Medieval Hunting (9 page)

The upper classes hunted on horseback and two small but important items of dress or equipment which indicate high status are connected with the horse. The first can clearly be seen in
Queen Mary's Psalter
. The noble or gentle hunters wear small spurs of the strap-on ‘prick' variety. Danielsson's text, however, states that none of the huntsmen carried spurs, which is puzzling.
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The dismounted professional huntsmen certainly do not (and why should they?), and it would be strange if the huntsmen of rank were not wearing spurs. Spurs were an essential aid to horsemanship and control of the war and hunting horse in the Middle Ages, and for centuries to come. If the illustrations in
Livre de chasse
are examined, the nobles are invariably portrayed equipped with the large rowelled spurs of the early fourteenth century; in contrast, the hunt servants do not wear any, as was apparently the norm. The plate for Chapter 28 shows the mounted huntsman, wearing rowelled spurs, instructing an apprentice in the recognition of a warrantable hart. His high social status is indicated by the authoritative directing stick he is carrying while his spurs are another mark of his knightly rank. He is not just a huntsman or even a gentleman-huntsman, he is the Master.
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Another illustration from
Livre de chasse
is of the Master instructing his apprentice hunters on the correct method of blowing the hunting horn.
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Only one young hunter is wearing spurs, and these are of gold with rowels. Presumably, he is of gentle birth while the others are commoners training to be professional huntsmen. The plate for Chapter 55, hunting and killing the wolf, shows a blue-robed noble with a tapered hunting sword, and an unarmed, more plainly dressed mounted man.
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The noble wears golden spurs whereas the other man's are of silver, plainly indicating the lesser rank of the latter, who is perhaps the noble's esquire or private gentleman. Steel, silver and gold spurs were items of equestrian equipment which denoted ascending social rank.
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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'.
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The public display of arms was one of several hallmarks of rank and gentility,
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.'
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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.
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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.
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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'.
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The gentleman ‘type' should have, among his many accomplishments, skill in horsemanship and on the hunting field.
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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.
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An old Welsh proverb states ‘A gentleman might be known by his hawk, his horse and his greyhound.'
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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.
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The Byzantines had long used hunting to keep their warhorses and cavalrymen fit.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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,
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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.
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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.
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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.
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