P3 - pre industrial sport Flashcards
What were the 2 classes? what type of sports and what they play? what is pedestrianism? explain it
Upper class
- gentry who were landowners.
Lower/peasant class – Peasants who worked manually, mostly on the land. Lower class played violent and unruly games like the popular mob football, prize fighting or dogfighting.
Upper class/gentry played the more sophisticated real tennis. In pedestrianism, the lower class competed and the upper class would be the sponsors. The upper class began wagering on which of their footmen would win a race.
How were women viewed back then? what sports upper n lower class women do?
sen as weaker sex
Upper class women did hawking.
Lower class women may get a chance to participate in ‘smock racing’. A race where the prize was a dress.
What law and order was there back then? what could peasants therefore compete in? when were these sports outlawed?
At this time there was no formal police force setup.
This meant the peasants were free to participate in violent activities such as bare-knuckle boxing, cockfighting or mob football.
This became outlawed during the industrial revolution.
How were upper and lower class educated? what did this mean about the sports peasants did?
Upper classes were educated and literate in pre-Industrial Britain.
The working class were mostly uneducated and illiterate.
This meant their activities were simple with no complex rules, nor were they written down. Eg. Mob Football.
How much free time did peasants and upper class people have? how did this when they did the sports they did?
The lower class peasants worked very long hours
Activities such as mob football were confined to annual festivals or holy days.
Other activities revolved around public houses and consisted of activities such as bare-knuckled fighting and beer drinking.
This is in comparison to the upper class who had an abundance of spare time.
why was money good for upper class? what sports could they therefore do?
The upper class had more money so could afford the necessary equipment. Eg, horses and clothing for sports such as hunting.
how did transport affect the sports lower and upper class people played?
Roads at this time were limited and the quality was very poor. Most activities for the working class were therefore local to the area. The upper class could travel some distance by horse or carriage but was still limited by the road conditions.
What was mob football? played by who?
Early forms of football were known as ‘mob football’.
These were very violent, with serious injury and death not uncommon.
Two groups of villagers tried to force the ball towards a target at the other end of the village.
The church strongly opposed mob football, which was outlawed at one stage.
what was cockfighting? who spectated this?
Very violent activity involving animal cruelty where two cocks would fight to the death.
Both classes were involved as there was substantial wagering on the outcome of the event.
Eventually made illegal during the Industrial Revolution.
