BOLD DOVER
Pun intended, says ROB GANDY, as he tells the story of the first ever English ‘Olimpick’ Games and the 17th century English Catholic whose inclusive vision launched this unusual sporting festival.
Pun intended, says ROB GANDY, as he tells the story of the Cotswold ‘Olimpick’ Games and the 17th century English Catholic whose inclusive vision launched this odd sporting festival.
The 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo – if they go ahead as planned – are set to incorporate a number of new sports: karate, skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing; with baseball/softball returning, given that Japan is baseball-mad. 1 This reflects the evolutionary nature of the Games, with new replacing old; as I noted when writing about our homegrown Wenlock Olympian Games (see FT343:46-50), it is a shame that the old women’s race for a pound of tea, horseback wrestling and a pig race no longer feature.
Yet just as the Wenlock Games were starting in 1850, the first ever English Games based on an Olympic model were coming to a sad end 60 miles (96km) away in the Cotswolds. These were known as “Robert Dover’s Olimpick Games” and began in 1612, 400 years before the London Olympics of 2012. But who was Robert Dover, and what sort of games took place? Most written information comes from the Annalia Dubrensia 2 (“Annals of Dover”), a celebratory anthology of poetry dedicated to Dover featuring contributions from more than 30 poets, including Ben Jonson and Thomas Heywood.
ROBERT DOVER’S ENGLAND
England in the late 16th and early 17th century experienced a period of relative peace under Queen Elizabeth I and her successor James I. Both monarchs were Protestants, and Catholicism had been largely suppressed or driven underground, although Puritanism was on the rise. There was considerable nostalgia for a ‘Merry England’ of bygone years, which was often reflected at traditional fairs, festivals, wakes and church ales (the equivalent of today’s money-raising fetes, but with beer instead of tea, these were notorious for drunken behaviour and sexual licence).
Robert Dover was a Catholic from a Norfolk family of ‘church papists’ – people who were Catholic at heart but conformed to the law and attended church, thereby avoid
the games involved not only shepherds and workers but also local gentry
ing the heavy 12p fine for each absence. His parents ensured he received a Catholic education, and he studied law at Gray’s Inn, which was somewhat tolerant of Catholics. It was there that he probably became familiar with the Olympics and other ancient games. He settled in the Cotswolds in 1611, near to family members, where there was increasing local demand for lawyers. He was consid
A contemporary incarnation of Robert Dover appears at a modern revival of the Cotswold Olimpick Games. FACING PAGE: The Games as seen in the 1636 Annalia Dubrensia. Dover is on horseback, a feather in his hat.
ered a good, honest and helpful lawyer – quite a rarity at the time. His clients included one Endymion Porter of Aston-sub-Edge, a servant of King James, who was enthusiastic about country games.
Gentry who could afford it would arrange various country entertainments, and so Dover soon decided to organise something which would be very different from previous small local Whitsun events, and arguably also celebrate ‘Merry England’. He was very likely supported by Baptist Hicks, a rich local cloth dealer who had financed a great deal of James I’s early reign.
The Games were carefully designed to avoid controversy, and involved not only shepherds and workers but also local gentry. Dover was a man who very much enjoyed pastimes and good company, and so for him the Games were recreational rather than competitive – he apparently described them as “this mirth, this jollity”.
It is suspected that he asked for and received permission from King James before starting his festival (probably via Hicks and Porter), in full knowledge of what sporting activities would be approved by the King who, as James VI of Scotland, had written Basilican Doron (“The King’s Gift”) for his son and heir, Henry, offering advice on how to be an effective ruler. In it, he recommended the use of country games to promote good feeling among the common people towards their King, together with a list of sports that were suitable for his son.
The location for the Games was open land on an escarpment above the Vale of Evesham, in Weston-sub-Edge just outside Chipping Campden, then called Kingcombe Plain, which included a natural amphitheatre. While this might now seem a somewhat remote spot to choose, in 1612 there were good communications.