Centuries before the advent of planes, trains, automobiles, and other mechanised forms of long-distance transport, horses played a vital role in countless forms of labour and leisure. During the late medieval and Tudor periods, they were invaluable working animals – and in the rarefied circles of the royal court they were also prestige goods in their own right, potent symbols of their owners’ status that were sourced from across Britain and much further afield. We know that Henry VIII, for example, counted animals from the Low Countries, Spain, and North Africa among those within his stables, while other late- and post-medieval accounts refer to diplomatic gifts of horses from such far-flung locations as Iberia, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East.
Such references hint at how diverse Britain’s Tudor horse population may have been, particularly in London, but records for this period are sporadic and patchy at best. They point to particular areas – such as southern Italy and Lombardy, Spain, and the Central Alps – being particularly well-regarded as centres of horse-breeding, but archaeological opportunities to interrogate these patterns further have been rather limited. Late- and post-medieval horse burials are rare in Britain; more common are disarticulated bones discarded in domestic middens or rubbish dumps associated with industries like tanning.
This picture is becoming clearer, though, thanks to a unique site in London excavated by MoLAS (now MOLA) 30 years ago, and ongoing research based at the University of Exeter. The latter project, titled ‘Warhorse: the archaeology of a medieval revolution?’ is an innovative initiative combining studies of the physical remains of historical horses, associated artefacts, and landscapes linked to horse-breeding and -training in medieval and Tudor England. The researchers recently published a case study in Science Advances (see ‘Further reading’), exploring how analysis of a series of burials from Westminster has helped to piece together details of the animals’ lives, illuminating their journeys within (and, in some cases, to) Britain more than 500 years ago.
