The One-Eyed Warhorses

During my research, there was one thing in the records that really drove home the dangers faced by warhorses – the number that served with only one eye. They were not uncommon: there are 11 in a single horse roll raised for the Welsh war in 1282. Three more appear in royal lists for the Scottish campaign in 1298. Others turn up in retinues bound for Flanders and in various garrisons in Scotland. Nor was this an English peculiarity. In one French inventory, 4 horses, or roughly 1 in 10, are described simply as cum uno occulo.

Why did so many lack an eye? Perhaps from a sword stroke, a lance point, a splintered shaft in the chaos of battle. Only one case offers a partial explanation: the horse had been struck on the head during a campaign and lost its eye as a result.

Most striking of all is that this didn’t necessarily diminish a warhorse’s value – half-blind, perhaps, but not half-priced….

Image: Patch, the one-eyed Kentucky Derby runner, CNN news