Medieval football

The name mediæval football is a modern term sometimes used for a wide variety of localised games which were invented and played during the Middle Ages in Europe. Alternative names include folk football, mob football and Shrovetide football. Some of these games are still played. These games may also be regarded as the "ancestors" of modern codes of football. By comparison with later forms of football, the medieval matches were chaotic and had few rules.

The Middle Ages saw a huge rise in popularity of games played annually at Shrovetide, throughout Europe, particularly in England. The games played in England at this time may have arrived with the Roman occupation but there is little evidence to indicate this. Certainly the Romans played ball games, in particular Harpastum. There is also one reference to ball games being played in southern Britain prior to the Norman Conquest. In the ninth century Nennian Historia Britonum tells that a group of boys were playing at ball {pilae ludus) The origin of this account is either Southern England or Wales. Reports of a game played in France — especially Brittany, Normandy and Picardy — known as La Soule or La Choule, suggest that football games could have arrived in England as a result of the Norman Conquest.

These archaic forms of football, typically classified as mob football, would be played between neighbouring towns and villages, involving an unlimited number of players on opposing teams, who would clash in a heaving mass of people struggling to drag an inflated pig's bladder by any means possible to markers at each end of a town (sometimes instead of markers, the teams would attempt to kick the bladder into the balcony of the opponents' church). A legend that these games in England evolved from a more ancient and bloody ritual of kicking the "Dane's head" is unlikely to be true. Shrovetide games survive in a number of English towns (see below).

Most of the very early references to the game speak simply of "ball play" or "playing at ball". This reinforces the idea that the games played at the time did not necessarily involve a ball being kicked.

Twelfth Century

The first description of ball games that are likely to be football in England was given by William FitzStephen (c. 1174-1183). He described the activities of London youths during the annual festival of Shrove Tuesday.

After lunch all the youth of the city go out into the fields to take part in a ball game. The students of each school have their own ball; the workers from each city craft are also carrying their balls. Older citizens, fathers, and wealthy citizens come on horseback to watch their juniors competing, and to relive their own youth vicariously: you can see their inner passions aroused as they watch the action and get caught up in the fun being had by the carefree adolescents.[1]

The earliest confirmation that such ball games in England involved kicking comes from a verse about St Hugh the Anglo-French bishop of Lincoln. This was probably written in the twelfth century, although the specific date cannot be known: "Four and twenty bonny boys, were playing at the ball.. he kicked the ball with his right foot".

Thirteenth Century

In about 1200 "ball" is mentioned as one of the games played by King Arthur's nights in "Brut", written by Layamon, an English poet from Worcestershire. This is the earliest reference to the English language "ball". Layamon states: "some drive balls (balles) far over the fields".

Records from 1280 report on a game at Ulgham, near Ashington in Northumberland, in which a player was killed as a result of running against an opposing player's dagger. This account is noteworthy because it the earliest reference to a ball game that definitely involved kicking; this suggests that kicking was involved in even earlier ball games in England.

Fourteenth Century

The earliest reference to ball games being played by university students comes in 1303 when "Thomas of Salisbury, a student of Oxford University, found his brother Adam dead, and it was alleged that he was killed by Irish students, whilst playing the ball in the High Street towards Eastgate".

In 1314, comes the earliest reference to a game called football when Nicholas de Farndone, Lord Mayor of London issued a decree on behalf of King Edward II banning football. It was written in the French used by the English upper classes at the time. A translation reads: "[f]orasmuch as there is great noise in the city caused by hustling over large foot balls [rageries de grosses pelotes de pee] in the fields of the public from which many evils might arise which God forbid: we command and forbid on behalf of the king, on pain of imprisonment, such game to be used in the city in the future."

Banning of ball games began in France in 1331 by Philippe V, presumably the ball game known as La soule.

King Edward III of England also issued such a declaration, in 1363: "[m]oreover we ordain that you prohibit under penalty of imprisonment all and sundry from such stone, wood and iron throwing; handball, football, or hockey; coursing and cock-fighting, or other such idle games". It is noteworthy that at this time football was already being differentiated in England from handball, which suggests the evolution of basic rules. Between 1314 and 1667, football was officially banned in England alone by more than 30 royal and local laws. (See the article Attempts to ban football games for more details.)

