Playing has been a favourite pastime for as long as we can remember. Sources show that both young and old entertained themselves indoors or outside of the house with all kinds of toys, board games and word games. It wasn´t any different in the Middle Ages. There is all sorts of proof of sports, games and more serious pastimes. All under the common denominator of ´ludus´, Latin for game.
There is a new chess game at the entrance of the Chessmen Museum, meant for playing outside with. The board and pieces are too big to fit on a table and have been placed on the floor for an active game of chess: players are not supposed to sit down for a quiet game.
The pieces of this chess set are medieval-looking figurines, but chances of finding a large game like this one in the Middle Ages are slim. Nothing like it has ever been found in excavations or described in old documents. This doesn´t mean that the medieval folk never enjoyed a game of chess outside. Game boards were easy to draw on the ground; you only needed to bring your own chess pieces with you.
Plenty of free time
If you think that people in the Middle Ages were constantly working and didn´t have time to play, you are wrong. Apart from the free Sundays, the current estimate is that there were about fifty religious holidays a year on which people were not allowed to work. Young city children didn´t generally work, apart from the odd job here and there. Not all children went to school either so there was plenty of time to play. Around the age of 14 they would become an apprentice with a master, start a job or begin fulltime education. At that age they were considered adults according to medieval law.
Apart from having plenty of time, children in the Middle Ages had a lot of freedom and space to play, mostly out on the streets and without any supervision. This could turn out to be quite dangerous, according to the miracle books. These books described all of the miracles that happened in a certain place in great detail. The children that are featured in these stories were playing outside more often than not. Away from the safety of their homes they would frequently have close encounters with fast moving carts or they would fall in the water and (nearly) drown.
Children’s Games by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1560. Children are playing al kind of games.
Well-known toys
Children would use remarkably familiar-looking toys to play with. Hobby horses for the little ones, little dolls and miniature crockery to play indoors with; and balls, hoops and marbles to take outside. These are only a few of the remains of toys that have been retrieved. The places these toys were found in tell us something about the way in which children played. For example, many toys were found in the cesspool (the medieval toilet/rubbish bin) of the Latin school in the city of Groningen. Even though the kids went to school, it appears they had plenty of time and space to play. Whether they played indoors or outside depended on practical things like the weather. There would be loads of playing outside in the summer and board games were a typical pastime on rainy days and long winter nights.
Playing didn´t have an age limit on it: adults as well as kids would often play the same games, chess being one of them. Noticeably, it doesn´t look like children and adults played games together though. Playing wasn´t a privilege of certain social classes. Both the rich and the poor entertained themselves with games, the difference mainly residing in the materials of which the games were made. Using chess as an example again: the game boards of the rich were encrusted with gold and silver and the chess pieces were made of ivory, while the poorer players had to make do with wooden boards and pieces… Although they wouldn´t have enjoyed themselves any less because of it…
This is a detailed image of the large chess game that is placed outside the Chessmen Museum. Do come by for a visit, even if the weather isn´t very nice anymore now. The Chessmen Museum is situated on the covered Overblaak Street in Rotterdam, right in the middle of the Cube Houses. This means you can enjoy a game of chess outside and stay dry even if it rains.