Britain's Archery Mandate





The training requirement was usually combined with prohibitions on other kinds of games and sports so that people would focus on archery instead of, for example, "tennis, football, [quoits], dice" and other "games inappropriate." The point was not so much to condemn games as to make sure they did not get in the way of longbow training. In other words, they saw nothing morally wrong with tennis, it's just that it is hard to kill a French knight with a tennis ball, no matter how good your serve is.

In 1511 the requirement was expanded by "An Act concerning Shooting in Long Bows," even though by then the importance of the bow was declining. This law provided that "All sorts of men under the age of 40 Years shall have bows and arrows" and practice using them. The playing of games continued, however, and in 1541 the law was expanded yet again by "An Act for the Maintenance of Artillery, and debarring unlawful Games," the preamble to which declares that said games were believed to be the "Cause of the Decay of Archery" skills in England (There was another very important cause by then, namely guns--or, more specifically, bullets--but games always seem to get blamed for social problems.)


At least some of this was still on the books well into the 19th century, but was probably repealed during the reign of Queen Victoria. In 1845, "An Act to Amend the Law concerning Games and Wagers" repealed any part of King Henry's 1541 law making any "Game of Skill" unlawful or "which enacts any penalty for lacking bows or arrows ... or which regulates the making, selling or using of bows and arrows." If any of the older stuff survived, it was most likely repealed by more recent acts intended to get some of the ancient stuff off the books.

So, while I could not definitively resolve this because of the Reading Room Incident, it appears that Rev. Edwards' parishioners were not legally required to respond to her summons. I believe that, under other possibly unrepealed laws dating back to Henry VIII, the villagers now have the right to confiscate all church property and to declare themselves divorced.


Surely the parishioners would have come out to celebrate that anyway.


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