The Kings Beasts

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An account of a recent exercise by Patrick Baty to establish the heraldic colours of King Henry VIII\'s beasts on the Moat Bridge at Hampton Court Palace.

Transcript of The Kings Beasts

Patrick BatyArchitectural Paint and Colour

I provide advice on many aspects ofarchitectural colour

Here is one of my more unusual projects...

Architectural Paint and Colour

The King’s Beasts

A Recent Project

2009The 500th anniversary

of Henry VIII’saccession to the

throne

Patrick Baty wasPatrick Baty wascommissioned to carry

out research on thecolour of King Henry’s

heraldic Beasts forHampton Court Palace

Beasts in Heraldry

Mythical creatures wereoften adopted as apersonal device or

emblememblem

From earliest times eachEnglish monarch has

used beasts to symbolisetheir descent and familial

allegiances

Queen Jane Seymour

King Henry had anumber of beasts

carved to celebratehis marriage to Janehis marriage to Jane

Seymour in 1536

These were foundthroughout the palace

grounds and twelveof them lined the

Moat Bridge

Hampton Court Palace

The remains of King Henry’soriginal beasts were

destroyed in the reign of KingWilliam III (1650-1702)William III (1650-1702)

New ones were designed andcarved in 1909-1910

Hampton Court PalaceThe Moat Beasts were reinstated in 1911

They were not painted – but what if they were?

Moat Beasts

The existing beastson the Moat Bridge

are currently

The CrownedLion of England

are currentlyunpainted

The CrownedLion of England

He supports a shieldbearing the impaledbearing the impaledarms of Henry VIII

and Queen Jane

A golden lion hasbeen the royal beast of

England since theearly 12th century

Royal Arms 1405 – 1603used by King Henry VIII

Queen Jane Seymour’s Arms

Impaled Arms

King Henry’s arms Queen Jane’s arms

The husband’s and wife’s arms are joined

I obtained muchinformation from

hand-painted

Henry VIII’s Crowned Lion

hand-paintedmanuscripts of the

16th century

The Seymour Panther

The golden “flames”indicate his fragrantindicate his fragrant

breath

He bears theSeymour wings on

his shield

The Greyhound

A favourite Tudorbeast

He bears thethree lions of

England on hisshield

Henry VII’s Standard

The Greyhound of Richmondwith the red rose of Lancaster

The Yale

A Beaufort beast

He has the body of anantelope, a lion’s tailantelope, a lion’s tailand horns which can

swivel round tocounter attack from

all quarters

The Yale

The Duke of Somerset’s Yale

The arms are: France modern andEngland quarterly impaled

quarterly withquarterly with

1) Howard;2) Thomas of Brotherton;3) Warenne and4) Mowbray

The TudorDragon

Used byHenry VIII’sHenry VIII’sgrandfatheras a token ofhis supposeddescent fromCadwalader

King Cadwalader’sDragon

Semi-mythicalking of Gwynedd,king of Gwynedd,

North Wales

The Queen’s Unicorn

This beast supportsQueen Jane’s six-Queen Jane’s six-quartered shield

The Royal Dragon

This beastsupports a shieldbearing Francebearing France

modern andEnglandquarterly

The Queen’s Lion

This beastsupports a shieldbearing Queen

Jane Seymour’s badge

bearing QueenJane’s badge

White Lions

...of March ...of Henry FitzRoy...of Mowbray

Black Bullof Clarence

He supports a shieldbearing the Tudor Rose,

which symbolised thewhich symbolised theunion of the houses of

York and Lancaster

Green and white werethe Tudor livery colours

Black Bulls

The Queen’s Panther

He bears the impaledarms of Henry VIII andarms of Henry VIII and

Queen Jane

Heraldic Panther

How the Moat Beasts might look if painted

2009 promises to be acolourful year at

Hampton Court Palace

(The Baty Griffin)

Acknowledgements:

College of ArmsHistoric Royal PalacesSam Styles – SJS PhotosMuseo Thyssen-Bornemisza, MadridKunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Gemäldegalerie

(The Baty Griffin)