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Part 16: The island was then called Albion, and inhabited by none but a few giants. Notwithstanding this, the pleasant situation of the places, the plenty of rivers abounding with fish, and the engaging prospect of its woods, made Brutus and his company very desirous to fix their habitation in it. They therefore passed through all the provinces, […]
The earliest visual evidence of wrestling in Devon is roof bosses at Exeter Cathedral, dated to around the 1280s. Roof bosses are carved decorative features placed at the intersections of vaulted ceilings in medieval churches and cathedrals. Beyond their structural role in covering joints, they often depict religious scenes, mythical creatures, or glimpses of everyday […]
A legislative decree issued during the Synod of Exeter held at the Church of St. Mary Major. Clause XIII (De Cimeteriis) explicitly prohibits secular activities on consecrated ground to prevent “pollution” of holy sites through “dishonest games.” The text provides one of the earliest known ecclesiastical evidence of organised wrestling (“luctamina”) as a popular and disruptive social […]
This is Robert Mannyng of Brunne (Robert of Brunne), The Chronicle, Part 1, composed about 1338, which translates Wace’s Roman de Brut for its British section. This version is from the Lambeth Palace MS 131 readings, which is why the spellings (“byhoued”, “ilk oþer”, “laught”, “hente”) sit in the north-east Midlands dialect rather than Wace’s […]
The Virgin Annunciate. c 1350-60. Wells Somerset Hall of the Vicar’s Choral. Available online via Alamy. With grateful thanks to Stephen Curtin who provided this from his private collection.
[S57] The wrestlers. Two men, stripped to the waist and wearing braies [medieval breeches] are wrestling, each holding the other by a short scarf around the neck. Available to view online. Note that the 1350 date is the earliest, as it’s been dated to the latter half of the 14th century. Gloucester 57.1.jpg Gloucester 57.2.jpg […]
“As he went, by a bridge was a wrastling, And there taryed was he, And there was all the best yemen Of all the West Countrey. A full fayre game was set up ; A white bull, up ypyght ; A great courser with sadle and brydle With gold burnished full bryght. A payre […]
Johannes de Bado aureo (c. 1440–1450). MS. Laud Misc. 733, fol. 22v. Copyright holder. Photo: © Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. Terms of use: CC BY-NC 4.0. For more information, please see https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/terms/. Further information available via Manuscripts and Archives, University of Oxford.
The Harleian Manuscript (MS.3542) Also known by the names ‘Harley’, ‘Man yt wol’. Until 17 May 1715 when the Harleian 3542 Manuscript came into the hands of the owner (from whom it now takes its name), the manuscript was in the possession of clerics around Honiton. The manuscript, dated to around 1440-1450, was therefore around […]
MS B 26 is the Kriegsbuch (“war-book”) of Ludwig von Eyb the Younger (1455–1521), a Franconian nobleman who served as Hofmeister (court steward) to successive Counts Palatine and set down a number of cultural-historical works, including a Turnierbuch. He compiled the manuscript in or around 1500, dedicating it to Philip “the Upright” (1448–1508), Elector Palatine […]
Exercitiorum Atque Artis Militaris Collectanea (“Collected Martial Arts and Exercises”) is a Spanish fencing manual by Pedro Monte printed in Milan in 1509.[1] It was an attempt to capture the entire art of war, including all styles of armed and unarmed combat of which Monte was aware. Full information is available on Wiktenauer. “In greater […]
Roof bosses in the ceiling of St Lawrence Church, Shelley’s Close, Lechlade-on-Thames, Gloucestershire. UK. Available via Alamy. We do not have permission to reproduce this artefact in our archives.
