Did It Happen: Falconry and the Hierarchy of Birds

A common myth persists that Medieval people who enjoyed hawking or falconry used birds ranked according to their status.  The most common pairings of royal or noble to bird include, emperors hunted with eagles, kings with gyrfalcons, earls with peregrines, knights with sakers, women with goshawks, and on down the social scale. 

So, did it happen?  Nope, we can pour cold water on this one, too.

 The idea of a hierarchy of birds for hunting isn't attested in the many Medieval treatises on hunting, one of which was written by an Emperor, Frederick II of Germany in 1250.  It first appears in a volume known as the Book of St. Albans.   This book, or boke, as it was written at the time, was one of series of early printed books from the third printing press to be set up in England, that of St. Albans in 1479.  At the end of the edition, the book credits, "explicit, Dame Juliana Barnes in her boke of hunting."  The book consists of three parts, a portion on heraldry, hunting and hawking.  The attribution is at the end of the chapters on hawking, some of the material of which appears to be lifted from an earlier treatise written during the reign of Edward IV.  Juliana Barnes, Bernes or Berners was said to have been a prioress of St. Mary of Sopwell, a priory not far from St. Albans.  Berners was a noble family, but there are gaps in their family genealogy and no other record of a Juliana Berners.  If she existed, she was probably a noble woman who'd engaged in hawking during her youth, and gave it up when entering convent life, but remembered enough of it to write a treatise about it later. 

But does any of what she said about the hierarchy of birds hold water?  Most sources point to the many mistakes in the hierarchy as evidence that Dame Julia was at best fanciful in the birds she assigned to the various social orders.  While it wouldn't have been past Frederick II to try to hunt with an eagle, the man lived a very daring and dangerous life, eagles are large, powerful and hard to tame.  Juliana suggests the alternative of a vulture, but a vulture is a carrion bird, not a falcon or a hawk.  Gyrfalcons do exist, but the most common falcon for falconry at the time was the peregrine.  Kings, earls and other practical hunting folk would want a bird that is obtainable, flexible on a wide variety of game and/or hunting conditions and willing to cooperate with humans.  Peregrines have been used as falconry birds since ancient times. 

Bustard is a strange one.  A buzzard, like a vulture, is a carrion bird.  It may also be a French term for a game bird, again not a bird of prey.  Hobbies and goshawks might have been used as starter or training birds, King Edward I ordered his falconers to catch and train hobbies.  However, if common priests and holy water clerks are hunting, where are cardinals, bishops and other prelates?  They aren't included in the hierarchy at all, and this is a treatise supposedly written by a nun!  And, since when do poor men hunt with falcons?  Falconry required a great deal of time and money to train and plenty of open land to work.  It was a known sport of royalty, nobles, gentry and the seriously wealthy, not peasants and laborers.  Likely, people who could afford to spend their leisure hours hunting, and could outlay the costs for training and upkeep of birds used whatever birds were readily obtainable and compatible with their skill level, interest and personal budget.