Bearbaiting

When one gets home from school, one normally finds one's self sitting in front of a television set, clicking a remote, a surfing through the many various types of cable channels. Imagine life without television, radio, or internet. In the medieval era, electricity had not been invented, let alone television or video games. So what would one do for entertainment? Why, one would enslave a defenseless animal, of course.

Falconry has been around since about 680BC. It supposedly originated in China. Eventually, however, the Germanic tribes took up the sport, sometime in the sixth century, and it was experienced extensively in Europe by 875 AD. It eventually became highly synchronized, and incredibly fashionable throughout society.

In England, falconry went beyond sport and advanced into being a status symbol. It was popular mostly in the upper classes. Clergy especially seemed to take a fancy to it. The Pope, Leo X, was known to be an avid falconer. Sometimes nuns even brought their birds into church, and eventually were reprimanded for the birds disturbances of the services. Each rank in society had a different bird. The King, for instance, normally used a Gyr Falcon, and the Prince used a Peregrine Falcon. A squire only used a Lanner, and Ladies only possessed female Merlins. The least favored bird, a kestrel, was used by knaves, servants, and children.

Some falcons were worth so much that they were used in ransom negotiations. The King of England was traditionally presented with a falcon at the time of his coronation. Every year, each court sent falconers to bid in auctions for the best specimens procured each year. In the Middle East many birds still have their feathers dyed so that they will seem more appealing to potential buyers.

Bear baiting was also once a popular form of entertainment. While now it is only found in obscure parts of Pakistan, at one time it was a wide-spread fad all through Europe. The practice of bear baiting is quite barbaric. A bear, once removed of it's teeth and claws, and being virtually defenseless, is tethered to a pole and dogs are let loose upon it. However, in medieval times the bear was not always removed of it's claws and teeth. This caused serious harm to the dogs too, along with bystanders who happened to be standing too close if the bear broke free. Sometimes, to make it more ferocious, pepper was even blown up it's nostrils.

Bear baiting was an incredibly