Page 56 - All About History - Issue 52-17

Medieval #Trends

No injury time in
medieval football

LOCATION: ENGLAND
If you thought football hooligans were a modern phenomenon,
think again – medieval England had football-related mob violence
before it was even called football. What we regard today as
‘football’ was violent, chaotic and even deadly. It involved an
infinite number of players, could take part across entire villages and
often it wasn’t the ball being kicked, but the opposing team.
One rule book for ‘Shrovetime football’ lists that any means
could be used to score, save actual murder. In 1314 Edward II
decided enough was enough and forbid the game, decreeing, “on
pain of imprisonment, such games to be used in the city in future.”
Clearly he was more of a golf fan.

Beaver tails were
considered seafood
and so could be
eaten on fast days
LOCATION: EUROPE
If medieval people loved two things it was mythology and religion, and these two often combined in a very
peculiar way. Due to a mistranslation of what was likely intended to be an ox, it was commonly believed that
in the Bible Jesus was likened to a unicorn. Medieval folk ran with this idea and the unicorn, or whatever
they believed to be a unicorn, repeatedly cropped up in religious medieval art. As only innocent maidens
were allowed to touch unicorns, the unicorn was also used as a strangely uncomfortable allegory of Christ
entering his mother’s womb.

Jesus as a unicorn:
what’s not to love? “It was commonly
believed that

Jesus was likened LOCATION: EUROPE
to a unicorn” If you were a poor person in the Middle Ages, food, for the most part, was dull,
boring and repetitive. However, for the rich, nothing was off limits. They enjoyed
dining on swans and, to keep
them going through lent,
beaver tail. However, they
were munching their way
through so many animals
they were forced to create
new and more-bizarre ones.
A favourite of the table was
the helmeted cock – prepared
by stitching a capon
so it seemed
to be riding
atop a pig.

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