The Welsh Dragon - one of the King's Beasts

In a court next to the Chapel at Hampton Court you can find the King's Beasts - as series of eight carvings of royal beasts - some mythical some real - associated with King Henry VIII.

In 1536 King Henry VIII commissioned the carving of these heraldic beasts to celebrate his marriage to Jane Seymour. The beasts were placed throughout Hampton Court Palace, but were destroyed in the late 17th century by William III.

Two hundred years in 1909, ater the beasts were re-carved over the entrance moat, but remained undecorated. In 2009 Patrick Baty painted and gilded eight wooden replicas, which were put on display in a Tudor-style garden within the palace.

This is the Dragon of Wales used by Henry VIII grandfather - Edmund Tudor, and refers to his supposed descent from King Cadwallader of Gwynedd in the 7th Century. Cadwallader appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth.

The origin of the Welsh Dragon (y ddraig goch) now shown on the Welsh Flag, is likely to go back to the Roman Draco (Latin for dragon) standards used by the Late Roman Army. These were gilded heads with cloth wind sock tails, through which the wind howled.