Of dogs and medieval tombs...
( Joy's sketch of Katherine's tomb brass; Dugdale's sketch of the tomb prior to vandalism)
The late Roger Joy was a ceaseless advocate for restoring the lost brass of Katherine Swynford, taken no doubt for melting down to make ammunition or just mere hooliganism during the English Civil War. Above at the top is his delicate pen and ink proposal for Katherine's brass restoration and to the bottom is the sketch of the tombs of Katherine and Joan in their original side-by-side position made by Dugdale.
If you enlarge and look at the bottom-left of Joy's drawing, you will see a charming dog at Katherine's feet, something not depicted in the Dugdale drawing: a little dog nestled in her robes at her feet, collared with little bells, and looking up at her with loving eyes of devotion and might well have been playing with the hem of her gown and robes:
Noblemen and noblewomen both welcomed dogs into their lives. Well known is the English lordly love of hunting which was heavily reliant on its use of dogs to sniff out the target and alert his master on horse.
Greyhounds in particular were a noted 'status symbol' much like the Chihuahua, Gidget, from the fast food empire of Taco Bell of recent ad campaigns. A 2013 article by David Scott-Macnab produced a list of more than 1,000 names of such hunting dogs mentioned in various treatises and warned against confounding the roles of hunting versus pet dogs both of which, nonetheless, are richly depicted in medieval manuscripts, some waiting patiently at its master's feet at the table, hoping for some heavenly morsel to drop from the master's hand while smaller dogs, perhaps Terriers, scamper on the very food-laden table itself! It is clearly the pet dogs which appear on many English tombs.
The lady's lapdog is frequently depicted in various art media -- on tombs, both brass and carved stone, tapestries and paintings/miniatures on manuscripts -- and are depicted in distinctively companionship-oriented relationships. Chaucer's Prioress in the Canterbury Tales, for example, depicted a tender-hearted woman whose lapdogs enjoyed some of the same foods as their mistress, which was considerably better than the foodstuffs consumed by the human poor whom were ostensibly served by the well-born heads of female religious houses. Such lapdogs were viewed with suspicion and consternation by later church officials as evidence of women's questionable nature and folly.
These dogs must have been quite fierce indeed yet there was a special bond between such a dog and his owner. We even know the names of some of the pampered medieval dogs thanks to a book written by the second Duke of York, Thomas, titled The Master of Game, which is said to be the oldest book on the sport of hunting in England. Katherine herself would not known of this book written by her nephew, Edward of Norwich, whose father was a brother of John of Gaunt, as it has an estimated composition date of 1406 to 1413, but was surely not ignorant of the place of dogs in royal households. This Edward, who was born ca. 1373, was coincidentally the first-born son of his father, Edmund of Langely, and Isabella of Castile, younger sister of John of Gaunt's second wife, Constance.
Edward's book, a translation of an earlier French book, has chapters written entirely by him which do not appear in the earlier version. He took care in describing a few key canine breeds, and one, an English favorite, the Greyhound, is the first he described. They are "The goodness of greyhounds comes of right courage, and of the good nature of their father and their mother. And also men may well help to make them good in the encharning of them with other good greyhounds, and feed them well with the best that he taketh... He should be courteous and not too fierce, following well his master and doing whatever he command him. He shall be good and kindly and clean, glad and joyful and playful, well willing and goodly to all manner of folks save to the wild beasts to whom he should be fierce, spiteful and eager."
Also noted is the 'dog of Spayne," the Spaniel, which while would later be bred as a fine lady's lapdog, began its English life as a hawking dog, given the predisposition of the breed to run ahead and bark at things, scaring the hawks from their position and alerting the greyhounds to follow in fight. Seen here is an image from the MS. f. fr. 616, Bib. Nat., Paris showing men and dogs in a medieval hunting scene from a manuscript dating from 1410 of the earlier French version of the book.
Edward's book mentions the names of various dogs, presumably his own. Just a few noted were named Troy, Nosewise, Amiable, Nameles, Clenche, Bragge, Ringwood and Holdfas. Such hunting dogs were given basic care by a child of the household who was to "lead out the hounds to scombre twice in the day in the morning and in the evening, so that the sun be up, especially in winter. Then should he let them run and play long in a fair meadow in the sun, and then comb every hound after the other, and wipe them with a great wisp of straw, and thus he shall do every morning."
Greyhounds in particular were a noted 'status symbol' much like the Chihuahua, Gidget, from the fast food empire of Taco Bell of recent ad campaigns. A 2013 article by David Scott-Macnab produced a list of more than 1,000 names of such hunting dogs mentioned in various treatises and warned against confounding the roles of hunting versus pet dogs both of which, nonetheless, are richly depicted in medieval manuscripts, some waiting patiently at its master's feet at the table, hoping for some heavenly morsel to drop from the master's hand while smaller dogs, perhaps Terriers, scamper on the very food-laden table itself! It is clearly the pet dogs which appear on many English tombs.
They are found on both memorial brasses representing the deceased on fine purbeck marble, the new popular stone for monument construction after the use of alabaster slowly declined, but they were found on alabaster tombs as well. This link shows an actual 15th C or earlier carved alabaster dog which looks rather like the dog drawn by Dr Joy for Katherine's brass. Part-way down, this blog post has quite the nice collection of dogs on brasses and carved of stone, mostly of the 14th to 15th C.
The lady's lapdog is frequently depicted in various art media -- on tombs, both brass and carved stone, tapestries and paintings/miniatures on manuscripts -- and are depicted in distinctively companionship-oriented relationships. Chaucer's Prioress in the Canterbury Tales, for example, depicted a tender-hearted woman whose lapdogs enjoyed some of the same foods as their mistress, which was considerably better than the foodstuffs consumed by the human poor whom were ostensibly served by the well-born heads of female religious houses. Such lapdogs were viewed with suspicion and consternation by later church officials as evidence of women's questionable nature and folly.
But for one, brief, shining moment, as it were, dogs were depicted as the delightful companions to the humans who owned them.
Further reading (most interesting!):
