of horse. The results of this enterprise were certainly of a lasting character, for “a Powys horse” occurs among the purchases made by Edward II. (1272-1307), indicating clearly that the locality still produced a good stamp of animal.
HENRY I. (1100-1135)
King Henry I. would appear to have taken an interest in the work of horse-breeding. The scanty existing records of his reign contain mention of a visit paid in 1130 to the royal manor at Gillingham, in Dorsetshire, by a squire “with a stallion to leap the king’s mares.” In this king’s reign the first Arabs were received in England from Eastern Europe, in the shape of two horses, with costly Turkish armour, as a gift. One of these horses was retained in England and the other was sent to King Alexander I. of Scotland, who presented it to the Church of St. Andrews.
HENRY II. (1154-1189)
Henry II. took a keen interest in horses, and the records of his reign show us the system then in vogue for the maintaining the royal studs. The horses, in greater or smaller numbers, with their grooms, were placed under the charge of the Sheriffs of counties, whose duty it was to provide them with pasture, stabling, and all necessaries, recovering the cost from the Exchequer. The Tournament was introduced into England in this reign; but these knightly exercises received little encouragement from the king, who forbade them under ecclesiastical pressure.
William Stephanides, a monk of Canterbury, has left us a Latin tract or pamphlet descriptive of the mounted sports of Londoners in the latter half of the twelfth century, which possesses both interest and value. From this it is evident that races of a primitive character, and sham fights of a rough and ready kind had place among the recreations of the people of Henry II.’s time. Smithfield, then a level expanse of grass where periodical horse markets were held, was the scene of these amusements: —
“Every Sunday in Lent after dinner young men ride out into the fields on horses which are fit for war and excellent for their speed. The citizens’ sons issue out through the gates by troops, furnished with lances and shields, and make representation of battle and exercise and skirmish. To this performance many young courtiers yet uninitiated in arms resort, and great persons to train and practice. They begin by dividing into troops; some labour to outstrip their leaders without being able to reach them; others unhorse their antagonists without being able to get beyond them. At times two or three boys are set on horseback to ride a race and push their horses to their utmost speed, sparing neither whip nor spur.”3
RICHARD I. (1189-1199)
Richard I., ignoring the opposition of the Church, which held them dangerous alike to body and soul, encouraged tournaments as valuable training for his knights; and it may here be observed that from his time through the succeeding ages until 1559, when a fatal accident to King Henry II., of France, in the lists, caused the institution to go out of fashion, tournaments were held from time to time in England. Some of our kings encouraged them for military reasons; others discouraged them under Church influence, or as records show, because they were productive of loss in horses and arms, which the resources of the country could ill afford.
We find traces of the old “Justs of Peace,” as tournaments were officially called, in the names of streets in London. Knightrider and Giltspur Streets, for example: the former owed its name to the circumstance that through it lay the route taken by knights on their way from the Tower to the lists at Smithfield; the latter to the fact that the makers of the gilt spurs worn by knights carried on their business there. Cheapside was the scene of some historical tournaments, as were the Barbican and Roderwell. The Tiltyard near St. James’s was the exercise ground of knights and gentlemen at a later date.
JOHN (1199-1216)
King John reigned at a period when the armour worn by mounted men was becoming stronger, and when the difficulty of finding horses powerful enough to carry heavily mailed riders was increasing. This sovereign, so far as can be discovered, was the first to make an endeavour to increase the size of our English breed of Great Horses; he imported from Flanders one hundred stallions of large size. The Low Countries, in the Early and Middle Ages, were the breeding grounds of the largest and most powerful horses known; and John’s importations must have wrought marked influence upon the British stock. He also purchased horses in Spain which are described as Spanish dextrarii, or Great Horses. Dextrarius was the name by which the war horse was known at this period and for centuries afterwards.
EDWARD II. (1307-1327)
Edward II. devoted both energy and money to the task of improving our horses. We have record of several horse-buying commissions despatched by him to the Champaign district in France, to Italy and other parts vaguely described as “beyond seas.” One such commission brought home from Lombardy thirty war horses and twelve others of the heavy type. There can be no doubt but that the foreign purchases of Edward II. were destined for stud purposes; the more extensive purchases of his successor, Edward III., suggest that he required horses for immediate use in the ranks.
Husbandry in England was at a low ebb during the thirteenth century, but towards the end of Edward II.’s reign it began to make progress in the midland and southwestern counties. The high esteem in which English wool was held caused large tracts of country to be retained as pasture for sheep for a long period, and while farmers possessed this certain source of revenue the science of cultivation was naturally neglected.
EDWARD III. (1327-1377)
Edward III., to meet the drain upon the horse supply caused by his wars with Scotland and France, bought large numbers of horses on the Continent; more, it would appear, than his Treasury could pay for, as he was at one time in the Count of Hainault’s debt for upwards of 25,000 florins for horses. These were obviously the Great Horses for which the Low Countries were famous; all the animals so imported were marked or branded. Edward III. organised his remount department on a scale previously unknown in England. It was established in two great divisions under responsible officers, one of whom had charge of all the studs on the royal manors north of the Trent, the other exercising control of those south of that boundary; these two custodians being in their turn responsible to the Master of the Horse.
There is ample evidence to prove that Edward III. took close personal interest in horse-breeding, and it is certain that the cavalry was better mounted in his wars than it had been at any previous period. The Great Horse, or War Horse, essential to the efficiency of heavily armoured cavalry, was by far the most valuable breed and received the greatest meed of attention; but the Wardrobe Accounts of this reign contain mention of many other breeds or classes of horse indispensable for campaigning or useful for sport and ordinary saddle work – palfreys, hackneys, hengests, and somers, coursers, trotters, hobbies, nags, and genets.
The distinction between some of these classes was probably somewhat slight. The palfrey was the animal used for daily riding for pleasure or travel by persons of the upper ranks of life, and was essentially the lady’s mount, though knights habitually rode palfreys or hackneys on the march, while circumstances allowed them to put off for the time their armour. The weight of this, with the discomfort of wearing it in the cold of winter and heat of summer, furnished sufficient reason for the knights to don their mail only when actually going into action, or on occasions of ceremony.
“Hengests and somers” were probably used for very similar purposes, as more than once we find them coupled thus: these were the baggage or transport animals, and were doubtless of no great value. “Courser” is a term somewhat loosely used in the old records; it is applied indifferently to the war horse, to the horse used in hunting, and for daily road work, but generally in a sense that suggests speed. “Trotters,” we must assume, were horses that were not taught to amble; and the name was distinctive at a period when all horses used for saddle by the better classes were taught that gait.
“London,” by Stephanides. Leland’s
