Gambling Crusade
In a recent post I have opined that an engaging book on the follies of gambling well deserves to be included in the classic Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay, LLD. In fact the latter mentions (p. 425) that gambling was a matter of concern during the third crusade (led by Richard, Cœur de Lion).
With a view of purging their camp from the follies and vices which had proved so ruinous to preceding expeditions, they drew up a code of laws for the government of the army. Gambling had been carried to a great extent, and proved the fruitful source of quarrels and bloodshed; and one of their laws prohibited any person in the army, beneath the degree of a knight, from playing at any game for money. Knights and clergymen might play for money, but no one was permitted to lose or gain more than twenty shillings in a day, under a penalty of one hundred shillings. The personal attendants of the monarchs were also allowed to play to the same extent. The penalty in their case of infraction was that they should be whipped naked through the army for the space of three days.
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