A jester, or courtfool, was a buffoon or person maintained by the noble and wealthy to entertain them by jests. The professional jesters usually wore a motley or brightly coloured dress and a cap or cowl of bright colours furnished with bells and asses' ears, or crowned with a cockscomb. Licensed jesters carried a short stick ornamented with ass's ears, known as a bauble. In Britain the last jester regularly attached to the royal household seems to have been Archie Armstrong, the jester of James I and Charles I. Research Jester
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