Plague-carrying rodents, thumbscrew-wielding inquisitors, overbooked executioners – there was a reason they called them the Dark Ages.

And medieval life was just as barbaric for animals – including, of course, dogs.

Among the best-known brutality inflicted upon dogs in the Middle Ages was “lawing” – in other words, a practice that made a dog “lawful,” or legally able to be kept. The laws in question were the Forest Laws of England, which were put into place under King Canute in 1016, when the royal forests were established. Essentially, they stated that any Greyhounds that lived within 10 miles of these off-limits hunting grounds had to be maimed to ensure that they would be too hobbled to chase game, in particular the king’s deer.

At first, the fast-running Sighthounds were lawed by what the old foresters called “hamling,” or “hoxing,” in which the hamstring tendons of the thigh were severed. But by the time of Henry II’s reign, in 1184, mastiffs living near the royal forests were required to be lawed as well. From that king’s medieval decree, expeditatio mastivorum, comes the term “expeditating,” which required three toes of the front feet to be amputated. (In a variation of this theme, sometimes the large pad of the foot was removed, a process that was repeated every three years.)

All mastiff-type dogs were required to be lawed, unless the owner had a special grant or charter from the king to the contrary. Every three years, an assessment of the mastiffs in a forest-bordering area was made, done “by the view and testimony of honest men.” The fine for an unlawed mastiff found in the forest was three shillings; if the dog hurt any game, an additional fine applied.