Falconry
The Ancient Falconer
There had been falconers in Europe since at least Saxon times (and in the East, for a great deal longer). No one knows where or when falconry first began, and although various theories have been advanced at one time or another to show that it originated in China, Persia or Central Asia, there is very little concrete evidence.
According to Harting (1891) a bas-relief depicting a falconer was discovered in the ruins of Khorsabad during the last century and this was supposed to date from about 1700BC. Documentary evidence to show that it was being practised in Central Asia around 400BC is found in the writings of Ctesias. Aristotle wrote of hawking in Thrace. ‘In the district of Thrace …….. men and hawks have a kind of partnership for fowling. The men put up birds from the woods and reedbeds and the hawks, flying overhead drive them down again.’
In 355AD in the Chronicle of Nihonshoki it is recorded that a strange bird was caught and presented to the Emperor, and that a Korean at the court recognised the species (it was probably a Goshawk). He was charged with training it and he put jesses on it and belled its tail, in the autumn of that year caught pheasants with it in the fields of Mozu. This would certainly imply that at that date falconry was better known in Korea than in Japan.
One of the earliest known pieces of evidence of falconry in Curope is a floor masaic, representing a falconry scene in a Roman Villa in Argos, Greece.
Certainly falconry was being practised in England by Saxon times, since between 733AD and 750AD Aethelbald, King of Mercia, was sent a hawk and two falcons by Boniface, Archbishop of Mayence. We know from the writings of William of Malmesbury, that Athelstan and Edward the Confessor were both fond of hawking, while on the Bayeux Tapestry, Harold and Comte Guy de Ponthieu are depicted with hawks on fist.
In the laws of Howel Dda (900AD) we find that Penhebogydd (Master of Hawks) was fourth only in rank from the King himself. He sat in fourth place of honour at the royal table (although he was not allowed to drink more than three times at a meal, for fear that he should neglect his hawks through drunkenness.)
(Extracts from ‘Falconry and Hawking’ by Phillip Glasier)
The Medieval Falconer
Various species of hawks and falcons were highly prized and the people who could afford them went to great lengths to get hold of them. The were also considered desirable gifts between Kings and Princes. King John used to send to Ireland for his hawks, but is also reported to enjoy crane-hawking with a cast of Gyrs presented to him by the King of Norway.
From very early on, trained birds of prey were considered and extremely valuable asset, and there are many instances of ransoms, fines and rents being paid wholly or in part with hawks.
As late as 1764 the Dukes of Atholl were granted the feudal tenancy of the Isle of Man for a ‘rent’ of two white Gyrfalcons, to be paid to each succeeding monarch at his coronation. In the reign of Edward III the theft of a trained bird was punishable with death.
There is also a story that a medieval Bishop of Ely, whose hawk was stolen from the cloisters while he was preaching, secured it’s return by re-ascending the pulpit and threatening to excommunicate the anonymous thief.
In Britain, falconry continued in popularity during Tudor times, indeed it is interesting to think that history might have taken a different turn, had not Edmund Mundy, a royal falconer, rescued Henry VIII from a dyke into which he fell while he was hawking in Hertfordshire.
James I, like Henry VIII, legislated against the use of guns, crossbows and longbows to kill game, but he made an exception in the case of hawk-owners, who were allowed to shoot …’Haile shote in hand guns or birding peeces at Crow, Chough, Pie, Ringdove, Jey or smaller birds for Hawkes’ meate only.’ James himself was a keen falconer and in the Calendar of State Papers for 1611 there is an entry ‘Twelve falcons are come from Denmark for the King: and six for Lord Hay, of which the King has taken two, and hopes he will not be angry.’ (We may suppose that Lord Hay had very little choice in the matter!)
(Extracts from ‘Falconry and Hawking’ by Phillip Glasier)