How Was Billiards Invented, and How Did It Become Popular?
Billiards was originally a lawn game played outdoors in the grass, similar to croquet. It was played this way until some time in the 1400s when northern Europeans, probably the French, moved the game play to the tabletop. King Louis XI of France (1423-1483) is the first person in history definitively known to have had an indoor billiards table. Originally, the tabletop game featured croquet-like hoops for the balls to go through above each pocket. Rather than striking the balls with a cue, players would shove the balls using a stick called a mace. Because the mace was difficult to maneuver, players would sometimes turn it backwards and move the balls with the tail or “queue” in French. The cue stick came along in the 17th century, named after the mace’s queue. How Did Billiards Become Popular? Judging by Louis XI’s billiards table from the mid-1400s, it seems that the game became popular within its first 100 years. When Shakespeare wrote “Antony and Cleopatra” in 1606, he made reference to the game. No one is sure when the first billiards game was imported to the United States, but George Washington (1732-1799) was known to play billiards. The game’s popularity in...
View Article Read More