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
Gibbon's Tennis Court use to be so thronged, now empty since the opera begun—and so will continue for a while I believe." To remain competitive, Killigrew decided to construct a purpose-built theatre more to modern tastes. On 7 May 1663, just two-and-a-half years after the theatre in Lisle's Tennis Court opened, the King's Company moved to the new Theatre Royal in Bridges Street. According to an 1811 Robert Wilkinson image, Gibbon's Tennis Court was destroyed by fire on 17 September 1809. In the 20th century, the Stoll Theatre and the Peacock Theatre would be built at the same site. Gibbon's Tennis Court Gibbon's