Medieval Hunting by Richard Almond Page A

warrantable hart. His high social status is indicated by the authoritative directing stick he is carrying while his spurs are another mark of his knightly rank. He is not just a huntsman or even a gentleman-huntsman, he is the Master. 98 Another illustration from Livre de chasse is of the Master instructing his apprentice hunters on the correct method of blowing the hunting horn. 99 Only one young hunter is wearing spurs, and these are of gold with rowels. Presumably, he is of gentle birth while the others are commoners training to be professional huntsmen. The plate for Chapter 55, hunting and killing the wolf, shows a blue-robed noble with a tapered hunting sword, and an unarmed, more plainly dressed mounted man. 100 The noble wears golden spurs whereas the other man’s are of silver, plainly indicating the lesser rank of the latter, who is perhaps the noble’s esquire or private gentleman. Steel, silver and gold spurs were items of equestrian equipment which denoted ascending social rank. 101
    The second item of dress is mentioned in the text analysing the hunting illustrations in Queen Mary’s Psalter . Bror Danielsson writes ‘Some ladies of rank . . . carry trappings showing their family arms’. 102 The public display of arms was one of several hallmarks of rank and gentility, 103 so this was to be expected in the hunting field where one was surrounded by neighbours, peers and servants. It was important to be known and recognised as a member of the ruling élite, and a coat of arms specifically identified the bearer’s family as well as indicating ancient gentle ancestry.
    Arms and weapons of the chase are also important indicators of social rank and status. Those illustrated in the most lavish, beautiful and detailed illuminated manuscript copy of Livre de chasse , MS fr. 616, are listed by W.A. Baillie-Grohman in the Appendix of the 1904 edition of The Master of Game . Included are the longbow, used with barbed arrows for large and hairy game, and blunted arrows for small game and birds; the crossbow, firing short bolts (quarrels) of barbed and blunted varieties; the javelin, particularly used for hunting wildcat; the three-pronged otter spear; the ordinary spear for use against all quarry; the hunting sword, a specialist weapon used by the aristocratic hunter for large game, with a very broad base tapering to a point; the Couteau de chasse , the hunting knife carried by varlets and underlings for unmaking of deer and undoing of wild boar. 104 Gaston Fébus also used the Espieu , a javelin with a narrow and short head easily withdrawn from the quarry and which could be thrown or held as a lance. 105 An interesting variation on the standard hunting sword is being used by Ferdinand, Maximilian’s grandson, to despatch a wild boar, depicted in ‘December’ of Les Chasses de Maximilien tapestries in the Louvre. His boar sword has a thin shaft, broad leaf-like point with twin tines or toggles, essentially ‘stops’ to prevent over-penetration and, very usefully, the boar running up the shaft and reaching the hunter and his horse. 106 This archaic safety measure is similar to that of the hog-spears used in British India for pig-sticking until Partition in 1947. Indeed, the German manufacturing firm of Puma based at Solingen, still advertises such a hog-spear ( saufeder ) in its 2002 catalogue. 107
    In Livre de chasse , Fébus provides us with a typically exact and detailed description of a hunting weapon, the so-called English or Turkish bow, which he includes in his instructions for bow and stable hunting. 108
    William Twiti’s treatise hardly mentions edged weapons, referring only briefly to the hunting knife ‘and he þat ouzt þe knyf with wiche he is vndo schall haue þe chyne.’ 109 The hunting illustrations in Queen Mary’s Psalter are more informative on weaponry and include the longbow, with arrows carried in the belt rather than in a quiver,