1483, two gold wire
drawers from Constantinople, named Andronicus and Alexius Effomatos, lived and
worked in the English capital. It is argued that these craftsmen were welcomed because
thcy specialised in making gold thread of a type which had long been manufactured in
Byzantium but was superior in strength and economy to that produced in England. Indeed,
since the earliest evidence for native English production of this type of gold thread dates
from the period of their residence in London, thcrc is at least the possibility that they
actually introduced their craft into England, reversing the relative balance of technology as
it is usually portrayed.

Most modern accounts of the closing years of Byzantium in the first half of the
fiftcenth century lay stress not only on the Empirc's decline as a political cntity,
but also on the loss of its former cultural and technical superiority over the
Christian West. There is plenty of contcmporary evidence in the writings of
Byzantine intellectuals to support this view, especially in the famous letter written
by the G r c c k Cardinal Bessarion (1402-72) to Constantinc Palacologus, Despot
of the Morea, in about 1440. Bessarion's main contention was that the Empire

JONA'rIIAN HARRIS completed a doctorate in 1992 on Greek refugees in Western Europe during the
tiftcenth century. He now works at the B e n t h a m project, University College, London.
* T h e research which led up to this essay was made possible by the financial support of the British
A c a d e m y , the Central Research Fund of the University of London, the A . G . l,eventis Foundation,
the Levcrhulmc Trust and the Worshipful C o m p a n y of Gold and Silver Wyrc Drawers. My thanks are
also due to the following for their advice and support: Dr. David Abulafia, Dr. Caroline Barron, Dr.
Helen Bradley. Ms. Melissa Bryan, Miss J. Chrysostomidcs, Dr. Hero Granger-Taylor, Dr. A n d r e w
O d d y , Professor F. Rosen and Dr. Kay Staniland. Thc opinions expressed in it and any errors it may
contain, however, are the sole responsibility of the author.

0304-4181/95/$09.50 © 1995 - Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

SSDI 0 3 0 4 - 4 1 8 1 ( 9 5 ) 0 0 7 7 2 - 5
388 J. Harris / Journal of Medieval History 21 (1995) 387-403

had fallen so far behind the West in the technical sphere that the only way in
which it could possibly survive would be by sending y o u n g G r e e k s to Italy to learn
the useful skills which the Byzantines had lost, such as iron working, arms
m a n u f a c t u r e and silk making. ~
F r o m Bessarion's words, scholars have drawn the obvious conclusion. A . G .
Keller suggested that '... we can at least w o n d e r w h e t h e r this period does not
m a r k perhaps the stage when Western E u r o p e first surpassed her neighbours in a
field which has ever since distinguished h e r - w e s t e r n technology'. 2 Forty years
after Keller wrote, the opinion of most Byzantine scholars seems to have
r e m a i n e d u n c h a n g e d , A l e x a n d e r K a z h d a n stating that ' B y z a n t i u m had fallen
hopelessly b e h i n d ' by the fifteenth century. 3 O n e wonders, however, w h e t h e r
Bessarion's letter really warrants the trust placed in it as an indicator of the
relative technical proficiency of Byzantine East and Latin West. A b o d y of
evidence from the Public R e c o r d Office in L o n d o n suggests that he painted too
dismal a picture and that there was at least one area of technology in which
B y z a n t i u m still excelled the West.
Perhaps the best starting-point for an examination of this evidence is the early
s e v e n t e e n t h century, when the English House of C o m m o n s b e c a m e involved in a
h e a t e d debate about the origins of a hitherto obscure craft. The affair was
s p a r k e d off in May 161 1 when the king, James I, granted a patent or m o n o p o l y to
R i c h a r d Dike and others over the m a n u f a c t u r e of gold and silver thread 4 thus
p r o v o k i n g the e n t r e n c h e d opposition of the Goldsmiths' C o m p a n y . T h e root of
the goldsmiths' objections lay in the fact that, while the patent alleged that the
beneticiaries had been the first to produce their c o m m o d i t y in E n g l a n d , the craft
was no new invention at all and had been practised in L o n d o n by m e m b e r s of the
5
G o l d s m i t h C o m p a n y for m a n y years.
T h e y sought to substantiate their case in two ways. In the tirst place, they

S.P. Lambros, IlaAatoAdyeta Kai rreAoTrovvocrraK&, 4 vols (Athens, 1912-3(I), vol. 4, 32-45, esp. 32;
Deno J. Geanakoplos, Byzantium- church, society and civilisation seen through contemporary eyes
(Chicago and London, 1984), no. 287,379. See also: Deno J. Geanakoplos, 'A Byzantine looks at the
Renaissance', Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 1 (1958), 157-62, esp. 160-1; lhor gev~enko,
'The decline of Byzantium as seen by its intellectuals', Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 15 (1961), 169-86,
esp. 176: D.M. Nicol, 'The Byzantine view of Western Europe', Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies,
8 (1967), 315-39, esp. 335-6.
:A.G. Keller, 'A Byzantine admirer of "western" progress: Cardinal Bessarion', Cambridge
ttistorieal Journal, 11 (1953-5), 343-8, esp. 348.
Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, 3 vols (Oxford, 1991), vol. 3, 2021.
Calendar of the State Papers (Domestic Series), 94 vols (London, 1857-1924), (1611-81, 33; SR.
Gardiner, "On four letters from Lord Bacon to Christian IV, king of Denmark, together with
observations on the part taken by him in the grants of monopolies made by .lames I', Archaeologia,
41, pt. 1 (1867), 219-69, esp. 237-8; M.A. Abrams, "The English gold and silver thread monopolies,
1611-21', Journal of Economic and Business History, 3 (1930-1), 382-406.
' London, Public Record Office, E112/100/1113; Gardiner, "Four letters', 237. 242-5.
 J. Harris / Journal of Medieval History 21 (1995) 387-403 389

demonstrated their acquaintance with the craft by giving a detailed description of

the process, summarising it as the 'drawing, milling, flatting, whippingc or
spinninge of gould and silver threed' or simply as 'gold wire drawing'. 6 From this
it is clear that what was being referred to involved the process of gold wire
drawing which produces a fine wire by pulling a bar of the metal through a die.
However, the goldsmiths evidently did not mean the gold wire drawing technique
per se but its use to make gold thread. This was achieved by flattening and
spinning the wire and then interweaving it with silk threads. 7
Secondly, the goldsmiths who opposed the patent were able to produce several
individuals who swore that they had manufactured gold thread by this method
during the previous reign. Thomas Williams claimed that hc had made it for 20
years and his master for 20 years before him, and one extremely elderly man
affirmed that he had done so for over 5(1 years. ~ Indeed, the goldsmiths went on to
declare that the origins of this craft lay far beyond living memory, when it had
been in the hands, not of native-born Englishmen, but of aliens. To prove it they
alluded to an act of common council of the third year of the reign of Edward IV,
which referred to alien gold wire drawers living in London and which forbade
them to establish shops within the city. This act, which can be dated precisely to
12 October 1463, was regarded as being the earliest reference to craftsmen of this
trade practising in England?
No names were mentioned in this act but it is corroborated by the evidence
contained in the archives of the Goldsmiths' Company. The Minute Book for
1468 records at least one alien gold wire drawer among the Company's members,
although his name was given simply as "Manntrot' and his nationality left open to
conjecture. TM
It is only with an entry in the close rolls recording a gift of goods and chattels
under the date 5 October 1471, some 8 years after the act of 1463, that light is
shed on the possible ethnic origin of somc of these alien craftsmen. The document
mentions two individuals, clearly membcrs of the same family, called Andrcas

