Rex ludens: Tennis, power and monarchy between the Vasa and Bernadotte dynasties

This project examines tennis as a status symbol for Swedish royalty and as a means for the monarchy to secure its legitimacy through sport from the mid-16th century to the mid-20th century. With such a long period of study, the project challenges and transcends traditional periodisations in sport history, a discipline that often focuses on sport as a modern phenomenon. Sport is seen here as a tool for the display of royal power and prestige, both publicly and through informal networks. The following research questions are addressed:

1. How did the practice of tennis develop as a means of projecting royal status from the 16th to the 20th centuries?
2.In what ways did tennis as a royal pastime facilitate the strengthening of political and social networks, both domestically and internationally?

Although studies have shown that tennis was a symbol of prestige in early modern courts, research into how this dynamic has continued or developed in modern times remains limited. In Sweden, the game of 'real tennis' became popular during the reign of Gustav Vasa, in the 16th century, but disappeared in the late 17th century, only to return with Gustaf V, who introduced 'lawn tennis' in the 1870s.

Through qualitative analysis of a range of sources, the project examines how tennis evolved from an elite, exclusive pursuit to a pastime that presented the royals as popular and public figures, reflecting wider social changes such as modernisation and democratisation. The project's early modern sources consist mainly of financial court records, while the modern period is covered by biographies, newspapers and audiovisual material.

Preliminary findings from a pilot study suggest a hypothesis of the project, namely that tennis was used in the early modern period to demonstrate the divine nature of absolutist royal power, whereas in the modern period it became a way of demonstrating royal power as based on the will of the people. The renegotiation of royal status expressed through the sport of tennis therefore requires a modified version of sportification theory focusing on two different processes in two different periods. By introducing concepts such as 'exclusivist sportification' for the early modern period and 'inclusivist sportification' for the modern period, this project will contribute to knowledge of the role of sport in societal changes and the monarchy's adaptation to these changes.

I projektet undersöks tennisens utveckling som kunglig statussymbol i Sverige från 1500-tal till 1900-tal. Med en lång undersökningsperiod utmanas traditionella periodiseringar inom idrottshistorisk forskning, som annars varit en utpräglad modernhistorisk disciplin. Med hjälp av nya perspektiv på sportifieringsteorin och utifrån ett varierat källmaterial bestående av hovräkenskaper, tidningsartiklar och biografier, utgår projektet från hypotesen att kungligheters tennisspelande historiskt kommit att präglas av en maktförskjutning. I tidigmodern tid var ”real tennis” ett led i att iscensätta bilden av kungligheters makt som gudagiven. När kungligheter i modern tid introducerade ”lawn tennis” i Sverige, blev sporten i stället en symbol för kungamaktens folkliga förankring.