Boy (dog)

Boy
	Boy, accompanying Prince Rupert of the Rhine in a pro-Parliamentary woodcut condemning the pair
Species	Dog
Breed	Poodle
Sex	Male
Born	abt. 1638
Died	2 July 1644; Marston Moor, England
Resting place	Marston Moor, England
Occupation	Hunting dog and military mascot
Years active	1640–1644
Known for	Iconic Royalist symbol during English Civil War
Owner	Prince Rupert of the Rhine

Last updated May 24, 2024

Boy (also Boye) was a white hunting poodle belonging to Prince Rupert of the Rhine in the 17th century. Parliamentarian propaganda alleged that the dog was "endowed" with magical powers.

Origins

Boy was first given to Prince Rupert when he was imprisoned in the fortress of Linz during the Thirty Years' War.^[1] The Earl of Arundel, an Englishman who had grown concerned about Rupert's plight, gave him the animal to keep him company during his confinement.^[1] The dog was a rare breed of white hunting poodle.

There were probably two poodles, one black and one white, given to Rupert in Germany. The black was lost early on in the war; it was the white survivor who became notorious. It was sometimes called "Puddle" (for "poodle"), but it's famous as being called "Boy"; although it might have been female.^[2]^[3] Propaganda was put about that Boy had possession of dark powers as a 'dog-witch'.

Boy was sufficiently impressive and famous across Europe that the Ottoman Sultan of the day, Murad IV, requested that his ambassador attempt to find him a similar animal.^[1] Boy accompanied Rupert during his travels until 1644.

Propaganda and magical powers

Boy accompanied his master from 1642 to 1644 during the English Civil War.

Rupert was the iconic Royalist cavalier of the conflict and was frequently the subject of Parliamentarian propaganda.^[4] Boy, who often accompanied Rupert into battle, featured heavily in this, and was widely suspected of being a witch's familiar. There were numerous accounts of Boy's abilities; some suggested that he was the Devil in disguise.^[5]

John Cleveland and other Royalist satirists and parodists mocked these Parliamentarian attitudes and produced lampoons that satirised the alleged "superstition" and "credulity" of their opponents; Cleveland claimed that Boy was Prince Rupert's shapeshifting familiar, and of demonic origins.^[6] Other satirists suggested that Boy was a "Lapland Lady" who had been transformed into a white dog. Boy was also "able" to find hidden treasure, was invulnerable to attack, could catch bullets fired at Rupert in his mouth, and prophesy as well as the 16th-century soothsayer, Mother Shipton.^[7] Royalist soldiers also promoted Boy, as their adopted mascot, to the rank of Sergeant-Major-General.^[8]

Reportedly, Boy had other endearing attributes, such as cocking his leg when he heard the name of John Pym, leader of the Parliamentarian forces.^[9] He was also alleged to have performed for Charles I, slept in Prince Rupert's bed, and played with Princes Charles, James and Harry and Princess Henrietta, and was often fed roast beef and capon breast by Charles I himself.^[10]

Death

Boy died during the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644. He had been left safely tied up in the Royalist camp, but escaped and chased after Rupert. The battle went badly for the Royalists, and Rupert was forced to flee the field; Boy was killed during the ensuing fighting. He was prominently depicted in woodcut scenes drawn of the battle at the time, lying upside down, dead;^[11] Simon Ash, a contemporary historian of the event, drew specific attention to the death of this 'much spoken of' dog.^[12]

Legacy

Boy has been recorded as the first official British Army Dog.^[13]

Contemporary works about Boy

Observations Upon Prince Rupert's White Dog called Boy (Anonymous, 1642)^[10]
A Dialogue, or Rather a Parley, between Prince Rupert's Dog whose name is Puddle and Tobies Dog, whose name is Pepper (Anonymous, 1643)^[10]
The Parliament's Unspotted Bitch (Anonymous, 1643)^[10]
The Parliament's Unspotted Bitch (Cover – Anonymous, 1643)^[14]
A Dog's Elegy: Elegy of Prince Rupert's Tears for the Late Defeat at Marston Moor where his Beloved Dog named Boy was killed by a Valiant Soldier (Anonymous, 1644)^[10]

Related Research Articles

The English Civil War refers to a series of civil wars and political machinations between Royalists and Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, the struggle consisted of the First English Civil War and the Second English Civil War. The Anglo-Scottish War of 1650 to 1652 is sometimes referred to as the Third English Civil War.