" L o n d o n , Public Record Office, El 12/1(~1/1113, f.2r. 6r: Gardiner, 'Four letters', 244.
' T h e process is described in more detail in I-I.E. Wulff, The traditional crafts o] Persia (Cambridge;
Mass. and London, 1966). 4(I-4; J. B c c k m a n n , A history of inventions, discoveries and origins, trans.
W. J o h n s t o n , 2 vols (London, 1846), Vol. 1, 414-24.
~ l , o n d o n , Public Record Office, E112/100/1113. f.2r, 6r; Journals of the House of Commons.
(1547-1629), 543; Gardiner, 'Four letters', 243-4.
" l,ondon. Public Record Office, E112/101J/1113, f.2r, 6r; Gardiner, 'Four letters', 244-5; Journals of
the tlouse of Commons, ( 1547-1629), 543. The act reterred to must be that calendared in Calendar of
Letter-books of the City of London: Letter-book L, cd. R.R. Sharpe (London, 1912), 37. It rcfcrs
specilically to gold wire drawers and not just to wirc drawers as found in many earlier documents.
~" l_xmdon, Goldsmiths C o m p a n y Archives, Minute Book A (1444-1516), 120-1: Marian Campbell,
'Gold, silver and precious stones', in: English medieval industries-craftsmen, techniques, products, cd.
J. Blair and N. Ramsay (I,ondon, 19911, 107-66, esp. 134, notes 124 and 128.
390 J. Harris / Journal of Medieval ttisto O, 21 (199.5) 387-403

and Alexander Effamate. In addition, the former is described as a 'golddrawer of

damask gold'.~
Could this Andreas be one of the gold wire drawers mentioned in the act of
1463? The close rolls sccm to indicate that he was not a native Englishman,
describing him as being originally from a place called "Constantini civitas'. Thc
location of this 'city of Constantine" is somewhat problematic. The editor of the
Calendar of the Close Rolls suggcsts Constantine in North Africa as his place of
origin ~-~ but a comparison with another documcnt suggests that these early gold
wire drawers came from the Iirst and foremost city of Constantine, that is to say
from Constantinople.
That this was so emerges from a safe-conduct issued by Henry VI nearly 30
years carlier. Dated January 1445, it gives leave for two brothers, named as
Andronicus and Alexius ' E f f o m a t u s ' and four servants in their company, to
remain in England and to practise their craft of making 'damask gold' in spite of
their being aliens. This time there is no doubt about their nationality, for the
safe-conduct categorically states that they wcrc natives of the city of
Constantinople.~3
These two documents, the close roll entry and the safe-conduct, enable us to
draw certain conclusions. The two brothers of the 1445 safe-conduct wcrc almost
certainly connected with the golddrawers of 1471. The name ' E f f o m a t u s ' is plainly
a variation of ' E f f a m a t e ' and in both cases their craft was said to involve damask
gold. It is possible, too, that the Alexius Effomatus of 1445 was the Alexander
Effamate of 1471, sincc Alcxius is merely a medieval form of Alexander. It
seems, then, beyond doubt that there were Byzantine gold wire drawcrs in
London between at least 1445 and 1471.
T h e r e are other extant documents which give further information on how many
there were and what their names were. Most useful of all are the records of the
alicn subsidy, a tax on non-English rcsidcnts of thc realm which was levied
sporadically between 1440 and 1483. In order to make the collection of the tax
possible, the local justiccs of the peace were responsible for drawing up lists of
those of foreign birth dwelling in their areas. A systematic examination of these
lists rcveals the Byzantine gold wire drawers to have bccn includcd in them. H

~ L o n d o n , Public Record Office, C54/323, m e m b r a n e 17v: Calendar of the (,?lose Rolls. 611 vols
( L o n d o n , 19115-63), (1468-76), no. 752, 2113.
~" Calendar of the Close Rolls, (1468-76), 403 (index).
~ L o n d o n , Public Record Office, C76/127, E28/74/11: Pour Andronicus Effomato ct Alexius
Effomato son lirre, natifs de la citee de Constantinople en Grote, ouvcrrers d'or de damaske ct pour
quatrc serviteurs en leur compagnie. See also: T h o m a s Rymer, Foedera, Litterae, Conventiones, etc.,
Ill vols (The Hague, 1735-45), vol. 5, pt. I, 139 (= vol. 11, 77 in 1st cd.).
~~O n the alien subsidy see: S.I,. Thrupp, 'A survey of the alien l~pulation of England in 144(1".
Speculum, 32 (1957), 262-73; S.L. Thrupp, 'Aliens in and around London in the fifteenth century', in:
Studies in London history presented to P.E. Jones, ed. A.E.J. Hollacnder and W. Kcllaway ( L o n d o n ,
1969), 251-72.
 J. Harris ,' Journal of Medieval History 21 (1995) 387-403 391

In all four returns of aliens made betwcen 1441 and 1443 for the ward of
Cripplegate in London, there were two householders usually described as
15
"Andreas Grekys et Alexander Grekys, socius suus'. In the assessment taken on
18 January 1443, however, their names were written down as "Andreas Esmafi'
and "Alexander Esmali'. ~ It is reasonable to assume that this represents an inept
attempt to reproduce the name Effomatus. The man who was responsible for
overseeing the compilation of the list, Alderman William Estfeld, is hardly likely
to have known any G r e e k or to have been familiar with G r e e k names, ~7 so it is
not surprising that his attempt to reproduce a totally unrecognisable surname
should vary somewhat from the original.
One can go further and suggest that while Alexander "Esmafi" was probably the
Alexius Effomatus of the 1445 safe-conduct, it is also possible that Andrcas
*Esmafi" and the Andreas Effamate of the close rolls were the same man as
Andronicus Effomatus. Andronicus was not a Christian name which is likely to
have been familiar to a Iifteenth-century Londoner, and Estfeld may have been
t e m p t e d to equate it with the less exotic ' A n d r e w ' . This theory is reinforced by
the fact that only two m e m b e r s of the family ever appear in the alien subsidy
records, it therefore seems likely that there were two brothers, named An-
dronicus and Alexius and that their surname was something like "Effomatos" as
given in the 1445 safe-conduct, since this, at least, has the sound of being Greek. TM
These documents also give a good indication of the nature of the craft pursued
by these immigrants. There can be no doubt that they produced gold wire, since
the last two alien subsidy lists call Alexius/Alexander a 'goldwirdrawer'J '; The
safe-conduct of 1445, however, describes both brothers as ouverrers d'or de
damas'ke and the close roll entry of 1471 calls Andronicus/Andreas a 'golddrawer
auri damasci'. These words imply that their gold wire would be used in textiles.
Draps d'or de damas was one of the names given to gold embroidered cloth,
while gold damask was a type of fabric produced by weaving gold threads into
satin. TM It is very likely, therefore, that they were making gold thread by the
drawing process, the very craft which was in dispute in 1611.
T h e r e is nothing unusual about Byzantine craftsmen producing gold thread.
Gold wire had been extensively turned out by the workshops of Constantinople
throughout the middle ages and was used not only as damascening or inlay in