Another early account of kicking ball games from England comes in a 1321 dispensation, granted by Pope John XXII to William de Spalding of Shouldham:

"To William de Spalding, canon of Scoldham of the order of Sempringham. During the game at ball as he kicked the ball , a lay friend of his, also called William, ran against him and wounded himself on a sheathed knife carried by the canon, so severely that he died within six days. Dispensation is granted, as no blame is attached to William de Spalding, who, feeling deeply the dath of his friedn, and fearing what might be said by his enemies, has applied to the pope."

Likewise Geoffrey Chaucer offered an allusion to the manner in which contemporary ball games may have been played in fourteenth century England. In the Canterbury Tales (written some time after 1380) he uses the following line: "rolleth under foot as doth a ball"[2].

English Theologian John Wycliffe (1320 - 1384) referred to football in one of his sermons: "the latter clout their shoes with censures as if they were playing football" Some of Wycliffe's works were published in English and it is not clear which language this particular reference to football was written in. It may therefore be the earliest use of the word football in English.

Fifteenth Century

Two references to football games come from Sussex in 1403 and 1404 at Selmeston and Chidham as part of baptisms. On each occasion one of the players broke his leg

King Henry IV of England provides the first documented use of the English word "football" when in 1409 he issued a proclamation forbidding the levying of money for "foteball".

In 1409 on March 4th eight men were compelled to give a bond of £20 to the London city chamberlain for their good behaviour towards "the kind and good men of the mystery of Cordwainers" undertaking not to collect money for a football (pro pila pedali).

In 1410 King Henry IV of England found it necessary to impose a fine of 20S on mayors and bailiffs in townswhere misdemeanours such as football occurred. This confirms that the game was not confined to London.

The Accounts of the Brewers company of London between 1421 and 1423 concerning the hiring out of their hall include reference to "by the "ffooteballepleyers" twice... 20 pence" listed in English under the title "crafts and fraternities". This reference suggests that bans against football were unsuccessful and the listing of football players as a "fraternity" is the earliest allusion to what might be considered a football club.

The earliest reference to football or kicking ball games in Scotland was in 1424 when King James I of Scotland also attempted to ban the playing of "fute-ball".

In 1425 the prior of Bicester, England, made a payment on St Katherine's day "to sundry gifts to football players (ludentibus ad pilam pedalem)" of 4 denarii. It is noteworthy that at this time the prior was willing to give his patronage to the game despite its being outlawed.

In about 1430 Thomas Lydgate refers to the form of football played in East Anglia known as Camp Ball: "Bolseryd out of length and bread, lyck a large campynge balle"

In 1440 the game of Camp Ball was confirmed to be a form of football when the first ever English-Latin dictionary, Promptorium Parvulorum offers the following definition of camp ball: "Campan, or playar at foott balle, pediluson; campyon, or champion" [3]

In 1472 the rector of Swaffham, Norfolk bequethed a field adjoining the church yard for use as a "camping-close" or "camping-pightel" specifically for the playing of the East Anglian version of football known as Camp Ball.

In 1486 comes the earliest description of "a football", in the sense of a ball rather than a game. This reference is in Dame Juliana Berners' Book of St Albans. It states: "a certain rounde instrument to play with ...it is an instrument for the foote and then it is calde in Latyn 'pila pedalis', a fotebal." It is noteworthy that it was considered socially acceptable for a football to be included in medieval English Heraldry.

There is an account from 11 April 1497 of a sum of money "giffen [given] to Jame Dog [James Doig] to b[u]y fut ballis to the King".[4]. It is not known if he himself played with them.

The earliest and perhaps most important description of a football game comes from the end of the 15th century in a Latin account of a football game with features of modern soccer. It was played at Cawston, Nottinghamshire, England. It is included in a manuscript collection of the miracles of King Henry VI of England. Although the precise date is uncertain it certainly comes from between 1481 and 1500. This is the first account of an exclusively "kicking game" and the first description of dribbling: "[t]he game at which they had met for common recreation is called by some the foot-ball game. It is one in which young men, in country sport, propel a huge ball not by throwing it into the air but by striking it and rolling it along the ground, and that not with their hands but with their feet... kicking in opposite directions" The chronicler gives the earliest reference to a football field, stating that: "[t]he boundaries have been marked and the game had started. Nevertheless the game was still rough, as the the account confirms: "a game, I say, abominable enough . . . and rarely ending but with some loss, accident, or disadvantage of the players themselves."

