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Cleopatra Lived Closer to the Computer Age than to the Pyramids, and Other Atypical History Facts

Khalid Elhassan December 30, 2019 33 min

22. Mob Football

In Middle Ages England, Lent season often featured a rough ball game known as mob football. There were regional variations, but the basics were similar. Teams from different villages and towns, with anywhere from a few dozen to hundreds of players, met in a fairly central location. Then a ball was thrown, and the competing teams vied with each other to capture a ball and take it back home – usually to their church’s front porch.

There were few restrictions as to team sizes or ball handling. The massive matches usually lasted for an entire day, with many players dropping out because of injury or fatigue. Bruises, scratches, cuts, and lacerations were common occurrences, with the occasional death thrown into the mix. Despite those risks, medieval mob football remained popular for centuries. Because of its destructive nature, however, it was eventually banned in England by King Edward II in 1314. In what might or might not be a coincidence, Edward II went down in history as one of England’s most unpopular and despised kings.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.