~' London. Public Record Office, E179/144/42, f.25r: E179/144/50, f.4r E179/144/53, f. 14r. Their
servant Peter was also recorded among the non-householders.
]" l,ondon, Public Record Oftice, E179/144/52, f.6r.
~' On Estfeld, see S.L. Thrupp, lhe merchant class of medieval London (Ann Arbor. 1962), 338.
t, It seems to consist of two Greek words, ¢~, pronounced "cv" or 'cff', meaning 'good" or "beautiful"
and ~aTo~, thc genitive form of ro c')~tzo~, "thc eye'.
t,, London, Public Record Oftice, E179/264/34, f.4r; E179/242/25, f. 10r.
~" L. Dou6t d'Arcq, Nouveau receuil de comptes de l'argenterie des rois de France (l'aris, 1874), 142, J.
tterald Renaissance dress in Italy (I,ondon, 1981), 73, 78-9.
392 J. Harris / Journal o f Medieval History 21 (1995) 387-403

metalwork :~ but also in thread. Byzantine embroiderers used two types of gold
and silver thread in their work. One, the chryssonima, was made by hammering
thin strips of the metal and winding them around a core of silk thread and so did
not involve the drawing process.:: The other type, however, contained gold wire
which was flattcncd and then spun around the fabric core. -'~ The use of this latter
type of thread in embroidery has been clearly revealed by a scientific examination
of an embroidered belt, believed to have been made in Thessalonica in the
fourteenth century and recently acquired by the British Museum. The tests
revealed that all three samples of thread contained wire. rather than thin strips,
and that sometimes the wire was even used by itself as thread without being
twisted around fibres. 2~
Several other examples of such handiwork survive from the last two centuries of
the Empire, the period which produced some of the finest Byzantine embroidery.
A m o n g them are the patriarchal vestment known as the "Dalmatic of Char-
lemagne', now in the Vatican, the Patmos Stole and the Epitaphios of
Thcssalomca.- Indeed, the Byzantine Empire acquired an international reputa-
tion for producing high-quality work of this type. According to the fourteenth-
century Arab traveller, lbn Battuta, the G r e e k women of Laodicea were
particularly famous for their gold embroidered clothes, z"
The reputation of Byzantine craftsmen in this field extended as far as Western
Europe where gold embroidered textiles seem to have been associated with the
G r e e k world in the minds of Westerners. They were often described 'silk wrought
with gold and silver of Cyprus' and a Middle High G e r m a n epic poem describes
such 'fine f a b r i c s . . , woven with gold" among the gifts brought to King Arthur's
court from Greece. -~7 The high value which was placed on them emerges from thc

'~ As in the bronze doors of the church of St. Paul's without-the-walls in Rome which wcrc cast in
Constantinople in 111711:A.L. Frothingham, "A Syrian artist, author of the bronze doors at St. Paul's.
R o m e ' , American Journal o f Archaeology. 18 (1914), 484-91.
2: Pauline Johnstone, The Byzantine tradition in church embroide O" (London. 1967). 68. This seems to
have bccn the process used to make A a r o n ' s Ephod in Exodus 39:2.-3• Thc use of gold thread by
Byzantine embroiderers is attested as early as the fourth century A.D.: Tiberius Claudius Donatus.
lnterpretationes Vergilianae, ed. H. Gcorg, 2 vols (Bibliothcca Scriptorum G r a c c o r u m ct R o m a n o r u m .
l,eipzig, 1905 6), vol. 2. p. 529.
'~ Wulff. Crafts. 40-7" Johnstone, Tradition, 68.
~' London. British M u s e u m . M & L A 1990. 12-1,1. Results of analysis made on 28 January 1992. l a m
indebted to llero Granger Taylor of the British M u s e u m for providing me with this information.
~Jot'mstonc, "l)'adition, 119, plates. 31-4; John Bcckwith Earl)" £'hristian and Byzantine art,
( H a r m o n d s w o r t h , 1979), 334-9; L. Bouras, "The Epitaphios of Thcssaloniki, Byzantine M u s e u m of
A t h e n s no. 685." in: l,'art de Thessahmique et des pays balkaniques et les courants spirituel,~ au XIVe
sieeh" - receuil des rapports du IVe colloque serbo-grec, Belgrade 1985 (Belgrade, 1987), 211-31.
~" Ibn Battuta, The travels, trans. H . A . R . Gibb, 3 w)ls (Hakluyt Society, Cambridge, 1958-71 ), vol. 2,
425•
:: Rotuli Parliamentorum, 6 vols (l,ondon. 1767), vol. 4, 255" Hcinrich von dem T/irlin, 7he Crown.
trans. J. W. T h o m a s (Lincoln, Nebraska and l,ondon. 1989), 8; Henry R. Kahane, Rcnde Kahanc,
Angelina Pictrangcli, 'Cultural criteria for western borrowings from Byzantine Grcck', in: Homenaje a
Antonio Tovar (Madrid, 1972), 2115-29. esp. 205-6.
 J. Harris / Journal of Medieval Itistory 21 (1995) 387-403 393

rules for foreign m e r c h a n t s visiting the p o r t of L o n d o n in the e a r l y t h i r t e e n t h

c e n t u r y . A m o n g t h e m was the s t i p u l a t i o n that the m e r c h a n t s had to tie up their
ships at L o n d o n B r i d g e and wait until the sheriff and the king's c h a m b e r l a i n h a d
i n s p e c t e d t h e i r wares. If t h e y i n c l u d e d any pailles or gold cloths from C o n -
s t a n t i n o p l e , these w e r e to be t a k e n at once for the king's use. 2~ A few e x a m p l e s of
such e x p e n s i v e i m p o r t s still survive in c a t h e d r a l treasuries. 2''
Yet a l t h o u g h the quality of B y z a n t i n e gold fabrics had far e x c e l l e d a n y t h i n g
which was p r o d u c e d in the W e s t in the e a r l i e r m i d d l e ages, o n e w o n d e r s to w h a t
e x t e n t this was still the case by the f o u r t e e n t h and fifteenth c e n t u r i e s . By t h e n ,
g o l d e m b r o i d e r e d cloth o f a high s t a n d a r d was b e i n g p r o d u c e d all o v e r W e s t e r n
E u r o p e . S e v e r a l c e n t r e s in Italy, especially Lucca, specialiscd in its m a n u f a c t u r e 3~
but E n g l a n d also had a s h a r e in the industry. S o m e of the finest ecclesiastical
v e s t m e n t s c o n t a i n i n g gold t h r e a d were of English origin and were f a m o u s
t h r o u g h o u t E u r o p e as O p u s A n g h c a n u m . TM T h e m a k i n g of fine gold cloth was not,
t h e r e f o r e , s o m e t h i n g o v e r which B y z a n t i u m had a m o n o p o l y in the later m e d i e v a l
period.
W h y then w e r e A n d r o n i c u s and A l e x i u s E f f o m a t o s able to establish t h e m s e l v e s
in L o n d o n , if t h e y were p r o d u c i n g n o t h i n g that local c r a f t s m e n c o u l d not m a k e ?
T h e a n s w e r m a y lie in the type of t h r e a d they m a d e , r a t h e r than in the finished
fabric. G o l d t h r e a d was m a d e by a v a r i e t y of m e t h o d s t h r o u g h o u t E u r o p e . In
G e n o a t h e r e was a thriving industry, largely in the h a n d s of w o m e n , which
p r o d u c e d it by w r a p p i n g the silk t h r e a d in a thin s h e e t of pig o r l a m b gut a n d then
c o v e r i n g this with a l a y e r of gold. In Paris a g r o u p of artisans k n o w n as batteurs
d ' o r et d ' a r g e n t i~ filer w e r e clearly m a k i n g the t y p e which e m p l o y e d h a m m e r e d
strips o f the m e t a l . 32 This l a t t e r t y p e s e e m s also to have b e e n that g e n e r a l l y used,
a n d p e r h a p s also m a d e , in E n g l a n d . 33 T h e r e d o e s not a p p e a r to be any e v i d e n c e

