One’s best friend
From cats and dogs to orangutans and elephants, meet history’s best-loved royal pets
Some of history’s most heartwarming and tear-jerking tales of royals and their most loyal companions — their pets
There is nothing quite like the bond between humans and their pets and rulers are no exception. Throughout history they can be seen with their loyal companions stood their side. For many of these people, their pets offered the unconditional love, affection and loyalty that they might have struggled to find elsewhere due to their positions.
Many of these stories are heartwarming and, in some cases, offer up different perspectives on historical figures. Histories of Queen Victoria are often dominated by the focus on her marriage to Prince Albert and the four decades she spent mourning his death. Yet her childhood relationship with Dash, her cherished Cavalier
King Charles Spaniel, highlights the plight of a lonely, isolated young girl who only had her beloved dog for a companion. Victoria’s love for pets continued for the rest of her life and she was known to own goats, parrots and even a donkey among other animals. It was the start of a long love affair with animals for the British royal family.
Of course, there are also times where the term ‘pet’ is used very loosely when it comes to rulers and the animals they keep. Ivan IV of Russia, commonly remembered as Ivan the Terrible, was a brutal and paranoid man. Historical accounts of his life often say that he owned “pet bears” but his relationship with them was hardly one of loyalty or affection. Ivan deliberately starved his bears so that they were ready for their next meal, which was usually a prisoner that he would have thrown into their den — hardly an example of the caring attachment that the term conjures up.
There are many examples throughout history and here are seven special relationships between pets and their powerful owners.
“Their pets offered the unconditional love, affection and loyalty that they might have struggled to find elsewhere”