Addressing a gap in the literature to link the physical culture of the ancient world with the beginnings of modern sport, this book traces the history of the evolution of a variety of sports, games and physical education from 450-1650AD across Western Europe. These practices evolved over time as part of a natural process of selection and, more spectacularly, as effects of external factors both social and technological. They also evolved within a wide historical and cultural framework, itself constantly shifting as Europe slowly reconstituted itself after the disintegration of the Roman Empire, and so the book also takes in the changing nature of geopolitical structures, educational systems, religious institutions and the practice of warfare and medicine. The book traces the disappearance of ancient physical culture with its gymnasia, gladiators and chariot races, the invention of a new physical culture based on chivalry around 1000AD, the transformation of that culture in the Renaissance, and its disappearance around 1650 under the influences of new science.