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World Parrot Day: A Story about King Henry VIII's Parrot from Francis Willughby's Ornithologia
- Debbie Jordan
- 1 hour ago
- 2 min read
The 31st May 2026 is World Parrot Day. To mark this, and the 350th anniversary of the publication of Francis Willughby’s Ornithologia, this post will recount a tale of King Henry VIII’s parrot that was published in Ornithologia.
In Ornithologia, in the general comments and observations about parrots, it was written that parrots not only imitated the human voice, but in wit exceeded all other birds. The evidence of this had been provided through examples in so many texts that they wrote that they saw no need to elucidate further on it, except for the case of what they called a pleasant story. This story was recalled by Conrad Gessner, who stated that he had been told it by a friend.
It was said that: A parrot belonging to King Henry VIII fell out of the King’s palace at Westminster into the river Thames, which ran by it. Then, very reasonably remembering the words it had often heard, whether used in danger or in jest, cried out, “A boat, a boat, for twenty pounds.” An experienced boatman made thither, picked up the bird and restored it to the King, to whom he knew it belonged and hoped for as great a reward as the bird had promised. The King agreed with the boatman that he should have a reward as the bird decreed and he asked the parrot anew. The parrot then answered, “Give the Knave a groat.”
In modern money, £20 then would have been over £8,400 today. A groat was a silver coin, the equivalent of 4 pence, which would be about £7 today.
It is known that King Henry VIII had an African Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus), which was kept at his palace at Hampton Court. There are numerous anecdotal stories about this parrot. It was renowned for its intelligence and that it used to amuse itself by calling out to boatmen on the river Thames, enticing them to come to the Palace for them only to then discover that it had been the parrot issuing the command.
Conrad Gessner was a Swiss physician and naturalist. He was born in 1516 and died in 1565. This means that he was a contemporary of King Henry VIII, who died in 1547. Gessner’s most noted work was his Historia animalium, the third volume of which was published in 1555 and dedicated entirely to birds. He is known to have often exchanged information with other European scholars and this included the English Tudor court physician John Caius.
Further Reading:
John Ray, Francis Willughby's Ornithologia, 1678, p.109, T16.
David Alderton, “Talk the Squawk”, The Guardian, 6 April 2002, https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2002/apr/06/weekend7.weekend6
Author - Debbie Jordan, Middleton Hall Volunteer.
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