The charter evidence for falconry and falcon-catching in England and Wales, c.600-c.1100

The Anglo-Saxon charters, official documents dating from the 7th to 11th centuries, were used to record land-grants. The surviving documents – whether in original form or as later copies – are largely from the south-west of England and largely date from the 10th century. They are useful not only for their explicit records of falconers and bequeathed birds, but for place-names preserved within them which may demarcate places in the landscape where hawks could be captured or where they could be flown for food and/or sport. That the place-names indicated this may be supported not only by consideration of the topographies of these areas, but also by consultation of later falconry treatises (especially that written by Frederick II of Hohenstaufen in the 13th century) and present-day ornithological research. Moreover, this charter evidence provides new insight into the transmission of falconry from England to Wales in the early medieval period. This chapter also surveys the textual evidence for falconry in Anglo-Saxon England and points out the inadequate grounds for stating that the practice was solely the prerogative of the upper classes, as well as the problems of trying to meticulously separate ‘hawking’ and ‘ falconry’ and ‘hawks’ and ‘ falcons’ in England at this time.