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Reg.: 05 Set 2002
Messaggi: 6
Da: H0H (es)
|  Inviato: 05-09-2002 13:12 |
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This site deals with The Royal Game of Tennis, the precursor of our present game of tennis, as it was played between c.1470-1700. Much research has been done into The Game of Kings, The King of Games as it was played by the Tudor and Stuart Kings, the results of which can be read in standard tennis history books as The Annals of Tennis (1878), The Willis Faber Book of Tennis & Rackets (1980) and most recently Roger Morgan’s Tennis. The Development of the European Ball Game (1995). Although the origin of the game of tennis is hotly disputed, it is safe to claim, however, that the first enclosed tennis courts were not to be found at the Tudor court, but on the Continent. It is generally accepted that the 15th century Burgundian and Italian courts served as models for the early modern courts of Europe. Recreation and entertainment were essential forms of diversion in the life at court of the great Burgundian dukes Philip the Good and Charles the Bold as well as at the Renaissance courts of the illustrious Medici, Sforza, Gonzaga and Este princes. It should come as no surprise that according to archival research undertaken so far the Dukes of Burgundy and two Italian princely dynasties, the Estes of Ferrara and the Sforzas of Milan are associated with the first walled-in tennis courts that have been traced. Our itinerary starts at the splendid courts of Renaissance Italy after which we set out for the magnificent Châteaux of the Valois Kings. Then we head further north to visit the Low Countries, in search of the first tennis racket. We finish our quest for Royal Tennis Courts in Germany.
Pallacorda
Italy
Tennis as one of the Chivalrous Exercises. Italian Painting (Anonymus, 1570/80).
The Royal Tennis Court of Hampton Court Palace, originally built for King Henry VIII, is arguably the world’s oldest indoor sporting facility still in use. The game of royal – or real – tennis played on this vast indoor court has remained virtually the same in style and manner ever since it was conceived over 500 years ago. Simple ballgames had been common all over Europe since classical antiquity, but for an answer to the question of how the elevation to tennis, the chivalrous exercise for the Tudor and Stuart Kings originated, we turn to the Renaissance princely courts of Italy with their marvellous palaces and villas and splendid court culture. Renaissance humanists such as Guarino da Verona and Vittorino da Feltre were inspired by the antique (= Galen) concern to exercise the body, in particular they appealed to the ancient sphaeristerium (= walled-in ballcourt), a sporting facility most luxurious Roman villas were equipped with at the time. Ancient sources seem to be speaking of a hall or room serving this purpose, apparently fitted with a mosaic floor and possibly also gently heated by the thermae (baths) incorporated into the building. In the second half of the 15th century the purpose-built tennis halls of the illustrious Sforza, Medici, Gonzaga, Este and Montefeltro dynasties became the setting for the revival of the ballgames of classical antiquity. The Humanist Prince experienced the game of tennis (gioco della palla) as a particularly rewarding exercise, for the recreation of the body as well as for the mind. In addition the tennis tournaments played by the court professionals provided a fascinating form of indoor spectacle; a clear manifestation of the splendour and magnificence of his court. Recent research into Italian court culture has come up with fascinating material about the "royal game of tennis":
Gianni Clerici, in his The Ultimate Tennis Book. 500 Years of the Sport (1976), was the first tennis historian to delve into the history of the game in Italy. In his chapter on Renaissance tennis Clerici also briefly touched on Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza’s (1444-1476) passion for tennis. Recently much more archival material has become available (in Gregory Lubkin’s A Renaissance Court. Milan under Galeazzo Maria Sforza, 1994) on Galeazzo Maria’s tennis and the Duke, one of the most powerful and extravagant rulers of his age, can rightfully be called the first patron of tennis. The written record of young Galeazzo’s first game of tennis is in a letter he wrote to his father Francesco Sforza on 2 August 1457 from the Este villa of Belriguardo. The text of the letter implies that it may have been an indoor court – probably built under Borso d’Este –as Galeazzo wrote that he had been playing tennis and cards because it had been raining. During Galeazzo’s reign tennis became the main gambling sport at court when between 1472-1474 he had the first tennis court of his own built at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan.
