I've argued that minstrels did not 'wander' but that does not mean they did not travel. One documented reason for travelling was to attend a 'minstrel school'. This article by Rob C. Wegman provides an excellent summary (as well as an extensive appendix of the documentary evidence) of these events which seemed to take place at least every other year, from the 1310s to the 1440s, in France or the Low Countries, during Lent. Musicians seem to have come from far and wide: Froissart describes the 1366 event in Brussels as attracting musicians from Denmark, Navarra, Aragon, Lancaster, Bavaria, and Brunswick.
Sadly, the evidence is very scant and it is hard to know what actually happened on these occasions. But relevant to my running theme, the main form the evidence takes seems to consist of notes in account books saying that the minstrels in question are being released from their usual duties, or even sponsored, to travel to the school. This is hardly the travel of 'itinerants' or 'outsiders'.
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