The Queen's Beasts: The Unicorn of Scotland

CMC 980.9.2

From the time of earliest human civilization, depictions of certain animals — real or imaginary — were used as symbols of royalty and power. Such "beasts" were among the earliest icons used in medieval heraldry. The Tudor monarch, Henry VIII (1509-1547), commissioned carvings of those beasts most closely associated with British royalty, to decorate his palace at Hampton Court. These were the inspiration for the human-size Queen's Beasts sculpted in plaster to guard Elizabeth II's entrance into Westminster Abbey at her Coronation in 1953. A duplicate set was given to Canada.

The fabled unicorn was known in ancient Mesopotamia, India, China and later in the Christian West. It was a symbol of fierceness, strength, and purity. The only way to catch it was to trick it to come to a maiden. By the fifteenth century it had become part of the heraldic menagerie of the Scottish kings and, when James VI of Scotland succeeded Elizabeth I to the throne of England in 1603, thereafter the Scottish unicorn and the English lion became the heraldic supporters of the Royal Arms of the United Kingdom.