Marocco ( – ), widely known as Bankes's Horse (after his trainer William Bankes), was the name of a late 16th- and early 17th-century English performing horse. He is sometimes referred to as the "Dancing Horse", the "Thinking Horse", or the "Politic Horse".

Origin

William Bankes (also spelled Banks or Banckes, and sometimes called Richard Bankes) was born in Staffordshire, probably in the early 1560s, his job may have been working in the stables. who named him after the morocco leather from which contemporary saddles were made, Bankes lived at the Cross Keys Inn on Gracechurch Street, where their act performed. In one stunt, the horse drank a large bucket of water, then urinated on Bankes's command.

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Whether by sleight-of-hand or by the horse's own talent, Marocco was known for his unusual counting abilities. Coins could be collected from the audience, and Marocco would indicate to whom each coin belonged and, with stomps of his hoof, how many coins had come from each.

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By the mid-1590s Marocco and Bankes had become some of London's most popular entertainers; Bankes was now wealthy, living and performing at the Bell Savage Inn, where Marocco was kept in the stables. On 14 November 1595 another lost ballad, entitled "A ballad shewinge the strange qualities of a yonge nagge called Morocco", was recorded in the Register of the Stationers' Company by the printer Edward White.

thumb|[[Old St Paul's Cathedral, as it appeared in the 17th century]]

In 1601, perhaps to fight the growing competition of other animal trainers,

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Travels and death

As the act's popularity grew, Bankes took it beyond London. A Scottish historian Patrick Anderson wrote, "There came an Englishman to Edinburgh, with a chestain-coloured naig, which he called Marroco. […] He made him to do many rare and uncouth tricks, such as never horse was observed to do the like before in this land". A journal entry from Shrewsbury in 1591 relates:

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September 1591, 33 Eliz. This yeare and against the assise tyme on Master Banckes, a Staffordshire gentile, brought into this town of Salop a white horsse whiche wolld doe woonderfull and strange thinges, as thesse,—wold in a company or prese tell howe many peeces of money by hys foote were in a mans purce; also, yf the partie his master wolld name any man beinge hyd never so secret in the company, wold fatche hym owt with his mowthe, either naming hym the veriest knave in the company, or what cullerid coate he hadd; he pronowncid further to his horse and said, Sirha, there be two baylyves in the towne, the one of them bid mee welcom unto this towne and usid me in frindly maner; I wold have the goe to hym and gyve hym thanckes for mee; and he wold goe truly to the right baylyf that did so use hys sayd master as he did in the sight of a number of people, unto Master Baylyffe Sherar, and bowyd unto hym in makinge curchey withe hys foote in sutche maner as he coullde, withe suche strange feates for sutche a beast to doe, that many people judgid that it were impossible to be don except he had a famyliar or don by the arte of magicke.

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In March 1601, Bankes, Marocco, and their musician travelled to Paris and moved into the Lion d'Argent Inn on Rue Saint-Jacques. In 1608 Bankes was hired to work in James I's stables, and later trained horses for George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. He married and had a daughter, and was known for his wealth and wit in his old age.

See also

  • Clever Hans
  • Muhamed (horse)
  • List of historical horses

Notes

References

There is a full chapter about Bankes's Horse in Kevin De Ornellas, The Horse in Early Modern English Culture, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2013. .