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MEDIEVAL ENGLAND
war game, a contest between two armies on the field of battle,
and in the eastern game the pieces have a military character. It
is the king with his army composed of a counsellor or vizier
(the queen of the European game), horses (knights), chariots
or rooks, elephants (later bishops), and infantry (pawns or
pedites). Through Islam before the year 1000 the game had
passed into Spain and Italy, and thence northward by way of
France and Germany into England. Apart from one or two
texts of late date and doubtful authority which connect King
Canute with the game, there is little to suggest that it had
reached England before the Norman Conquest. But shortly
after that event it was certainly known. By mo at latest
scaccarium, the chessboard, had been adopted as the name ofthe
financial department, the exchequer; a poem composed at
Winchester in the first halfofthe twelfth century describes the
game, the pieces, and the moves; and the de Naturis R.emm of
Alexander Neckham, probably written about the turn of the
century, contains a chapter de Scaccis. Henceforth the historical
and romantic literature ofthe middle ages abounds in allusions
to chess. The wardrobe accounts ofEdward I show that mon/
arch possessed oftwo 'families' of chessmen, one ofjasper and
crystal and another of ivory, and inventories of the chattels of
the
nobility would sometimes make mention ofa set. In Europe
some of the pieces changed their form and movement; the
counsellor changed sex and became the queen (as did the prox
moted pawn) and the elephant became the bishop. But at this
stage in the development ofthe game neither ofthese pieces was
held to be of great value; the queen's movement was very re*"
stricted and the bishop, who is referred to as a bald head (calms)
or an old man (senex) or even as a thief or a spy, was held in
some contempt. The powerful pieces in this early game, the
pieces on which the player relied in making his attack, were the
knight and the rook. The game was generally played for a stake,
and often violent quarrels broke out in which the heavy board
ofwood or metal was effectively used as a weapon. The con'
tinued popularity of the game throughout the middle ages is
shown by the fact that the second book which Caxton printed