The Tudors Beloved Pets Pt 3

Historically Barbs have been prized for their endurance and quick bursts of speed. They were imported and bred for racing and hunting throughout Europe. King Henry VIII was the first patron of horse racing, despite the Pope's demands for cessation of all racing in England.

The pure Barb stands approximately 15 hands high, with flat shoulders, low tail and a "ram shaped head". Able to carry large loads and subsist on poor forage, they make ideal military mounts.He also owned dogs (greyhounds, beagles & toy spaniels), ferrets and birds (see also : Falconry on the Tudors)

"For over 600 years there was a royal menagerie in the Tower of London. It was founded by King John in the early 1200s and was filled with exotic animals given as royal gifts for the entertainment and curiosity of the court. The first animals to arrive were lions, an elephant and a polar bear which would hunt for fish in the Thames on a lead. Later came tigers, kangaroos and ostriches. Remains found in the tower have confirmed that the medieval big cats were male Barbary lions, a now extinct subspecies from North Africa. The menagerie was closed by the Duke of Wellington in 1835 and the animals became the basis for the London Zoo in Regent’s Park."

The Barbary lion is the largest and the heaviest of the lion subspecies; it is believed that the big males could reach 10 feet long. It is estimated that the weight for the males is 180 to 270 kilograms (400 to 600 lb) and females 120 to 180 kilograms (260 to 400 lb).

a Greyhound named Urian and another dog named Purkoy who was originally gifted to Sir Francis Bryan by Lady Honor Lisle, wife of the governor of Calais, Arthur Lisle. Reportedly Anne Boleyn fell in love with Purkoy and made the dog her own. There is only one reference to Lady Lisle gifting a poodle to someone else. Purkoy was reportedly named for the French word pourquoi, meaning,"why?".

Havanese pup with head tilt A pourquoi head tilt is a gesture particularly common to Havanese dogs. The little dog fell out a window and was killed a few weeks before Anne's execution. (she was known to dislike monkeys and peacocks). Cat and Dog. There is a legend that when Wolsey went to meet the pope to present the King's great matter, that his dog named "Urian" bit his outstretched toe putting the pope in bad humour to consider the subject that was being presented to him.
[could this be the same dog that Anne Boleyn was known to own later?].

In a scene which evoked pathos even from her enemies, Mary's Skye Terrier, which had accompanied her into the hall [for her execution] concealed under her skirts, whimpering, splattered in her blood, it lay between the Queen's body and her decapitated head. It was dragged away and washed but pining and refusing to eat, the dog did not long survive the trauma.

Catherine named her pet spaniel "Gardiner," after Bishop Stephen Gardiner provoking much amusement when she called her dog to heel.