King's Beasts, Hampton Court Palace

Last updated

The King's Beasts, on the bridge before the Great Gatehouse Heraldic Beasts, Hampton Court-geograph-2198779-by-Colin-Smith.jpg
The King's Beasts, on the bridge before the Great Gatehouse

The King's Beasts are a series of 10 statues of heraldic animals that stand on the bridge over a moat leading to the great gatehouse of Hampton Court Palace. The original statues were commissioned by King Henry VIII to represent his ancestry and that of his third wife Jane Seymour. These were destroyed during renovations in the late 17th century, but new sculptures based on the original specifications were erected in the early 20th century.

Contents

The animals are: the lion of England, the Seymour lion, the royal dragon, the black bull of Clarence, the yale of Beaufort, the white lion of Mortimer, the White Greyhound of Richmond, the Tudor dragon, the Seymour panther, and the Seymour unicorn.

History

The bridge on which the King's Beasts had stood, as it looked at the time of its excavation in 1909. Only the lower potions of the bridge survived William III's late 17th century renovations, with none of the "Beasts" surviving intact. Hampton Court - The Stone Bridge as Exposed by Excavation, 1909.png
The bridge on which the King's Beasts had stood, as it looked at the time of its excavation in 1909. Only the lower potions of the bridge survived William III's late 17th century renovations, with none of the "Beasts" surviving intact.

The moat over which the bridge passes is likely of a design of the house's original owner Cardinal Wolsey, but in his time the bridge that spanned it would have been built of wood, but no archaeological evidence exists and no drawings of it are known. [3] [4] After the house came into the ownership of the king, Wolsey's bridge had been condemned and the building of a new stone structure had begun in 1535. In that year a payment was made to John Richmond and Richard Aman, quarrymen at Headington in Oxfordshire, for six hundred tons of stone for the facing of the bridge, its core being made of brick. [4]

In October 1536 the main work was completed, by which time Henry had married a new queen, Jane Seymour. Whatever the original design for the bridge's decorations might have been, the king now decided that the bridge should become a commemoration of his marriage. Orders were given for the carving of the king's and queen's beasts with shields to stand upon the bridge, with the carvers being Harry Corant and Richard Ridge from the neighbouring town of Kingston. Each statue cost 26 shillings apiece. [5]

The bridge and its beasts stood until about the year 1691, when during alterations by William III, the upper part of the bridge and its ornamentation were town down and used to fill in the moat, with the lower part of the bridge covered up with soil. [6] Despite being partially exposed in 1873, it wasn't until 1909 that Lewis Harcourt, the First Commissioner of Works, had the moat cleared. While the bridge was found to be in good condition, with one course of the original masonry left above the arches in some places, little of the pinnacles and the ornaments that topped it could be found. [lower-alpha 1] [6] [2] It was decided to reconstruct the beasts based on the original directions, with the size being determined by the fragments that had been found. Schomberg Kerr McDonnell, Secretary of the Office of Works, put the heraldic writer and archaeologist Edward Earle Dorling in charge of this reconstruction work. [7]

Beasts

King's crowned lion

Arms of Jane Seymour.svg

A crowned lion of England was used by Henry as a dexter supporter. It holds a shield showing the Royal arms of England impaled with those of Jane Seymour. [8]

Seymour panther

COA of Seymour.svg

Jane's panther supports the Seymour family arms. As the heraldic panther closely resembles the heraldic Leopard, it was relatively simple to make the alteration from Anne Boleyn's beast. [8]

Richmond greyhound

Royal arms of England.svg

The greyhound had become one of the most popular beasts of the Tudors, with it being a supporter of Henry VII's and sometimes Henry VIII's arms. It had first been adopted as a symbol of Edward III and was used afterwards by many of his descendants, particularly those of the House of Lancaster. Its popular name The Greyhound of Richmond comes from its use by Henry VII's father Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond. [8]

The beast at Hampton Court has a leash attached to its collar, unlike most depictions of the royal beast. This appears to be the result of a misunderstanding about the beast's origin. [9]

Beaufort yale

Marriage augmentation arms of Queen Jane Seymour.svg

A yale holds the arms of Jane Seymour, granted to her by her husband. Henry IV's son John, Duke of Bedford was the first to use the yale, but it is not clear if there was any particular reason for this choice. Whatever the reason, after John's death it was picked up by his cousin John Beaufort, grandfather of Henry VII, and from that time the yale was regarded as a Beaufort beast. [8]

