Stuart life / Bad sports
determined to assert his authority in this
matter. He believed in the power of the
pulpit, once telling his son that “people
are governed by the pulpit more than the
sword”. He therefore ordered clergymen
to read out his Book of Sports in every
parish church. However, by 1633, political,
social and religious tensions had increased
considerably, and the enforcement of
Charles’s declaration meant that the
reaction to it was correspondingly
more intense.Duly punished
Numerous Puritan ministers refused to
read Charles’s Book of Sports, and were duly
punished. Some bishops were zealous in
rooting out dissenters. For example, Bishop
Wren of Norwich suspended 30 ministers
for refusing to read the declaration, while
Bishop Piers of Bath and Wells suspended
at least 25. Bishop Curle of Winchester
reportedly suspended five ministers in
a single day.
The fact is, most ministers did read
the book, but even many moderate
clergymen felt uncomfortable about
promoting sports and revels from the
pulpit. The Northamptonshire rector
Nicholas Estwick recorded that the Book
of Sports caused “distraction & griefe in
many honest mens hearts”. He was
particularly unhappy about condoning
ales and May games, which he believed led
to “sin & ... great disorder”.
Charles’s declaration did not just offend
the Puritans. Thomas May claimed that,
although it allowed “country people...
sports, and pastimes of jollity”, many
people “were ashamed to be invited by the
authority of Church-men, to ... a thing of
infirmity”. One such was Richard Conder,
who had been addicted to playing football
after church as a young man. When his
minister read the Book of Sports from
the parish pulpit, Conder had a dramatic
change of heart, as he later recalled:
“Now, thought I, iniquity is established
by a law, and sinners are hardened in their
sinful ways!”
Having said this, the Book of Sports was
popular with thousands of ordinary men
and women who cherished their
traditional way of life, and it gave many
people the courage to hold revels again in
places where they had previously been
suppressed. Parishes in various parts of the
country revived ales in the 1630s, while
may poles were once again set up in places
like Symondsbury in Dorset, Dundry in
Somerset and Birchington in Kent, where
the church wardens had paid to take down
the maypole in 1606.Short-lived revival
Yet the revival in revelry was to prove
short-lived. When, in April 1640, Charles I
called his first parliament for 11 years,
many MPs seized their opportunity to
attack the Book of Sports. Puritan MPs
pushed to impose strict Sabbath
observance and, in September 1641, the
Commons resolved that all sports on
Sundays “be foreborne and restrained”.
In May 1643, parliament ordered the
burning of copies of the Book of Sports by
the common hangman at Cheapside.
By then, the country was embroiled
in a bitter civil war that forced people
to choose sides. The Puritan Richard
Baxter recorded that “People that were
for the King’s Book, for Dancing and
Recreation on the Lord’s Days... were
against the Parliament”. In fact, many
factors determined people’s allegiances
throughout the war, but some undoubtedly
fought to protect their traditional way of
life. They were perfectly correct to see it
as under threat.
The Cotswold Olimpicks were brought
to a halt in 1643 and were not revived until“The Cotswold Olimpicks were brought
to a halt in 1643 and were not revived
until the restoration of the monarchy”
GETTY IMAGESafter the restoration of the monarchy in- Indeed, the Interregnum saw the
banning of all ales, wakes and summer
games, and it was only with the Restoration
that people were once again free to enjoy
their traditional revelry. Charles II’s
progress through London in May 1660
included a maypole and morris dancers
and signalled the end of the suppression
of traditional festivity.
From an early 21st-century perspective,
it is easy to see why the restoration of
traditional festivities was accompanied
by such widespread popular celebration.
And it is perhaps fitting to end this account
of how sport divided the English in the
17th century with the words of Robert
Dover, written in a poem celebrating his
own ‘Olimpick’ games:
“And let Content and Mirth all those
attend, That doe all harmless and honest
sports defend!”
Alistair Dougall teaches history at the
Godolphin School, Salisbury. He is the author
of The Devil’s Book, published by University
of Exeter Press, 2011