2~M. Bateson, "A London municipal collection from the reign of King John', English Historical
Review, 17 (19(12), 4811-511 esp. 496, 499. The word pailles was often used to denote gold
embroidered cloth from Alexandria in Egypt but also from Greece: F. Michel, Reeherehes sur le
commerce, la fabrication el l'usage des ¢;toffes de sole, d'or el d'argent, 2 vols (Paris. 1852-4), vol. I,
275-8.
2~E. Chartraire, Le trdsor de la cathddrale de Sens (Paris, 1925), 10, plate 42; Beckwith, Art, 218.
~" l)ouet, Receuil, 2; Herald, Dress, 78-9.
" Matthew Paris, Chronica Maiora, ed. H.R. Luard, 7 vols (Rolls Series, London, 1872-83), vol. 4,
546-7. A Vatican inventory of 1295 contains several items of English make: A.G.I. Christie. English
medieval embroidery (Oxford, 1938), 1-30, 38. It is worth mentioning that gold embroidered cloth
had been produced in England for centuries, the tenth-century stole and maniple from the tomb of St.
Cuthbert being the earliest known examples: C.F. Battiscombe ct al., The relics of St. Cudzbert
(Oxford, 1956), 375-7.
~"Etienne Boileau, Le livre des mOtiers, cd. R. de Lespinassc and F. Bonnardot (Paris, [879), 63 4;
W.N. Bonds, "Genoese noblewomen and gold thread manufacturing', Medievalia and Humanistica, 17
(1966), 79-81.
~3M~irta Jfir6, 'Gold embroidery and fabrics in Europe : XI-XIV centuries', Gold Bulletin. 23 (199~)),
40-57, esp. 45. Kay Staniland of the Museum of London informs me that she is currently working on
an Englishwoman who was paid 6,,t a day to make gold thread during the reign of Edward Ill.
 J. tIarris / Journal of Medieval History 21 (1995) 387.-403 395

E m p e r o r M a n u e l II h i m s e l f at the e n d of 14(X).~ T h e s e d i p l o m a t i c c o n t a c t s con-

t i n u e d well into the c e n t u r y , even after the fall of C o n s t a n t i n o p l e in 1453. ~
In the e v e n t , all this activity did not s u c c e e d in rousing the English to
p a r t i c i p a t e in a c r u s a d e , but it must have i n c r e a s e d what was k n o w n a b o u t
E n g l a n d in C o n s t a n t i n o p l e , as those who had t r a v e l l e d t h e r e b r o u g h t back
a c c o u n t s of t h e i r e x p e r i e n c e s . It is signilicant that d e s c r i p t i o n s of the c o u n t r y in
B y z a n t i n e l i t e r a t u r e of the p e r i o d arc all very positive in tone. T h e h i s t o r i a n
L a o n i c o s C h a l c o c o n d y l e s , w h o m a y have d e r i v e d his i n f o r m a t i o n from r e t u r n i n g
a m b a s s a d o r s , e x t o l l e d L o n d o n as having "no equal a m o n g the cities of the W e s t in
w e a l t h a n d p r o s p e r i t y ' . M a n u e l C h r y s o l o r a s , who had visited the c o u n t r y in a b o u t
1409, was very i m p r e s s e d by the d e v o t i o n of the English to Saints P e t e r and Paul,
d e s c r i b i n g in a l e t t e r a p r o c e s s i o n in their h o n o u r which he w i t n e s s e d while in
L o n d o n . M a n u e l II went so far as to c o m p a r e E n g l a n d f a v o u r a b l y to his o w n
e m p i r e , calling it a ' s e c o n d civilised w o r l d ' . ~''
It is not difficult to see why B y z a n t i n e visitors should have b e e n i m p r e s s e d with
E n g l a n d , for L o n d o n must have p r e s e n t e d a s h a r p c o n t r a s t to their own p o v e r t y -
s t r i c k e n city. A S p a n i s h visitor to C o n s t a n t i n o p l e in 1432 n o t i c e d that the
i n h a b i t a n t s a p p e a r e d p o o r l y clad, sad and i m p o v e r i s h e d and a n o t h e r r e m a r k e d on
the wide o p e n spaces within the walls and the m a n y r u i n e d c h u r c h e s , p a l a c e s a n d
m o n a s t e r i e s . ~ [ , o n d o n , on the o t h e r h a n d , excited the a d m i r a t i o n even o f an
I t a l i a n w h o w r o t e that it a b o u n d e d 'with e v e r y article of luxury as well as with the
n e c e s s i t i e s o f life'.~z It is not so surprising, t h e r e f o r e , that two B y z a n t i n e s c h o l a r s
in exile, M i c h a e l A p o s t o l i s a n d C o n s t a n t i n e Lascaris, should write in l e t t e r s that

~ London, Public Record Office ('76/83. membr~lne 6r; Rymer. l"oedera, vol. 3. pt. 4, 154 ( = vol. 8,
65); ('. du Fresne du Cange, Historia Bvzantina (Paris. 1682), 238-41; O//total correspondence of
Thomas Bekynton (memorials of tten O' VI), ed. (i Williams. 2 vols (Rolls series. London, 1872), vol.
1, 285-7: English historical d~wuments (1327-14,~'5). ¢d. A.R. Myers (London, 196t,~), 174-5: I).M.
Nicol, 'A Byzantine Emperor in England'. Uniw'rsity of Birmingham tttstorical Journal, 2 (1970),
2O5-25.
'" l,ondon, Public Record (.)tfice. E11)1,,'4(14,,21. 1.38r- 9v, E404,'71 / 1:31 : J.H. Wylie, His'tory of
I~mgland under ltenrv IV, 4 vols (London. 1884-98), vol. 4.2{R): N. Valois. 'l-ragment d'un registre du
Grand Conseil de Charles VII (mars-juin 1455}', Annuaire Bulh'tin de la .g~Jci~;t~;de I'ttistoire de la
France, 19 (1882). 273-308; G. ('ammelli, I dotti hizantini e le oril4ini dell'umanesim¢~. 11: (iiovanni
Argiropulo (Florence. 1941), 65-84.
~" Laonicos Chalcocondylcs, Ili,storiarum libri decem, ed. I. Bekker (Corpus Scriptorum Historiae
Byzanlinae, Bonn. 1843), 92-4: Manuel Chrysoloras. l--pistola ad Joannern hnperatorem (Patrologia
Graeca. 156, Paris. 1866), 33; G. Camnlelli. I dotti hizantini e le origim dell'umane,simo. 1: Manuele
('risolora (Florence, 1941). 146-7, The letters of Manuel 11 Pahteologus. ed. and trans. George T.
Dennis (('orpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae. Washington DC.. 1977). no. 38. l{J0-3.
': A.A. Vasiliev, "Pero Tafur - A Spanish traveller of the fitteenlh century and his visit to ('onslantino-
pie, "]'rebizond and Italy', Byzantion. 7 (19321, 75-122, esp. 113; Ruv Gonzalez Clavijo. Embassy to
Tarnerlane, trans. Guy l,e Strange (London. 1928}. 87-8.
"~ An Italian relation of the tsland of England. ed. ('.A. Sneyd, (('amden Society, London, 1847),
42-3.
396 J. Harris / Journal o f Medieval History 21 (1995) 387-403