Tudor dragon

Badge of the Portcullis Pursuivant.svg

The Tudor dragon was a favourite supporter of the Tudors, symbolising their Welsh ancestry. It holds a shield containing the Beaufort badge of an uncrowned portcullis. This symbol was extensively used by Henry VII, for instance forming the principal motif in the decoration of his chapel in Westminster Abbey, and from there becoming associated with the Palace of Westminster. [10]

Mortimer panther

Arms of Jane Seymour.svg

The queen's panther is duplicated, here holding the same conjoined arms carried by the king's lion. [11]

Clarence black bull

Tudor Rose.svg

The black bull of Clarence carries a shield with a Tudor rose on it. This badge is one of the most famous symbols of the Tudors, symbolising the union between the House of York (white rose) and the House of Lancaster (red rose), by the marriage between Elizabeth of York and Henry VII. [11]

Mortimer lion

Phoenix and Castle Badge.svg

A Lion with a coronet (not the full royal crown) holds an escutcheon with Seymour's badge consisting of a phoenix and castle. It also includes a hawthorn bush, a reference to a Tudor badge, which in turn is an allusion to the legend of Richard III's circlet being found in a hawthorn bush and brought to Henry, after the Battle of Bosworth Field. [11]

Royal dragon

Royal Arms of England (1399-1603).svg

A second royal dragon supports Henry's royal arms. [11]

Seymour unicorn

Arms of Jane Seymour (unimpaled).svg

A unicorn holds the full un-maritaled arms of the Queen. It is possible that the unicorn had been used as an English royal badge at some point, perhaps for Edward III. [lower-alpha 2] [12] [11] It was a symbol of purity and fertility, and it has been suggested that the little-used symbol was chosen as a symbol of Henry's hope that the marriage would lead to the son he wanted so badly. [11]

Other royal beast statuaries

Henry VIII and his family, showing carved heraldic beasts in a garden, RCT Family of Henry VIII c 1545.jpg
Henry VIII and his family, showing carved heraldic beasts in a garden, RCT

Beasts for the gardens of Henry VIII were made of timber and stone. [13] George Cavendish, the biographer of Cardinal Wolsey, described carved and painted royal heraldic beasts in a garden at Richmond Palace. [14] Wolsey said a dun cow (referring to the Earldom of Richmond) was also found in the heraldry of Thomas Boleyn and was a portent of the relationship of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII. [15]

Other series of King's or Queen's Beasts have been created, inspired by the Hampton Court beasts. Forty-two royal beasts sit atop St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. The original beasts dated from the 16th century, but were removed in 1682, with new statues installed in 1925 when the chapel was restored. [16] A set of Queen's Beasts, created for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, largely replicated the King's Beasts, but replaced the three Seymour items and one of the dragons with beasts representing aspects of Elizabeth's ancestry. [17]

One of the wooden King's Beasts created in 2009 for the Chapel Court at Hampton Court Palace Carved popinjay in Tudor Garden.JPG
One of the wooden King's Beasts created in 2009 for the Chapel Court at Hampton Court Palace

In 2009, to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the accession to the throne of King Henry VIII, a new Tudor garden was created by Hampton Court in the form of the Chapel Court. To decorate the garden eight small wooden King's Beasts were carved in oak and painted in bright colours, each sitting atop a six-foot-high painted wooden column. [18] [19]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">House of Tudor</span> English royal house of Welsh origin

The House of Tudor was an English and Welsh dynasty that held the throne of England from 1485 to 1603. They descended from the Tudors of Penmynydd, a Welsh noble family, and Catherine of Valois. The Tudor monarchs ruled the Kingdom of England and the Lordship of Ireland for 118 years with five monarchs: Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I. The Tudors succeeded the House of Plantagenet as rulers of the Kingdom of England, and were succeeded by the Scottish House of Stuart. The first Tudor monarch, Henry VII, descended through his mother from the House of Beaufort, a legitimised branch of the English royal House of Lancaster, a cadet house of the Plantagenets. The Tudor family rose to power and started the Tudor period in the wake of the Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), which left the main House of Lancaster extinct in the male line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hampton Court Palace</span> Historic royal palace in Greater London

