Anne Boleyn must have been grief-stricken when her little dog Purkoy died in 1534. Purkoy’s death was recorded in a letter dated 18th December 1534 from Thomas Broke to Lady Lisle, who wrote:
[…] her Grace delighted so much in little Purkoy that after he was dead of a fall there durst nobody tell her Grace of it, till it pleased the King’s Highness to tell her Grace of it.
Anne hadn’t had the dog very long, but he had clearly stolen her heart, as animals so often do. Purkoy originally belonged to Honor, Lady Lisle, but she gave him as a New Year’s gift in January 1534 to Sir Francis Bryan on the advice of her London agent, John Husee, as the Lisles needed Bryan’s help. Bryan, however, ended up passing the dog on to his cousin, the queen, writing to Lady Lisle on 20th January 1534:
[…] it may please your Lordship to give her hearty thanks on my behalf for her little dog, which was so proper and so well liked by the Queen that it remained not above an hour in my hands but that her Grace took it from me.
Purkoy’s name, which comes from the French word “pourquoi”, “why”, wasn’t named by Anne but by Lady Lisle. We know this because when John Husee advised Lady Lisle to give the little dog to Bryan, he wrote:
But madam, there is no remedy, your ladyship must needs depart with your little Purkoy, the which I knew well shall grive [grieve] your ladyship not a little.
Perhaps Lady Lisle called him Purkoy because he had a questioning look or did that questioning head tilt that some dogs do. We don’t know what breed of dog Purkoy was, perhaps a toy spaniel or toy poodle, but he’s described as “little”.
As I said, Anne Boleyn was clearly heartbroken by Purkoy’s sudden death in a fall, so much so that nobody wanted to tell her and her husband, King Henry VIII, was called upon to break the news to her. In his letter of December 1534, in which he wrote of Purkoy’s death, Thomas Broke also passed on advice to Lady Lisle regarding possible gifts for the queen. Anne Boleyn’s lady, Margery Horsman, had told Broke that “the Queen’s Grace setteth much store by a pretty dog” and that she preferred male dogs to females. I’m not sure whether Lady Lisle did follow this advice.
Poor little Purkoy and poor Anne. I hope the short time they had together was one filled with love.
By the way, we know Anne also had a greyhound, but he would have been a dog used for sport rather than one she spent time with like Purkoy. Anne Boleyn’s greyhound is mentioned in the records in September 1530 when it was involved, with another greyhound owned by Urian Brereton, in killing a cow:
Itm the same daye paied for A Cowe that Uryren a Breretons greyhounde and my ladye Annes killed – x s.
Sources
- ed. St. Clare Byrne, Muriel (1981) The Lisle Letters, Volume 2, University of Chicago Press, pp.21-22, letter 109; p.30, letter 114; p.331, letter 299a.
- ed. Nicolas, Nicholas Harris (1827) The privy purse expenses of King Henry the Eighth, from November 1529, to December 1532, William Pickering, p.74.
So, sorry to hear of the loss of your sweet Boni! Truly hard to lose a loved pet!
So sorry you had your little dog put to sleep Claire, bless you all❤️he looks very beautiful, at least he had a good life with you and was very happy, I’m sure one day you will meet him again over the rainbow bridge, I still mourn the loss of my little dog he died about twenty three years ago, he was my fathers dog really but was devoted to me, he would follow me around and sit with me and that’s what I love about animals, especially dogs they are so faithful without guile or artifice, they love unconditionally, one can imagine the pain Anne Boleyn felt on losing her beloved pet, we can understand it and sympathise, for we have all been there.
Thank you, it was really hard and we miss her loads, but it was the right thing to do.
Aw, they do steal a piece of your heart, don’t they?
They do indeed and they are our children, in the end we have to decide what is best for them, we ache to keep them with us but we have to think of their quality of life, if they are in pain it is kinder to let them go, heartbreaking though it is x