Sports

Sports
The majority of sports of medieval times were less organized than today's sports.  They didn't have as many of the rules as we have.

Folk Football
    Folk football was a wild and rough sport.  The game was so violent, that Renaissance humanists, such as Sir Thomas Elyot, thought that it as more likely to maim than to benefit the participants.  Folk football survived in Britain and in France until the late 19th century.

Hunting
   During the Middle Ages, hunting was very popular for both knights and common peasants. Participants would bring 30 falconers and 60 pairs of hunting dogs. Forests were used as the hunting grounds. Knights usually hunted foxes, deer, otters, badgers, rabbits, wolves, and boars.  Many  peasant women even hunted and kept falcons.

Jousting
     Jousting was probably the most famous sport and the most exciting game to the nobles and lords during the Middle Ages. The game was for two knights, both of them wore a suit of heavy armor and sat on a horse holding a long weapon.  The point of jousting was to stab the each other..  To practice their jousting skills, people often used a quintain.  A quintain was a dummy jousting target.

Archery Matches
    Archery matches, were usually arranged months in advance. Town versed town in archery matches.  The spectators usually became very excited over the matches and it was common for contests in running, jumping, cudgeling, and wrestling to be offered to the lower classmen who attended the match.. Feasts were common while watching the matches, and drunkenness commonly added to the craziness of the spectators.

 

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