The Queen's Beasts are ten heraldic statues representing the genealogy of

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

, depicted as the

Royal supporters of England The royal supporters of England are the heraldic supporter creatures appearing on each side of the royal arms of England. The royal supporters of the monarchs of England displayed a variety, or even a menagerie, of real and imaginary heraldic be ...

. They stood in front of the temporary western annexe to Westminster Abbey for the Queen's coronation in 1953. Each of The Queen's Beasts consists of a heraldic beast supporting a shield bearing a badge or arms of a family associated with the ancestry of Queen Elizabeth II. They were commissioned by the British Ministry of Works from the sculptor

James Woodford James Arthur Woodford (1893–1976) was an English sculptor. His works include sets of bronze doors for the headquarters of the Royal Institute of British Architects and Norwich City Hall; the Queen's Beasts, originally made for the Coronation i ...

, who was paid the sum of £2,750 for the work. They were uncoloured except for their shields at the coronation. They are now on display in the

Canadian Museum of History The Canadian Museum of History (french: Musée canadien de l’histoire) is a national museum on anthropology, Canadian history, cultural studies, and ethnology in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. The purpose of the museum is to promote the heritage of C ...

in Gatineau, Quebec. The original models are the King's Beasts which survive at

Hampton Court Palace Hampton Court Palace is a Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. The building of the palace began in 1514 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the chie ...

near London, sculpted in stone for

King Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disag ...

(1509–1547) and his third wife Jane Seymour. Copies survive at nearby Kew Gardens. In the 1920s a set of 76 similar heraldic beasts was replaced on the roof of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, having been taken down in 1682 due to dilapidation.

Origins

There are ten heraldic beasts of a very like sort at Hampton Court Palace near London. They were restored at the beginning of the twentieth century but were derived from originals made in 1536/7 for King Henry VIII and his third wife Jane Seymour (d.1537), and are known as the "King's Beasts". They are carved in stone and each sits erect, supporting a shield upon which there is a coat of arms or a heraldic badge. From the beasts themselves and the emblems which they carry on their shields, it is evident that they stood for King Henry and his third Queen, Jane Seymour. In the autumn of 1952, the Minister of Works, in preparation for the coronation some months ahead, called upon the Royal Academician and sculptor James Woodford, OBE, to create ten new beasts similar in form and character to the ten at Hampton Court but more particularly, appropriate to the Queen. Exact replicas of those at Hampton Court would have been unsuitable for the occasion, for some of them would have little connection with Elizabeth II's own family or ancestry, as although the Queen is descended (via female lines) from King Henry VII (the father of King Henry VIII), she is not descended from Jane Seymour whose only son King Edward VI died unmarried.

Characteristics

The beasts are about six feet (1.8 m) high and weigh about 700 pounds (320 kg) each. They are made from plaster, so cannot be left exposed permanently to the elements. Originally uncoloured except for their shields, they are now fully painted.

Display at the coronation

The Beasts were on display outside the western annexe of Westminster Abbey, a glass-fronted structure in which to marshal the long processions before the service. The statues were placed along the front with the exception of the Lion of England which was placed in the alcove formed by the north wall of the annexe and the entrance used by the Queen to enter the Abbey on her arrival in the Gold State Coach. The statues were placed left to right in the following order when facing the annexe from the west: The Lion of England, the greyhound, the yale, the dragon, the horse, the lion of Mortimer, the unicorn, the griffin, the bull, and the falcon. This was not the same order as they relate to the royal pedigree, but were ordered in this way for balance and symmetry in display. The Scottish Unicorn, Horse of Hanover, Griffin and Falcon replace four of the Beasts at Hampton Court (Seymour Black Lion, Seymour colour-spotted Panther & Seymour Unicorn and either the so-called Tudor Dragon or the Royal Dragon).

Molly Guion Molly Guion (23 September 1910 – 1982) was an American portrait painter. She taught at the Art Students League of New York. Early life and education Molly Guion was born in New Rochelle, New York on 23 September 1910. Her parents were Cl ...

painted the Beasts in 1953.

Relocations

After the coronation they were removed to the Great Hall in

. In 1957 they were moved again to St George's Hall, Windsor. The beasts were taken into storage in April 1958 while their future was considered. It was eventually decided to offer them to the Commonwealth governments; Canada, being the senior nation, was offered them first. In June 1959 the Canadian government accepted the beasts and they were shipped there in July. Originally the only coloured parts of the statues were their heraldic shields, but for the celebrations of the Centennial of Canadian Confederation in 1967, the statues were painted in their full heraldic colours. They are now in the care of the

Gatineau Gatineau ( ; ) is a city in western Quebec, Canada. It is located on the northern bank of the Ottawa River, immediately across from Ottawa, Ontario. Gatineau is the largest city in the Outaouais administrative region and is part of Canada's N ...

Replicas

In 1958 Sir Henry Ross, Chairman of the Distillers Company in Edinburgh, paid for

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building sto ...

replicas of the statues to be made, which are on display outside the Palm House at Kew Gardens. The beasts also served as models for topiary at

Hall Place Hall Place is a stately home in the London Borough of Bexley in south-east London, built in 1537 for Sir John Champneys, a wealthy merchant and former Lord Mayor of London. The house was extended in 1649 by Sir Robert Austen, a merchant from T ...