t h e y y e a r n e d to go to E n g l a n d , a c o u n t r y c o m p a r e d by one of t h e m to the isles of

the blest, a3
T h e B y z a n t i n e s , t h e n , s e e m to have seen E n g l a n d t h r o u g h distinctly r o s e - t i n t e d
s p e c t a c l e s , as a land of p l e n t y and as a possible source of s a l v a t i o n for their city.
T h i s w o u l d c e r t a i n l y offer a convincing e x p l a n a t i o n as to why B y z a n t i n e c r a f t s m e n
s h o u l d wish to live there. L o n d o n simply o f f e r e d a b e t t e r lifestyle than t h e i r own
i m p o v e r i s h e d a n d e m b a t t l e d capital.
T h e possibility r e m a i n s , h o w e v e r , that the E f f o m a t o s b r o t h e r s w e r e r a t h e r
d i s a p p o i n t e d once they a r r i v e d . T h e most o b v i o u s difficulty w o u l d have b e e n that
v o i c e d by A l e x i u s E f f o m a t o s in a plea to the lord c h a n c e l l o r , when he c o m p l a i n e d
that he was "a G r i e k e and of an e s t r a u n g e n a t i o n , h a v y n g n o o n e o f his c u n t r e e
a n d t o n g e b e y n g d w e l l e r s withyn the seid citec'. 4a
A l e x i u s and his b r o t h e r were not the only G r e e k s in L o n d o n in this p e r i o d ,
h o w e v e r . A few o t h e r s a p p e a r m the alien subsidy r e c o r d s . T h e r e w e r e two called
M i c h a e l in the w a r d of B r o a d s t r e c t in 1441, o n e a h o u s e h o l d e r , the o t h e r not. A
' M a t t h e w G r e k e ' was living in B i s h o p s g a t e in 1483 and a ' N i c o l a s G r e k e " was
i n c l u d e d in the lists for 1457. as T h e ' m a g i s t e r T h o m a s G r e k e " o r ' m a g i s t e r T h o m a s
p h y s y c i a n ' w h o a p p e a r e d a m o n g the aliens of B r o a d s t r e e t w a r d in 1443 was
p r o b a b l y T h o m a s F r a n k , the p e r s o n a l physician of C a r d i n a l BeauR)rt and later of
the king of F r a n c e , C h a r l e s V I I . a'
T h i s d o e s not a d d up to a very large n u m b e r but it should be b o r n e in m i n d that
the alien subsidy r e c o r d s are not a c o m p l e t e guide to the foreign p o p u l a t i o n of
L o n d o n . T h e y were n e v e r i n t e n d e d to p r o v i d e i n f o r m a t i o n on the n u m b e r s o f any
p a r t i c u l a r n a t i o n a l i t y , since n o n - E n g l i s h birth was the only c r i t e r i o n for inclusion.
T h u s e t h n i c origin was only o c c a s i o n a l l y e n t e r e d and n a m e s often u n d e r w e n t such
d r a s t i c anglicization as to m a k e any a t t e m p t to guess it i m p o s s i b l e . It is quite
likely, t h e r e f o r e , that t h e r e were o t h e r s of G r e e k origin who r e m a i n h i d d e n in the
lists b e c a u s e t h e i r n a m e s w e r e n e v e r qualitied with their race.
S e c o n d l y , the tax was only levied b e t w e e n 1440 and 1483, so that ( } r e e k s living
in L o n d o n b e f o r e and after those d a t e s w o u l d not a p p e a r . T h e r e w e r e , for
e x a m p l e , at least two in the 1420s and 1430s: D e m e t r i u s de C e r n o . a physician
w h o r e c e i v e d d e n i z e n s h i p in 1424, and Paul of Vlachia in T h e s s a l y , a r e f u g e e

~' l,ettres im;dites de Michel Al~ostolis, ed. H. Noiret (Paris, l~Y,9), no. XCII, 113: J. lriarle, Regiae
Bibliothecae Matritensis codices (;raeci Mss (Madrid; 1769), 290.
"~ I,ondon, Public Record ()ffice. CI,'ll/294.
'" I,ondon, Public Record Office. E179/144/42. f.20r, 30r-30v, E179~264/34. f.5r, E179/236/74.
'" l,ondon, Public Record Office, E179/144/52. f.gr: E179/144/53, f. 15r; E179/144/50, f. 10r: Rymer,
I"oedera, vol. 5, pt. 1. 33 (=vol. 1(I. 650): Calendar &'the Patent Rolls, 74 vols (London, IC~ll-g6).
(1429-36), 604; Calendar o f the Papal Registers: letters. 15 vols (l,ondon, 1893-1955), vol. 9, 112, 186,
vol. 10. 110-11: 12. T. Hamy, 'Thomas de Coron. dit le Franc', Bulletin de la Socieu; Francaise
d'Histoire de la Medicine. 7 ( 1908}. 193-2115: A. Thomas. "Nouveaux documcms sur Thomas Ic Franc,
medicin de Charles VII. protectcur de I'humanismc'. Acad&nte des Inscrtption,~ et Belles Lettres.
('omptes rendus (Paris, 1911), 671-6.
 J. Harris i Journal o f Medieval History 21 (1~)5) 387-403 397

