Medieval Zoos

Many kings and noblemen (and even some Popes) kept menageries of exotic animals, following the example of Roman emperors. The Roman emperors used some of the animals for public displays at the Circus. Medieval monarchs rarely, if ever, had fighting exhibitions in the Roman style. Some had public parades of their animals to show their magnificence. A favorite theme was to have exotic animals paraded with foreigners from Arabia or Ethiopia in order to suggest that the king was dominant over these far-off regions.

The earliest medieval zoos were in Muslim Spain. The caliphs in Cordoba kept a large zoo of exotic animals, many imported from Africa and Asia. It was surrounded by a moat to keep the animals secure. In the ninth century, Charlemagne kept a menagerie at Aachen, in a climate colder than most of the animals were adapted for. The caliph of Baghdad sent an elephant for his collection, which had to make a long journey on foot over the Alps and only lived a few years. Charlemagne also kept camels, lions and monkeys, and a few bears.

Beginning with William I, the English kings kept a menagerie that by the middle of the 13th century was housed at the Tower of London. The records are not clear as to which animals lived there at which times, nor how they were fed or cared for. One chronicler stated that Henry I had a victory parade in Normandy that included a leopard riding a horse and a panther pulling a chariot. Another reported that King Henry II of England kept a menagerie of exotic animals at his palace at Woodstock. Reportedly, he had lions, leopards, camels, and a porcupine.

Henry III kept a pair of leopards or lions at the Tower of London, a gift of Emperor Frederick II of Germany. His son, Prince Edward, became known as the “Leopard Prince” in association with both the heraldic and the menagerie cats. Henry III added a polar bear, a gift from the king of Norway. The keepers allowed the white bear to swim in the Thames on a leash, catching its own fish, but kept it muzzled the rest of the time. In 1254, Henry’s brother-in-law, King Louis IX of France, sent him an elephant. It lived in a special house in London and was eagerly viewed by the public, but it did not live more than a few years.

The Tower of London continued to have a royal menagerie, probably housed mainly in the gatehouse of the Lion Gate. As animals died, they replaced the lions, leopards, and bears, with at least one more polar bear making its appearance in the reign of Edward I. Tower records show that each lion ate one quarter of a sheep every day, making them very expensive pets. By the 15th century, the collection was not large, but it was still in existence. The Lion Tower began to admit some paying visitors to see the animals. King Henry VI decreed that in lieu of a cash fee, visitors could offer an animal, such as a dog, cat, or sheep, to feed the lions. In 1436, the lions died, presumably of an illness, and the collection had to be started again.

The largest royal menagerie on the European continent may have been the one owned by Frederick II of Germany in the 13th century. He kept it at his palace in Palermo, Sicily. Frederick was a highly educated, intelligent man with a keen interest in science. He kept lions, leopards, camels, elephants, and a giraffe and sometimes displayed them in parades. The kings of France also had menageries at some of their castles: elephants, bears, lions, and porcupines are among those recorded, as well as exotic birds. King Charles V kept a porpoise in a pool, and even the duc de Berry kept bears. The 14th-century Popes who lived in splendor at Avignon kept exotic animals, including peacocks, ostriches, and camels, as well as the common lions and bears.

Italian city menageries kept many lions. Medieval Rome, like ancient Rome, kept lions as a symbol of its dominance. Florence kept a pit of 24 lions and sometimes used them in fighting displays against other animals. Venice’s lions were observed as the lioness gave birth to three cubs, and to everyone’s amazement, the cubs were born alive. Bestiaries had explained confidently that lion cubs are born dead, and are licked back to life after three days, as a picture of Jesus’s death and resurrection. Once Europeans had even a limited opportunity to observe lions and other animals firsthand, they stopped trusting the ancient myths passed down by the bestiaries.

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