Medieval FALCONRY was AMAZING!

[Music] greetings i'm shad and while i was at the abbey medieval festival i met some wonderful reenactors practicing the art of falconry and i got to be able to pull them aside and talk to them a little bit about their craft before we get to dive into that i'd like to just share with you a couple little things about what falconry is falconry was sometimes called hawking and this really depended if the primary birds being used were falcons or hawks it is the art or sport in training birds of prey in the use of hunting more often for sport hunting but there are cases of falconry being employed for the purpose of finding food this is because the sport of falconry was actually practiced by many social classes falconry as described by frederick ii and other medieval writers do classify it as an upperclass sport some of the birds are costly and expensive to maintain and their training did require time and skill yet falconry in its simpler forms using local birds and less elaborate training methods was practiced by other classes as well as frederick ii wrote the pursuit of falconry enables nobles and rulers worried by the cares of state-defined relief in the pleasure of the chase the poor as well as less noble by following this avocation may earn some of the necessities of life and both classes will find in bird life attractive manifestations of the processes of nature reading from the paper by robin s oggins the english kings and their hawks falconry in medieval england to the time of edward the first in england all classes responded to the appeal of falconry the english kings of nobility flew falcons so did women and the clergy despite church legislation to the contrary by the 12th century falconry had become a highly technical art with specialized vocabulary and in extensive literature the birds were often imported from abroad ger falcons peregrines the goshawks from scandinavia sakers and lana's from the mediterranean countries and sparrow hawks from ireland so indeed it was a very beloved practice and now let's hear a little bit more about this from these wonderful reenactors and so mark how long have you done this 33 years very well well 33 years working with birds yeah as for medieval events about ninth or eighth time what's some of the biggest things that have stood out to you as you've learned this kind of art in regards to taking care of the birds in the modern day but also the historical aspects well the historical aspect has been the big part of it and something i'm still blown away is even back 14th century which we are hoping we represent what they knew back at a time when i would have assumed that they didn't know anything the detail yeah amazing that's what blows me away so much whenever i learn more about the medical period it's how sophisticated and deep and intelligent these people were when they had a craft or a trade they worked to perfect it and they learned processes to improve it and you find these levels of sophistication that honestly makes them feel smarter than us in the modern day because they actually are far more capable and and just how they simplify things yeah how how how we overthink things in a way oh it blows me away regularly awesome so in regards to falconry specifically what did they primarily use these birds for all right so um there has been something of a myth in that there was an order as to who could keep what birds in the 14th century seems to have been a bit of a satire um anybody was involved with falconry but there were certain species that really were only accessible to people in a privileged position could i jump in just because you touch on something that resonates with me a lot because that's exactly what i've learned i've found that there's a lot of these factoids or things people hear and then they apply it broadly over the entire medieval period and what you just said just makes sense if someone loved birds and they could get a hold of it there's not stopping them from learning the craft and doing it themselves you wouldn't have access to land if you're lower class you've got no land to work with when you're flying a bird so there's no point and if you don't have the use or need for it either yeah for nobles it was more of a sport they didn't they didn't really need the food for other food for upper-class people um they would just stock up people's lives they're so versatile the big thing is the fact that you're feeding something that requires meat yes well if you are barely affording to feed yourself you're not going to be vegan yeah as hunting goes falconry is as hard as hunting to get if you just want to get a pigeon where you just shoot or trap the pigeon you don't feed a bird or a wig to get the picture that's a very good point yeah so what you're saying is that hunting with a falcon is actually a more difficult time consuming process than trapping another easier method is that yes yes but that said there are smaller species this thing will this thing will live on grasses you could be trapping mice around your home and feed this thing and go out hunting ducks you could have a kestrel and be feeding it cockroaches crickets grasshoppers and still go out catching sparrows with it but once you start getting to some bigger birds say the paragon falcon for instance everyone thinks of the peregrine as being synonymous with falconry and and surely it is but if but to utilize a peregrine you're going to have access to lands could walk across someone's land and hunt those ducks that the lord's been paying for his game keeper to feed they don't allow someone to go and hunt them so you so there was some birds but this was the bird that anyone could take away and they don't need stamina the peregrine falcon gasoline needs fitness all week long this is a paragraph no this is a gossip you can put these in the cupboard for several days after a feed and forget about it yeah yeah it is if they're flat they will sit unstimulated they're explosive of the glove quick