Claire-Louise said:

I've been trying to do some research about pets in the Tudor times ( random I know) and there seems to be a lot of conflicting information regarding Anne Boleyn's greyhound Urian. For example, I always thought that William Brereton gave Urian to Anne Boleyn as a gift, and that the dog was named after his brother but I've read in a few places that it was Wolsey's dog. Is there any books that have reliable information about this?

Also online there is a lot of stuff about the name Urian meaning devil's helper and I realise this is just some kind of thing to go with the whole Anne Boleyn was a witch type nonsense, but does anyone know what the name actually means?

Interesting topic. There is little work out there on pets during the Tudor period, so it is a great area to explore. May I suggest you consider the inclusion of pets in portraits? One that springs to mind instantly is the fabulous group portrait of William Brooke, 10^th Baron Cobham and his family (kept in Longleat House). Some of the children are holding their pets, and there is a lovely parrot sat on the table.

Urian appears to have been named after a specific person. William Brereton had a brother named Urian; both had established positions at court. They were very much the ‘King’s men’ and naturally supported Henry during his attempts to annul his marriage to Katherine of Aragon. According to Tim Thorton in his study on Tudor Cheshire (a county which the Breretons played an important role in), Urian Brereton hunted with Anne and it was their dogs that accidentally killed a cow, leading Henry VIII to compensate the farmer. Thornton argues that Anne's dog was probably named after him (though Thornton makes a slight error by saying that Anne named a ‘lapdog’ after him. In fact it was her Greyhound she named Urian).

We know a bit about Anne’s choice of pets from the Lisle letters. Lady Lisle, married to Henry VIII’s uncle, was desperate to get her daughters, or at least one of her daughters, into the queen’s household. She managed this during Henry’s marriage to Jane Seymour, but her attempts extended back to Anne Boleyn’s time as queen. She also wished to establish good relations with the King’s new wife. So she asked her agents in England to find out what gifts, whether it was food or pets, Anne would appreciate. In 1534 Lady Lisle sent a little dog to Sir Francis Bryan which, Bryan wrote, was ‘so well liked by the Queen that it remained not above an hour in my hands but her Grace took it from me’. Perhaps this was Pourkoy, a little dog which Anne adored (to the degree that when it died in an accident about a year later the only person who could break the news and comfort her was Henry). Lady Lisle asked about other pets the Queen favoured and was told that she liked birds. In 1534 she sent her a linnet. Anne, Lady Lisle was subqeuntly told, loved the bird’s ‘pleasant song’.

Once the weather's improved and they go outside..then hunting begins. One time I woke up to find one cat trying to feed me a live mouse. That was the last time they were allowed in my bedroom…

Claire-Louise said:

 It appears that dogs were well established as companions at this period in time, rather than just as working animals.

Certainly, and they also acted as status symbols. Little dogs, like the one Anne plucked from Bryan's arms, were very expensive and not always easy to obtain.
 

Mary Tudor (Queen Mary I) was fond of dogs. Like Anne she appears to have favoured little dogs (you can see one in a joint portrait of her Philip of Spain) but she also owned greyhounds (references to the dogs can be found in her expenses book in the British Library – another excellent resource for you. The keeper of her greyhounds in the 1530s/40s was Christopher Bradley). She also liked birds.

There was a rather famous episode with the duchess of Suffolk’s dog in the 1540s or 1550s (the date still remains unclear). She allegedly ordered that it be dressed it up in white robes, called it ‘Gardiner’ (a reference to the traditionalist bishop of Winchester, Stephen Gardiner), and had it participate in a mock procession. The dog may have been the one she received from Lady Lisle in the 1540s.