Elizabeth Ist coat of arms

Elizabethan Games

Queen Elizabeth Ist

"Queen Elizabeth Ist"


Elizabethan Card Games

Card Games were popular with anyone who like to gamble. The following card games were played by Elizabethans:

  • One & Thirty - ancestors to modern Blackjack

  • Ruff and Honors - Played in teams of four players
  • Maw - A 16th-century trick-taking game for up to 10 players

Elizabethan Sports - Elizabethan Games
Elizabethan Games were popular in all walks of society, especially those games which allowed an element of gambling.. Games were played by the Upper classes and the Lower classes. By adults and children. Different types of Elizabethan Games fell into a number of different categories:

  • Card Games
  • Board Games
  • Dice Games
  • Sporting Games
  • C hildren's games

Elizabethan Board Games
The following board games were played by Elizabethans:

  • Chess
  • Tables - Backgammon
  • Nine Men's Morris
  • Alquerques - A classic period strategy game, an ancestor of Checkers
  • Fox & Geese - a game of strategy
  • The Philosophers Game - a game of strategy and numbers
  • Shove Ha'penny - a board game played with coins
  • Shovelboard - the ancestor of shuffleboard

Elizabethan Dice Games
The following dice games were played by Elizabethans:

  • Knucklebones - Early game of dice
  • Hazard - an ancestor of Craps

Elizabethan Sporting Games
The following Sporting games were played by Elizabethans:

  • Archery - Archery contests were extremely popular during the Elizabethan era
  • Tag - Children's game of 'catch'
  • Battledore and Shuttlecock - the ancestors of modern badminton
  • Billiards
  • Bowls
  • Colf - the ancestor of Golf
  • Gameball - a simple football game
  • Hammer-throwing
  • Hurling or Shinty - similar to hockey
  • Horseshoes - throwing horseshoes at a target
  • Pall Mall - an ancestor of Croquet
  • Quarter-staff contests
  • Rounders - a bat-and-ball game similar to the modern baseball
  • Skittles -  an ancestor of modern ten-pin bowling
  • Stoolball - an ancestor of Cricket
  • Tennis
  • Wrestling

Elizabethan Children's games
The following children's games were played by Elizabethans:

  • Blind Man's Buff - a children's game but also played by adults.
  • Hopscotch - Common children's game
  • Marbles - Common children's game
Elizabethan Sports
Elizabethan Era Index

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