Medieval Football
This was a University sport. At medieval universities like Oxford, Paris, Bologna, and Salerno, students hung out with - and ate with - other guys from their own countries: Brits with Brits, Germans with Germans, etc. Football games were either between one nationality and another, or between the students as a team and the young non-students of the town (usually trade apprentices)(who hated the students - obviously, the students had more money and more leisure, thus got all the girls). Teams were as many guys as you could round up. You'd put a ball in the middle of the street, and each team would try to move the ball past the other team and down to that end of town: over roofs, through yards, down alleys, etc. It was like Steroid Rugby with no fence around the field and no rules. There were occasional fatalities. Streets were unpaved and there were roving herds of pigs in most cities, so I imagine it gave new meaning to the phrase, "fighting dirty." Since the only police in any town was the volunteer Night Watch, sometimes games were accompanied by looting of shops in the confusion. University authorities didn't approve, but if you've got a bunch of 18-year-olds who have to listen to lectures in Latin all day, they've got to do something.
Other University sports were drinking and sex.
And yes, King John managed to lose the Royal Treasury in actual quicksand. He was crossing the estuary of a tidal river while the tide was out - this was before Kings had a permanent headquarters in London, so they took their treasury with them when they traveled. This custom was discontinued shortly after this (not that it mattered a lot, then).
Exchequer Rolls establish that John paid a special servant to draw and heat water for a bath for him, every six weeks whether he needed it or not.
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barbara_hambly) wrote,