Hampton Court Palace is a Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, 12 miles southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. Opened to the public, the palace is managed by Historic Royal Palaces, a charity set up to preserve several unoccupied royal properties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset</span> English nobleman and politician

John Beaufort, 1st Marquess of Somerset and 1st Marquess of Dorset, later only 1st Earl of Somerset, was an English nobleman and politician. He was the first of the four children of John of Gaunt (1340–1399) by his mistress Katherine Swynford, whom he later married in 1396.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coat of arms of England</span>

The coat of arms of England is the coat of arms historically used as arms of dominion by the monarchs of the Kingdom of England, and now used to symbolise England generally. The arms were adopted c.1200 by the Plantagenet kings and continued to be used by successive English and British monarchs; they are currently quartered with the arms of Scotland and Ireland in the coat of arms of the United Kingdom. Historically they were also quartered with the arms of France, representing the English claim to the French throne, and Hanover.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yale (mythical creature)</span> Beast in European mythology and heraldry

The yale or centicore is a mythical beast found in European mythology and heraldry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tudor rose</span> Heraldic emblem of England

The Tudor rose is the traditional floral heraldic emblem of England and takes its name and origins from the House of Tudor, which united the House of Lancaster and the House of York. The Tudor rose consists of five white inner petals, representing the House of York, and five red outer petals to represent the House of Lancaster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heraldic badge</span> Heraldic badges

A heraldic badge, emblem, impresa, device, or personal device worn as a badge indicates allegiance to, or the property of, an individual, family or corporate body. Medieval forms are usually called a livery badge, and also a cognizance. They are para-heraldic, not necessarily using elements from the coat of arms of the person or family they represent, though many do, often taking the crest or supporters. Their use is more flexible than that of arms proper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Queen's Beasts</span> Heraldic sculptures by James Woodford

The Queen's Beasts are ten heraldic statues representing the genealogy of Queen Elizabeth II, depicted as the Royal supporters of England. They stood in front of the temporary western annexe to Westminster Abbey for the Queen's coronation in 1953. Each of the Queen's Beasts consists of a heraldic beast supporting a shield bearing a badge or arms of a family associated with the ancestry of Queen Elizabeth II. They were commissioned by the British Ministry of Works from the sculptor James Woodford, who was paid the sum of £2,750 for the work. They were uncoloured except for their shields at the coronation. They are now on display in the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richmond Palace</span> Former royal residence in London, England

Richmond Palace was a Tudor royal residence on the River Thames in England which stood in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Situated in what was then rural Surrey, it lay upstream and on the opposite bank from the Palace of Westminster, which was located nine miles (14 km) to the north-east. It was erected in about 1501 by Henry VII of England, formerly known as the Earl of Richmond, in honour of which the manor of Sheen had recently been renamed "Richmond". Richmond Palace therefore replaced Shene Palace, the latter palace being itself built on the site of an earlier manor house which had been appropriated by Edward I in 1299 and which was subsequently used by his next three direct descendants before it fell into disrepair.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Brooke-Little</span> British heraldic writer (1927–2006); Clarenceux King of Arms

John Philip Brooke Brooke-Little was an English writer on heraldic subjects, and a long-serving herald at the College of Arms in London. In 1947, while still a student, Brooke-Little founded the Society of Heraldic Antiquaries, now known as the Heraldry Society and recognised as one of the leading learned societies in its field. He served as the society's chairman for 50 years and then as its president from 1997 until his death in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">House of Beaufort</span> English noble family and quasi-royal family

The House of Beaufort is an English noble and quasi-royal family which originated in the fourteenth century as the legitimated issue of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster by Katherine Swynford. Gaunt and Swynford had four children: John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset (1373–1410); Cardinal Henry Beaufort (1375–1447), Bishop of Winchester; Thomas Beaufort, 1st Duke of Exeter (1377–1426) and Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland (1379–1440). When Gaunt finally married Swynford as his third wife in 1396, the Beauforts were legitimized by Pope Boniface IX and by royal proclamation of the reigning monarch King Richard II the following year.

