Hart (deer)  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to:
navigation, search Hunting the Hart, a picture from Turbervile,
copied from La Venerie de Jaques du Fouilloux, 16th Century  The
word hart is an old alternative word for "stag" (from Old
English heorot, "deer" – compare with modern Dutch hert and
Swedish/Norwegian/Danish hjort, also "deer").  Specifically, the
word "hart" was used of a red deer stag more than five years
old. In medieval hunting terms, a stag in its first year was
called a "calf" or "calfe", in its second a "brocket", in its
third a "spayed", "spade", or "spayard", in its fourth a
"staggerd" or "staggard", and in its fifth a "stag", or a "great
stag".[1][2] To be a "hart" was its fully mature state. A lord
would want to hunt not just any deer, but a mature stag in good
condition, partly for the extra meat and fat it would carry, but
also for prestige. Hence a hart could be designated "a hart of
grease", (a fat stag), "a hart of ten", (a stag with ten points
on its antlers) or "a royal