The Tower of London has served as a stronghold, royal residence and a notorious prison for prominent figures ranging from Guy Fawkes to Elizabeth I . But few know that for over 600 years it was also home to a curious assortment of residents, including—wait for it—a polar bear.
It first started to house exotic animals in the 1200s, when King John relocated the royal menagerie (created to supply game for Henry I’s hunts) from Oxford. In 1235, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II gifted three lions to Henry III as a gesture of friendship, symbolic of the lions on the royal crest. The event inspired King Henry to start a zoo.
Menageries had been popular among European elites since the 8th century, with rare fauna being used as status symbols and gifts in diplomatic relations. “The fact they’d been obtained at all signaled a ruler’s influence in foreign territories; their very aliveness suggested vigilant maintenance by staff and slaves,” explained The Paris Review .
But the prize for the most forlorn resident in the Tower of London has to go to a polar bear who arrived in the 1250s. When King Haakon of Norway presented Henry III with a white bear as a sign of goodwill, it must have been a curious addition to London’s cityscape. Associated with Nordic mythology , it was a grand gesture.
King Henry III’s polar bear (a gift from the King of #Norway) was let out on a collar and rope to fish in the #Thames.#FolkloreThursday #13thCentury pic.twitter.com/yvoeGVnbwA
— Old Weird Britain…
