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| Medieval people engaging in falconry on horseback. The horses appear to have the body type of palfreys or jennets. from the Codex Manesse. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Falconry is training birds of prey to hunt game. Falconry is also known as hawking, despite the fact that in falconry today buzzards are usually used.
It is thought that falconry was established in the Middle East by 2000 BC although the earliest evidence of falconry has only been found from about 700 BC.
There are references to Caesar using falcons to kill pigeons so we know that the Romans practiced falconry and it was most likely introduced to Europe in about 400 AD.
Falconry is known as the sport of kings and many Kings of England have proclaimed it their favorite sport including Alfred the Great and George III.
Much has been written about King John and crane hawking. He used to bring hunting parties to fly falcons at herons which were ringed prior to being released back into the wild. Information about these herons can be found in the Domesday Book.
During the Middle Ages laborers would also participate in falconry, usually illegally and King John banned people from taking a game from the Royal Forests in order to improve the game caught by his own hunting parties.
He made a law that a hundred peasants should be fed with the catch from every Royal hunt but the law would still have caused much suffering.
A custom in the Middle Ages known as the Laws of Ownership meant that birds of prey were all assigned a rank and nobody could hunt with a bird that had a higher rank than him. The original Laws of Ownership was written in the Book Of St Albans in the 15th century.
Nowadays anyone can practice falconry in the UK and no license is required although only captive-bred birds can be used. Despite pressure to have falconry banned it has been allowed to carry on albeit with a number of conditions attached to it. Birds must be ringed and government registered and DNA tested to certify their origins and wild birds may not be used for falconry
If you would like to learn more about falconry then you may be interested in birds of prey day where you can try out the sport. This article was written by the author of British Bird Lovers. The author is a keen gardener and amateur bird watcher. Article Source: EzineArticles |
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