Greetings! I am so glad to once again be able to bring an article on hounds and hunting to the AEstel. In this issue, I would like to discuss a topic particularly dear to me, that is, “Women hunting in the middle ages.” This is a topic of ongoing research for me, simply because it has been so difficult to find information on women, other than Royalty such as Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots, who hunted.
Usually a sport left to men, hunting was enjoyed by kings, noblemen, and, (albeit, illegally, usually) lower classmen alike. It was a grand show of heraldry and sportsmanship on the part of the nobles, taking an entire day from morning feast to the Mort, where the hunting horn is blown to signal the death of the animal, and thus, the close of the day. Woman in these instances, were often ornamental spectators, perched atop pretty horses with flowing gowns and headdresses. They can be seen in some manuscripts watching as the Curee is prepared, or, the feast for the hounds consisting of the entrails mixed with bread, usually eaten straight from the animal’s freshly slain carcass.
Aside from the few things I had seen, (aside from the Royals mentioned above,) women were usually not allowed to actually partake in the hunt. In fact, though women were sometimes even landowners, they were disallowed from many aspects of medieval life: they could not sit parliament, or even be sheriff, coroner, or justice of the peace. These tasks were always left to the men to accomplish.
However, recently, I have stumbled upon a few female renegades of their time, fine ladies of noble rank actually being fined for hunting illegally (in forbidden areas or forests.) One such woman was Matilda de Mortimer, who, in 1280 was fined and then pardoned with “William and others of her household, for taking one buck and one doe in Whittlewood forest.” Accounts from the Pleas of the forest of Pickering in 1334 show that Lady Blanche de Wake and her men “came into the forest, on Monday, 28 September last, and took one young stag and two hinds and carried them away.” In that same year, records show that Lady Aleysia, wife of Stephen de Segrave, together with Thomas de Verdin and other members of her household, was fined for entering a forest with greyhounds, and poaching deer. Lastly, and my favorite, I think, was the writings of the Scottish chronicler John of Fordun, who states that while out hunting with her maidens and household in 1271, Martha, daughter and heiress of the Earl of Carrick, “Encountered and forcibly detained her future husband, Robert Bruce of Annondale and Cleveland.” (Cross, 67)
These ladies were truly rebels of their time. And, while I found the accounts of their hunting to be really great research material, still, I wanted more. I wanted actual pictures; manuscripts showing how, with what and who was hunting. It was in the Taymouth Book of Hours that I found what I was looking for.
The first owner of the Taymouth Hours was believed to be Joan, daughter of Edward II of England. She is shown frequently in the Manuscript, usually (since it is a book of hours) praying or in other religious circumstances. Other scenes, however, show meticulously painted scenes of women hunting all types of animals: rabbits, ducks, boars, stags, squirrels, etc. They are even seen releasing a greyhound after a rabbit, while other women watch from the Castle keep. Finally, we see four ladies, skillfully disemboweling a deer, and, depicted within the same scene the Curee, the Present, (the deer head on a pole) and the Mort, announcing the kill. 30 separate illustrations show women in a sportsmanship role. This is wonderful news indeed! And, while my research is still continuing, I will endeavor to bring more information to the AEstel as I gather it.
Next issue, we will talk about what these women were wearing for the hunt, and what tools they were shown using to hunt with.
And with that, TALLY HO!
References:
1. The Lady in Medieval England 1000-1500; By Peter Cross. Stackpole Books, 1998
2. The Book of Hours: With a Historical Survey and Commentary; By John Harthan. Thomas Y Crowell Co., 1977
3. Illuminated Manuscripts; the Burt Franklin Bibliography and Reference Series, #11; By John Alexander Herbert. 1958.
