Medieval Hunting

by Richard Almond

  The second item of dress is mentioned in the text analysing the hunting illustrations in Queen Mary’s Psalter. Bror Danielsson writes ‘Some ladies of rank . . . carry trappings showing their family arms’.102 The public display of arms was one of several hallmarks of rank and gentility,103 so this was to be expected in the hunting field where one was surrounded by neighbours, peers and servants. It was important to be known and recognised as a member of the ruling élite, and a coat of arms specifically identified the bearer’s family as well as indicating ancient gentle ancestry.

  Arms and weapons of the chase are also important indicators of social rank and status. Those illustrated in the most lavish, beautiful and detailed illuminated manuscript copy of Livre de chasse, MS fr. 616, are listed by W.A. Baillie-Grohman in the Appendix of the 1904 edition of The Master of Game. Included are the longbow, used with barbed arrows for large and hairy game, and blunted arrows for small game and birds; the crossbow, firing short bolts (quarrels) of barbed and blunted varieties; the javelin, particularly used for hunting wildcat; the three-pronged otter spear; the ordinary spear for use against all quarry; the hunting sword, a specialist weapon used by the aristocratic hunter for large game, with a very broad base tapering to a point; the Couteau de chasse, the hunting knife carried by varlets and underlings for unmaking of deer and undoing of wild boar.104 Gaston Fébus also used the Espieu, a javelin with a narrow and short head easily withdrawn from the quarry and which could be thrown or held as a lance.105 An interesting variation on the standard hunting sword is being used by Ferdinand, Maximilian’s grandson, to despatch a wild boar, depicted in ‘December’ of Les Chasses de Maximilien tapestries in the Louvre. His boar sword has a thin shaft, broad leaf-like point with twin tines or toggles, essentially ‘stops’ to prevent over-penetration and, very usefully, the boar running up the shaft and reaching the hunter and his horse.106 This archaic safety measure is similar to that of the hog-spears used in British India for pig-sticking until Partition in 1947. Indeed, the German manufacturing firm of Puma based at Solingen, still advertises such a hog-spear (saufeder) in its 2002 catalogue.107

  In Livre de chasse, Fébus provides us with a typically exact and detailed description of a hunting weapon, the so-called English or Turkish bow, which he includes in his instructions for bow and stable hunting.108

  William Twiti’s treatise hardly mentions edged weapons, referring only briefly to the hunting knife ‘and he þat ouzt þe knyf with wiche he is vndo schall haue þe chyne.’109 The hunting illustrations in Queen Mary’s Psalter are more informative on weaponry and include the longbow, with arrows carried in the belt rather than in a quiver, and assistants bearing a hunting-axe, useful for breaking-up large carcasses.110

  Personal hunting weapons of royalty and the nobility, particularly crossbows, swords and hunting-knives, often became family heirlooms, and some examples from historical figures survive in European collections. Schloss Ambras, near Innsbruck in the Austrian Tyrol, has a particularly fine and extensive collection of late medieval and Renaissance hunting weaponry, including examples that belonged to Charles the Bold of Burgundy, King Louis XII of France and Emperor Maximilian I. The Hunting Gallery of the Royal Armouries at Leeds also has a small but interesting collection of aristocratic hunting weapons from this period, including hunting swords, boar-spears, crossbows, quivers and bolts, and two hunting-trousses. The trousse, or garniture, was a practical but often finely crafted and richly decorated set of cutlery carried for the special purpose of unmaking the hart or other large quarry. It typically consisted of two broad-bladed knives for severing bone, two narrow-bladed knives for cutting out the finer muscles and a two-tined fork for the handling of delicacies, all carried in a purpose-made scabbard or sheath.111 The German garnitures in the Leeds Royal Armouries Hunting Gallery collection are excellent examples of such equipment, well-made but meant for practical use in the field.

  The horse was a vital element in the equipment of the gentle veneur and falconer. Maurice Keen remarks that to live nobly ‘Knights and Esquires should be well mounted’ and even the lesser nobleman was expected ‘to keep hawks and hounds, and to talk knowledgeably of them’.112 The gentleman ‘type’ should have, among his many accomplishments, skill in horsemanship and on the hunting field.113 While not synonymous with being a nobleman, enjoying the right to ride a horse was of considerable importance and related to the idea of the ‘chevalier’. The horse gave the rider rank and status, whether in the field of war or the chase. In the higher levels of the hunting profession, the huntsman was mounted,114 as were the senior foresters in the Forest hierarchy. The gentle amateur veneurs were invariably mounted, unless the hunt was specifically on foot. The chase at speed provided ‘the personal elements of exercise, prowess and emulation of the individual distinguishing himself’. The knight was expected to show himself off to his best advantage and this apparently applied particularly to the English upper classes in the hunting field.115 An old Welsh proverb states ‘A gentleman might be known by his hawk, his horse and his greyhound.’116 These personal living and expensive items were the icons of social identification which differentiated the gentleman from the ungentleman. A man could not be publicly acknowledged as a gentleman without them.

