Just a quick post to let you know about a wonderful article on the Daily Mail website which gives information about the Ceremony of the Keys and also the history of the royal menagerie, the animals that were housed at the Tower from the reign of King John in the 13th century until the last of the animals were rehomed in the 19th century. It is a fascinating read and makes you realise that humans were not the only prisoners in the Tower! One can only imagine the noise they made, the noise that Elizabeth would have heard when she was a prisoner at the Tower.
Click here to read “The polar bear who lived at the Tower… along with a grumpy lion and a baboon who threw cannon balls: Britain’s first (and most bizarre) zoo” by Julia Stuart.
Neat article! THanks! I love getting all this info and can see somehow working this into my stories!
Actually, Lord Robert Dudley seems to have taken a liking to the porcupines at the Tower zoo. His household account shows he fed them when visiting the Tower in 1559.
How interesting Christine, about Robert Dudley feeding the porcupines at The Tower Zoo. The porcupine was the Sidney family crest. I visited Penshurst Place in Kent in May this year and saw the helmet that belonged to Philip Sidney with the distinctive porcupine on the top. Philip was Robert Dudley’s nephew.