Medieval football

Long ago in Europe, people played wild ball games known as mob football.

These games were very different from the organized sports we see today. They were often chaotic and had very few rules to follow. People played them in towns and villages during special times like Shrovetide. These matches were often played by huge crowds of people. Players would form a massive group to move a ball toward markers. They often used an inflated pig's bladder as their ball.

How these games worked depended on the local area. In many matches, an unlimited number of players joined opposing teams. They would clash in a large mass of people. Players struggled to drag the ball to the end of town. Some accounts say players could use almost any way to move the ball. The only major rule was that they could not cause a death. In a French game called La Soule, people used hands, feet, and sticks.

History shows that ball games have been around for a very long time. The historian Bede wrote about ball play in the eighth century. In the ninth century, a monk named Nennius wrote about boys playing at ball. There is even a reference to ball games in southern Britain before the Norman Conquest. By the twelfth century, La Soule was played in northern France. In England, a poet named Layamon wrote about knights driving balls over fields around the year 1200. These early games were the ancestors of the football we know now.

Many important facts come from old records and carvings. A wooden carving from 1350 at Gloucester Cathedral shows young men playing with a ball.

In 1314, the Lord Mayor of London banned the game because it caused too much noise. Between 1314 and 1667, more than 30 royal and local laws tried to ban football in England. In 1409, King Henry IV also tried to stop people from collecting money for football. Even with these bans, people kept playing. Some groups even formed early clubs, like the brewers in England around 1421.

Even though many old rules disappeared, some traditions still live on today. The Highway Act of 1835 banned playing football on public roads, which caused many games to decline. However, some special matches still happen in certain towns. In the Orkney Islands of Scotland, people play the Ba game at Christmas. In Cumbria, people play Uppies and Downies over Easter. In Ashbourne, England, the Royal Shrovetide Football Match happens on Shrove Tuesday. These games connect our modern world to the lively traditions of the Middle Ages.