In 1363, the king of England tried to ban all sports other than archery in order to ensure English supremacy with the longbow. The ban had little effect, however, as the people of England continued to play ball games and board games. In this episode, we explore how terms associated with games and sports shaped the English language, and we also examine the gaming references in Geoffrey Chaucer's first original poem.

In the years immediately following the Black Death, a labor shortage in the countryside led to the rise of yeomen and other rural laborers. The rise of these English-speaking classes led to corresponding rise in the prestige of English. The ascendency of English culminated with the Statute of Pleading which made English the official language of the government for the first time since the Norman Conquest.