The Licensed Beggars of Medieval Scotland

These days, the most common interaction between authority and panhandlers is crushing their tents in a garbage truck. Between vague vagrancy laws, repeated paddy-wagon trips and every sleepable surface being studded with spikes to the detriment of tired people both with and without home, the government and the homeless seem to be at complete odds. 

Even among modern liberals, you’re hard-pressed to find people in the political system who speak positively about the least fortunate among us, much less give them any official nod. Hell, people are out here biting cops like they’re auditioning for Blade just to keep their local streets unslept on.

Medieval Scotland also had its struggles with available housing versus the size of its population, but it handled it in a pretty unique way. The government knew that making being poor illegal outright was, well, pretty much unenforceable. Something that’s pretty obvious today as big cities continue that metaphorical fistfight with the sea. So, while they outlawed begging, they also issued badges to a limited number of beggars, allowing them to beg alms unmolested by local police forces. These government-approved, official beggars were known as gaberlunzies. A gaberlunzie would wear an issued badge showing that they were, indeed, allowed to panhandle in their particular locality.

The badges were specific to location as well, meaning that being cleared to beg in one town didn’t give you free reign to jingle your cup across the country. Though some badges, like the one above, included “Pass & Repass,” which made them valid anywhere. They also apparently had some weird rules, according to literature. One being that they were limited to begging specifically for money, and not for food or goods. There’s references of them being issued clothes by the king as well, specifically blue gowns, I suppose to keep the aesthetic of the town square untainted by unsightly beige rags.

As for how you earned the right to become one of the king’s official beggars? It seems that the main qualification was to be otherwise unable to earn a living, like a widow or someone with a physical disability. Meaning some of the angriest conservatives of today could go all the way back to medieval times and still be pissed off about welfare queens. 

Of course, in case anyone particularly thick is reading this, I should say before you track down my email: I’m obviously being facetious, not peddling this as a viable modern plan. What it undeniably is, though, is a fascinating historical detail that shows up in remarkably few places. One of the only modern references I can find being the character Hugh Munro in the novel and Netflix series Outlander, pictured below. 

You can see four of the aforementioned badges hanging off his getup in the show, each for a different parish that he’s allowed to beg in.