  By the eleventh century, the art of horse breeding was long established in Byzantium and especially in the Arab countries where there was a wealth of established breeds suitable as warhorses.117 The Byzantines had long used hunting to keep their warhorses and cavalrymen fit.118 However, at this time in Europe selective breeding appears to have been only just beginning, with few references in the available literature to breed provenance, the exception being some Spanish sources. Many good horses both from Byzantine and Moorish origins were entering Europe and these must have provided material and inspiration to horse breeders. Ann Hyland comments that the Bayeux Tapestry provides a rough guide to the European type of Norman warhorse, the size confirmed by her own researches into Norman horseshoes held at the Museum of London ‘a medium-sized animal of approximately 14.2–15 hh, with no particular distinguishing features, other than hinting it was fairly stocky’.

  A Persian work, the Qabus Nama of Kai Ka’us ibn Iskander, written in 1082 by the Prince of Gurgan for his son, outlines his princely education. This syllabus appears similar to that of a European noble’s son and includes riding, javelin-throwing, archery, wielding the spear, throwing a lasso, polo, hunting, hawking and falconry. It also contains prudent fatherly advice on buying a horse which could be applied to a purchase in any age. Ann Hyland has put together the following generic description:

  A suitable horse should have a good head, attention being paid to the dentition, special reference being made to avoidance of parrot mouth. The facial plane should be straight, the forehead broad, ears long, fine and erect. The neck should be long with an open gullet, and it should be set well into the shoulder without coarseness. The barrel should also be fine with a long underline. The chest should be broad, the loins short-coupled. Limbs should be substantial. Hooves should be black and long, the sole round. The tail should be long with a short dock, and there should be absence of hair on the lower limbs.119

  This demonstrates not only the high level of knowledge among royal and noble buyers but also the quality of horses available in the Near Eastern horse markets of the eleventh century for the purposes of war, hawking and hunting.

  Hawking took place from horseback, and in 1248 Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen provided sound advice to the falconer regarding the character of his mount:

  the horse should be gentle and stand quietly, must not gallop without permission, not increase gait when the falconer drops his reins, must be quick to obey, agile to left or right, swift, not frightened by unforeseen or unusual objects, must not whinny on duty, not difficult to handle or hard-mouthed (‘dure boce’), lest when he hurries to bring assistance he may trample on the falcon.120

  Such an animal must have been highly trained and thus an expensive item.
It is significant that Emperor Frederick does not mention either the breeding or conformation of his ideal mount; presumably these were not regarded as important, whereas the patient training of a potentially suitable animal was the paramount factor.

  The horses of the huntsman and falconer depicted in The Luttrell Psalter are medium-sized nondescript animals with broad backs and powerful quarters, displaying little of the ‘quality’ or weight of modern hunters. In contrast, the mounts of the Magi show the great weight and muscle conformation associated with purpose-bred late medieval warhorses.121 Line drawings in Queen Mary’s Psalter from the early fourteenth-century show the horses of the huntsmen of rank to be rather low in height, of medium weight with a small head, strong hind quarters and a long tail. Horses of people of high rank had their manes neatly tied up or plaited. The long curb-chains (joining the long extended ports of the bit) suggest a swift but easily turned riding-horse.122 In modern terms, the nearest equivalent is a ‘handy’ horse with polo-pony qualities of instant response and manoeuvrability, essential for negotiating the rough and varied terrain of late medieval England and Europe. Henry Savage, writing in 1933 of medieval hunting, concurs with this generalisation ‘The animal in use was, of course, not the war-horse or destrier but a lighter (and probably faster) beast.’ Savage further observes that the hunting manuals place less emphasis on the horse than on the breed and conformation of the hound,123 and this lack of preciseness regarding the hunting mount is borne out in The Boke of Saint Albans. Dame Juliana Berners gives her opinion on ‘The propretees of a goode hors’ as follows:

  A good hors shulde have XV ppretees and conditions./yt. is to wit iii. of a man. iii. of a woman’/iii. of a fox/iii. of a haare and iii. of an asse./Off a man boolde prowde and hardy./Off a woman fayre brestid faire of here. e esy to lip uppon,/Off a fox a faire tayle short eris with a good trot./Off an hare a grete eygh a diy hede, and well rennyng/Off an asse a bigge chyne a flatte lege, and goode houe.124

  These medieval notions of a horse suitable for hunting appear vague and confusing, particularly when compared with the exacting points of conformation and type detailed by the Prince of Gurgan four centuries earlier. It is interesting to compare both descriptions with a modern definition of an English hunter used for fox hunting, the Prince’s horse conforming surprisingly closely to the English counterpart:

  Hunter. Not a breed but a type, which is largely influenced by the nature of the country over which it is to be used. The Show Hunter, however, which is the ideal, is Thoroughbred, or nearly so; it has power and scope, giving a good length of rein, and a strong back and loins, hocks of great propelling power, with the best of galloping actions. It must ride with balance and courage, carry its head in the right position, and be responsive to its rider.125

  This type of animal appears larger and more powerful, but less handy, than its medieval counterpart, with the added vital ability to jump fences, ditches and walls. The idea of selective breeding, to establish and reproduce specific breeds with certain physical and behavioural characteristics, was largely unknown in Europe and the Thoroughbred was centuries in the future. However, Pisanello’s superbly painted stallion in The Vision of Saint Eustace (c. 1438–42), exhibits many of the features of a modern medium-weight hunter including a deep chest, strong neck and shoulders, a short back and powerful quarters.126

