The King's Beasts

I provide advice on many aspects of architectural colour

Here is one of my more unusual projects...

Patrick Baty Architectural Paint and

Colour

The King’s Beasts

A Recent Project

2009 The 500th

anniversaryof Henry VIII’s

accession to the throne

Patrick Baty was commissioned to

carry out research on the colour of King Henry’s

heraldic Beasts for Hampton Court

Palace

Beasts in Heraldry

Mythical creatures were often adopted as a personal device or

emblem

From earliest times each English monarch

has used beasts to symbolise their

descent and familial allegiances

Queen Jane Seymour

King Henry had a number of beasts

carved to celebrate his

marriage to Jane Seymour in 1536

These were found throughout the palace grounds

and twelve of them lined the Moat

Bridge

Hampton Court Palace

The remains of King Henry’s original beasts were destroyed in the

reign of King William III (1650-1702)

New ones were designed and carved in 1909-1910

Hampton Court PalaceThe Moat Beasts were reinstated in 1911

They were not painted – but what if they were?

Moat Beasts

The existing beasts on the

Moat Bridge are currently unpainted

The Crowned Lion of England

The Crowned Lion of England

He supports a shield bearing the impaled arms of Henry VIII and

Queen Jane

A golden lion has been the royal

beast of England since the early 12th

century

Royal Arms 1405 – 1603used by King Henry VIII

Queen Jane Seymour’s Arms

Impaled Arms

King Henry’s arms Queen Jane’s arms

The husband’s and wife’s arms are joined

Henry VIII’s Crowned Lion

I obtained much information from

hand-painted manuscripts of the 16th century

The Seymour Panther

The golden “flames” indicate

his fragrant breath

He bears the Seymour wings

on his shield

The Greyhound

A favourite Tudor beast

He bears the three lions of

England on his shield

Henry VII’s Standard

The Greyhound of Richmond with the red rose of Lancaster

The Yale

A Beaufort beast

He has the body of an antelope, a lion’s tail and

horns which can swivel round to counter attack

from all quarters

The Yale

The Duke of Somerset’s Yale

The arms are: France modern and England quarterly impaled

quarterly with

1) Howard; 2) Thomas of Brotherton; 3) Warenne and 4) Mowbray

The Tudor Dragon

Used by Henry VIII’s

grandfather as a

token of his supposed descent

from Cadwalade

r

King Cadwalader’s

Dragon

Semi-mythical king of

Gwynedd, North Wales

The Queen’s Unicorn

This beast supports Queen

Jane’s six-quartered shield

The Royal Dragon

This beast supports a

shield bearing France

modern and England quarterly

The Queen’s Lion

This beast supports a shield bearing Queen Jane’s badge

Jane Seymour’s badge

White Lions

...of March ...of Henry FitzRoy

...of Mowbray

Black Bull of Clarence

He supports a shield bearing the Tudor

Rose, which symbolised the union of the houses of York

and Lancaster

Green and white were the Tudor livery

colours

Black Bulls

The Queen’s Panther

He bears the impaled arms of Henry VIII

and Queen Jane

Heraldic Panther

How the Moat Beasts might look if painted

2009 promises to be a colourful year at

Hampton Court Palace

Acknowledgements:

College of ArmsHistoric Royal PalacesSam Styles – SJS PhotosMuseo Thyssen-Bornemisza, MadridKunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Gemäldegalerie

(The Baty Griffin)http://bit.ly/15eDOa