Until the last dog is hung

Posted by Gary Martin on February 20, 2010 at 13:31

In Reply to: Until the last dog is hung posted by Michael Scheib on February 19, 2010 at 19:56:

: 'Until the last dog is hung' originates with Henry VII. At the conclusion of the War of the Roses, Henry VII pitted a pack of dogs against a lion to demonstrate what would happen to traitors in his kingdom. The lion lost--which is not what Henry expected. To make his muddled point clear, Henry had every dog hung--and made his nobles watch till the last of them was dispatched. The story is related in The Autobiography of Henry VIII by Margaret George.

As I am writing a book about the language of that period, I would love this to be true. George's book is fiction, of course, unless Henry wrote his autobiography by sending spirit messages. That doesn't mean the story is untrue, but without evidence it doesn't mean anything much at all.