short chases they're like a greyhound yeah very sleepy genuine being this close this is an absolutely gorgeous bird just the profile it has it in terms of its beak and head and the leaves it's absolutely stunning and it's interesting because i wonder if that had an influence as to why people within their periods were attracted to them as animals and pets because they're just they're beautiful and they also have this kind of vicious hunting element to them uh because we see of course animals like this and other ones adopting heraldry as well and things so when you're saying like uh the practice and interest was it more like a really fancy pet versus an animal that had a practical utility problem in hunting there was the hunting side of it it would depend on where you lived of course as well but i'm now led to believe that a lot of falconers gave it gave falconers contact to people in higher positions so you could be some drunk in a pub that as most of your friends would know you as but if you were a good falconer you were getting things that your mates couldn't get you you've probably got a nice jacket because you're trying to lose gospel or whatever if paul falcon is in a quite a privileged position in in many uh communities if you could be a good falconer you have things coming away and so what would be the standard duties of a falconer say if they serve the lord would the lord just say i'd like to go for a hunt it's kind of like an inventor activity that i enjoyed and falconer would bring the birds for loyal people it was primarily entertaining entertainment um showing off yeah it is very much a symbol of status if you've got a paragraph you've got to be quite high up in the hierarchy yeah and and i've no doubt too now that if anyone was employed to be a falconer that person that was employing could afford to have a lot of birds a falconer would be a busy person and and the land depending on the land they had there would have been some birds for game at certain times of the year over something else it wouldn't have just been a falcon or two there'd be some gossips there'd be some uh say we would say we're in the uk there'd be peregrine falcons but there'd also be some um gears or whatever they are that have been brought in from a northern country and there was a lot of trading going on eagles apparently were only kept just to show off they weren't utilized for hunting 14th century western europe was mostly forest there wasn't really much and in that spirit let's do a quick segue to take a look at their wonderful eagle that they do bring out for this big event because it is such a wonderful spectacle so question yeah which breed of eagle is this this is the wedgetail wedgetail this is the same genus as the golden eagle that has been used for falconry through the northern hemisphere really so the golden eagle is all around oh so it's actually quite authentic to the type of eagle that's so many people [Laughter] wow and and so with falconry did did if we actually have eagles as part of what it was it was more an asian eastern um uh speciality western europe i believe until relatively recently was just too forested to be able to utilize them but they were exchanged and as a novelty and they would where they were utilized in events like this as a novel that's what i was thinking because there are times where you see exotic animals appear in europe like lions kings would love to have a lion or something like that and so the rare occasion you might see an eagle just to show off because they this is an amazing i've read that what would often happen is the eagle comes in from eastern europe or wherever and with a falconer from the country i see yeah because i mean we see the eagle appear in heraldry quite often i mean one of the main things the holy roman empire you know in germany um had the blazing eagle on there and so and of course what an amazing amazing bird and when you're saying that have multiple birds there like what are we saying five ten oh way more than that yeah generally yeah forgive me if this is a very uh famous question okay because i don't know much about birds and so what is the uh classification of a falcon because it's usually a lot of times it's simply a bird of prey multiple breeds that can qualify as a falcon because obviously an eagle is not an eagle is actually the same jesus yeah this um falcons are a different genius all together uh historically in falconry terms anyway referred to as long wings they've all got the general shape same shape they're built [Music] okay so they actually did change the name based on the species and i and i would i i'm confident in saying that you would have certain regions where there will always only off stringers and then there were other regions where there was a mix of ostringers and falcons because they had to say more open well that's very interesting so because whatever people think of the craft of medieval birds of prey and stuff there's always falconry there there's actually another term for a different type of yeah yeah yeah and it was what was it was austrian string or stringer these are the facts i love these are just little things like because again we hear something and if we don't have enough of the context we just kind of apply it broadly and my kind of understanding before talking to you such a falconry was the word used to talk about you know the practice of having medieval birds of prey and stuff it's actually more expensive the scientific name for the goshawks that would have been used in medieval england which is what we're trying to replicate are northern gospels they're much bigger their scientific name i believe originates it actually means gently gentle i'll shut up a super to gentle gentle which is odd considering what they are i just want to comment because this this bird has been chowing down on that bit of meat what have you been feeding is that like a quail leg strawberry birds i believe fergus because fergus is rippy he's loving that and he is just