This is a Medieval illumination of a noblewoman with her hawk from the Taymouth Hours, a sumptuous 14th-century work probably made for a royalty. It shows a number of images where women feature prominently. The picture shown here provides evidence that some of the wealhiest engaged in the highly technical art of falconry. Training birds of prey to hunt was a pastime that few could afford, and hunting was usually dominated by men.
A new book out by Sara Petrosillo argues that Medieval art and literature does more than provide evidence that some women indeed did engage in training hawks and other hunting birds. It also symbolized common ideas about women’s sexuality. For instance, falcons “required constant training to keep them ‘loyal’ — that is, to keep them from flying away and staying away.” This corresponds with a common idea that women were extremely driven by lust and that their sexual desires would drive their impulses unless they were “checked”.
In fact, there was an Old Medieval French joke making a double entendre for the word “faucon” — it translates to both “falcon” and “false cunt,” with the idea that women’s chastity was impossible to control.
In reality, there were plenty of ways (law, religion, social pressure) that women’s sexuality was controlled, and arguing that women were generally driven by lust was a way to “prove” that they were irrational and closer to beasts than men. But, the ways that noblewomen and hawks were often talked about in the same way is a fascinating angle to look at the evidence of females and falconry.
Sources: _Hawking Women: Falconry, Gender, and Control in Medieval Literary Culture _ (Ohio State University Press, 2023).