Sixteenth Century

In 1514 comes the next description of early football by Alexander Barclay, a resident of the South East of England:

"They get the bladder and blowe it great and thin, with many beanes and peason put within, It ratleth, shineth and soundeth clere and fayre, While it is throwen and caste up in the eyre, Eche one contendeth and hath a great delite, with foote and hande the bladder for to smite, if it fall to the ground they lifte it up again... Overcometh the winter with driving the foote-ball"

The first record of a pair of football boots occurs when Henry VIII of England ordered a pair from the Great Wardrobe in 1526. [5] The royal shopping list for footwear states: "45 velvet pairs and 1 leather pair for football". Unfortunately these are no longer in existence. It is not known for certain whether the king himself played the game, but if so this is noteworthy as Henry later banned the game in 1548 it because it incited riots.

The reputation of football as a violent game persists throughout most accounts from 16th century England. In 1531, Sir Thomas Elyot noted in his Boke named The Governour the dangers of football, as well as the benefits of archery ("shooting"):

Some men wolde say, that in mediocritie, whiche I haue so moche praised in shootynge, why shulde nat boulynge, claisshe, pynnes, and koytyng be as moche commended? Verily as for two the laste, be to be utterly abiected of al noble men, in like wise foote balle, wherin is nothinge but beastly furie and exstreme violence; wherof procedeth hurte, and consequently rancour and malice do remaine with them that be wounded; wherfore it is to be put in perpetuall silence. In classhe is emploied to litle strength; in boulyng often times to moche; wherby the sinewes be to moche strayned, and the vaines to moche chafed. Wherof often tymes is sene to ensue ache, or the decreas of strength or agilitie in the armes: where, in shotyng, if the shooter use the strength of his bowe within his owne tiller, he shal neuer be therwith grieued or made more feble.

Although many sixteenth century references to football are disapproving or dwell upon their dangers there are two notable departures from this view. First, Sir Thomas Elyot (although previously a critic of the game) advocates "footeball" as part of what he calls vehement exercise in his Castell of Helth published in 1534. Secondly English headmaster Richard Mulcaster provides in his 1581 publication the earliest evidence of organised, refereed football for small teams playing in formation.

The first reference to football in Ireland occurs in the Statute of Galway of 1527, which allowed the playing of football and archery but banned " 'hokie' — the hurling of a little ball with sticks or staves" as well as other sports. (The earliest recorded football match in Ireland was one between Louth and Meath, at Slane, in 1712.)

The oldest surving ball that may have been used for football games dates to about 1540 and comes from Scotland. It is made from leather and a pig's bladder. It was discovered in 1981 in the roof structure of the Queen's Chamber, Stirling Castle. However, it has not been possible to confirm this find was ever intended to be used as a football; because of its small size, it has been suggested by the National Museum of Scotland that the ball was more probably used for a tennis-like game called pallone.

The violence of early football in Scotland is made crystal clear in this sixteenth century poem on the "beauties of football":

"Bruised muscles and broken bones Discordant strife and futile blows Lamed in old age, then cripled withal These are the beauties of football" (translated from old Scots)

The earliest specific reference to football (pila pedalis) at university comes in 1555 when it was outlawed at St John's College, Oxford. Similar decrees followed shortly after at other Oxford Colleges and at Cambridge University.

In 1568 Sir Francis Knollys describes a football game played at Carlisle Castle, Cumbria, England by the retinue of Mary Queen of Scots' who had been imprisoned there: `20 of her retinue played at football before her for two hours very strongly, nimbly, and skilfully". According to the Tully House Museum in Carlisle the identities of her retinue have been well documented and are known to have included men of a range of nationalities, presumably to prevent her escaping back to Scotland. The retinue were known to have come from both sides of the England Scotland border and even men from contintental europe.

In 1586, men from a ship commanded by English explorer John Davis, went ashore to play a form of football with Inuit (Eskimo) people in Greenland.

Seventeenth Century

The earliest account of a ball game that involves passing of the ball comes from Richard Carew's 1602 account of Cornish Hurling which states "Then must he cast the ball (named Dealing) to some one of his fellowes". Carew also offers the earliest description of a goal (they pitch two bushes in the ground, some eight or ten foote asunder; and directly against them, ten or twelue score off, other twayne in like distance, which they terme their Goales") and of goal keepers ("There is assigned for their gard, a couple of their best stopping Hurlers").

The first direct reference to scoring a goal is in John Day's play The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green (performed circa 1600; published 1659): "I'll play a gole at camp-ball" (an extremely violent variety of football, which was popular in East Anglia).. Similarly in a poem in 1613, Michael Drayton refers to "when the Ball to throw, And drive it to the Gole, in squadrons forth they goe".

