Medieval football
Despite some signs of the game we love today in the Ancient World, the true development of football came in Medieval Britain by and large, although there are signs of equivalents across Europe (the majority of which were exported). Known as Shrovetide football or Medieval football, the inception point has been claimed as the 3rd century after the defeat of the Romans, but the practice itself was first recorded in the 9th century as part of the Historia Britonum (you can see one or two of the surviving engravings of medieval football at the British Museum).
Medieval Football
Typically played during the annual Carnival, the other tag of ‘mob football’ gives you a sense of what it was actually like to be involved in such games. Held between neighbouring towns and villages with no limit on the number of players and practically no rule book, matches often descended into riotous scenes. Indeed, so violent was medieval football that the Lord Mayor of London actually banned the sport in 1314, claiming ‘there is great noise in the city caused by hustling over large footballs in the fields of the public’.
The extent of its popularity and rambunctiousness is reflected in the fact there were more than 30 royal and local laws which attempted to ban football between 1314 and 1667. However, by the end of the 14th century, the term ‘football’ was well established in England, with Chaucer even referencing it in his Canterbury Tales.
It was by no means solely confined to the lower orders either, as the Great Wardrobe of Henry VIII in 1526 recorded ‘one leather pair (of shoes) for football’, and decrees around 1555 were required to ban football at the colleges of Cambridge and Oxford University. Football was also prevalent beyond English borders, with the game first mentioned in Ireland in the 1527 Statute of Galway and a ball found in Scotland which dates back to 1540 and was supposedly used for football. Across the continent too, other forms of the game were visible like the 16th century Calcio Fiorentino in Florence and La Soule in Normandy.
Medieval Football
Typically played during the annual Carnival, the other tag of ‘mob football’ gives you a sense of what it was actually like to be involved in such games. Held between neighbouring towns and villages with no limit on the number of players and practically no rule book, matches often descended into riotous scenes. Indeed, so violent was medieval football that the Lord Mayor of London actually banned the sport in 1314, claiming ‘there is great noise in the city caused by hustling over large footballs in the fields of the public’.
The extent of its popularity and rambunctiousness is reflected in the fact there were more than 30 royal and local laws which attempted to ban football between 1314 and 1667. However, by the end of the 14th century, the term ‘football’ was well established in England, with Chaucer even referencing it in his Canterbury Tales.
It was by no means solely confined to the lower orders either, as the Great Wardrobe of Henry VIII in 1526 recorded ‘one leather pair (of shoes) for football’, and decrees around 1555 were required to ban football at the colleges of Cambridge and Oxford University. Football was also prevalent beyond English borders, with the game first mentioned in Ireland in the 1527 Statute of Galway and a ball found in Scotland which dates back to 1540 and was supposedly used for football. Across the continent too, other forms of the game were visible like the 16th century Calcio Fiorentino in Florence and La Soule in Normandy.
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