from the Turks who lived on a royal pension of 40 marks a year between 1427 and
1434. 47 Others were present in the early Tudor period when the subsidy was no
longer levied. A physician called Nicolas Rayes was given denizcnship in 1505 and
the Athenian bishop of D r o m o r e , George Branas, was resident in London for
some time, carrying out several ordinations in St. Paul's Cathedral in the spring of
1497.4'~
Finally. even between 1440 and 1483 the subsidy was only sporadically levied,
no assessments being made, for example, in the 14 years between 1469 and 1483.
Moreover. the lists tended to become shorter as the century progressed and more
and more exemptions from the tax were granted. Hence it would be very easy for
G r e e k s living in London not to lind their way into the records, even during the
period when the tax was levied.
Manuel Sophianos, for example, a native of the Pcloponnese, who received
denizenship from the king in July 1467, was never included in the lists. Nor was a
servant in the household of Edward IV, probably also called Manuel. who
apparently was a dwarf and who accompanied Margaret of York to her marriage
to the duke of Burgundy in 1468. 4'; Nor was the scribe, Demetrius Cantacuzcnus,
who copied a manuscript of selections from Herodotus in London in 1475. Nor
was John Caramalos of Trebizond who was involved in a case heard by the
goldsmiths" court in 1468. ~''
In addition to those who stayed several years and even reccivcd dcnizenship.
thcrc were numcrous transient visitors, who would not, of coursc, have bccn
liablc for the alien subsidy. In the pcriod before 1453, as has been mentioned.
there had bccn frequent cmbassies sent from Constantinople and after thc fall of
Byzantium, many refugees visited England to collect alms in order to free
prisoners in Turkish hands, s~ G r c c k merchants arc shown by the customs accounts
~" L o n d o n , Public Record Ofticc, C66,'421, m c m b r a n e 19r: ('alendar of the Patent Rolls (1422-9), 41 I:
Rymcr. l-~wdera, vol. 4. pt. 4, 12b;. vol. 5. pt. 1,7-X ( = vol. I(L 375. 583): N.H. Nicolas. Proceedings
and ordinances of the Privy ('ouncil, 7 vols (I,ondon, 1834-7), w~l. 3, 160-1, vol. 4 , 2 1 6 : lhe register
of lien O' ('hichele, Archbishop of ('anterhury. 1414-43, cd. E.F. Jacob, 4 vols (Canterbury and York
Society, Oxford, 1937-47). vol. 2, 281 : C.H. Talbot and 1~.A. t l a m m o n d , lTte medical practitioners of"
medieval England (London, 1965), 34-5.
~ I,ondon, Guildhall Library, MS 9531/8. 3rd series, f. Iv-3',: ('alendar ~ff the Patent Roll,g (1494-.
1509). 403: D. McRobcrts, "The Greek Bishop of D r o m o r c ' , lnne,~ Review. 28 (1977), 22-3~, csp. 27.
~" Calendar of the Patent Rolls (1467-77), 65: (-)livicr de la Marchc, MOmoires, 2 vols (Collection
Univcrsclle dcs M,Smoircs Particulicrs Rclatifs a l'Histoire de France, Paris and London, 1785), vol. 2,
182. Hc is probably to bc idcntilied with the Manucl mentioned by Sir John Paston: The Paston letter~,
cd. J. Gairdncr. 3 vols (Edinburgh. 1910), vol. 2, 394.
"" l,ondon, Goldsmiths C o m p a n y Archives. Minute Book A ( 1444-1516), p. 122; Paris. Biblioth,Sq uc
Nationale, MS grec 1731. f. 198: D.M. Nicol, The Byzantine family of Kantakouzenos (('antacuzenu,~)
( D u m b a r t o n Oaks Studies. Washington I)C. 19681. no. 100, 22X: T. F. Rcddawav and L . E M . Walker.
The early history of the Goldsmiths" ('ompany. 1327-150~,~ (London, 1975 ), 151.
~ L o n d o n . Public Record Office, E404/71/3/67; S. Bentley, Excerpta historica or illustrations ~ff"
I-nglish histoo,, (London, 18331, 392; H.L. Gray, "Greek visitors to England in 1455-6,' in:
Anniver.sarv essays in medieval hi~torv hv ~tudent~" Of Charles Homer Hasktns. cd. C.tl. Taylor
(Boston. 1929), 81-116.
398 J. Harris / Journal o f Medieval tti.sto O" 21 (1995) 3~'7-403

to have traded occasionally in London. During the year 1438-9, for example, a
G r e e k called Manuel Sybyanos exported tin and cloth, and in the late 1440s a
G e o r g e of Constantinople was importing sweet wine 52. According to one
chronicler such merchants had earlier kept Manuel I1 in touch with what was
going on in the East during his stay in I_,ondon. 5~
Despite their incomplete nature, therefore, the alien subsidy lists and other
sources suggest that Greeks were not unusual visitors to I,ondon in the fifteenth
century. In view of this, it has to bc concluded that Alexius Effomatos's remark
about the scarcity of his countrymen was an exaggeration calculated to present his
case in a sympathetic light• He was, after all, defending himself against a charge
of debt.
Moreover, not only did the Effomatos brothers have the support of others of
the same race in London, but they and the other Greeks there were also closely
associated with the city's Italian community. Once again, the evidence comes
from the alien subsidy records, where it is noticeable that most of those who were
included were set down as living in the ward of Broadstreet. T h o m a s Frank, the
physician, and two other Greeks wcrc living there in the 1440s and after 1451 the
Effomatos brothers, who had formerly been included in the Cripplegatc returns,
were in Broadstreet too. 5a This area was also a centre for Italians. The church of
the Austin Friars there was often chosen by Italian merchants in their wills as
their place of burial, and the convent attached to it may have served as their
meeting place, containing a room known as "l,umbardshall'. s5 O t h e r alien groups
such as the Flcmings may also have used the church and as a result it received
particular attention during the Peasants" Revolt.:'>
Not only do Greeks and Italians seem to have dwelt in the same area of the
city, they were also associated in commercial ventures. According to an anony-
mous chronicler, Edward IV frequently exchanged merchandise with both
• . . 55'
natlonaht~es and the customs accounts of the City of London reveal that several
G r e e k s wcrc engaged in import and export in Italian vessels. One of them was the
gold wire drawer, Andronicus Effomatos. A consignment of daggers brought in
by him in 145(I arrived in the Santa Consolata of Genoa, c o m m a n d e d by

~r I.~;ndon. Public Record Oftice. E122/73,' 12. f.30r. 33v; E122,'203,'3. f. 13r.
" ' J o h n Trokelowc and |-Icnrv Blancfordc. ('hronica et annah's, cd. I I.T. Riley (Rolls Series. London.
186f')), 336.
~" London. Public Record Office, E179,:144/52. f.gr. E179/144/(~4. f.Sr.
~" London. Guildhall Library, MS 9171/4. f. 168v, 210r. MS 9171/5, f. lilly. On tile priory church of
the Austin Friars see W. Jenkinson. London churches before the Great Fire (London. 1917). 131.
~" T h o m a s Walsingham, Historia Anglicana. ed. H.T. Riley. 2 vols (Rolls Series, [,ondon, 1863-4),
vol. 1. 462, On local hostility to the Italians. see: R. Flenley, 'l,ondon and foreign merchants in the
reign of ] Icnry VI', l-nglish fti~torical Review, 25 (191(]). 644-55.
": The ('rowland Chroni('le continuations, cd. and trans. N. Pronay and J. Ct)x (London. 1986), 139.
 J. Harris / Journal o f Medieval History 21 (199.5) 387-403 399

