PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND SPORT DURING THE AGE OF FEUDALISM

AS A RESULT OF THE DECENTRALIZATION OF GOVERNMENT DURING of the dark ages, the period of feudalism come into being between the ninth and fourteenth centuries.

The feudalistic period appeared because people needed protection and since strong monarch and government that could supply this protection were rare, the people turned to noblemen and others who built castles had large land holdings and made themselves strong.

Feudalism was  a system of land tenure based on allegiance and service to the nobleman or lord. 

The lord who owned the land, called his vassal, in return for the use of this land the vassal owed allegiance and certain obligations to this lord. The largest part of the population however was made up of serfs, who worked the land but shared little in the profits. They were bound to the land and as it was transferred from vassal they were also transferred.

Serfs vassal

LORD

Two careers open were to sons of noblemen during feudalistic times. 

They might enter training for the church and became members of the clergy, or they might became knights.

If they decided in favor of the church, they pursued an education that was religious an academic in nature.

if they decided in favor of chivalry the pursued an education that was physical social and military in nature. To the average boy, chivalry had much more appeal than the church.

That training that a boy experienced in becoming a knight was long and through. Physical training played a major role during this period .

BECOMING A KNIGHT

During his tenure as a page, a boy learned: at the age of 7 years a boy was usually sent to he castle of a nobleman for training and preparation for knight hood first, he was known as a page, and his instructor and teacher was usually on of the women in the lord castle. During his tenure as a page, a boy learned: court etiquette, waited on table,ran erands and helped with household tasks. During the rest of the time he participated in various forms of physical activity that would serve him well as knight and strengthen him for the arduous years ahead. He practiced for events such as boxing, running, fencing, jumping, and swiming.

At the age of 14 years the boy became a squire and was assigned to a  knight his studies included: keeping the knights weapons in good condition caring for his horses , helping him with his armor attending to his injuries and guarding his prisoners. During the time the boy was a squire, more and more emphasis was placed in physical training. He was continually required to engage in vigorous sport and exercise such as hunting scaling walls, shooting with bow and arrow, running, climbing, swordsmanship, and horsemanship.

HORSEMANSHIP SWORDSMANSHIP

If the squire proved his fitness he became a knight at 21 years of age the ceremony was solemn and memorable. The prospective knight took a bath of purification, dressed in white, and spent an entire night in meditation and prayer in the morning the lord placed his sword on the knight’s shoulder a ceremony known as the accolade this marked the conferring of knighthood.

marked the conferring of knighthood

Jousts and tournaments were two special events in which all knight engaged several times during their lives and that were tests of their fitness. These special events served both as amusement and as training for the battle. In the jousts two knights attempted to unseat one another from another from their horses with blows from lances and by skill in horsemanship.

Jousts and tournaments

During these tournaments death often resulted for participants.

In these exhibitions a knight had the opportunity to display his personal bravery, skill, prowess, strength, and courage.