[MR] BBC: Royal Shrovetide Football, Ashbourne

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

Today the BBC offers a short feature, Best of British Press Press
Photography. The images are all modern, but one photo shows the Royal
Shrovetide Football match in Ashbourne, England. Here is direct link to the
photo:
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/501d/live/3f544ab0-184a-11ef-80aa-699d54c46324.jpg.webp
. The
cutline notes that the game has been played "for hundreds of centuries".
Well, that's clearly impossible, but "hundreds of years" is probably
correct, and thus this post.

The Shrovetide match falls into a category of sport today called "mob
football", and that is a pretty good description of the medieval game. Two
competing teams would attempt to move a ball (or if the grim legend is
true, a severed head) across town to one of two goals, usually at
opposite ends of a town or village. The teams could number dozens or even
hundreds of players. Other than prohibiting weaponry and outright homicide,
there were few rules. Usually the ball would change hands after a knee or
foot was applied to a player's . . . uh . . . sensitive area. There were no
athletic cups in those days. A match might go on for hours, or even more
than one day. Naturally, authorities frowned on the game, and various kings
banned it in favor of archery in both England and Scotland. Perhaps a bit
strange in light of former Royal opposition, but the Ashbourne match has a
Royal designation.

One of the most famous of such mob football matches occurred on 21 March
1421 that led to the Battle of Baugé during the Hundred Years War. A
Franco-Scottish army was encamped at the French town of Vieil-Baugé. An
equally-sized English army was camped nearby. A brief truce had been
negotiated, as it was the day before Easter. The Scots decided to take a
break and began a game of football, while their French allies looked on,
probably with a mixture of wonder and disgust. Upon hearing of the game,
the English commander, Thomas, Duke of Clarence, deceitfully chose to break
the truce and readied his cavalry of 1,500 for a quick stroke. He didn't
even gather his archers, expecting that the cavalry could quickly win the
battle. Wrong! The English were held at a narrow bridge by a small guard of
Scottish spearmen and archers. The valiant resistance, though short, gave
the Scots and French a few precious minutes to grab their weapons. The
English cavalry eventually cleared the bridge and swept into the town, only
to find they were harassed at every street corner and turn. The battle
devolved into a street-to-street slaughter, as the Englishmen found their
horses useless. Nearly all the English cavalry were wiped out, with nearly
1,000 being slain, and around 500 captured. The Duke of Clarence himself
was killed in the fight.

Mob football is not an Olympic sport, but given the silliness of some
recent additions, it might only be a matter of time.

More about Shrovetide football can be found at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Shrovetide_Football . The article is
mostly about the modern version of the game, but there is a historical
section that discusses the game's medieval origins as well.

Yours Aye,


Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆
Continuing a crusade to keep Merry Rose relevant and in business.