Brutality and Glee

I think this clip embodies much in my own life. 

It also reflects similarities between us and  much of the animal kingdom, similarities  we are increasingly sensitive to as extinction threatens what we’ve belatedly learnt to value. A far cry from the C12^th with its early child-like glee in the exotic. Glee, brutality and ignorance equally mixed.

Henry 1 began with a private menagerie in his Woodstock palace. Lions, tigers, leopards and camels—quite a novelty in early C12th England. The collection increased soon afrer King John lost Normandy, acquiring by way of compensation crates of assorted wild animals. John now had an important decision—other than the Magna Carta—where to put them?

He decided upon the Tower of London, and the royal menagerie became even more firmly established by his successor Henry III.  In 1252 Henry received the gift of a ‘pale bear’ from the King of Norway which became an instant sensation, especially when the Polar bear was encouraged to fish its own food in the relatively clean Thames. Chains and ropes were employed for its keeper’s protection and also that of the crowd. In 1253, London saw its first elephant, a gift from the king of France. Where he got it from. I don’t know, maybe an unwanted Christmas gift.

Unfortunately, the poor beast died within two years and was buried in the Tower complex. Waste not want not. A year late its corpse was exhumed, its ivory used for various reliquaries in Henry’s newly rebuilt Westminster Abbey. 

Edward I rehoused the entire menagerie in what would be called the ‘Lion Tower.’ It guarded the north gate and was for a time the only way into the Tower of London; a fearsome, perhaps intimidating experience for those passing through.

In the C14^th and late C15^th the animals were used for entertainment eg the baiting of lions with large and vicious mastiffs. Henry VII, no stranger to blood himself,  was ‘deeply displeased’ on witnessing such an event and had the hounds put to death.

Not every king was so fastidious. James 1 revelled in watching animals tearing each other to pieces. In fact, he built a viewing platform the better to observe. On one occasion, the sport proved disappointing.  In 1605 he ordered a live lamb to be winched into the lions’ den. Against all expectations, the lions ‘very gently looked upon him and smelled upon him without sign of further hurt.’ The lamb was winched back without hurt but was likely eaten for dinner soon after.

To be continued.