Origins of Falconry
Falconry is the hunting of wild quarry in its natural state and habitat by means of a trained bird of prey. There are two traditional terms used to describe a person involved in falconry: a falconer flies a falcon; an austringer flies a hawk or an eagle.
In modern falconry the Red-tailed Hawk and the Harris hawk are often used. The words "hawking" and "hawker" have become used so much to mean petty traveling traders, that the terms "falconer" and "falconry" now apply to all use of trained birds of prey to catch game.
In early English falconry literature, the word "falcon" referred to a female falcon only, while the word "hawk" or "hawke" referred to a female hawk. A male hawk or falcon was referred to as a "tiercel" as it was roughly one third less than the female in size. Many contemporary practitioners still use these words in their original meaning.
The practice of hunting with a conditioned falconry bird is also called "hawking" or "gamehawking".
The first defensible record of humans using birds of prey for hunting comes from an Assyrian bas-relief dated in the early part of the seventh century, B.C. References to falconry in China come from as early as 680 B.C. in the kingdom of Ch’u, although one Japanese work states that falcons were used as gifts to Chinese princes during the Hsia Dynasty (206-220, B.C.), encouraged by the Emperor Teng’s fondness for hunting in the imperial forests with falcons and dozens of that era’s finest falconers. The first record of falconry in Japan is reported around 720, A.D. In the late sixteenth to seventeenth centuries samurai warriors received a military manual that included a section of falconry.
The sport probably existed in Persia and Arabia at a much earlier time than in Japan, although very few written records have been found supporting that belief. An Arabic account holds that the first falconer was a king of Persia, who watched a wild falcon take a passing bird. He was captivated by the grace and beauty of the bird and ordered his men to capture the raptor. According to tradition, the king kept the bird at his side at all times and learned many good lessons from the bird, perhaps most importantly changing from a violent king to a wiser, calmer ruler.
During the Hundred Years’ War, we the English often took our falcons with us when we crossed the Channel. According to one historian, Edward III had thirty falconers with him when he invaded France. So important were falcons in England that the first laws aimed at protecting birds of prey were created there. The punishments for harming falcons were often very strict. To destroy a falcon’s eggs meant one year’s imprisonment; to poach a falcon from the wild was reason enough for the criminal’s eyes to be poked out.
The first documented English falconer was the Saxon king of Kent, Ethelbert II, in the eighth century, followed by Alfred the Great and Athelstan in the ninth century. Up to that point, the species used for falconry were basically limited to the more common native species, but after the Norman Conquest in 1066, new raptor species, such as the gyrfalcon and new subspecies of the peregrine were introduced in England, and for the next six centuries falconry steadily increased in popularity.
Soon nearly everyone from the baker to the king became falconers. The average citizen usually kept more common birds less suited for falconry, such as sparrowhawks and goshawks. The “long-winged hawks,” or more specifically, falcons such as gyrfalcons, and peregrines were reserved for the nobility because they were better suited for falconry and, to medieval Englishmen, appeared more noble than other species.
So important was falconry to British society that one could rarely walk down the streets of medieval England without seeing someone with his or her falcon perched on hand on wrist. A fourteenth-century lady was advised by her husband to take her bird everywhere with her, including church, so that it would become accustomed to people.
Falconry remained popular among royalty until the reign of George III. The Stuarts were particularly fond of the sport, and Henry VIII was perhaps the most important falcon advocate since Federick II. By ancient tradition, the king of England is presented with a falcon at the time of his coronation by the Duke of Athol and Lord Derby, and the office of royal falconer, called Master of the Mews, still exists today.
The Boke of St. Albans, written by Dame Juliana Barnes, prioress of Sopwell nunnery in 1486, attests to the rigidity of the rules of ownership.
Social Rank & Appropriate Bird
as Delineated in The Boke of St. Albans
Emperor: Golden Eagle, Vulture, & Merlin
King: Gyrfalcon (male & female)
Prince: Female Peregrine
Duke: Rock Falcon (subspecies of the Peregrine)
Earl: Peregrine
Baron: Male peregrine
Knight: Saker
Squire: Lanner Falcon
Lady: Female Merlin
Yeoman: Goshawk or Hobby
Priest: Female Sparrowhawk
Holy Water clerk: Male Sparrowhawk
Knaves, Servants, Children: Old World KestrelFal
According to the prioress, keeping a falcon above one’s station was considered a felony and duly regarded as an act of rebellion against an inflexible social order. This illegality may have been effective as a deterrent in part because it was made more difficult and expensive for birds to be obtained by those other than persons decreed as appropriate owners. The Boke of St. Albans relates that the typical punishment of cutting off the hands of people who kept birds above their social rank also served as an excellent deterrent to the crime.
During the 17th century, after the advent of the shotgun and after the enclosure of open lands and numerous social upheavals, falconry virtually died out, surviving in Europe largely through the enthusiasm of members of hawking clubs.
In Great Britain the Falconers’ Society of England was founded about 1770 but ceased in 1838 with the death of the then manager, Lord Berners. Because of the scarcity of herons a main quarry of the club’s peregrine falcons in East Anglia and also partly because of the plowing up of the heathland over which the falconers rode, the centre of English falconry moved to the Netherlands, and in 1839 the Loo Hawking Club, an Anglo-Dutch society under the patronage of the crown prince, soon to become King William II of the Netherlands, was formed. In 1853, when the royal patronage was withdrawn, the Loo Club expired.
Falconry was kept alive in England by a few aristocratic amateurs and their professional falconers. Additionally, a series of clubs promoted the sport in Britain, culminating in the British Falconers’ Club in 1927. The reduction of the rabbit population by myxomatosis and the placing of many of the traditional prey species on the protected list had a profound effect on the sport after the Second Word War. All British birds of prey came under the protection of the law, and a license was required from the Home Office before a falconer could take a young hawk for falconry.
An Earlyer blogpost was written about Falconry during World War II can be found here.
Falconry clubs exist in other European countries. The French Club “de Champagne” went out of existence in 1870, but French falconers are organized in the Association Nationale des Fauconniers et Autoursiers Français.
In Germany, the Deutscher Falkenorden (founded in 1923) is a thriving club.
In the United States falconry is represented by the North American Falconers Association.
A revival of interest in the sport began in the 1970s. With the reprinting of old treatises on the art, in addition to new magazine articles and television programs on the subject, falconry began to attract new adherents.