I am working on a novel about Katherine Swynford and John of Gaunt. It's contracted but as yet untitled. Currently I am editing the work and checking my historical details and it's proving to be very interesting, not least because double checks on some of the historical details in what appear on the surface to be solid academic works, turn out to be problematic when one digs deeper.
I was reading Anthony Goodman's biography of John of Gaunt while writing my first draft and came across a mention dated to 1351 of clothing being provided for "Sigo and Nakok" who were two "Saracen children" attached to the household of either John of Gaunt or Edward of Woodstock when they were living in the same household. "Saracen" covers a lot of ground and could refer to Iberian, Middle Eastern or North African children. Such children were often regarded as exotic parts of the trappings of a late medieval household. In 1351, John of Gaunt (who was never called that in his lifetime), was eleven years old.
I decided it would be interesting to include these Saracen children in the story and one in particular as a background character in John's household when he was older.
Recently, during a coffee break, I began digging to see if I could find anything else about them beyond Goodman's quote, and that was when I had to stop and sit back.
From what I have been able to glean:
Nowhere in primary sources are "Saracen children" mentioned and it would seem to be a modern error. Checking Goodman's biography of John of Gaunt I was able to look up the two sources he cites as evidence for his statement.
His first source is The Calendar of the Household of the King. Yes, it absolutely does mention Sigo and Nakok, but it's on the account for the stables and makes very clear that the two named individuals are horses, not people! Sigo is a destrier (warhorse) and Nakok a courser (hunting or fast horse). The amounts of cloth cited are in keeping with the amounts required to trap out a destrier (Sigo gets the larger amount) and a slighter hunter or racer. Both names appear on the accounts for the stables.
The other source cited by Goodman is Hoccleve, an 1897 version of a fifteenth century poetical text. It contains no mention whatsoever of "Saracen children" and is a complete red herring and non-source. It doesn't mention John of Gaunt at all. Perhaps it's a late night error.
The name Sigo (Sayghu) can be traced to Magrehbi/Andalusian patterns of horse naming and means "Bright One/Fine One/Swift One. It's not a classic Arabic human personal name. He is given the most cloth for his coverings. Nakok (Naquq) means a sound such as "Chatter", "Tap" or "Click" and could have been a reference to a sound the horse made, or perhaps the sound required to jolly him along. He receives less cloth for his trappings.
The bottom line is that Sigo and Nakok were NOT children but horses - very likely swanky Iberian ones. So now I have two horse names I can use in the narrative, but will now use other attendants whose names and roles are congruent with my second-dig research.
I have said before that digging will give you one story and double-digging may lead in quite different directions. Like the occasion I discovered that Eleanor of Aquitaine did not have a brother called Joscelin, who was in fact the illegitimate half brother of Adeliza of Louvain, second queen of Henry II, but historians have made assumptions and then copied each other and set the error in stone.
This is the post on my own website blog about that particular discovery. Eleanor of Aquitaine's non-brother
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