It was to be the greatest tennis hall to date, with an appropriate name, the Sala della Balla. The most revealing information about tennis at the Sforza court comes from letters that ambassadors sent to their principals, especially to Mantua (the Gonzaga dynasty), Florence (Medici) and Ferrara (Este). In various letters in May 1472 the Mantova Ambassador to Milan informed his patron Ludovico Gonzaga about Galeazzo’s enthusiasm for the game of tennis or gioco della palla and about the exhibition matches played by his tennis professionals. Time and again, however, the ambassador was puzzled by the heavy gambling stakes which the Duke placed on the outcome of the tennis matches. By employing a wide range of recreational personnel – tennisplayers, musicians and huntsmen – Galeazzo sought to enhance his prestige. A victory by his best tennis pro, El Maystreto, over a rival from another court was experienced as a personal triumph. The Duke took it for granted that the foreign dignitaries in the spectator galleries who were fortunate enough to be invited to this spectacular form of private court entertainment, would be quite impressed. Galeazzo had gathered the best tennis pros from other Italian courts and demanded top-class performances from them. When in 1573 one of his best players, Arcangelo da Colli, failed to beat his opponent from the Urbino court, he was immediately dismissed. The winner of this dramatic exhibition match was engaged in his place, just before he was to return to the Montefeltro court. The exact dimonsions of Galeazzo’s Sala della Balla are not known. A plan of Federigo da Montefeltro’s tennis court at the Palazzo Ducale in Urbino, however, based on an eyewitness report from 1480, shows that his gioco della palla was 22 by 7.5 metres. The plan also features the characteristic gallery alongside the court from which the spectators could watch play.
By 1490 a new term for the game of tennis started to crop up in Italian documents: gioco della pallacorda or sometimes just pallacorda. The name provides us with a fascinating clue and may even be regarded as compelling evidence that the first tennis net (actually a cord at first ), dividing the service and the receiving sides, originated in Italy. According to the humanist Paolo Cortesi, in his De Cardinalatu (1510), a Latin encyclopedia of courtly manners, a pallacorda (funarium) had to be included in the layout of the main secular as well as ecclesiastical palaces and villas. In his brief description of the game of tennis Cortesi uses two terms - the aula and the triclinium - to distinguish two types of tennis court: the former being a more or less purpose-built tennis court, the latter any suitably sized room that could easily be converted into a basic tennis court. "Noster Papa’, Cortesi’s patron, Pope Julius II, advocated pallacorda as the most rewarding of all ballgames. Tennis was to become the most popular princely pastime (apart from hunting) at the Italian courts of the 16th century. The first record of the term ‘corda’ for a game of tennis we owe to Cortesi as well. It can be found in a letter from 1490 which informs us that the young writer was involved in an interesting tennis match when he spent some time at the Medici court in Florence to study the grand life-style of Lorenzo the Magnificent. His own Roman team played a Florentine partnership of Piero de Medici, Lorenzo’s son. The losers of the Roman-Florentine match were to pay 25 ducati to the winners.
Until the year 1555 the rules of ballgames were passed on orally. It can be taken for granted that their interpretation occasionally caused heated arguments. Not in the least when money had been put on the outcome of the match. It was essential that play was regulated. In 1555 a young theologian at the court of Ferrara, Antonio Scaino, published a manual on how the various ballgames were to be played in a refined, courtly manner. His Trattato del Giuoco della Palla includes a comprehensive account of the game of tennis (giuoco della corda) and the publication was dedicated to Alfonso II d’Este, Duke of Ferrara. Scaino never fails to emphasise what his Most Illustrious Prince’s favourite ballgame was: palla a corda, either played with a racket or with the bare hand. In Scaino’s days there were separate tennis tournaments played for the two categories, so we read in the Trattato. The Italians and Spaniards played mainly with their bare hands. The French champions mentioned by Scaino, Verdelôt and Laches, struck the ball with a racket. Scaino’s book was to spark a genuine boost of interest at all the Italian courts as well as among the urban elite. The aristocracy were eager to adopt the new regulations. In this way they could draw a line between themselves and the lower orders who played ballgames in the streets. The princely tennis courts were increasingly regulated in their layout. The disorderly was made orderly; the aristocracy had created a wonderful elitist recreation.
The different diagrams of tennis courts in Scaino’s book make clear that there were two major types:
1 – the Jeu Quarr¾ , the older category with galleries along two of the walls, where the players played with the bare hand or with a simple paleta, and
2 – the Jeu ´ Dedans, the larger court with three galleries, where tennis was played with a racket.
Of the two types the smaller court with the two galleries was the more popular in Italy until about 1580. This preference may well be attributed to the fact that, as far is now known, the racket came into vogue in Italy at a later stage than in, for example, France. This was probably the reason why Scaino chose the Louvre tennis court as the best example of the Jeu a Dedans variety and had included a plan of this major court in his treatise. According to Scaino the Louvre tennis court was built in the grand architectural style worthy of a king. He does not identify the architect involved, but it is not unlikely that the Louvre tennis court plan in his book was inspired by Sebastiano Serlio. In 1540 King Francis I of France had employed Serlio’s services especially to advise on the Louvre renovation project. The second of Serlio’s Libro VI manuscripts includes two tennis courts for the Louvre design. Serlio was the leading North Italian architect of his time, and he had a close relationship with Duke Alfonso II d’Este’s predecessor, Ercole II. The second French project featuring a tennis court (of the jeu ´ dedans type) which Serlio was involved in was Le Grand Ferrara, Cardinal Ippolito II d’Este’s (Ercole II’s brother) classical residence in Fontainebleau. In 1571 Ippolito had written his nephew Alfonso, the commissioner of Scaino’s book, informing him that he was to create a tennis court "alla francese" (= jeu ´ dedans) at his Villa d’Este in Tivoli and that he would appreciate to have the Duke’s advice on how to arrange the galleries alongside the walls of the court.
