The Ypotryll is a Medieval European chimeric creature featured in

heraldry Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branch ...

. It has the tusked head of a wild boar or hog, the humped body of a

camel A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. C ...

, the legs and hooves of an ox or goat and the long, scaly tail of a

serpent Serpent or The Serpent may refer to: * Snake, a carnivorous reptile of the suborder Serpentes Mythology and religion * Sea serpent, a monstrous ocean creature * Serpent (symbolism), the snake in religious rites and mythological contexts * Serp ...

. Its name is thought to be derived from the Greek ''hippo'' (horse), or in Middle English ''ypotame'', itself derived from the Latin ''ypotamus''. Little is known of the creature's meanings or origins, but it appears as the badge of John Tiptoft, 1st Earl of Worcester, also known as the "Butcher of England"; a man known for his extreme cruelty in regards to the execution of Lancastrians during his rule as Lord High Constable in the early 1460s. The creature is known for its awesome ugliness, and is perhaps a reflection of those that wore it as their mark. Tiptoft was beheaded in 1470 by the Lancastrians during the

War of the Roses The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), known at the time and for more than a century after as the Civil Wars, were a series of civil wars fought over control of the throne of England, English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century. These w ...

(1455–1487).

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