For all but a very small minority, to be mobile in the Middle Ages was to be without place, both socially and geographically. Minstrels, for instance, were thought of as lecherous and irresponsible fly-by-nights.30 Minstrels had no obvious place in medieval life. They were neither peasants nor nobility, and they were frequently wandering through the countryside looking for employment. As people without place, their status was tenuous at best. They would dress in a way that suggested a much higher status, thanks to the generosity of the lords who employed them, and as entertainers they were free to transgress social hierarchies in ways few could get away with. Minstrels also used their footloose life to act as spies in the courts of their employer’s enemies. They were frequently made scapegoats for crimes that had gone unpunished.