How Golf Gave Rise To The English Empire

The world would be a very different place today were it not for golf.  One could even say that had the game never caught on in 16th century Scotland that the United States as we know it may never have come to be.  A strong statement to be sure, but remember that history is a chain of events where one things leads to another, which leads to something else, literally et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And in the chain of events that led to America golf has a pivotal link.

Specifically, the game was the catalyst that led to the rise of the English as a true world power, and through the centuries that have passed since, that rise has affected almost every period in one form or the other. In fact, England’s global status still has much to do with the realities of now.

During the 16th Century, America was being settled, and the New World was being carved into colonies by the dominant western European powers of that time, Spain, France and Portugal. The Spanish were extracting gold from the New World and shipping it back the mother country literally by the shipload, and the French were doing much the same with other American natural resources, and Portgual had taken the area we know today as Brazil for itself. England was also a player in the race to dominate the Americas, but by no means was the country as big a player as its rivals from the European continent.

Enter Mary Turner.

Most people know Mary Turner better by the name history has chosen for her, "Mary, Queen of Scots."

Mary was born to Scottish royalty, and through her maternal ancestry, she had deep ties to the French House Of Guise. In her first marriage, she joined into the perhaps the most powerful families in Italy, the House of Medici. She was raised in France and through her first husband, she had claim to the throne of France. Unfortunately for her, her husband died, taking her claim to the throne with him.

Her power base removed, in 1560, Mary decided to return to her native Scotland, a place where she still had legitimate royal powers. She remarried, betrothed to Lord Darnley, a man who was murdered not many years after their matrimonial union.

Shortly thereafter, golf changed the course of the world.

Mary, an avid golfer, fell afoul of the Church of England for playing the game shortly after Lord Darnley’s murder — according to them, her time of the links showed a great disrespect and lack of proper mourning for her late husband. These were not charges easily dismissed by even royalty: the Church's place in the affairs of state in the 16th century were far greater than any time since, and royals were forced to reckon with its whims.

Interestingly, today, the skull of Darnley is now in the Royal College of Surgeons in London and bears the telltale pitted marks of Syphilis. Darnley’s notorious promiscuity would have finally had the better of him had he not in fact been killed, yet Mary was damned and persecuted for playing golf…which is, of course, a very accepted way for one to put away their troubles, at least for a little while.’

It was this event that almost certainly fouled Mary politically, leading to inevitably to her execution for treason in 1587.

Did You Know How Mary Queen of Scots Changed The Game Itself?

Mary is credited with bringing the term "caddy" into the golf. In France, military cadets carried golf clubs for royalty, and it was that Mary brought the custom to Scotland, where the term for someone employed to carry a player's clubs evolved into the word "caddy."

She was also the first woman to practice and play the game in Scotland, making her one of the earliest as truest of women sporting pioneers.

So How Did Golf Change The World?

The beginning of Mary’s downfall in Scotland is clearly attributable to golf as political cover.

Her execution caused an absolute outrage and calls for war against England throughout Catholic Europe. This resulted in the invasion of the Spanish Armada in 1588 – an event set in motion partially to avenge her death and the military goal of the Armada was to depose Elizabeth I, return the thrones of England to the Catholic Church and leave England as a weakened client-state of their own.

The results of the battle were far-reaching: the Spanish were suffering a humiliating defeat in the English Channel, thanks to inferior tactics and quite frankly, simple bad luck.  The weather turned against the Spanish and heavily damaged their fleet, making the English defense of their homeland all the easier.  The English had more ships, and the damaged Spanish fleet could hardly attain any of their goals.  They were thoroughly routed.

In defeat, the Spaniards fled terror around the coast of Scotland, and for home. The lasting result was the clear establishment England as a global power – and establishing the English empire not only in Europe and the Americas, but also freeing it to conquer India and other countries.

Would these events have happened had Mary Queen of Scots chosen not to mourn her dead husband on the links? Would her enemies have found another convenient excuse to call for her head? Possibly, perhaps probably, but history clearly shows the old game as the catalyst that set in motion events that have forever changed the world.