, Bexley. The original sculptures have been commemorated in the following forms: bone china figurines, cups and saucers, glass tray sets, plaster models, reclaimed material reproductions, porcelain candlesticks, British postage stamps issued in 1998, silver teaspoons, and tea towels. In 2016 the

Royal Mint The Royal Mint is the United Kingdom's oldest company and the official maker of British coins. Operating under the legal name The Royal Mint Limited, it is a limited company that is wholly owned by His Majesty's Treasury and is under an exclus ...

launched a series of ten Queen's Beasts coins, one for each beast.

Historical explanations

The Lion of England

The Lion of England is the crowned golden

lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...

of England, which has been one of the

supporters In heraldry, supporters, sometimes referred to as ''attendants'', are figures or objects usually placed on either side of the Escutcheon (heraldry), shield and depicted holding it up. Early forms of supporters are found in medieval seals. H ...

of the Royal Arms since the reign of

Edward IV Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 to 3 October 1470, then again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in England ...

(1461–1483). It supports a

shield A shield is a piece of personal armour held in the hand, which may or may not be strapped to the wrist or forearm. Shields are used to intercept specific attacks, whether from close-ranged weaponry or projectiles such as arrows, by means of a ...

showing the Arms of the United Kingdom as they have been since Queen Victoria's accession in 1837. In the first and last quarters of the shield are the arms of the

House of Plantagenet The House of Plantagenet () was a royal house which originated from the lands of Anjou in France. The family held the English throne from 1154 (with the accession of Henry II at the end of the Anarchy) to 1485, when Richard III died in b ...

(the "Lions of England", technically in heraldic language "Leopards of England"), taken from the arms of King Richard I (1157–1199), "The Lionheart". The lion and tressure (armorial border) of Scotland appear in the second, and the Harp of Ireland is in the third.

The White Greyhound of Richmond

The

White Greyhound of Richmond The White Greyhound of Richmond is one of the Queen's Beasts commissioned for display at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. A stone copy can also be found in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Description According to the Cambridge Univ ...

was a badge of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, Earl of Richmond, third son of King Edward III. It was also used by his son King Henry IV and especially by

King Henry VII Henry VII (28 January 1457 – 21 April 1509) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death in 1509. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor. Henry's mother, Margaret Beaufo ...

. The

Tudor double rose The Tudor rose (sometimes called the Union rose) is the traditional floral heraldic emblem of England and takes its name and origins from the House of Tudor, which united the House of Lancaster and the House of York. The Tudor rose consists ...

can be seen on the shield, one rose within another surmounted by a crown. It symbolizes the union of the two

cadet house In history and heraldry, a cadet branch consists of the male-line descendants of a monarch's or patriarch's younger sons ( cadets). In the ruling dynasties and noble families of much of Europe and Asia, the family's major assets—realm, titles, ...

s of Plantagenet – the

House of York The House of York was a cadet branch of the English royal House of Plantagenet. Three of its members became kings of England in the late 15th century. The House of York descended in the male line from Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, ...

and the

House of Lancaster The House of Lancaster was a cadet branch of the royal House of Plantagenet. The first house was created when King Henry III of England created the Earldom of Lancasterfrom which the house was namedfor his second son Edmund Crouchback in 126 ...

The Yale of Beaufort

The Yale was a mythical beast, supposedly white and covered with gold spots and able to swivel each of its horns independently. It descends to the Queen through

, who inherited it from his mother,

Lady Margaret Beaufort Lady Margaret Beaufort (usually pronounced: or ; 31 May 1441/43 – 29 June 1509) was a major figure in the Wars of the Roses of the late fifteenth century, and mother of King Henry VII of England, the first Tudor monarch. A descendant of ...

. The shield shows a

portcullis A portcullis (from Old French ''porte coleice'', "sliding gate") is a heavy vertically-closing gate typically found in medieval fortifications, consisting of a latticed grille made of wood, metal, or a combination of the two, which slides down gr ...

surmounted by a royal crown. The portcullis (uncrowned) was a Beaufort badge, but was used both crowned and uncrowned by Henry VII.

The Red Dragon of Wales

The red dragon ( cy, Y Ddraig Goch) is an ancient Welsh symbol, and a badge used by Owen Tudor. His grandson, Henry VII, took it as a token of his supposed descent from Cadwaladr, the last of the line of Maelgwn. The beast holds a shield bearing a lion in each quarter; this was the coat of arms of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the last native Prince of Wales.

The White Horse of Hanover

Arms_of_Great_Britain_in_Scotland_(1714-1801)

The White Horse of Hanover was introduced into the Royal Arms in 1714 when the crown of Great Britain passed to the Elector George of Hanover. This grandson of Elizabeth Stuart, sister of King Charles I, became George I, King of Great Britain and Ireland. The shield shows the leopards of England and the lion of Scotland in the first quarter, the fleur-de-lis of France in the second (brought into the royal arms of England by King Edward II) and the Irish harp in the third quarter. The fourth quarter shows the arms of Hanover.