  As with horses, so hounds (rather than dogs) conveyed notions of status and Baillie-Grohman comments that no hound seems to belong so peculiarly to the age of chivalry as the greyhound ‘and one cannot picture a knight without one’. He also quotes a supposedly old law of King Canute which decreed that a greyhound may not be kept by any person inferior (in rank) to a gentleman.127 However, this use of the term ‘gentleman’ seems rather suspect within the context of the period, it being a rank which was not precisely defined until the early fifteenth century. Nigel Saul writes that after 1415 the vernacular use of ‘gentleman’ is employed quite precisely ‘for the limited purpose of denoting the lowest order of the gentleborn’.128

  Dame Juliana believes a gentleman should also learn the conformation of a good greyhound as part of his education. As with her description of a good horse, she draws upon the physical characteristics of other animals, hence ‘The properties of a goode Grehound’ in The Boke of Saint Albans ‘A Grehounde shulde be heded like a Snake. And /necked like a Drake. Foted like a kat. / Tayled like a Rat. Sydd lyke a Teme. /Chyned like a Beme.’129 Greyhounds quite commonly appear in the illustrations of Gothic manuscripts, often in pursuit of a stag or hare. It is significant that a greyhound chasing a hart is traditionally used as a marginal motif on the opening page of Books of Hours. The location of such a cameo scene is revealing and it may be that the greyhound represents every Christian who should follow Christ, himself symbolised as a wounded hart and shedding blood to make the pursuit easier.130 MS Egerton 1146, a German Book of Hours, from about 1500, begins with a beautiful example of such a scene, the hart’s left side spotted with blood.131 The Hours of Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, completed around 1370, has a marginal picture of two greyhounds coursing a hare.132 MS Douce 62, a French Book of Hours dated from about 1400, has a much more unusual scene, a bas-de-page illustration of a greyhound chasing an antelope.133 The antelope is identified by its jagged horns, the standard device used by illuminators of bestiaries and manuscripts to depict this particular cloven-footed ungulate.

  Greyhounds are by far the commonest hunting dog to appear in late medieval illustrations, particularly manuscripts, the reasons perhaps being twofold. Firstly, although there was no single breed of these swift hounds which hunted by sight, giving rise to the old term of ‘gazehounds’, they all tended towards a lithe and elongated ‘type’. Secondly, illustrations show them in all manner of domestic situations, in living- and bedrooms, at the board when their owners are at meals, sitting by the fireside and even at mass. Of all dogs, they appear to have been the most constant of companions of their masters during journeys, in war and at home.134 It is therefore no surprise that the type appears so often in illustrated sources, particularly those which portray scenes of everyday life. Artists produced images of what they and their audiences knew about.

  It is interesting that possession of a greyhound today is not an indication of high social status – usually the very opposite in fact, greyhounds being associated in the public mind with the stereotypical images of the cloth caps and racing pigeons of working men in the industrial north of England. This is undoubtedly due to the change of role of greyhounds by the eighteenth century, from that of hunting deer, hare, wolf, boar and fox to that of coursing hares in organised matches. Coursing involves the use of two greyhounds, termed a ‘couple’, which are ‘slipped’ as the hare, which has been driven up by beaters, passes them. Greyhound racing evolved from coursing135 and it is probably this sport, with its associated betting, which gives the modern greyhound, and its owner, relatively low status compared to the past.

  Another breed of hound, the possession of which conveyed the notion of gentlemanly status, was the spaniel. Both Livre de chasse and The Master of Game devote short chapters decorated with illustrative miniatures to these small hounds and their nature. Fébus refers to them as chiens doysel, meaning bird-dogs, or espaignolz, meaning spaniels.136 The present-day Brittany, incorrectly called a spaniel by the uninitiated, is said to be descended from these medieval chiens d’oiseaux. They are still, like their ancestors, excellent at hunting-up and flushing game birds and starting small game. They are good in water and useful for retrieving duck and other waterfowl. In the Middle Ages these hounds were particularly liked by falconers owing to their great ability at finding and flushing partridge and quail.137 They were thus associated with the gentle country pastime of hawking, The Master of Game commenting ‘It is a good thing to a man that hath a noble goshawk or a tiercel or a sparrow hawk for partridge, to have such hounds.’138 However, both Fébus and Edward agree that spaniels can be quarrelsome, undisciplined and bark too much, the Duke
of York adding to Fébus’s comments that he would not have any ‘especially there where I would hunt.’139

  Aristocratic hunting was defined, above all, by two factors, the quarry species and methodology. Although common hunters took the beasts reserved for gentle hunters, they did it illegally and would suffer punishment if caught, usually in the form of a fine suited to their status. It is significant that taking ‘noble’ quarry did not confer gentility on common hunters while poaching of other people’s game by aristocrats did not diminish their own status. It was not what was hunted and caught, but how the hunter did it which defined him as a gentleman or ungentleman.