Elephant knees

In 1255, Louis IX of France gave an elephant to Henry III of England for his menagerie in the Tower of London. Drawn from life by the historian Matthew Paris for his Chronica Majora, it can be seen in his bestiary at Parker Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, with an accompanying text revealing that at the time, Europeans believed that elephants did not have knees and so were unable to get up if they fell over. The bestiary contains a drawing depicting an elephant on its back being dragged along the ground by another elephant, with a caption stating that elephants lacked knees.

The illustration above is his drawing of the elephant itself. As you can see, there are what appear to be ankles but no knees. I was unable to find a copy of the elephant-dragging-the-elephant drawing. I am sure one could make a political observation of some sort ...