‘The Sport of Kings’: Shooting and The Court of Edward VII

Abstract

For Victorians, the (sport of kings’ was fox hunting. But fox hunting boasted of being (open to all’ and for this reason — as well as mounting radical opposition in the last third of the nineteenth century—it was not suited to be a court sport. The Royal Buckhounds, which hunted the carted stag, were an anachronism. This article shows that the new court sport developed by Edward VII as Prince of Wales on his Sandringham estate was battue shooting of reared pheasants. It suggests that historical narratives of the rise of opposition to hunting have obscured the significance of this sport for the court. It is argued that pheasant shooting performed many of the functions required for a court sport. It was predictable, highly organised, spectacular and competitive. Above all, it was training for war.