The Battle of Marston Moor was fought on 2 July 1644, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms of 1639–1653. The combined forces of the English Parliamentarians under Lord Fairfax and the Earl of Manchester and the Scottish Covenanters under the Earl of Leven defeated the Royalists commanded by Prince Rupert of the Rhine and the Marquess of Newcastle.

The Battle of Naseby took place on 14 June 1645 during the First English Civil War, near the village of Naseby in Northamptonshire. The Parliamentarian New Model Army, commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell, destroyed the main Royalist army under Charles I and Prince Rupert. Defeat ended any real hope of royalist victory, although Charles did not finally surrender until May 1646.

Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Duke of Cumberland, was an English-German army officer, admiral, scientist, and colonial governor. He first rose to prominence as a Royalist cavalry commander during the English Civil War. Rupert was the third son of the German Prince Frederick V of the Palatinate and Elizabeth, eldest daughter of King James VI and I of England and Scotland.

Sir Charles Lucas, 1613 to 28 August 1648, was a professional soldier from Essex, who served as a Royalist cavalry leader during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Taken prisoner at the end of the First English Civil War in March 1646, he was released after swearing not to fight against Parliament again, an oath he broke when the Second English Civil War began in 1648. As a result, he was executed following his capture at the Siege of Colchester in August 1648, and became a Royalist martyr after the 1660 Stuart Restoration.

Sir Richard Grenville was a professional soldier from Cornwall, who served in the Thirty Years War, and 1638 to 1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. He was the younger brother of Sir Bevil Grenville, who died at Lansdowne in 1643, and grandson of Admiral Sir Richard, killed at Flores in 1591.

The Ironsides were troopers in the Parliamentarian cavalry formed by English political leader Oliver Cromwell in the 17th century, during the English Civil War. The name came from "Old Ironsides", one of Cromwell's nicknames.

The term "Cavalier" was first used by Roundheads as a term of abuse for the wealthier royalist supporters of King Charles I and his son Charles II of England during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration. It was later adopted by the Royalists themselves. Although it referred originally to political and social attitudes and behaviour, of which clothing was a very small part, it has subsequently become strongly identified with the fashionable clothing of the court at the time. Prince Rupert, commander of much of Charles I's cavalry, is often considered to be an archetypal Cavalier.

The First English Civil War took place in England and Wales from 1642 to 1646, and forms part of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. An estimated 15% to 20% of adult males in England and Wales served in the military at some point between 1639 and 1653, while around 4% of the total population died from war-related causes. These figures illustrate the widespread impact of the conflict on society, and the bitterness it engendered as a result.

The siege of York in 1644 was a prolonged contest for York during the First English Civil War, between the Scottish Covenanter army and the Parliamentarian armies of the Northern Association and Eastern Association, and the Royalist Army under the Marquess of Newcastle. It lasted from 22 April until 1 July when the city was relieved by Prince Rupert of the Rhine. Rupert and Newcastle were defeated the next day at the decisive Battle of Marston Moor, and the siege resumed until the city was surrendered on easy terms on 16 July.

Maurice, Prince Palatine of the Rhine KG was the fourth son of Frederick V, Elector Palatine and Princess Elizabeth, only daughter of King James VI and I and Anne of Denmark.

The Eastern Association of counties was an administrative organisation set up by Parliament in the early years of the First English Civil War. Its main function was to finance and support an army which became a mainstay of the Parliamentarian military effort until early 1645. In January 1644 committeemen of the Eastern Association gathered at the Bury Conference to discuss their concerns as regards the proposed New Model Army. However in the following months many of its units were incorporated into this new military formation.

The Battle of Brentford was a small pitched battle which took place on 12 November 1642 in Brentford, Middlesex, between a detachment of the Royalist army under the command of Prince Rupert, and two infantry regiments of Parliamentarians with some horse in support. The result was a victory for the Royalists.

The Storming of Bolton, sometimes referred to as the "Bolton massacre", was an event in the First English Civil War which happened on 28 May 1644. The strongly Parliamentarian town was stormed and captured by Royalist forces under Prince Rupert. It was alleged that up to 1,600 of Bolton's defenders and inhabitants were slaughtered during and after the fighting. The "massacre at Bolton" became a staple of Parliamentarian propaganda.

Cornwall played a significant role in the English Civil War, being a Royalist enclave in the generally Parliamentarian south-west.

The New Cornish Tertia were four Royalist regiments of infantry raised in Cornwall and Devon by Sir Richard Grenville, 1st Baronet in 1644, during the English Civil War. As the maps aside show, Cornwall and Wales were staunch Royalist strongholds whilst South East England was held by Parliament, and the remainder of England was in dispute.