ripping into it how's the face they like i said they're a bit of an enchanting animal when you're up close to them and i can really see why people really enjoyed it it's a really interesting thing because the higher you were up in the medieval period gave expedited options for certain types of exotic pets and there's cases of royalty having lions and stuff here and and everything and so this is just an interesting example that it's a bit exotic it's harder for the regular person to get a hold of but yeah before you could get to lines and everything like that it was almost a mid-ground of a really entrancing kind of exotic royal looking kind of animal and they were they were frequently kept indoors because a lot of noble people would have spent a lot of time indoors there i'm sure there are um artworks and illustrations of just birds sitting around tables and stuff inside i'm really glad he's a part of this because these brown gosh hawks are generally not appreciated by people really they take people's pet birds and poultry all the time and so they they're pretty loathed because i could understand you don't want your family pet eaten by one of these that's what they do and um people would just shoot them and um they don't these birds don't understand the confines of an enclosure they're just going to be they often hang around uh chook pens in hope of a feed and just perish because they can't get in yeah yeah so is this what's where does this bird originate from it's not native to australia yeah brown ghost hawks are native native to australia yeah uh there are 13 sub species and they're in the um many pacific islands i believe we have three subspecies or at least that we know of there's they're probably interbred all over the place and so is this a like what's what's the closest equivalent of this bird to the european one that they might have had the northern gossel much heftier bird really yeah and so this one is a ghost hawk but it's northern ghost hawks are the only ghost hawks found in the majority of europe and um us they're the only ones in the us and is this the type of word that nobility would go for but you were saying there was like there was a more prestigious one uh peregrine falcon was the elite elite and that is a european bird oh they're all over the globe yeah um goshawks were they were sought after and part of it i've i've read both that the northern goshawk scientific name is noble and talk and gentle hawk so whether that's kind of evolved somewhere yeah that's nice that's a sign of comfort really yeah i agree i think that terminologies it sounds very likely that it comes from the fact that nobility would have enjoyed having these birds as pets odds would be called gentle thoughts yeah this is so odd thank you so much that's right are you welcome letting us interview and letting us learn a bit more about falconry and seeing one up close it's been wonderful i really appreciate it and also appreciate you guys thank you for watching uh this is we've been here at the abbey medieval festival and it was sorry mark and all the aubry thank you very much for watching and of course i'll see you on the next video here on chat adversity so until that time thank you to everyone who's come to watch this video it really means the world but unfortunately there are a lot of people who are not getting notified of my content youtube is currently de-ranking and suppressing content like mine in preference to other content and a lot of my viewers and subscribers are not actually getting notified one of the ways in which is actually a truly a tremendous help in trying to break through this type of suppression is by subscribing if you enjoy the content please do subscribe and join us in the future liking and commenting helps boost the interactions on the video which makes the algorithm realize that more people are engaged and of course sharing is absolutely really crucial to help everyone know that yes this video exists and letting the people know who want to watch his content that it's actually made and it's released ringing the bell only does so much to try and get notifications youtube has actually not been notifying people who have even the bell rung and so if you really want to ensure that you get notified when i upload you can follow me on facebook or twitter i announce when i upload on those platforms and the ultimate way to make sure you never miss a an upload and get your notification is by subscribing on my website will send out email notifications to those people who are signed up on the website there'll also be special announcement and even potential bonus content for those people who subscribe on the website for everyone who's doing that thank you so much it means the world and especially those people who are going even the extra step and supporting me through the donation platforms currently the primary ones have been subscribe star and patreon but there's a new one that is brilliant called utrean utreen is a video hosting platform that also does donation style subscriptions like the memberships on youtube currently but it's also a great video hosting platform and truly if every one of my active viewers were able to donate between one to five dollars a month that would give me complete security and less reliant on the ad revenue system which gives me options to pursue and try and support many alternative platforms because unfortunately youtube is caring less and less about content creators who are making content like me i'm not the only one in this boat so please do support the creators that you want to ensure that they can keep making content and that you get the content that you want to see genuinely thank you to everyone who's supporting in any way possible it means the world and thank you very much for having watched this video hope to see you on the next one [Music] you

Channel: Shadiversity

Views: 84,199

Keywords:

Id: gxdVNaxmCjs

Length: 19min 59sec (1199 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 03 2022