RENAISSANCE NOTES:SPORTS

Elizabethan Team Sports

“Elizabethan Team sports gained in popularity during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The team sports were enjoyed by both the players and the spectators. The Elizabethan era was dangerous and violent. Blood sports were enjoyed involving bears, bulls, cocks and dogs - team sports were also rough and violent. Even some card games were played in teams such as 'Ruff and Honors'! And the outcome of team sports contests were subject to heavy gaming and gambling!”

Elizabethan Tornaments

“The Melees featured teams of knights fighting on horseback and on foot.”

Battledore and Shuttlecock

“These team sports were the  ancestors of modern badminton.”

Gameball

“Was a simple but extremely rough and violent football game.”

Skittles

“An ancestor of modern ten-pin bowling “

Elizabethan Individual Sports

“All Elizabethan sports tended to include an element of gaming and gambling. And even Elizabethan sports such as Fencing attracted considerable bets.” The following slides were the Elizabethan Sports that were played individually:

Elizabethan Archery

“Archery contests were extremely popular during the Elizabethan era and prizes could be won for the most skilled of archers”

Elizabethan Fencing

“A sword was an important part of a nobles apparel and it was important that he had adequate fencing skills. The wearing of the sword with civilian dress  was a custom that had begun in late fifteenth-century Spain.”

Elizabethan Tennis

“The ball was often hit against courtyard walls and played with a glove. The glove was replaced by a racket. The balls were at first made from solid wood then replaced by leather balls which were  stuffed with bran.”

Colf

“The ancestor of Golf. The origin of the word golf is believed to be the Dutch word of "colf" meaning "club". The balls consisted of leather casing, usually made from a bull's hide, soaked in alum and stuffed with softened goose feathers.”

Works Cited

“Elizabethan Sports.” Elizabethan Era, 2005. Web. 12 Jan. 12.