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 Left: Bauers' Bad Obsession or "Tonka" as he is fondly called weighs 210 lbs
and stands 33.5 inches tall. He is owned by Allison and Butch Bauer of
Mesa, AZ. Any Questions on Mastiffs Please E-mail desertknights@mindspring.com
The Mastiff carries an impressive history, colorfully preserved and romanticized throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Drawings of typical Mastiffs on Egyptian monuments date to about 3000 BC. In Chinese literature their earliest reference is about 1121 BC. Originally valued for their natural abilities as fierce guards and fighting dogs, they are large and powerful, possessing qualities of courage, confidence, loyalty and intelligence. Mastiffs weigh upwards of 150 pounds and were used for fighting, hunting, as guards, and in the sport of bull and bear baiting. They were popular in the Roman arenas and even trained for use in armies.
In the British Isles, while always considered a fighting dog it was as a tiedog (tied by day, loose at night) that Mastiffs were frequently found. During Anglo-Saxon times the Mastiff was the peasant's means of keeping the manor profitable by controlling wolves and other savage game. The English language itself is evidence of the large number of Mastiffs inhabiting England. The ancient word in Anglo-Saxon and kindred languages for a canine is similar to 'hound'. The modern word 'dog' means a mastiff type dog in all languages except English. German 'dogge', French 'dogue', English 'mastiff' and Latin 'dogo' all meant the same thing: a giant dog with a heavy head for fighting or hunting purposes. In 1066 when the Normans conquered the Anglo-Saxons, Norman-French became the official language and 'dogues' (or Mastiffs) were so plentiful that people came to call all canines by that name. The Mastiff was also known by another name, the Alaunt, an Italian-French word, deriving from the Alani or people of Albania.
Three hundred years after the Norman Conquest Chaucer wrote his Knights Tale in which he describes the Old English Mastiff's majesty of size and power. The following is in Middle English, the language Chaucer used, a cross between old Anglo-Saxon and Norman-French.
"About his char ther wenten white Alaunts
Twenty and mo, as gret as any stere
To hunten at the leon ore the dere."
 He used the word 'alan' for Mastiff, which is still used in English heraldry to describe the figure of "a Mastiff with cropped ears" on a coat of arms. More than 600 years later the picture is still clear; a wealthy knight with a large pack of Mastiffs hunting lion and deer. While the size may be somewhat exaggerated since Chaucer says they are as large as a steer, the white color is authentic.
And certainly the Mastiff made an ample impression on Caesar. In his account of invading Britain he described Mastiff's fighting beside their masters against the Roman legions with immense courage and power.
 Perhaps the best illustration of the mastiff's courage and undaunted devotion to it's master is the story of Sir Peers Legh, Knight of Lyme Hall. Sir Peers accompanied Henry V to France bringing with him his favorite mastiff bitch. Peers fell in King Henry's victory over the French during the Battle of Agincourt on St. Crispin's Day, October 25, 1415. The knight's loyal dog stood over and defended her master many hours until he was carried off the field by his fellow soldiers. Although Peers died of his wounds, his faithful mastiff returned to England. An old stained glass window remains in the drawing room of Lyme Hall portraying Sir Peers and his devoted Mastiff and today's famous Lyme Hall strain is descended from her nearly six centuries later.
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