Tudor dogs and Henry VIII: which breeds shared his court

Part 1

What kinds of dogs worked in Henry VIII's court

Hunting in this era depended on three animals working as a team: the horse, the hound, and the hawk or falcon. The hound was one of the essential animals for the hunt, along with the horse and the hawk or falcon. Talk to your own dog about it on your next walk, since that teamwork is a long way from how most dogs spend their days now. Even as watchdogs, mastiffs had their front claws removed so they could not chase the game they were meant only to guard against.

Part 2

Hunting with dogs at Hampton Court

Henry VIII took over Hampton Court from Cardinal Wolsey in 1529 and spent years rebuilding it into one of his grandest palaces. The estate included a hunting park of more than 1,100 acres. From there, Henry could ride out hunting with friends, since the palace sat surrounded by forest on all sides. Game brought back from these hunts went straight to the kitchens, where it was prepared for the court's meals. Those kitchens were built to feed around 600 people twice a day, run by more than 200 staff across 55 rooms. The annual meat supply recorded for the court included 2,330 deer and 53 wild boar, alongside oxen, sheep, calves, and pigs. Visitors who saw the finished palace called it the most splendid royal palace in England or any other kingdom. Picture your own dog running free across ground that size, and you get a sense of how much land the king's hunts covered.

Part 3

Forest law and who could keep hunting dogs

Forest law set out which animals were protected and who had the right to hunt them. It covered red and fallow deer, roe deer, hare, boar, and wolf, treating them as reserved for the crown or those it granted rights to. Anyone living inside a royal forest could not carry hunting weapons, and their dogs were banned outright, apart from mastiffs kept as watchdogs. By the sixteenth century, land set aside for hunting fell into three kinds: unenclosed forests, chases usually held by nobles, and enclosed parks that sat outside forest law. Hampton Court's surrounding hunting ground gave Henry space to hunt close to the palace.

• Hart and hind, the male and female red deer
• Boar
• Hare
• Wolf

Part 4

Household records from Henry's court

Henry's court could have as many as 2,000 people living at Hampton Court at once. The royal family had the best rooms, while most people slept in the grand hall or camped in tents outside when no space could be found. Feeding this many people took a serious kitchen operation, with six giant fireplaces fitted with spit racks for roasting meat and game. Building works to expand Hampton Court after 1529 continued for eight years and cost around £47,000, one of the most expensive royal building projects of the time. Hunting connected to daily life at court, since game caught on the hunt was roasted on a giant spit in the kitchens. Imagine feeding a household that size from your own kitchen, and the scale of Henry's court starts to make sense.

Part 5

Dogs and status in Tudor England

Forest law reserved large hunting grounds for the crown and, by invitation, the nobility, while ordinary people were kept out and punished for poaching. Mastiffs were permitted as watchdogs in the forest, but they had to have their front claws removed to stop them hunting game. By the 16th century, chases usually belonged to nobles rather than the crown, and parks were enclosed and not subject to forest law. Mastiffs still guarded forest grounds as watchdogs, while hounds were used for hunting game. That link between a dog's role and a person's standing is worth remembering next time you watch your own dog run freely off the lead.