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:''"Olympicks" redirects here. For the 776 BC to AD 393 Games see Ancient Olympic Games. For the 1894 revival, see Olympic Games. The Cotswold Olimpick Games is an annual public celebration of games and sports now held on the Friday after Spring Bank Holiday near Chipping Campden, in the Cotswolds of England. The Games probably began in 1612, and have continued on and off to the present day. They were started by a local lawyer, Robert Dover, with the approval of King James. Dover's motivation in organising the Games may have been his belief that physical exercise was necessary for the defence of the realm, but he may also have been attempting to bring rich and poor together; the Games were attended by all classes of society, including royalty on one occasion. Events included horse-racing, coursing with hounds, running, jumping, dancing, sledgehammer throwing, fighting with swords and cudgels, quarterstaff, and wrestling. Booths and tents were erected in which games such as chess and cards were played for small stakes, and abundant food was supplied for everyone who attended. A temporary wooden structure called Dover Castle was erected in a natural amphitheatre on what is now known as Dover's Hill, complete with small cannons that were fired to begin the events. The Games took place on the Thursday and Friday of the week of Whitsun, normally between mid-May and mid-June. Many 17th-century Puritans disapproved of such festivities, believing them to be of pagan origin, and they particularly disapproved of any celebration on a Sunday or a church holiday such as Whitsun. By the time of King James's death in 1625, many Puritan landowners had forbidden their workers to attend such festivities; the increasing tensions between the supporters of the king and the Puritans resulted in the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642, bringing the Games to an end. Revived after the Restoration of 1660, the Games gradually degenerated into a drunk and disorderly country festival according to their critics. The Games ended again in 1852, when the common land on which they had been staged was partitioned between local landowners and farmers and subsequently enclosed. Since 1966 the Games have been held each year on the Friday after Spring Bank Holiday. Events have included the tug of war, gymkhana, shin-kicking, dwile flonking, motorcycle scrambling, judo, piano smashing, and morris dancing. The British Olympic Association has recognised the Cotswold Olimpick Games as "the first stirrings of Britain's Olympic beginnings".〔 ==Origins== The first Olimpick Games were probably held in 1612, organised by lawyer Robert Dover, although different sources give dates from 1601 until 1612. Little is known about Dover. He was probably born between 1575 and 1582 in Norfolk, one of four children born to John Dover, and may have been admitted to Queens' College at Cambridge in 1595, leaving early to avoid swearing the Oath of Supremacy. Dover was admitted to Gray's Inn on 27 February 1605, and was probably called to the bar in 1611,〔 the same year he likely moved to Saintbury, near Chipping Campden, with his wife and children.〔 It is unclear whether Dover began the Games from scratch, or took over from an existing event, perhaps a church ale. The Games had the approval of King James,〔 who in his book of advice to his son, ''Basilikon Doron'' (1599), had written that to promote good feeling among the common people towards their king, "certain days in the year would be appointed, for delighting the people with public spectacles of all honest games, and exercise of arms". Although there was at that time in England a growing admiration for the ancient Greeks, Dover may have been motivated by military rather than cultural considerations. His biographer, Christopher Whitfield, claimed that Dover combined ancient countryside practices with "classical mythology and Renaissance culture, whilst linking them with the throne and the King's Protestant Church".〔 Dover believed that physical exercise was necessary for the defence of the kingdom. He may also have believed that the Games would bring rich and poor together, increasing social harmony, an ideal that might explain why the event captured the public imagination.}} Endymion Porter, a member of the court of King James, had an estate in the village of Aston-sub-Edge, close to Dover's home.〔 Dover acted as Porter's legal agent between 1622 and 1640, and through him James sent some of his own clothes to Dover, "purposely to grace him and consequently the solemnity (the Games )".〔 James may also have granted Dover a coat of arms, with the motto "Do Ever Good", as claimed by Dover's grandson, a claim that was rejected by the heraldic authorities in 1682. The ''Annalia Dubrensia'' (Annals of Dover), a collection of poems praising Dover and his achievements in promoting and managing the Games, was published in 1636. The contributors included well-known poets such as Michael Drayton, Ben Jonson, Thomas Randolph, and Thomas Heywood. They saw the Games as revitalising traditional English social life, and they countered opposition from the critics of such events, who complained of "drunken behaviour and sexual licence", by stressing the "peaceful and well-behaved" nature of the occasion, and even praising the Games as "a gesture of loyalty to the king". The Games had acquired their title of "Olimpicks" by the time the ''Annalia Dubrensia'' was published, a name approved of by Dover. It secularised the proceedings, while adding an air a gentrification to the sports by linking them with the Olympics of ancient Greece. Having been brought up in a Catholic family, Dover might well have been keen not to draw attention to religion, particularly if the Games had taken over from an earlier church ale. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cotswold Olimpick Games」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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