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Medieval Hunting PDF

183 Pages·2011·1 MB·English
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Medieval Hunting RICHARD ALMOND To Anne, Rosamunde and Rohan Front cover: LAT 1156 B f.163 November; deer hunting, from the Hours of Marguerite d’Orleans, 1426-38 by French School, (15th century) Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France/ The Bridgeman Art Library. First published in 2003 This edition published in 2011 The History Press The Mill, Brimscombe Port Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG www.thehistorypress.co.uk This ebook edition first published in 2012 All rights reserved © Richard Almond 2003, 2011, 2012 The right of Richard Almond, to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly. EPUB ISBN 978 0 7524 7462 5 MOBI ISBN 978 0 7524 7461 8 Original typesetting by The History Press Contents Acknowledgements Foreword Introduction One ‘Delite’ and Other Functions Two ‘Lordes to Honte’ Three ‘Bestis’ and ‘Crafte’ Four Everyman Five Crossing the Barriers Six Medieval Dianas Seven Conclusions Notes Bibliography Acknowledgements In my research for this book, I have consulted hundreds of manuscripts and printed sources over a period of more than eleven years. Many of these sources feature in this publication. Obviously, over such a long period, I have received help, advice and comment from a large number of people: I wish to thank you all collectively. In addition, I owe a special debt of gratitude to Professor Tony Pollard for reading this typescript and for his constant interest, sage advice and invaluable discussion on ‘things medieval’. For the revised edition of Medieval Hunting (2011) my grateful thanks to John Langton and Graham Jones of St John’s College, Oxford, for the most recent figures of forests and chases. Thanks also to Colin McKelvie for his expert comments on the habits of woodcock. Finally, but not least, I wish to thank my family for their encouragement, tolerance and unfailing belief in me as an author. Foreword Late-twentieth century historians, as a whole, disapproved of hunting. As a result they tended to underrate its significance in the medieval centuries. They would note its popularity, especially with the aristocracy, and pass on, regretting the frivolity (or the cruelty), to other weightier and worthier matters. Or, in the case of the common man hounded for poaching, highlight only his struggle against repression. Both focuses were misleading, for hunting was central to the lives of all classes, and enjoyed by all three estates and both sexes. In this splendid new examination of the subject, Richard Almond brings manuscript illustration, documentary sources and literary evidence together to lay bare the purposes, methods, customs and rituals of the pursuit of wild game as a shared culture. Most of what writing there has been on hunting has focused on the aristocracy, understandably because the surviving sources were generated for their use and pleasure. Besides throwing new light on aristocratic hunting, especially the under-researched participation of women, Almond here does full justice to the hunting practised by the common man, which had its own skills and rituals. Inevitably, since aristocrats sought to preserve a monopoly of the best sport, hunting could be a source of social conflict. However, in the later Middle Ages, from which centuries the greater quantity of evidence survives, hunting was less divisive than either before or after. Broadly speaking, in an era of low population, there was enough game to go around. Social barriers were crossed not just in the organisation of the hunt, but also, as illustrations show, in the aristocratic knowledge and appreciation of general practice. Nevertheless the boar and especially the deer, were the noble quarry. The aristocratic rituals and ceremonies developed in pursuit of the hart, the mature, male red deer, were of deep cultural significance on several levels. The chase was seen as a preparation for war, not only because it made men fit and hardy, but also because the hunter put himself at risk. Going over the tusks or the antlers for the kill was a moment of supreme danger. It was also a moment, as

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Hunting was a major economic and leisure activity throughout the European Middle Ages, and while aristocratic practices have featured in studies of romantic and narrative literature, hunting in its wider sense, across the social spectrum with attendant male and female roles, has larged been ignored
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