The Normans’ rabbit conquest

Native to the Iberian peninsula and southwest France, the rabbit was widely kept in Ancient Rome—where kits were a delicacy—and then by monasteries, likely because the Catholic Church deemed young rabbits were not meat, but fish and could, therefore, be eaten during Lent. The pagan Vikings, on becoming settled Christian ‘Northmen’ in France, took up the rabbit habit; the Bayeux Tapestry depicts Norman soldiers carrying rabbits in sacks and crates to England, where the animal was raised in walled enclosures or warrens, some 1,000 acres in extent. (At first, the delicate rabbit could not dig burrows in wet, cold English soil, so they were made for it by drilling with augers.) The warren was cared for by a ‘warrener’, who lived in a lodge, often fortified, from which he protected his charges from predator and poacher alike.

Rabbit meat was so prized that it could only be afforded by the rich; in 1465, when George Neville was installed as the Archbishop of York, 4,000 rabbits were provided for the celebratory bash. The animal’s fur was equally sought after. Henry VII favoured black-rabbit fur from Norfolk to line his night attire. Over time, the rabbit-fur industry grew (especially in East Anglia), notably with the making of felt headwear by glueing rabbit hair with shellac.

The rabbit proved impossible to confine and, outside the Norman warren, multiplied exponentially, thus reducing its own worth. In the 13th century, the market price of the rabbit carcase averaged a luxurious

3½d, plus a further penny for the skin. Two centuries later, the price had fallen to 2¼d. By the 18th century, it was fodder for the poor.