Real tennis 1599. The game thrived among the 17th-century nobility in France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, and the Habsburg Empire, but suffered under English Puritanism, as it was heavily associated with gambling. By the Age of Napoleon, the royal families of Europe were besieged and real tennis, a court game, was largely abandoned. Real tennis played a role in the history of the French Revolution, through the Tennis Court Oath, a pledge signed by French deputies in a real tennis court, which formed a decisive early step in starting the revolution. During the 18th century and early 19th century, as real tennis
The Beginning Was the End book reprinted with an introduction by them. This met with no success, due to copyright issues. The book is now quite collectable. The Beginning Was the End The Beginning Was the End is a 1971 pseudo-scientific book written by Oscar Kiss Maerth that claims that mankind evolved from cannibalistic apes. Its premise: Maerth wrote the book in a Chinese monastery. It was first published in West Germany as "Der Anfang war das Ende – Der Mensch entstand durch Kannibalismus" (Econ Verlag GmbH, Düsseldorf und Wien, 1971), then translated by Judith Hayward and published in Great Britain by Michael Joseph, Ltd,