Records, bear bones, and artwork show bear-baiting became more widespread in England after the Norman Conquest of 1066.<\/p>\n
Public entertainment can reveal what people in the past valued and paid to see. <\/p>\n
In medieval England, crowds gathered around bears, even though wild brown bears no longer lived in Britain by that period.<\/p>\n
A new analysis combines records<\/a>, animal bones, and medieval images to trace how bear-baiting developed in England and northern France. <\/p>\n Bear-baiting involved restraining a bear<\/a> and setting dogs on it for entertainment.<\/p>\n Bear-baiting had medieval roots<\/p>\n The evidence shows that bear-baiting was established in England by the 12th century, with possible earlier examples on both sides of the English Channel. <\/p>\n Bears and baiting became more visible after the Norman Conquest of 1066.<\/p>\n Dr. Liam Lewis is based at Cardiff University<\/a>. He worked with Professor Hannah O\u2019Regan to combine several kinds of evidence.<\/p>\n \u201cThe combination of literary, archival, archaeological, and visual analysis<\/a> enables us to definitively conclude that bear baiting was an established activity in England by the twelfth century,\u201d Dr. Lewis said. <\/p>\n \u201cThe lack of bear remains from live animals in England prior to the Norman Conquest, and their appearance in London and North Yorkshire immediately afterwards, suggests that there was an increase in the importation of live bears to England after that time.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, the evidence does not show that the Normans introduced bear-baiting to England. A Norwich record suggests that a bear and six dogs may have been provided to the king before 1066.<\/p>\n Crowds gathered for baiting<\/p>\n One of the earliest detailed accounts comes from Ardres in northern France in the 1080s, where townspeople set their dogs on a large bear brought from England. <\/p>\n People wanted the spectacle repeated on feast days, while later 12th-century accounts also describe baiting in London and Chester.<\/p>\n Medieval stories placed bear-baiting at weddings and feasts, often alongside music and other animal fights. <\/p>\n Some writers reused familiar literary scenes<\/a>, however, so these stories cannot always be treated as eyewitness reports.<\/p>\n \u201cOur research demonstrates that the activity of baiting, while associated with marriages, aristocratic pastimes, and raucous festivities in medieval stories and sermons, was clearly popular entertainment among the general public as well, with bear bones indicative of live animals being found in a number of English towns,\u201d Dr. Lewis said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is despite bears needing to be imported to England from overseas and therefore presumably carrying costs for importation, travel and sustenance.\u201d<\/p>\n Bones reveal live bears<\/p>\n The bones help distinguish complete bears<\/a> from imported skins. <\/p>\n Paw bones can stay attached to skins, while bones from several parts of a skeleton provide stronger evidence that a whole animal was once present.<\/p>\n At Plantation Place in London, three bear bones from different body areas were found together and dated to about AD 1050 to 1150. <\/p>\n Isolated paw bones elsewhere probably came from bearskins.<\/p>\n Keeping live bears also required equipment and care. In 1252, a white bear from Norway at the Tower of London had a keeper, a muzzle, an iron chain, and a strong cord used while it fished in the Thames.<\/p>\n Richmond changed the timeline<\/p>\n A bear shoulder blade from Richmond in North Yorkshire was dated using radiocarbon dating, which estimates age from a radioactive form of carbon left in once-living material. <\/p>\n It dated to AD 1024 to 1155, with most probability falling between 1078 and 1155, while later examination also corrected an older report by finding \u201cRichmond\u201d written faintly on the bone.<\/p>\n Professor Hannah O\u2019Regan is based at the University of Nottingham<\/a>. She linked the new date with evidence that medieval bear entertainment had earlier roots.<\/p>\n \u201cBear baiting was an important social and economic activity in early modern England, and here we demonstrate that it has much longer roots,\u201d Professor O\u2019Regan said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the first study of its medieval origins and the new radiocarbon date on the bear from Richmond, North Yorkshire, shows that bears were widespread very early in the medieval period.\u201d<\/p>\n Bears carried severe injuries<\/p>\n A bear from Colchester preserved signs of serious dental disease. <\/p>\n It had lost an upper canine, one of its large pointed teeth, while alive, and the empty socket became infected, with inflammation spreading into the sinus and nearby bone.<\/p>\n The authors could not tell whether the canine was deliberately removed, broken accidentally, or damaged during captivity. <\/p>\n None of the remains showed clear skeletal damage caused by wearing a muzzle, so the bones cannot prove that individual animals were used for baiting.<\/p>\n Images show changing treatment<\/p>\n Medieval images often show bears wearing muzzles, chains, or collars, but those details do not automatically mean baiting. <\/p>\n The Bayeux Tapestry shows a muzzled bear facing a person with a raised sword, but scholars disagree about what the scene means.<\/p>\n Later manuscripts show bears tied to stakes, struck by people, or confronted by dogs. The Luttrell Psalter, produced between the late 13th and early 14th centuries, shows a muzzled bear chained to a stake while dogs attack and spectators watch.<\/p>\n \u201cThis work has shown just how widespread bear baiting was, and that it had strong medieval precursors,\u2019 Dr. Lewis said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Richmond date, on a scapula found in 1864 and held in The Yorkshire Museum demonstrates the importance of keeping samples and examining old collections, as we still have much more to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEven more excitingly, Richmond is also mentioned in one of the earliest references to a named medieval \u2018bearward\u2019 \u2013 Spenellus, who lived there in the early 1200s.\u201d<\/p>\n Evidence shows gradual expansion<\/p>\n The records, bones, and images suggest that bear-baiting developed slowly over many years rather than starting at one exact time.<\/p>\n It was linked to wealthy celebrations, but people in towns also watched it. This happened even though bringing bears into England and caring for them would have been expensive.<\/p>\n The evidence shows that live bears and bear-baiting became more common in England after 1066. However, it does not prove that the Norman Conquest started the practice.<\/p>\n The study is published in the journal Society & Animals<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n Like what you read? 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