Brilliant games from the Middle Ages

Football, tennis, golf, handball… where do these games actually come from? Did they already exist in the Middle Ages? And which games were reserved for the nobility, which for the general people?

If we consult the last remaining witnesses of this time, we find that although games were practiced frequently and were part of everyday life in the Middle Ages, they were not recorded in writing due to the high production costs of books and the little importance given to games.

Many of these games are similar to what we play today, such as handball, football, golf and similar ball games. Still other games, especially board games, have hardly changed in almost 1000 years.

But what kind of games were there back then? What was played, where do today’s games come from? And which games were reserved for the common people, which for the nobility?