In 1615 King James the first of England visited Wiltshire and the villagers "entertained his Majesty with a foot-ball match"

In 1621 Edmund Waller describes refers to "football" and alludes to passing the ball: "They ply their feet, and still the restless ball, Toss'd to and fro, is urged by them all" . In 1650 Richard Baxer gives an interesting description of football in his book Everlasting Rest: "Alas, that I must stand by and see the Church, and Cause of Christ, like a Football in the midst of a crowd of Boys, tost about in contention from one to another.... and may drive it before him. ... But to be spurned about in the dirt, till they have driven it on to the goal of their private interests". This is noteworthy as it confirms that passing of the ball from one player to another was part of football games.

The first study of football as part of early sports is given in Francis Willughby's Book of Sports[6], written in about 1660. This account is particularly noteworthy as he refers to football by its correct name in English and is the first to describe the following: modern goals and a pitch ("a close that has a gate at either end. The gates are called Goals"), tactics ("leaving some of their best players to guard the goal"), scoring ("they that can strike the ball through their opponents' goal first win") and the way teams were selected ("the players being equally divided according to their strength and nimbleness"). He is the first to describe a law of football: "They often break one another's shins when two meet and strike both together against the ball, and therefore there is a law that they must not strike higher than the ball". His account of the ball itself is also very informative: "They blow a strong bladder and tie the neck of it as fast as they can, and then put it into the skin of a bull's cod and sew it fast in". He adds: "The harder the ball is blown, the better it flies. They used to put quicksilver into it sometimes to keep it from lying still". His book includes the first (basic) diagram illustrating a football pitch.

Surviving Mediæval ball games

• United Kingdom
  • Alnwick in Northumberland: the game survives and begins with the Duke of Northumberland dropping a ball from the battlements of Alnwick Castle.
  • Ashbourne in Derbyshire (known as Royal Shrovetide Football)
  • Atherstone in Warwickshire
  • Corfe Castle in Dorset The Shrove Tuesday Football Ceremony of the Purbeck Marblers
  • Haxey in Lincolnshire (the Haxey Hood, actually played on Epiphany)
  • Hurling the Silver Ball takes place at St Columb Major in Cornwall: A "Town against Country" match takes place on Shrove Tuesday and a return match is played the following Saturday. Another version of Cornish Hurling takes place at St Ives this game used to involve men who lived at the top of town against those at the bottom end. Now days it is a much gentler version for children only. This version takes place on Feast Monday, normally February.
  • Sedgefield in County Durham
  • Workington in Cumbria has a game between teams named the "Uppies" and "Downies".
  • In Scotland the Ba game ("Ball Game") is still popular around Christmas and Hogmanay at:
    • Duns, Berwickshire
    • Scone, Perthshire
    • Kirkwall, Orkney

• Outside the UK:
  • Calcio Fiorentino — a modern revival of Renaissance football from 16th century Florence.
  • Knattleikr, a revival of an ancient game played by Vikings

Extinct varieties of Mediæval football

• France
  • La Soule in Normandy and Brittany, France.

• United Kingdom
  • Chester-le-Street, had a game played between the Upstreeters and Downstreeters that was played until 1932
  • Dorking in Epsom
  • East Anglia: Camp ball was a popular sport in the 15th century.
  • Newton Ferrers in Devon
  • Kingston upon Thames, Twickenham, Bushy and Hampton Wick, all near London. "The custom was to carry a foot-ball from door to door and beg money:—at about 12 o'clock the ball was turned loose, and those who could would kick it. In the town of Kingston, all the shops are purposely kept shut upon that day, there were several balls in the town, and of course several parties. The game would last about four hours, when the parties retire to the public-houses, and spend the money they had collected on refreshments."The Every-Day Book
  • Teddington: "it was conducted with such animation that careful house-holders had to protect their windows with hurdles and bushes."The Chambers' Book of Days February 9th
  • Torrington in Devon had Out-Hurling. "Once played on Trinity Monday, The sport of 'Out-hurling' was included in the 1922 Great Torrington Revel' Day. The publication Devon and Cornwall Notes and Questions 1922, volume 12, carried an account of the game, and noted that it had previously been a regular sport, and involved a small ball which was thrown 'over-hand', and a pitch approximately half a mile long (adjoining a brook)."Folklore, Culture, Customs and Language of Devon
  • In Wales a game known as Cnapan was once popular, notably at Llanwenog in Cardiganshire, and Pwlldu in Pembrokeshire