Bartholomcw Doria, and another of his shipments was carried by a Venetian

galley.SS
Therc were good reasons why the Grccks should be associatcd with the Italians
as opposed to any other alien group. In the first place, many of the Italians in
L o n d o n may have had first-hand experience of the Greek world, since both
G e n o a and Venice had extensive trading interests and colonies there. The
Genoese had a base at Pera, opposite Constantinople, while Venice controlled
large areas of former Byzantine territory, including the island of Crete and a
string of towns and islands around the Aegean. Some of the Venetians resident in
London had conncctions with these colonies. George of Modon, who arrived in
London in 1440, must have originally come from the town of Modon or Methone
in thc southern Peloponncsc. John 'Negreaunt' or 'Nigropounty' who was living in
the ward of Broadstreet betwccn 1441 and 1443 had, to judge by his surname.
lived and perhaps been born on the Venetian colony of Negroponte, the Greek
island of Euboea. ~ Both would, therefore, have had a great deal in common with
Greeks like the Effomatos brothers.
Secondly, the Italian communities in England provided the Greeks with a
bridge between their place of origin and their place of settlement. Thanks to their
entrenched position both in Western Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean, the
merchants of G e n o a and Venice dominated the trade between them. They carried
English products like 'bastard cloths' from London to Constantinople ~''~ and
brought back merchandise from the East, like "Malmsey' wine, originally from
Monemvasia in the Peloponnese. ~ The same applied to passenger traffic. The
usual route for English pilgrims to the Holy Land was overland to Venice and
from there by ship to Jaffa, and Manuel II passed through Venice on his journey
to and from France and England in 1399-1403. 62 It is, therefore, more than likely

~ L o n d o n , Public Record Office, E122/73/25, f. 16v. Andronicus is probably to be identilied with the
A n d r o n i c u s of Constantinople who appears in the accounts for 1445 and 1449: London, Public Record
Office, E122/203/3, f. 14v. 15v; EI22/73/23, f.5v, 33r. 36r, 4(1v.
S"London, Public Record Office, E179/144/45- E179/144/42, f.2(Ir; E179/144/52, f.9r. John Neg-
reaunt was in all probability the John Belvider alias Negropounte whose will was proved in May 1447.
It is likely that he was Venetian in origin since all his executors except one were merchants of Venice :
I,ondon, Guildhall Library, MS 9171/4, f.21(Ir. The exception was the Greek doctor T h o m a s Frank,
but his inclusion is easily explained, for he too was from one of the Grcek colonies of Venice; the town
of Coronc in the Southern Peloponnese: E. Legrand, (ent dix lettres grecques de kranqois File!re
(Paris, 1892), 72-7.
"' L B . Fryde, "Anglo-Italian commerce in the fifteenth century: Some evidence about profits and the
balance of trade" Revue Beige de Philologie et d'Histoire, 5(I (19721, 345-55, esp. 352, 355.
"~ I,ondon, Public Record Office, E122/2(13/3, f. 14v, 15v: Extracts from the account rolls o f the Abbey
o f Durham, 3 vols (Suttees Society, I,ondon, 1898-1c~)(1), vol. 2 , 5 6 3 ; A.D. Francis, The wine trade
(I,ondon. 19721. 15.
~" Marino Sanuto, Vite de" Duchi di Venezia (Return ltalicarum Scriptores, Milan, 1733), col. 789.
Margery K e m p e travelled via Venice to the Holy Land in 1413: The Book of Margery Kempe, ed. S.B.
Meech and H.E. Allen (Early English Text Society, l,ondon, 19401, 284.
40(] J. Harris / Journal o f Medieval History 21 (199.5) 387-403

that the G r e e k residents of London arrived there by the agency of Venetian or

G e n o e s e galleys and those same ships would have kept them in touch with what
was going on in the East.
It is important to bear this Italian connection in mind when turning to what is,
perhaps, the most important question raised by the presence of Andronicus and
Alexius Effomatos in London: what part did they play in the establishment of
their craft in England? For in this, too, Venice, in particular, was playing the role
of intermediary between East and West and Alexius and Andronicus were part of
a much wider development.
The gold thread industry of Greece and the G r e e k islands was one of the many
local crafts and industries to which Venice had gained access when it had annexed
large areas of Byzantine territory after 1204. The thread produced in these areas
had become another of the products of the G r e e k East which, like wine, were
carried to the ports of Western Europe in Venetian ships. The names given to
imported gold thread in contemporary d o c u m e n t s - ,Ill d ' o r de C h i p p r e , "Cyprus
gold', 'Venice gold" or 'ribbons of gold of Venice' - reflect the journey it had often
made from Greece via Venice. ~'~
As time went on, the republic was responsible for transmitting not only the
finished product to the West but also the workers who made it. When large
numbers of Greeks from the Venetian colonies began to settle in Venice itself
during the fifteenth century, '~ it was only to be expected that they would bring
their crafts with them. Production of gold thread was one of those crafts, as the
archives of the G r e e k community, preserved in the church of St. George of the
Greeks, clearly demonstrate. A list, drawn up between 1498 and 1530, of
contributions made by its wealthier members to be put towards common funds,
reveals that the second most common calling among the G r e e k inhabitants of the
city was that of tiraoro - literally "drawer of gold'. '~
This diffusion of G r e e k craftsmen affected other countries besides Italy and
England. In 1480, when the French king, Louis XI, invited some Italian silk
workers to Tours, they were accompanied by a G r e e k named James Catacalon.
He was described as a tireur d ' o r and so was evidently skilled in the same craft as
that followed by so many of his compatriots in Venice."" Moreover. the fact that

"~ Douet. Receuil, 193: Register o f Edward, the B&ck Prince, 4 vols (London, 1931}-3), vol. 4, 325:
Rotuli Parliamentorum. vol. 4, 255, vo[. 6, 437.
~4 On the Greek community in Venice scc: D.M. Nicol. Byzantium and Venice (Cambridge. 1988),
414-18; J.G. Ball, 7"he Greek community in Venice ( 14 70-1620), University of London Ph. D. thesis
(1985).
"~ A. Pardos, "AA(bot~r/rrKt,)q KUr6tAo'yoq rtbv /rDo~'wl, /z~Ao3v 7"~jq iAA~lVtKf~ ~6eA<bch'rrrc~ Beveric~q
Kar& ~'6 Kt~'rct<rrtxo 129 (1498-153(I) - 1. "Av6peq'. Thesaurismata, 16 (1979). 294-386. esp. 322-386.
"~ Ordonnances des rois de P)'ance de la troisiOme race. 21 vols (Paris, 1723-1849), w)l. 2(1, 592-4.
 J. ltarris / Journal o f Medieval tlistory 21 (1995) 387-403 401

he p r o d u c e d his c o m m o d i t y a l o n g s i d e the silk w o r k e r s , s t r o n g l y suggests that he

