This Week in Football History: King Edward II bans football

King Edward II banned football long before these scenes

Long before the Premier League, Total Football, Austria's wunderteam or even Sheffield FC, kicking games have always been played across Britain. Adrian North takes us back 701 years to the foolish attempts of King Edward II to stop such a pastime...

February 13, 1314 - London, England: Edward II was probably more of a cricket fan.

"For as much as there is great noise in the city, caused by hustling over large footballs from which many evils might arise which God forbid, we command and forbid, on behalf of the king, a pain of imprisonment, such game to be used in the city in the future,"- Law proclaimed in the name of King Edward II.

Football had a tough upbringing. For as long as humans have lived we've always wanted to throw and kick things. But sword fighting and archery I imagine gets a bit boring after a few millennia.

And while I often feel football was indeed better 'back in the day', I'm thankful I wasn't around to experience football way back in the day. Had I been around for Edward II's above proclamation back in the early 14th century I no doubt would have told him to piss off before being promptly beheaded. Although going down in history as football's first martyr does sound kind of appealing.

A quick Wikipedia read of King Edward II shows him to be a largely unpopular ruler, holding power for 20 years between 1307-1327 before being overthrown by his wife Isabella of France and former ally Roger Mortimer before being most probably executed in September 1327.

Poor bloke, I'd like to think his banning of football related games had something to do with it.

Football back in the 14th century sounds like quite a bit of fun to be fair. Several records suggest that some kind of ball game was played by young men of southern England where they would use a combination of hands and feet to pass some form of ball from their village to the next. Unlimited number of players, no basic rules, and lots of broken windows - quite the time I'm sure.

The first notable source of ball games being played among teenagers comes from Morris Marple's 1954 book A History of Football where he cites an account from Thomas of Salisbury, who found his brother dead after alleged being killed by Irish students whilst "playing the ball".

But the first case of the word 'football' being used came on either February 13 or April 13, 1314 (my sources vary between these two dates) in the above proclamation issued in the name of King Edward II. Edward, despite being obviously quite nuts to issue such a decree, justified his reasoning as football was seen as a disruption to public order and, all in all, Medieval England seemed like quite the oppressive place.

David Goldblatt, author of The Ball is Round also cites an account from a citizen at the time who described this rural version of football as "a game in which young men propel a huge ball not by throwing it into the air, but by striking and rolling it along the ground with their feet".

So it would seem then that some kind of ball kicking game was being played in the countryside before Edward's ludicrous decision to ban it. And Edward II merely set the trend for others to follow.

In 1331 Phillipe V of France banned all ball games and both King Edward III and IV ordered issues declaring the banning of ball games in 1363 and 1477 respectively. The one issued by Edward IV reads, "No person shall practice any unlawful games such as dice, quoits, and football, but that every strong and able-bodied person shall practice with the bow instead".

But while more than 30 royal laws were issued to ban football between the 14th and 17th centuries many accounts of all kinds of kicking games still exist from the time. For all the efforts to control such behaviour that was seen by the ruling class as uncivilised, young kids throughout the countryside kept on playing their quirky little ball games.

As Parliament were overthrowing James II in 1688 ball games had already began to make inroads into the slowly growing sporting culture of the time. Despite the efforts of Edward II and his successors to ban one of the most fundamental forms of leisure, by the 18th century football's embryo had reached the point of no return.