Tennis was originally an indoor game championed by England’s most notorious Royal divorcee and adulterer King Henry VIII.
Tennis was originally an indoor game championed by England’s most notorious Royal divorcee and adulterer King Henry VIII.
As for its obscure origins, there is a theory the word tennis derives from the name of an ancient Egyptian city called Tinnis.
Indeed, the Egyptians were keen on sport and exercise, but it is unlikely that racket games were played until much later.
More compelling evidence arises in 12th Century France with a game called ‘jeu de paume’, or ‘game of the palm’.
This early form of hand-ball seems to have been popular with French monks who played it against monastery walls or over a rope strung across a courtyard.
Players would shout “tenez” (meaning ‘to take’ or ‘receive’) when they were about to serve.
That is most probably where the name tennis comes from.
The game’s popularity spread in France during the following two centuries, among kings and paupers alike.
By this time players had moved on from hitting the ball - normally made from stitched leather filled with hair – with their bare palms and had begun using protective gloves.
These eventually changed into bats and rackets.
By the 16th Century enclosed courts had sprung up all over Paris – some estimates suggest 1,800 existed by the end of the century.
The game had found popularity abroad too. While it retained its ‘jeu de paume’ name in France, in England it would simply become known as tennis.
The prefix “real” or sometimes “royal” was only added in the 19th Century to distinguish it from the modern game that superseded it.
The English game’s most famous exponent was King Henry VIII, who built a court at Hampton Court Palace in 1532 and 1533.
Despite his ample frame, the King was an extremely athletic and passionate sportsman.
He is said to have been enjoying a game of tennis when told his second wife Anne Boleyn had been beheaded on his orders.
It is also believed she was watching a game when taken into custody.
The court at Hampton Court is the oldest of its kind in the world and one of a handful in the UK still in use.
The ‘game of kings’, as it was known, such was its popularity with both the French and British monarchies, became less popular, especially as France edged towards revolution in the late 18th Century.
Outdoor racket games became more and more popular and began taking over from croquet as England’s main summer sport.
In 1874, a Welsh army major named Walter Clopton Wingfield designed and patented a game called Sphairistikè (Greek for ‘ball game’).
His game’s obscure title was quickly dropped in favour of ‘lawn tennis’ and the modern game was born.