The strange story of the first Elephant in England

It’s long been the habit for monarchs around the world to receive some of the most incredible gifts. You only have to go to Windsor Castle to see some of the things our Royal Family have received over the centuries and apparently there are entire stores of more humdrum or precious objects.

But what to get the king or queen that has everything? This must have been on the mind of King Louis IX of France who decided to give a unique present to King Henry VIII of England in 1255, an elephant!

Louis IX himself had received it from his former captor, the Sultan of Egypt which is a reminder that not all royal gifts are likely given with genuine love.

Upon seeing it, famed medieval Chronicler Matthew Paris drew a picture of it, noting that it was 10 years old and 10 feet tall. It was housed at the Tower of London in a pen built to measure 40 feet long and 20 feet wide.

The elephant upstaged the previous animal occupant of the Tower, a polar bear given to Henry by the King of Norway. A special rope was made to allow the bear to swim and fish in the Thames. What happened to the bear is unknown. The same goes with the herd of buffalo sent to King Henry III’s brother Richard of Cornwall. Matthew reports their arrival in 1252, describing their horns and fondness for water, but afterwards they are forgotten. Did they become a fixture of London life, perish due to their conditions are perhaps eaten by a ravenous escaped Polar Bear? We may never know.

In 1241, Richard was welcomed in the Italian city of Cremona by a band playing on top of an elephant. Matthew drew a picture of it based on Richard’s account, but that animal reflected the images Matthew saw in bestiaries. Now he joined enormous crowds to see the elephant in the Tower, which sadly survived only two years, dying on Valentine’s Day in 1257.

Eighteen months later, King Henry III had its bones moved from the Tower yard to Westminster Abbey. As he was then reconstructing the abbey to become a royal mausoleum, he felt the elephant, which was marveled for its gentleness and fidelity, deserved its own resting place within the walls. Like all relics in the abbey, the bones disappeared during the Tudor era.

Not many people are aware that amongst it’s long and distinguished history, the Tower of London was at one stage the first home of London zoo but if you ever visit then you can see some modern sculptures that remember even if sadly many of them did not live long lives in captivity.