The Origins of Bear-Baiting

Bear-baiting, the act of setting dogs on tethered bears to fight, was an important social and economic activity in early modern England. It has been suggested that baiting was practiced in Western Europe during the Middle Ages, but the evidence for such claims has largely been restricted to images of bears in manuscript marginalia. For the first time, this article presents an interdisciplinary overview of the literary, archival, archaeological, and visual evidence for the development of bear-baiting in England and France from the 12th century onwards. Our combined analysis of bears in texts and high-status locations (castles, abbeys, and towns) reveal similar customs crossing social strata in England and Northern France. This research also demonstrates an increased visibility of the practice in England after the Norman Conquest, changing our understanding of the development of bear-baiting in medieval and early modern England.

Documentary evidence · Early Modern Europe · Middle Ages · New england · Visibility · Western europe · Animal Law and Welfare · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Human-Animal Interaction Studies