The Sport of Kingmakers: Horse Racing in Late Stuart England

This essay sketches the general outlines of an argument that locates the rise of horse racing as a national sport in England in the context of national political change. In brief, the argument might be summarized as saying that horse racing was as much the sport of kingmakers as of kings, a recreation of martyrs as well as monarchs; and that some of its early participants were associated with breeding rebellion, as well as racehorses. The earliest public mention of a 'Jockey Club' appears to be a newspaper notice in the summer of 1729, and I have argued elsewhere that this club can be seen acting as a quasi-official body as early as 1717, though not necessarily under that name. Here, I want to extend that argument further in suggesting that the Club whose meeting was publicly announced in 1729 coalesced over the course of the preceding half-century. The argument I sketch here identifies how a very specific emergence of a particular organization of the sport served a very specific ideological purpose during a time of considerable tension over the relationship of church and state. The conflict between Protestants and Catholics, and the anxieties about succession and rebellion that these conflicts engendered, were more than just the backdrop to the rise of the sport; and the particular sport that emerged helped celebrate and popularize a Protestant succession settlement that ultimately excluded dozens of Stuart claimants to the throne in favor of the house of Hanover.