Kelson would never have allowed this

[revanne]

Visiting Gloucester Cathedral there was an interesting bit of historical gossip. In the 1390's Richard II and his Court came to stay in Gloucester for a time. The ballgames played in the Cathedral grounds meant that the grass was completely destroyed though the King did pay for it all to be made good.

Kelson would never have allowed that. Or wait... Is that why the lads were all sent off together in the Rustic Prince, Evie?

[Evie]

LOL!  Yes, revanne, that's probably exactly why, although why Kelson would have sent them all off together rather than scattering those lads to distant ends of the Kingdom is beyond me!   

[Laurna]

Much more fun for them to cause total havoc together. Well at least for us who are reading the story. I want more stories of the Rustic Prince, Evie.
I am sure the ballgames at Gloucester were enjoyed by all the inhabitants of the area to come and watch the men play games, like a tournament. And the grass was likely replanted fairly quickly. Nice trivia.

[Jerusha]

Well, if you send them all off together, it's easier to find them all if you need to in a hurry.  And you only have to replace the grass in one part of the kingdom at a time. 

[DesertRose]

Now I have this mental image of a young king and his court playing some antecedent of football/soccer or rugby or something...

Oh well, it's at least a cheerful image. 

[Evie]

Medieval football was a pretty violent sport, judging by the records of broken bones and other injuries that resulted from it, not to mention how many places banned it due to the injury rate.  Those laddies played hard, evidently!

[Elkhound]

Medieval football was a pretty violent sport, judging by the records of broken bones and other injuries that resulted from it, not to mention how many places banned it due to the injury rate.  Those laddies played hard, evidently!

Sort of like Aussie "Rules" or Rugby?

[revanne]

Like Rugby without any rules at all I think.

[Evie]

Don't know if we have any written rules for medieval football, or if those rules tended to vary quite a bit from town to town, but whatever they were, safety didn't seem to be a top consideration, considering the historical records of injuries and deaths resulting from football games, and the number of places that tried to ban it because of the high sports injury rate.  Not that such ban attempts kept people from enjoying a good game if they were willing to accept the risks involved.   

[Laurna]

With Gwynedd and Torenth at peace and no out lying threats to the kingdom, it would make sense that football or rugby would become popular. The men had to stay in fighting trim; chasing a ball around a field for several hours would do it. I also would think polo and steeple chasing would come in as a sport too. Horsemanship was an all important skill. Now imagine all these sports being accomplished in full chain-mail armor with plate shoulder, arm, and knee guards. No wonder there were injuries.  Forget about well manicured lawns; those would be just asking for a game to be played on them.

[revanne]

In medieval England one of the reasons why football was banned was because it distracted young men from archery practice. However KK's universe isn't tied absolutely to the real one so I can imagine that teams might have developed earlier there. And of course in such a civilised world ( give or take a few hundred maniacs) cricket would be the queen among the sports.

[Elkhound]

Like Rugby without any rules at all I think.

Why do you think I put quotes around Aussie "Rules"?  The only rule I can deduce from watching is, "Find out who has the ball, chase him, and if you catch him pound the living cr@p out of him."

[Elkhound]

There was a story from Russia a couple of years ago about a group of guys who would get together every afternoon after work to play Rugby, and one day the police came and arrested them because some passer-by called in and reported a brawl going on.

And, of course, you remember the story about how Rugby was invented; supposedly, in eighteen-forty something during a soccer game at Rugby School, one of the players picked up the ball and ran with it.  When the other boys saw what he was doing, they all jumped on him and pounded the living cr@p out of him.  And thus the sport of Rugby was born.