History of raising rabbits part 3.

The Champagne D'Argent

The Champagne D'Argent rabbit are among one of the oldest rabbit breeds originally developed in the the Champagne Province of France over four-hundred years ago. What if that was not the case? What if the Argente breeds we know and love today have an even older history one that is not so well known but ten-fold more interesting then anyone could ever dream up?

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The Silver colour could have very well come from and originated in Siam. Where there was a breed of "silver" rabbit that was known to exist for thousands of years.

We'll start with the original 6 founders of the St Bruno order of the Carthusian monks. In 1084 Bishop Bruno and six friends began the order of the Carthusian monks. It was in 1127 that the "customs" or Carthusian ways became in full effect. In 1096 - 1099 The People's Crusade - Freeing the Holy Lands. 1st Crusade led by Count Raymond IV of Toulouse France. The Champagne D'Argent Rabbit is thought to have been developed approximately 400yrs ago. Rather this is when it gained popularity and acknowledgment from those out side of the monastery. It is important to remember that the Carthusian Monks did not socialize or trade with anyone other then themselves and their brother group, the Knights Templar. There for it could easily have been hundreds of years before the out side world set eyes on these rabbits. Notably when the Templars fell and the Carthusian Monks were thought to have been killed as well for their support of the Templars, this would have been when outsiders could have entered the monasteries and gained access to what was in side. This is certainly the case with the Carthusian family of Andalusian horse. The Monks were targeted because they had a close friendship with the knights as they supported each other in many ways.

One now has to ask, we have a working idea on how the rabbits got to France, we don't know why only the Carthusian monks and not the general public or even royalty had access to them. The only silver breed that emerged in all of France was the French Silver rabbit, or the Argente De Champagne. This has to bring ones mind back to the crusades. The most famous and most powerful participants of the crusades were the Knights Templar. The Knights and the monks had such a close knight fellowship that on that fateful knight of Friday the 13th when the knights were thought to be wiped out and killed forever, the monks were also running for their lives. It was the monks that those knights who escaped, went to see and entrusted them with items yet unknown. It was the monks that were their closest allies in their darkest hour. Would it not then make perfect sense that the reason that the general populous did not have rabbits with the silver fur was because they were given as a special gift to the monks by the knights from their journey to the middle east. It is suspect that they had made gifts of religious treasures, why not rabbits? This was a time that food belong to the king, not the people. Hunting just like today was only allowed by royalty in the kings forest. A gift of a food source makes sense. Knowing the love for genetics that the monks had, a rare gift of something unusual and unseen before that time, makes even better sense. The dates, the time line, it matches perfectly.

Now we need to look at how the silver gene reached France and when to know for sure how and when the Champagne D'Argent or French Silver as it is also known, actually came into being. Romans carried out significant trade with India and beyond through their Egyptian Red Sea ports. As early as 165 AD. This is well before St Bruno was born. By 1405 the number of foreign traders was so large that an area of the city was set aside for them. Later, Canton would remain China's main point of contact for Europeans. This brings us much closer to when or how Champagne D'Argent could have entered France. A number of Europeans, many of them Christian missionaries, had sought to reach China, the most famous being Marco Polo (1254-1324). But these journeys had little permanent effect on East-West trade because the Turks controlled the eastern Mediterranean and allowed only minor exchanges with Asia. This is important because the Turkish people also have a rabbit that did silver. The angora. The Angora had also been known in Turkey for thousands of years prior to European interest in rabbit breeding or Roman influence. The first known trade routs set up by France to India was in 1700-1750. England was also part of these routs. England also about that time came into the possession of the "silver" rabbit as it is known today. We know that French and English colonization did not start with the spice trade routes but in America in the 1600s. This indicates it was not the French, but someone the French traded with that was responsible for bringing the Silver coated rabbit from Siam to France, thus the Carthusian monks come into play. This is if and only if they were not brought over during the first crusades.