Royal Toxophilites

When I was researching for the post on Regent’s Park a couple of weeks ago, I ran across a mention that had me drooling to do discover more (lovely, lovely research!). The tantalizing tidbit?

Prinny was a member of the Toxophilite Society.

I had known the Prince Regent practiced the manly arts when he was a young man and lent his patronage to a few, but I hadn’t realized he was such an archery enthusiast. It wasn’t news to the incomparable Emily Hendrickson, one of the beloved authors of early Regency romance and an avid historian. She references the matter in her Lord Nick’s Folly.

Now, Marissa told you about toxophilia or the love of archery a while ago. The Toxophilite Society was formed by Sir Ashton Lever in 1781. When the man who would become George IV added his patronage in 1787, it became the Royal Toxophilite Society. The prince also lent his patronage to the Royal British Bowmen and the Royal Kentish Bowmen. He not only shot in competition from time to time, but he also awarded the prizes at various competitions. In one case, he had a portrait painted of himself by John Russel with an English longbow in the colors of the Royal Kentish Bowmen and gave away the portrait as a prize. It is now hung in Buckingham Palace. The picture is apparently copyrighted, but you can see aversion here. 

Other local archery societies sprang up around the country with general meetings beginning in 1789, but each set up its own rules. Prinny is credited with standardizing the lengths of the various shooting competitions: 100 yards, 80 yards, and 60 yards. At least one Victorian-era source claims only a handful of archers ever hit the innermost ring of the target (called the bullseye later in the century) at 100 yards.

Prinny is also said to have laid out the rules for the rings and colors painted on targets. The middle circle was painted with real gold and was worth 9 points if your arrow hit it, followed by red (7 points), white (5), black (3), and then white again (1).

Today, membership in the Royal Toxophilite Society is by invitation only. If you’d like to learn more, I recommend this piece by a lady historian and archer. 

And you don’t need an invitation or Prinny’s patronage to read it. 😊

Blast from the Past: Toxophilia

In honor of the amazing women from all countries competing at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio...a reminder that women in sports is not necessarily a completely modern phenomenon...

In these days of Title IX when young women can participate in pretty much any sport they choose, it’s easy to forget that just a hundred years ago, anything much more strenuous than a decorous horseback ride in Rotten Row, a gentle game of tennis or maybe—maybe—a few holes of golf was frowned upon by the medical profession and society alike. Girls, move freely and break a sweat? How un-lady-like!

But there have always been a handful of sports to which young women have been given grudging access…and one of them was archery. Here was a sport at which it was unlikely you might become overheated or over-excited. It was a sport you could do while wearing a corset (in fact, wearing a corset might even help!) And it gave you a chance to order adorable new clothes, like the archery suit from 1829 worn by this young lady at the right.

Archery was a reasonably popular sport in 19th century England, due in no small part to the important role it played in English history. In the middle ages, English bowmen were famed (and feared!) in warfare. English longbows could launch an arrow capable of piercing plate armor, which of course did not make French knights very happy during the Hundred Years' War. Several kings passed laws requiring all able-bodied men over the age of 17 to own a bow and arrows and establishing mandatory weekly shooting practice. This fell by the wayside once firearms became widespread, but interest in archery never died…and indeed, recreational archery enjoyed a resurgence with the foundation of the Royal Toxophilite Society in 1781. Toxophilia (isn’t that a dreadful sounding word?) means “love of archery”, and several prominent members of the nobility became members of the society, most notably the Prince of Wales (who later became Prince Regent and King George IV). They established a permanent clubhouse and shooting range in 1833 in Regent’s Park in London where practices and in-club competitions were held weekly in season…and, unusually for this time, they held an annual Ladies’ Day invitational competition every July with prizes given by the society. Go girls!