The Battle of Burton Bridge was fought between Royalist and Parliamentarian forces at Burton upon Trent on 4 July 1643 during the First English Civil War. By the time of the battle, the town, which had at various times been held by both sides, was garrisoned by a Parliamentarian unit under the command of Captain Thomas Sanders and the town's military governor, Colonel Richard Houghton. The key river crossing at Burton was desired by Queen Henrietta Maria, who was proceeding southwards from Yorkshire with a convoy of supplies destined for King Charles I at Oxford. The Royalists, led by Colonel Thomas Tyldesley, launched a cavalry charge across the bridge which succeeded in defeating the Parliamentarians and capturing most of their officers, including Sanders and Houghton. The Queen's convoy proceeded on its way south to Oxford, with Tyldesley receiving a knighthood and a promotion in recognition of his victory. Burton changed hands several more times during the course of the war, before finally coming under Parliamentarian control in 1646.

The Battle of Montgomery took place during the First English Civil War of 1642–1646. On 17 September 1644, a Parliamentarian force commanded by Sir John Meldrum advanced to engage a Royalist army led by Lord Byron which was besieging Montgomery Castle in mid Wales. The battle was fought the next day. After the Royalists gained an initial advantage, the Parliamentarians counter-attacked and destroyed Byron's army.

The Battle of Sherburn in Elmet was an action fought towards the end of the First English Civil War. A detachment of the English Royalist army led by Lord Digby, King Charles I's Secretary of State, was making a belated attempt to reach Scotland and join forces with the Scottish Royalists. As they moved north through Yorkshire, they were pursued by a Parliamentarian force under Sydnam Poyntz. Poyntz was unaware of the Royalists' position, and the Royalists took the opportunity to ambush and attack a small Parliamentarian detachment at night in the village of Sherburn in Elmet. However, the Royalists then mistook fleeing Parliamentarians for their own men and panicked. In the ensuing flight, several hundred Royalist prisoners were taken. The Parliamentarians also captured Digby's coach, which contained much compromising correspondence.

The siege of Hereford took place in 1645 during the English Civil War when the city of Hereford and its English Royalist garrison was besieged by a Scottish Covenanter army under the command of the Earl of Leven. The Covenanters were allied to the English Parliamentarian cause and moved to take the Royalist stronghold in the wake of their victory at the Battle of Naseby. After a month-long siege the approach of Royalist reinforcements and news of Montrose's victories against the Coventanters in Scotland forced Leven to abandon the siege and retreat. However, in December of the same year the city was taken in a surprise attack by Colonel John Birch and remained in Parliamentarian hands for the remainder of the conflict.

References

1 2 3 Spencer, p.42.
↑ "The Black Legend of Prince Rupert's Dog: Witchcraft and Propaganda During the English Civil War: Two dogs". TimesHigherEducation.com. 21 July 2011. Retrieved 19 January 2017.
↑ Stoyle, Mark (6 June 2011). The Black Legend of Prince Rupert's Dog: Witchcraft and Propaganda During the English Civil War. liverpool University Press. ISBN 9780859898591. Archived from the original on 3 July 2022. Retrieved 19 January 2017.
↑ Purkiss, 2007, p.175.
↑ Spencer, p.127.
↑ Purkiss, 2001, p.276; Stoyle, pp.22-6.
↑ Purkiss, 2007, p.377.
↑ Wedgwood, p.148.
↑ Stoyle, pp.22-6.
1 2 3 4 5 Poodle History: Army Dogs , Poodle History Project, Emily Cain, accessed 13 June 2011.
↑ Gaunt, p.41.
↑ Bence-Jones, p.50.
↑ Cornick, Nicola. "The Dobson Painting at Ashdown House". Number One London. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
↑ , Boy In Newsprint.

Bibliography

Bence-Jones, Mark. (1976) The Cavaliers. London: Constable.
Gaunt, Peter. (2003) The English Civil Wars 1642-1651. Osprey Publishing.
Levack, Brian P. (ed) (2001) New Perspectives on Witchcraft, Magic, and Demonology: Witchcraft in the British Isles and New England. London: Routledge.
Purkiss, Diane. (2001) Desire and Its Deformities: Fantasies of Witchcraft in the English Civil War. in Levack (ed) (2001).
Purkiss, Diane. (2007) The English Civil War: A People's History. London: Harper.
Spencer, Charles. (2007) Prince Rupert: The Last Cavalier. London: Phoenix.
Stoyle, Mark. (2011) "The Prince and the Devil Dog," BBC History 12: 5. pp. 22–26.
Wedgwood, C. V. (1970) The King's War: 1641-1647. London: Fontana.