Commissioned by Abbot Robert Elyot between 1515 and 1526, this set of 28 original carved oak seats is renowned for its fascinating and sometimes humorous, unconventional medieval subject matter. [N14] Two nude men wrestling, grasping each other by a neck-band; a third, also wearing a loose neck band, stands with his head on the shoulder […]
Sir Thomas Elyot is believed to have been born in Wiltshire. XVII. Exercises wherby shulde growe both recreation and profite. WRASTLYNGE, is a very good exercise in the begynnynge of youthe, so that it be with one that is equall in strengthe, or some what under, and that the place be softe, that in fallinge […]
At Chasteubriant the French King shewed my Lord Marquess great plesure and disport, sometime in plaing at tenice, sometime in shooting, sometime in hunting the bore, somtime at the palla malla, and somtime with his great boisterlie Britons wrastling with my lorde’s yemen of Cornwall, who had much a do to gete the upper hand […]
A printed Letters Patent bearing the coat of arms of Mary I, renewing the royal commission originally granted by Henry VIII in 1540 to the Corporation of Masters of the Science of Defence. The single-sheet document contains both Latin chancery formulae and English text granting fencing masters authority to arrest, prosecute, and imprison unauthorised martial […]
THE FOURTH CHAPTER. WHEN Brute had entred this land, immediatlie after his arriuall (as writers doo record) he searched the countrie from side to side, and from end to end, finding it in most places verie fertile and plentious of wood and grasse, and full of pleasant springs and faire riuers. As he thus […]
Book 1, Page 1: Cornwall, the fartheſt Shire of England Weſtwards, hath her name by diuers Authors diverſly deriued. Some (as our owne Chroniclers) draw it from Corineus, couſin to Brute, the first Conqueror of this Iland : who wrastling at Plymmouth (as they say) with a mightie Giant, called Gogmagog, threw him ouer Cliffe, […]
On Tueſday being the fift day of Auguſt, and the great feſtiuall for our Kinges Maieſties preſeruation from Gowries treaſons : The Kinges Maieſtie of Denmarke ran at the Tilt in perſon, and diuers other noble perſonages; where his Maieſtie expreſt an able and induring bodie, how it was gouernd by an invincible mind, inricht […]
The Cornish-men they are stronge, hardye and nymble, so are their exercises violent, two especially, Wrastling and Hurling, sharpe and seuere actiuties; and in neither of theis doth any Countrye exceede or equall them. The firste is violent, but the seconde is daungerous: The firste is acted in two sortes, by Holdster (as they called it) […]
Britannia’s Pastorals is a long, unfinished pastoral poem written by William Browne of Tavistock(c. 1591–1643), with the first book published in 1613 and the second in 1616. While the main work was released around these dates, Browne was actively contributing to other pastoral projects, including The Shepherd’s Pipe (1614), during this period. In the 5th […]
Reference ORIGINAL MODERNISED The praise of Plymouth (p6, First Song) The christning of that Bay, which beares her nobler name. Vpon the British coast, what ship yet euer came That not of Plymouth heares, where those braue Nauies lie, From Canons thundring throats, that all the world defie? Which, to inualue spoile, when th’English […]
Dramatis Personiae: PUPPY, a Wrestler (a Western Man). Reference (pp. 233-234): Enter EDGWORTH. Quar. ’Slid, I forgot that, pray you pardon me.—Look, here’s our Mercury come; the license arrives in the finest time too! ’tis but scraping out Cokes his name, and ’tis done. Winw. How now, lime-twig, hast thou touch’d? Edg. Not yet, sir; except you would go with […]
Swetnam was a prominent Fencing Master from Bristol, who was The Master of Defence in Plymouth for many years. This is core material within the DWS. Full modernised version by the DWS, currently being prepared. THE SCHOOLE OF THE NOBLE And Worthy Science of Defence. Being the first of any English-mans invention, which professed the […]
This scene from Middleton and Rowley’s tragicomedy demonstrates the period’s theatrical interest in the collision between rustic simplicity and urban sophistication. Chough (the name itself suggesting a crow or fool) is a Cornish gentleman whose obsession with wrestling and inability to comprehend social nuance creates both comedy and pathos. The ‘roaring school’ refers to establishments […]
Modernisation of the ‘August Tale’: An Englishman named Burrel, born in Cornwall, served as a guard to King Henry VIII. In his bold youth, he was known for great strength— so much so that the King himself wanted to test him. But Burrel held back out of respect. He wouldn’t throw or hurt the King […]
A personal account of a combat between Richard Peeke (Tavistock, Devon), and three Spanish rapiermen. The event happened on 15th November 1625. Peeke documented his account in July 1626. Three-to-One: Being an English-Spanish combat performed by a Western Gentleman of Tavistock in Devonshire, with an English quarterstaff, against three Spaniards [ at once ] with […]
A Play based upon the true-story of Richard Peeke, from Tavistock, Devon. Peeke wrote his story in Three-to-One: Being an English-Spanish Combat (1625). This play appeared in Egerton MS 1994, a folio composite volume of plays. c.1620s-1640s. From the library of Lord Charlemont. Entries: CELM, Wikipedia. It appeared at ff. 30r-51r- HyT 5: Thomas Heywood, Dick of […]
The men of dSurrey, Cheeky Blew and gold, (Which for braue Warren their first Earle they wore, In many a Field that honour’d was of olde:) And Hamshere next in the same Colours bore, Three Lions Passant, th’ Armes of Beuis bould, Who through the World so famous was of yore; A siluere Tower, Dorsets Red […]
Drayton, Michael, et al. (1636), Annalia Dubrensia: upon the yearly celebration of Mr. Robert Dovers Olimpick Games upon Cotswold-Hills, London: Robert Raworth. Available online via Folger Shakespeare Library, and archive.org.