Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Anne Boleyn's Pets

From Under These Restless Skies:
Pourquoi was Anne Boleyn's lapdog. Some sources claim he was a Havanese, a dog breed that originated in Cuba, closely related to the Bichon. Havanese dogs are known to have a charming habit of tilting their heads in an inquisitive fashion, which may have been the root of Pourquoi name: For What? in French. The name is most commonly rendered in English as "Purkoy," a phonetic spelling which was also used in Old French.

Pourquoi was given to Anne by Honor, Lady Lisle. Honor was a very ambitious woman who strove to advance her family by cultivating a close relationship with the queen. She was born Honor Grenville and her second husband was Arthur Plantagenet, the bastard son of King Edward IV. (Arthur was Henry VIII's uncle, half-brother of Henry's mother, Elizabeth of York.) Honor traveled with Anne on that momentous visit to Calais in 1532, and remained behind in the city when her husband was appointed governor. Honor kept up with the comings and goings of the court through letters to her family and friends, 3,000 of which are preserved in the National Archives as the Lisle Letters. They form an incredible archive of information about the royal court. (Read more.)

Via Supremacy and Survival. Share

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