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The Royal Tennis Court of Hampton
Court Palace, originally built for King Henry VIII, is arguably the
world’s oldest indoor sporting facility still in use.
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The Royal Tennis Court of
Hamptoncourt Palace |
The game of royal, or
real, tennis played on this vast indoor court has remained virtually the same in
style and manner ever since it was conceived over 500 years ago.
Simple ballgames had been
common all over Europe since classical antiquity, but for an answer to the question of how
the elevation to tennis, the chivalrous exercise for the Tudor and Stuart Kings
originated, we turn to the Renaissance princely courts of Italy with their marvellous
palaces and villas and splendid court culture.
Renaissance humanists such as Guarino da
Verona and Vittorino da Feltre were inspired by the antique (= Galen) concern to exercise
the body, in particular they appealed to the ancient sphaeristerium (= walled-in
ballcourt), a sporting facility most luxurious Roman villas were equipped with at the
time. Ancient sources seem to be speaking of a hall or room serving this purpose,
apparently fitted with a mosaic floor and possibly also gently heated by the thermae
(baths) incorporated into the building.
In the second half of the 15th century the
purpose-built tennis halls of the illustrious Sforza, Medici, Gonzaga, Este
and Montefeltro
dynasties became the setting for the revival of the ballgames of classical antiquity. The
Humanist Prince experienced the game of tennis (gioco della palla) as a
particularly rewarding exercise, for the recreation of the body as well as for the mind.
In addition the tennis tournaments played by the court professionals provided a
fascinating form of indoor spectacle; a clear manifestation of the splendour and
magnificence of his court. Recent research into Italian court culture has come up with
fascinating material about the "royal game of tennis":
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Tennis as one of
the Chivalrous Exercises.
Italian Painting (Anonymus,
1570/80) |
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