Keeping fit in later Medieval England: Exercise for man and beast

Rawcliffe, Carole (2022) Keeping fit in later Medieval England: Exercise for man and beast. History, 107 (376). pp. 507-525. ISSN 0018-2648

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Abstract

This article begins by exploring ideas about physical exercise as outlined in the advice literature that circulated widely in late medieval and early sixteenth-century England. Whereas other aspects of these popular guides to health have attracted considerable interest on the part of medical and cultural historians, recommendations about exercise have been largely neglected. Yet it was deemed essential for both physical and mental wellbeing. Its principal function was to augment and redistribute the body's innate heat, which functioned as ‘Nature's primary instrument’, while improving digestion and the elimination of waste, encouraging restorative sleep, and combatting stress. These ideas spread rapidly throughout society, being harnessed to suit the practical needs of many classes of people, especially after the Black Death when keeping fit became a priority. Not even animals could escape current assumptions about the importance of remaining active, while political theorists emphasised the need to purge idle and unproductive elements from the communal body.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	The peer review history for this article is available at https://publons.com/publon/10.1111/1468-229X.13238
Uncontrolled Keywords:	history ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1200/1202
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	16 Feb 2022 12:30
Last Modified:	22 Oct 2022 17:34
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/83525
DOI:	10.1111/1468-229X.13238

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