The ''Declaration of Sports'' (also known as the ''Book of Sports'') was a declaration of

James I of England James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 unti ...

issued just for

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

in 1617, nationally in 1618, and reissued by Charles I in 1633. It listed the sports and recreations that were permitted on Sundays and other holy days.

Issue under James I

It was originally issued in consultation with Thomas Morton,

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

Chester Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...

, to resolve a dispute in

between the Puritans and the

gentry Gentry (from Old French , from ) are "well-born, genteel and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past. ''Gentry'', in its widest connotation, refers to people of good social position connected to Landed property, landed es ...

(many of whom were

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

s). The initial declaration was just for

, but in 1618, James made the declaration national. The 1618 declaration had largely the same main text as the 1617 version, but with an additional paragraph at the beginning explaining that the king had decided to make the declaration applicable to the whole of England. James transmitted orders to the clergy of the whole of England to read the declaration from the pulpit, but encountering strong opposition he withdrew his command. The declaration listed

archery Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a Bow and arrow, bow to shooting, shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting ...

, dancing, "leaping, vaulting, or any other such harmless recreation" as permissible sports, together with "May-games, Whitsun-ales and Morris-dances, and the setting up of May-poles". Also allowed: "women shall have leave to carry rushes to the church for the decorating of it, according to their old custom." Amongst the activities that were prohibited were bear- and bull-baiting, "interludes" and

bowling Bowling is a Throwing sports#Target sports, target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a bowling ball, ball toward Bowling pin, pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). Most references to ''bowling'' are ...

. On the one hand, the declaration rebuked Puritans and other "precise persons", and was issued to counteract the growing Puritan calls for strict abstinence on the Christian Sabbath ( Sabbatarianism). On the other, it condemned Catholics and others who did not attend church services in their

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

, as the declaration specified that only people who had first attended divine service were entitled to participate in recreations afterward.

Re-issue under Charles I

The declaration was reissued by Charles I on 18 October 1633, as ''The King's Majesty's declaration to his subjects concerning lawful sports to be used''. It was claimed by

William Prynne William Prynne (1600 – 24 October 1669), an English lawyer, voluble author, polemicist and political figure, was a prominent Puritan opponent of church policy under William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (1633–1645). His views were Presbyter ...

that the new declaration was written by Charles' new

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...

William Laud William Laud (; 7 October 1573 – 10 January 1645) was a bishop in the Church of England. Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Charles I of England, Charles I in 1633, Laud was a key advocate of Caroline era#Religion, Charles I's religious re ...

, but Laud denied this and there is only evidence that he supported and facilitated the reissue. Moreover, the 1633 declaration has the same main text as the 1617 and 1618 declarations of King James, with the primary differences an additional introduction and conclusion adding wakes and ales (countryside festivals) to the list of sanctioned recreations. Charles ordered that any minister who refused to read it would be deprived of position. As the Puritans gained power in

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

in the lead-up to the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

, hostility to the ''Book of Sports'' grew. Attempts to enforce the declaration came to an end with the fall of Archbishop Laud in 1640, and Parliament ordered the book publicly burned in 1643, two years before Laud was executed.

Footnotes

Bibliography and further reading

*Craigie, James, ed. ''Minor Prose Works of James VI and James I''. Scottish Text Society, 1982: 217–241. *George, David, ed. ''Records of Early English Drama: Lancashire''. University of Toronto Press, 1991. *Govett, L. A. ''The King's Book of Sports: A History of the Declarations of King James I. and King Charles I. as to the Use of Lawful Sports on Sundays''. London, 1890. *Parker, Kenneth. ''The English Sabbath: A Study of Doctrine and Discipline from the Reformation to the Civil War''. Cambridge University Press, 1988. *Semenza, Gregory M. Colón. ''Sport, Politics, and Literature in the English Renaissance''. University of Delaware Press/AUP, 2003. * Tait, James. "The Declaration of Sports for Lancashire". ''English Historical Review'' 32 (1917): 561–568. *Struna NL. The Declaration of Sports Reconsidered. ''Canadian Journal of History of Sport''. 1983;14(2):44-68. doi:10.1123/cjhs.14.2.44 *McDowell, N. (2005), ''The stigmatizing of Puritans as Jews in Jacobean England: Ben Jonson, Francis Bacon and the'' Book of Sports ''controversy''. Renaissance Studies, 19: 348-363. *Heasim Sul (2000) The King's Book of Sports: The Nature of Leisure in Early Modern England, The International Journal of the History of Sport, 17:4, 167-179, DOI:10.1080/09523360008714153 *James T. King James's Book of Sports, 1617. Historian. 2017(134):42-45. {{wikisource, Declaration of Sports *Text of the ''Declaration of Sports'', 1633

*Digital version of the Lancashire Records of Early English Dram

1617 works 1633 works History of Lancashire Sports law Sport in the United Kingdom 17th century in England 17th century in Scotland Christianity and sports Sabbath in Christianity