was i n v o l v e d in m a k i n g gold t h r e a d for use in the finished fabrics. T h e activity of
the E f f o m a t o s b r o t h e r s in L o n d o n s h o u l d , t h e r e f o r e , be sccn in the c o n t e x t of this
w i d e r E u r o p e a n d i s p e r s a l of G r e e k e x p e r t i s e .
O f c o u r s e , the m c r c p r e s e n c e o f A n d r o n i c u s and A l e x i u s d o e s not n e c e s s a r i l y
m e a n that t h e y actually i n t r o d u c e d this t e c h n i q u e o f m a k i n g gold t h r e a d o r
e s t a b l i s h e d the i n d u s t r y p e r m a n e n t l y . T h e y w e r e not part of a n u m e r o u s g r o u p of
c r a f t s m e n as e x i s t e d in Venice and so m a y not have p a s s e d t h e i r skills on to the
next g e n e r a t i o n . N e i t h e r s c e m s to havc had a son o r d a u g h t e r . A l t h o u g h t h e r e
was s o m e o n e called E v e r a r d E f f a m a t living in W e s t m i n s t e r e a r l y in the following
c e n t u r y w h o m a y havc b e e n c o n n e c t e d with t h e m , he is n e v e r r e f e r r e d to e i t h e r as
a G r e e k o r as a gold wire d r a w e r . '~7 T h e i r secrets m a y well have s i m p l y d i e d with
them.
O n the o t h e r h a n d , t h e r e are c e r t a i n i n d i c a t i o n s that they might have had s o m e
i n l l u c n c e on native c r a f t s m e n . T h e y must havc b e e n , after all, a m o n g the first to
m a k e d r a w n gold t h r e a d in E n g l a n d . T h e earliest d o c u m e n t s m e n t i o n i n g t h e m a r c
d a t e d b e t w e e n 1441 and 1445 '~, p r e d a t i n g by o v e r 2() y e a r s the act o f c o m m o n
council of 1463, which refers to alien gold wire d r a w e r s . M o r e o v e r , o n e of t h e m ,
at least, r e m a i n e d in L o n d o n for m o r e than four d e c a d e s . T h e close roll e n t r y
d i s c u s s e d e a r l i e r shows that thcy were b o t h still t h e r e in O c t o b e r 1471. ~'~
A n d r o n i c u s a p p e a r s to have d i e d s o m e time b e f o r e 1473, for his d e m i s e is
m e n t i o n e d by A l e x i u s in his p l e a to thc lord c h a n c e l l o r m a d e in that y e a r o r
s h o r t l y b e f o r e ;° but A l e x i u s h i m s e l f lived on, his n a m e a p p e a r i n g in the alien
s u b s i d y lists for 1483. TM It d o e s not s e e m u n r e a s o n a b l e to suggest that d u r i n g this
l o n g s p a n of y e a r s t h e y might have had s o m e i m p a c t on the English gold t h r e a d
industry.
It is, t h e r e f o r e , e x t r e m e l y significant that the earliest i n d i s p u t a b l e e v i d e n c e for
n a t i v e English gold wire d r a w e r s c o m e s from precisely this p e r i o d . It is a d e e d o f

"' l,ondon, Public Record Office, CI ,;390/32-33; W.J. Hardy and W. Page, A calendar o f the k'eet of
hines for London and Middlesex, 2 vols (London. 1892-3), vol. 2, 28: E.A. Fry and S.J. Madge,
A bs'tracts o f Inquisitions Post-mortem, 3 vols (l,ondon, 1896-1908), vo[. 2. 120.
"~ l,ondon, Public Record Office, E179/144'42, f.25r: E28;74/11" C76; 127, membrane 10r : Rymer,
k?~edera, vol. 5. pt. 1, 139 (= vo[. 11, 77).
"" London, Public Record Office, C54/323, membrane 17v: Calendar o)'the Close Rolls (1468-76). no.
752, 2(13.
" London, Public Record Office, ('1/11 ;294. The plea is addressed to the Bishop of Bath and Wells,
Chancellor of England who was probably Robert Stillingtcm, Chancellor until 1473. The mention of
Andronicus's death means that the plea eamlot date from befl~re 1471 and no other Bishop of Bath
and Wells was Chancellor until Cardinal Wolsey in 1515: E.B. Fryde. D.E. Grcenway. S. Porter and I.
Roy, tlandbook of British chronology (London, 1986), 87-8.
,i London. Public Record Office, E179,'242/25, f.10r; 1-179/264/34, f.5r.
402 J. Harris / Journal o f Medieval tlistorv 21 (1995) 387-403

gift, dated 14 D e c e m b e r 1476, made between John Framlingham and his wife,
Anne, and concerns Anne's set of tools belonging to "the craft of werking of wyre,
called goldwyredrawing'. The agreement aimed to safeguard Anne's right to use
the tools and to lay down the basis upon which the profits of the business were to
be divided between Anne, her husband and her children. 7-"
It would seem that the craft being followed by Anne Framlingham was not just
the making of gold wire, but the use of it in gold thread• The tools were listed in
the deed and they included six great irons, thirteen small irons and two anvils. It
is these irons and anvils which suggest that Anne made gold thread, for they
would have been used to flatten the wire before it was wound into the fibres. 73
Nowhere are we told how Anne Framlingham learned her craft, although she
may have practised it with her lirst husband, James. TM However, given the fact
that her emergence as an independcnt craftswoman coincides with the period
during which the Effomatos brothers were in London, it is not impossible that she
learned her trade from them. It was not unknown for young girls to be placed
• 7S
under a foreign craftsman as apprenuces. " In the same way, they may have had
some influence on other London gold wire drawers, such as John Woodward of
St. Peter-le-Pour and Robert Salterston of Foster Lane, who were active in 1496
and 1523. v~' They may also have had something to do with the fact that gold wire
was increasingly used in English embroidery after 15(X).7~
While it cannot be proved conclusively that the technique of making drawn gold
thread was introduced into England by Byzantine migrants, nonetheless their
presence is still extremely significant• Not only does it bear witness to how even
distant England was influenced by events and cultural trends originating in the
Eastern Mediterranean and how these influences were transmitted by the agency
of Venice, but it also demonstrates that, cven in its last years, the Byzantine
Empire still had something of its legacy to pass to the West.
How, then, should the comments of Bessarion be interpreted in the light of this

:2 ('alendar o[" Plea and Memoranda RoUs of the (it)" of London. (1458-82). ed. P.E. Jones
(Cambridge, 1961), 112-13.
:' Calendar of Plea and Memoranda Rolls. 112-13; Wulff, ('rafts, 45-6.
:~ He is mentioned in Anne's will, dated 28 February 15(X): I,ondon, Guildhall Library, MS 9171/8. f.
215v-16v.
~' During the reign of Elizabeth, 10-year-old Mary Forsctt worked under a Frenchman to learn, among
other things, how to make gold thread: Gardiner. 'Four letters', 244.
:~ London. Guildhall Library, MS 9171/1(I. f.2Or, ('alendar of the ('lose RoUs (1485-15(MI), no. 941,
276. For other examples of the influence of alien craftsmen on English industries see: L. Williams,
"Aliens and industry in Tudor England', Proceedings of the Huguenot Socie O' of London, 19 (1956).
1 4 6 - 69.

:: All the metal threads in two small panels embroidered with the arms of Henry Vlll and now in the
British Museum (M&LA 1895, 8-1(I, 37) are based on wire. Once again, my source of information is
Itero Granger-Taylor.
 J. Harris" / Journal o f Medieval ttistory 21 (1995) 387-403 4113

new evidence? The scholarly Cardinal was not necessarily the best person to
assess the supply of technical expertise available to the Empire, but he may
simply have been misinterpreted. The odyssey of the Effomatos brothers was
probably part of a wider ~brain drain' to the better conditions of the West and it
was perhaps this, rather than technical backwardness, which left the crumbling
Byzantine Empire bereft of the skilled craftsmen whose products had once
symbolised its hegemony.