
Into the Forest
Plague-carrying rodents, thumbscrew-wielding inquisitors, overbooked executioners – there was a reason they called them the Dark Ages.
And medieval life was just as barbaric for animals – including, of course, dogs.
Among the best-known brutality inflicted upon dogs in the Middle Ages was “lawing” – in other words, a practice that made a dog “lawful,” or legally able to be kept. The laws in question were the Forest Laws of England, which were put into place under King Canute in 1016, when the royal forests were established. Essentially, they stated that any Greyhounds that lived within 10 miles of these off-limits hunting grounds had to be maimed to ensure that they would be too hobbled to chase game, in particular the king’s deer.
At first, the fast-running Sighthounds were lawed by what the old foresters called “hamling,” or “hoxing,” in which the hamstring tendons of the thigh were severed. But by the time of Henry II’s reign, in 1184, mastiffs living near the royal forests were required to be lawed as well. From that king’s medieval decree, expeditatio mastivorum, comes the term “expeditating,” which required three toes of the front feet to be amputated. (In a variation of this theme, sometimes the large pad of the foot was removed, a process that was repeated every three years.)
All mastiff-type dogs were required to be lawed, unless the owner had a special grant or charter from the king to the contrary. Every three years, an assessment of the mastiffs in a forest-bordering area was made, done “by the view and testimony of honest men.” The fine for an unlawed mastiff found in the forest was three shillings; if the dog hurt any game, an additional fine applied.
Canis bellicosus Anglicus – literally translated, “English war dog,” or mastiff, sketched by Aldrovandus (1522-1605).
English gameskeeper John Manwood described the lawing of mastiffs in his 1592 essay A Brefe Collection of the Lawes of the Forrest:
“The mastiff being brought to set one of his forefeet upon a piece of wood of eight inches thick, and a foot square: then one with a mallet, setting a chisel of two inches broad upon the three claws of his fore-foot, at one blow doth smite them clean off, and this is the manner of expeditating mastiffs.”
Technically, expeditating only stipulated that the nails be removed “(“by the skin”), but the process inevitably took off a portion of the toes, as well.
The severity – and permanence – of this anti-poaching remedy underscores just how valuable the king’s hunting lands were considered by the aristocracy.
“Rich people – the king in particular – were very protective of hunting preserves in Europe, especially in England, where space is more limited,” explains Mike Loades, a British-bred and California-based historical consultant, author and documentary host, though he notes that the term “forest” was used quite loosely in those times. “A forest was not necessarily a place with trees. It was simply a type of royal hunting preserve, which could be heathland or moorland – basically, a place under royal protection with regard to hunting. And anybody found hunting there was a poacher.”
Dogs, of course, were the ultimate poaching machine. The large dogs of medieval England were mastiffs with a decidedly small “m” – true working dogs with more streamlined bodies and stamina at the gallop. Loades says that in addition to the large, short-faced dogs that telegraphed the modern Mastiff, medieval Englishman also kept Alaunts, another type of catch-and-hold dog that was built for more speed.
“They were quite athletic dogs, what they call the running mastiffs,” he explains. “They were really in the mold of a Dogo Argentino – they didn’t have a brachycephalic head, and had a longer muzzle and the ability to run fast enough to bring game down.”