<i>White Greyhound of Richmond</i> The Queens Beasts sculpture

The White Greyhound of Richmond is one of the Queen's Beasts commissioned for display at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. A stone copy can also be found in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal standards of England</span> English heraldic flags used in battles and pageantry

The royal standards of England were narrow, tapering swallow-tailed heraldic flags, of considerable length, used mainly for mustering troops in battle, in pageants and at funerals, by the monarchs of England. In high favour during the Tudor period, the Royal English Standard was a flag that was of a separate design and purpose to the Royal Banner. It featured St George's Cross at its head, followed by a number of heraldic devices, a supporter, badges or crests, with a motto—but it did not bear a coat of arms. The Royal Standard changed its composition frequently from reign to reign, but retained the motto Dieu et mon droit, meaning God and my right; which was divided into two bands: Dieu et mon and Droyt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle</span> Royal chapel in Windsor Castle, England

St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in England is a castle chapel built in the late-medieval Perpendicular Gothic style. It is a Royal Peculiar, and the Chapel of the Order of the Garter. St George's Chapel was founded in the 14th century by King Edward III and extensively enlarged in the late 15th century. It is located in the Lower Ward of the castle.

The royal supporters of England are the heraldic supporter creatures appearing on each side of the royal arms of England. The royal supporters of the monarchs of England displayed a variety, or even a menagerie, of real and imaginary heraldic beasts, either side of their royal arms of sovereignty, including lion, leopard, panther and tiger, antelope and hart, greyhound, boar and bull, falcon, cock, eagle and swan, red and gold dragons, as well as the current unicorn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal badges of England</span>

In heraldry, the royal badges of England comprise the heraldic badges that were used by the monarchs of the Kingdom of England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tudor Crown</span> Crown of Tudor monarchs and heraldic device

The Tudor Crown was a crown created in the early 16th century for either Henry VII or Henry VIII, the first Tudor monarchs of England, and destroyed in 1649 during the English Civil War. It was described by the art historian Sir Roy Strong as 'a masterpiece of early Tudor jeweller's art'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coat of arms of the Prince of Wales</span> Personal coat of arms of the Prince of Wales

The coat of arms of the Prince of Wales is the official personal heraldic insignia of the Princes of Wales, a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent of the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, formerly the Kingdom of Great Britain and before that the Kingdom of England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galyon Hone</span> Glazier from Bruges

Galyon Hone was a glazier from Bruges who worked for Henry VIII of England at Hampton Court and in other houses making stained glass windows. His work involved replacing the heraldry and ciphers of Henry VIII's wives in windows when the king remarried.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellis ap Griffith</span> Baron of Gwyddelwern, Wales (c.1440-1489)

Ellis ap Griffith or Elissau ap Gruffudd, was the Baron of Gwyddelwern in Denbighshire, Wales, and the grandnephew of Owen Glendower, Prince of Wales. Following his family defeat during the Glyndwr Rising, his branch inherited the co-representation of the Royal House of Mathrafal, and were immortalized by William Shakespeare in the history play Henry IV. Through his mother Lowrie, he inherited the lordship of his grandfather, Tudor Glendower, and by marriage, the estate of Plas-yn-Yale. By this union, he became the founder of the House of Yale, represented by the Yale family, later known in America as the benefactors of Yale University.

References

Notes

  1. "no more was found than one embattled capital, a fragment of a dragon's wing, a good sized piece of a unicorn's head, and nearly the whole of one shield." (Dorling 1913, p. 43)
  2. It is not the more familiar Scottish unicorn; it has a garland of flowers round its neck instead of a coronet. [12]

Citations

  1. Peers 1910, Plate XXXIII.
  2. 1 2 Peers 1910, p. 310.
  3. Thurley 1988, p. 28.
  4. 1 2 Dorling 1913, pp. 39–40.
  5. Dorling 1913, p. 41.
  6. 1 2 Dorling 1913, p. 42.
  7. Dorling 1913, p. 43.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Brooke-Little 1981, p. 18.
  9. London 1959, p. 146.
  10. Brooke-Little 1981, pp. 18–19.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Brooke-Little 1981, p. 19.
  12. 1 2 London 1953, p. 52.
  13. Evelyn Cecil, Lady Rockley, History of Gardening in England (London, 1910), p. 80
  14. Cavendish 1962, p. 131.
  15. Schwartz-Leeper 2016, p. 111.
  16. London 1953, p. 15.
  17. Brooke-Little 1981, p. 20.
  18. Todd Longstaffe-Gowan
  19. "Hampton Court Beasts". Historic Royal Palaces. Retrieved 9 April 2023.

Bibliography

51°24′13″N0°20′21″W / 51.40355°N 0.33909°W / 51.40355; -0.33909