Sport and Entertainment in Medieval Europe

For most European countries sport hasn't changed all that much. There was football, there was tennis and boxing and wrestling.

Now not quite the way we know them today but they were largely similar.

In Medieval England Archery had to practiced once a week by law though it's debateable wether it was really considered a sport but certainly it was an obviously popular past time.

In Germany Shooting took off in a major way certainly by the 16th century and shooting events and tournaments were massive and fairly regular. Fencing and wrestling were popular sidelines at these events but largely diminished in favour of more guns.

Things like hurling and throwing logs and hammers different feats of strength events that now only really still exist in Scandinavia, Scotland and Ireland were much more widespread.

>>1923398
Was fencing always with rapiers and smallswords or were longswords included?

How widespread was mumming/theatre prior to people like Shakespeare? I am largely ignorant theatre history.

The peasants also had constant feast days organised by the church if you want to count that as entertainment.

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>>1923412
fencing predates the medieval period to some degrees - martial technique in roman gladiatorial contexts, for instance.

however, here's i.33 tower Ms, as an example of 13th century sword and buckler fencing.

>>1923374
Mob soccer was a thing and people died somewhat regularly

>>1923412
No rapier came in fairly recently. I think around the 16th century. I'm no expert though and yes for about 200 years longsword appears to have been the most prevalent form of fencing. Before that and in other areas arming sword with a buckler shield the most prevalent.

Fencing is sort of similar to Archery in that in a lot of regions it was mandated for men to own a sword and belong to the local militia so we can assume some fencing was practice by the vast majority of these men at some time or other but fencing as a sport and a past time has actually never really been very popular in most countries. France and Italy perhaps exceptions.

It kind of existed in the same vain as boxing does in most western countries today. As a sort of seedy misuse of time young men were prone to.

I'm currently reading Rene of Anjou's writings on tournaments

"That the aforesaid prince ought first to send secretly to the prince to whom he wishes to present the sword, to find out whether or not he intends to accept, and in order to arrange the appropriate public ceremonies if he wishes to accept"

Is "the sword" a single item or one sent to all participants as an invitation?

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>>1923374
You bet there were archery contests. Throughout the Low Countries, archer guilds hosted competitions for the "archer king". He's the Grand Bastard of Burgundy holding his prize arrow.

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Obligatory.

>>1923374
Shooting competitions with Crossbows, Longbows and Handguns were popular in the Low Countries and German speaking countries.

The last duke of Burgundy was noted to be an excellent archers which is quite something for a guy who employed four thousand English archers.

By the early 15th century you get regulations for handgun competition which ban things like rifled barrels.

The large frogmouth helmets were all about protection, before those it was said the the most recognizable feature of a frequent jousters were broken and misshapen noses and missing teeth.

during the hundred years war Edward III banned football and handball in England because he felt it distracted young men from their weekly longbow training, which was required by law. A classic fascist tactic.

>>1923741
>A classic fascist tactic.
Isn't Edward III where Hitler got the yellow star idea from?

>>1923642
I wish we could have ck2 threads here

Fuck

Let's keep talking about medieval sports

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I do HEMA, and often old manuals have techniques for sports rather for combat. Like you have 16th century wrestling manuals where you have techniques explicitly marked as not to do with your buddies, because it breaks the arm.
Or German Messer fencing, where like 80% of the techniques are for play and not for killing.
In general it seems that wrestling was the standard all over Europe and for all classes pic is from a 16th century German wrestling manual by a guy called Fabian Auerswald, illustrations by Lucas Cranach the Younger.

>>1923374

things like šije-šete/mora-mura were so popular they got banned

football also got banned a lot

card games were also highly popular, and also banned a lot

the main reason for the bans is basicaly that people kept stabbing each other over who won, not even who cheated so much, just who won

>>1923935

Jews has been expelled from England by Edward I.

>>1923374

dancing was a major popular entertainment, people would use any opportunity to play some music, get drunk and dance

in some rural areas it got to the point it was a sort of endurance ritual, you couldnt get married if you couldnt dance, even if it was just people holdg hands and jumping in a circle

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15th century German wood-print of a training hall and some naked chicks, "Fechtboden und Frauenhaus"

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And then there is this things called fechtschule, public training, tournament and social events, those are early modern, but still nice.

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>>1923462
>You will never play in the medieval fa cup final in a 500 v 500 10 mile game

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wrestling and all kinds of blunt training weapons where used in this tournaments, still cuts, bruises and broken bones where common.

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>>1927298
we need to push this meme, mob football is god!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t18jKsQHAW4

Also the best ever, Calcio Storico, football with boxing in historic garb! Why is this not a thing in the UK?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnlJJv2fJL4

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>Playing sports

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>>1927244

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>>1927369

>>1927327
Holy shit 2nd link is literally a mob fight with a football

>>1927369
>5 minutes into wresting and chill and he gives you this look

>>1927455
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bC_kEqKg60

Dancing, singing, making music, hunting and wrestling/fencing where such things I think.

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Could anyone tell me anything about Theatre/Mummings prior to the 16th century?

I know there were miracle plays hosted by and at the request of the church, but that's about it. Were the trends during Shakespeare's time like no female actors, the popularity of comedies, etc continued from the medieval period?

>>1923374
>Medieval Europe
stupid fantasy like Lord of the Rings.
/thread

>>1928284
This was such a nice thread

>>1928256
>trends during Shakespeare's time like no female actors
This has been a thing since ancient Greece

>>1928328
I knew that much but was curious if it persisted through the Middle ages

>>1928328
>>1928356
Actually, Shakespeare's time was exceptional in the ban on actresses. They were common during medieval times

>>1928390
Why was that? Butthurt male actors mad that women were stealing their roles?

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>>1923374
I recommend Ian Mortimer's "The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England", it has a whole chapter dealing with entertainment. Not so much about sports though.

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>>1928462
The virgin mary was black

>>1928462
God damn.

I read that book years ago and I couldn't for the life of me remember what it was called or who wrote it. Thankee!

Fucking was extremly popular.

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>>1928474
Well duh, everyone in Poland knows that.

>>1923374
fun fact: Louis X was the first recorded tennis player by name, and he helped pioneer the indoor court

>>1929197
>those cod pieces

>>1923374
There was football, but organized ones was only around in italy.

Even then it was between citizens & distrticts. Not professional football players.

>>1930588
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZTF_9jk6DU
mob football is gold, we need more of this.

Someone make a calcio storico videogame pls, thx

>>1928424
Renaissance saw the revival of a lot of Greek thought and thus women were no longer trusted or seen as anywhere near equal to men again. During the High Middle Ages women got a very comfortable social role (not quite up to par with today, of course) where they would write poetry, decide entertainment, own business and what not.

Also about Theatre before the 16th century, most of it was traditional or religious in character, but the middle ages actually saw allegories become really popular in theatre, where people would play characters named after concepts to deliver a very specific moralistic message.

>>1929197
I still find it ridiculous that those codpieces were in fashion during those times.

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>>1932162
this