A dark wooden cradle, rectangular, mounted on a stand to allow it to be rocked. The stand is decorated with carved birds at each end. The cradle is carved in horizontal creases, and has three narrow holes near its upper edge on either side. Both are visibly battered with age.

Cradle and stand

Unknown maker

Late fifteenth century

Carved oak

43.2 x 52.1 x 96.5 cm

RCIN 72098

Image credit: Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2021

This was traditionally believed to have been the cradle in which Prince Henry, later Henry V, was rocked.

The carved oak cradle, supported by unidentified birds - variously identified as doves, owls and eagles - was purchased by Edward VII in 1908, at the sale of the antiquarian George Weare Braikenridge.

The London Magazine claimed to see evidence of the fourteenth century's 'simplicity of construction and rudeness of workmanship' in this cradle - which had also traditionally been associated with Edward II. Modern analysis confirms that the wood dates from the fifteenth century.

It was a comparatively unusual purchase for Edward VII, and one that may suggest a certain fellow feeling with ‘Prince Hal’ on the part of the man who, until his coronation in 1901, had been the longest serving Prince of Wales in history

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