Chess, Gambling, and Cards: Tudor Indoor Pasttimes

Maybe the Saudi Mufti read this article before he issued his condemnation of chess as "gambling" (typical silly male religious nonsense -- see post below).

From BBC History Magazine online:

Chess, gambling and cards: Tudor games and indoor pastimes

Thursday 14th January 2016
Submitted by: Emma Mason

Hundreds of years before the invention of radio or television, how did the Tudors occupy themselves of an evening, or during long, winter nights? Melita Thomas, the editor of Tudor Times, investigates…

Wandering around a Tudor house or garden on a sunny day is a delightful experience. We can imagine the lady of the house in her velvets and French hood picking flowers and herbs, or the maid turning those herbs into cooking ingredients or medicine. Visiting during the day, we seldom think of what the evenings must have been like – long hours, with no entertainment other than what the household could provide. How did they while away the evenings? The answer is board games – some of which we still play to similar rules today, and some that have been adapted over time. 

Chess

The most enduring game of all is chess, which has been played in western Europe since the early Middle Ages – witness the beautiful Lewis Chessmen (chess pieces of walrus ivory, found on Lewis in 1831, but likely made in Norway in around AD 1150–1200). The rules of chess, however, underwent a significant change in the mid-to-late 15th century when the queen, originally a weak piece, became the most dominant figure on the board. 

From The Book of Chess and Games commissioned by
King Alphonso X of Castile, c. 1283.  Two ladies playing.
Hand/finger positions indicate clues to moves.  Source.

The romantic among us might date the change to the emergence of powerful  female rulers, such as Isabella I of Castile or Anne of Beaujeu, regent of France from 1483-91.

Chess-playing was an essential social skill for the upper classes in the Tudor period. The inventory of goods belonging to Catherine of Aragon, taken after she had been banished from court in 1531, revealed two ivory chess-boards with pieces; a set of red and ivory chess men; and a further box of ivory chessmen. These were all commandeered by Henry VIII.

Katherine Parr, Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I are also known to have played chess. The game was so much a part of court life that Henry VIII’s accounts show a payment made to a cook for creating two chessboards and men of sugar, decorated with gold, for a banquet.