The White Lion of Mortimer

The White Lion of Mortimer descends to the Queen through

, from

Anne de Mortimer Anne de Mortimer, also known as Anne Mortimer (27 December 1388 – 22 September 1411), was a medieval English noblewoman who became an ancestor to the royal House of York, one of the parties in the fifteenth-century dynastic Wars of the Roses. ...

. The shield shows a white rose encircled by a golden sun, known heraldically as a 'white rose en soleil' which is really a combination of two distinct badges. Both of these appear on the Great Seals of Edward IV and Richard III, and were used by George VI when Duke of York. Unlike the Lion of England, this beast is uncrowned.

The Unicorn of Scotland

From the end of the 16th century, two unicorns were adopted as the

supporter In heraldry, supporters, sometimes referred to as ''attendants'', are figures or objects usually placed on either side of the shield and depicted holding it up. Early forms of supporters are found in medieval seals. However, unlike the coro ...

s of the Scottish Royal Arms. In 1603 the crown of England passed to

James VI of Scotland James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until hi ...

, who then became James I of England. He took as supporters of his royal arms a crowned lion of England and one of his Scottish unicorns. The unicorn holds a shield showing the

royal arms of Scotland The royal arms of Scotland is the official coat of arms of the King of Scots first adopted in the 12th century. With the Union of the Crowns in 1603, James VI inherited the thrones of England and Ireland and thus his arms in Scotland were now Qua ...

, a lion

rampant In heraldry, the term attitude describes the ''position'' in which a figure (animal or human) is emblazoned as a charge, a supporter, or as a crest. The attitude of an heraldic figure always precedes any reference to the tincture of the figure ...

within a ''double tressure flory-counter-flory''.

The Griffin of Edward III

The

griffin The griffin, griffon, or gryphon (Ancient Greek: , ''gryps''; Classical Latin: ''grȳps'' or ''grȳpus''; Late Latin, Late and Medieval Latin: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.; Old French: ''griffon'') is a legendary creature with the body, tail ...

Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring r ...

Queen's Beast is an ancient mythical beast. It was considered a beneficent creature, signifying courage and strength combined with guardianship, vigilance, swiftness and keen vision. It was closely associated with

who engraved it on his private seal. The shield shows the Round Tower of Windsor Castle (where Edward III was born) with the Royal Standard flying from the

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...

, enclosed by two branches of oak surmounted by the royal crown.

The Black Bull of Clarence

The Black Bull of

Clarence Clarence may refer to: Places Australia * Clarence County, New South Wales, a Cadastral division * Clarence, New South Wales, a place near Lithgow * Clarence River (New South Wales) * Clarence Strait (Northern Territory) * City of Clarence, a loca ...

descended to the Queen through

. The shield shows the Royal Arms as they were borne by

and his brother

Richard III Richard III (2 October 145222 August 1485) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Battl ...

as well as all the sovereigns of the Houses of Lancaster and Tudor.

The Falcon of the Plantagenets

The falcon was first used by

of the

as his badge. It descended to

, who took it as his personal badge, the falcon standing within an open

fetterlock A fetterlock is a sort of shackle that is a common charge (heraldry), charge in heraldry, often displayed in a way that resembles a padlock. King Edward IV used a heraldic badge consisting of a fetterlock and a falcon. This was originally the bad ...

. Originally closed, the slightly open fetterlock is supposed to refer to the struggle

had to obtain the throne — "he forced the lock and won the throne." The Queen's Beasts - The Lion of England.jpg, Lion of England The Queen's Beasts - The White Greyhound of Richmond.jpg, White Greyhound of Richmond The Queen's Beasts - The Yale of Beaufort.jpg, Yale of Beaufort The Queen's Beasts - The Red Dragon of Wales.jpg, Red Dragon of Wales The Queen's Beasts - The White Horse of Hanover.jpg, White Horse of Hanover The Queen's Beasts - The White Lion of Mortimer.jpg, White Lion of Mortimer The Queen's Beasts - The Unicorn of Scotland.jpg, Unicorn of Scotland The Queen's Beasts - The Griffin of Edward III.jpg, Griffin of Edward III The Queen's Beasts - The Black Bull of Clarence.jpg, Black Bull of Clarence The Queen's Beasts - The Falcon of the Plantagenets.jpg, Falcon of the Plantagenets

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

Canadian Museum of History: A Queen and Her Country
(includes colour images of the Queen's Beasts)
Queen's Beasts Coins on Royal Mint Bullion

Photo of The Queen's Beasts in front of the annexe

Queen's Beasts And Robes (1953)

Abbey Coronation Annexe Newsreel (1952)

The Queen's Beasts Silver Coins by Royal Mint

The Queen's Beasts Gold Coins by Royal Mint

Picture of Molly Guion painting the Queen's Beasts in 1953
{{DEFAULTSORT:Queen's Beasts, The Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten Lions in heraldry Animal sculptures in the United Kingdom Outdoor sculptures in London Sculptures of birds Sculptures of bovines Sculptures of dogs Sculptures of lions Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Heraldic beasts 1953 sculptures