Osprey - General Military - Knight - The Warrior and ... - Brego-weard

would become over-tired. The quarry was then tracked and chased. Finally, when the
animal was unable to run further and turned at bay' the dogs were called oil and one
of the hunting party would be chosen to have the honour of going forward and making
the kill with spear or sword, literally by the strength of his own hand, or par force.
A slightly less prestigious lorm of hunting, by bow and stable', saw quarry being
driven by beaters towards a fixed line of shooters armed with bows. In both cases
there was a substantial element of planning and timing involved as well as an
understanding of the quarry the nature of horse and hounds and a not inconsiderable
degree ol physical prowess. Even at bay the stag and the boar, the two creatures most
regularly hunted par force, were dangerous creatures, more than capable of maiming
or killing a man. The English banneret Sir John Chandos lost an eye hunting stags and
Richard, Duke ol Bernay, the second son ol William the Conqueror, was gored to
death by a stag in the New Forest in 1081.
The hunting of the hart and hind, of the boar, bear and hare, and ol the lox, badger
and otter, was all done from horseback with dogs, or with the bow. The hunting of
birds might also be done with the bow, using specially designed arrows with blunt
or crescent-shaped heads (which would kill the bird without damaging the flesh), but
the more noble pursuit of such game was with hawks. Unlike hounds, v/hich were
categorized practically from their role and use against particular prey, the hawk was
considered noble itself and a hierarchy of nobility attached to these birds. According
to the 15th-century treatise on hawking in the Boke of St Alba/w, the rare and powerful
gyrfalcon was suitable only for a king, the peregrine for a baron, the saker for a knight
and the lanner tor a squire. These falcons, known in the treatises as 'hawks of the
tower' because they hunted from high altitude and stooped on their prey, were
differentiated from the hawks proper, who hunted horizontally and close to the
ground, and who were seen as the birds appropriate tor the commoner, the yeoman,
the priest and the cleric. Thus the falcon and hawk, as with the differences laid out in
the sumptuary laws, were used to identify the status of the owner. In fact the use of
each bird was seen as a different art; falconry was the higher and more noble, whilst
hawking, particularly in later medieval France, might be seen as the pastime ol
the commoner.
Although both hawking and hunting were a means of providing meat for the table
they were not particularly practical ways and the majority of game that went into the
pots of the kitchens came from netting and trapping. However, just as in battle and
tournament, there was prowess to be gained trom the act of hunting, and especially
from the slaying of a great creature such as a boar or a stag. Both hunting and falconry
were group activities in which the entire noble household might take part. Falconry
was actively participated in by both men and women, and both rode to the hunt. Even