The period 1560-1580 saw a flurry of princely tennis court construction. Renaissance princes constantly sought to outshine each other in all forms of recreational facilities, also in the field of tennis court building. Ippolito’s arch-rival to the papal throne, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, commissioned the famous architect Vignola with the erection of a beautiful ‘pallacorda’ at his favourite Villa Farnese in Caprarola, not far from Tivoli. Alfonso II d’Este had a ‘pallacorda’ built at both the Belfiore and the Belvedere villa, whereas he could still play a game at Belriguardo, the court where young Galeazzo Maria Sforza played as early as 1457. Another convert to the game, Grandduke Cosimo I de Medici, had tennis courts (called pallatoio in Tuscany) erected at the Palazzo Pitti and at his Villa at Poggio a Caiano. The building still stands in the north-east corner of the villa gardens. Although the interior is not in its original state, this ‘pallacorda’ building is the only Renaissance tennis monument that has survived in Italy. For the rest only the name "pallacorda" remains in present-day streetnames, a clear indication of how popular the game of tennis used to be.
The fact that France was the new playground of the High Renaissance architectural style, must have prompted Sebastiano Serlio to serve King Francis I as his architectural adviser in 1540. But France also played a pioneering role in the development of the game of tennis. Had Scaino not included a plan of the Louvre Jeu à Dedans court, as there was no such a "major" tennis court to be found in Italy? Magnificence and luxury in architecture was a popular topic among French humanist educators. Some of them, Rabelais in particular, also gave their views on the role recreational facilities played in the planning of royal residences. In his major work, Gargantua from 1534, Rabelais devoted the last seven chapters to the celebrated description of the Abbey of Thélème, the ultimate Utopian pleasure dome. Brilliant humorist that he was, Rabelais ridiculed the excessive luxury of the Thélème theme, a palace a hundred times more sumptuous than any other Renaissance château. The three-tier construction was packed with luxuries such as swimming pools and theatres, all for the recreation of its fortunate inhabitants. There were pleasure gardens disposed around the main building, equipped with courts for the game of tennis, jeu de ballon (or pallone) and there were a tilt yard and a riding ring. Rabelais’ views on material splendour certainly fell on deaf ears with Francis I, since he became the prime example of the Renaissance king who regarded architecture as the ultimate form of monarchic display. His reign marked an outburst of architectural activity in the Loire valley and in the Ile de France where new palaces were built, the majority of which were fitted with a Jeu de Paume. As to the construction of tennis courts Francis I sought to outshine all his princely rivals, particularly Henry VIII of England. By 1530 Henry VIII, a recent convert of the royal game, had "tennis plays" erected at four of his favourite palaces: Greenwich, St James’s, Hampton Court and Whitehall. The most pretentious leisure complex, with tilt yards, cockfighting pits and bowling alleys, was Henry’s Whitehall Palace in London. At this "Largest Palace of Christendom" as many as five open and closed tennis courts could be found, built not only for Henry himself, but also to keep his courtiers engaged.
Our best source of information on the role the tennis court played in the organisation of Renaissance palaces and villas is Jacques Androuet du Cerceau’s Les Plus Excellents Bastiments de France. The Valois Kings Francois I and Henry II claimed that through the publication of this impressive pictorial work, the power of the House of Valois would be immortalised. In his drawings the celebrated French architect and engraver has zoomed in on thirty of France’s most beautiful ch teaux, perpetuating twenty-one bird’s eye views of gloriously laid out (open) jeux de paumes in the process. The most fascinating are his designs for Charleval (with four tennis courts laid out in the gardens), Verneuil (with tennis players on court and spectators in the galleries). Both of these architectural projects were actuallly commissioned to him by Catherine de Medici, the Queen Mother.
The layout and dimensions of a Renaissance tennis court were regulated, so we learned from Scaino’s treatise on ballgames. Du Cerceau’s original drawings (on vellum, preserved in the British Museum) for his book on French palaces clearly show the larger (Jeu à Dedans) and smaller (Jeu Quarré) type of tennis courts, especially in his design for Blois. But his elevations also shed light on other features of Renaissance jeux de paumes, for example spectator galleries. Anet and Blois had upper galleries at one, or even either side of the court, to cater for a larger group of spectators. As we saw, however, most of the onlookers watched from the galleries alongside, or from the dedans at the back in the larger type of tennis court. This way 30 spectators at the most could be accommodated. In principle larger facilities were not required as tennis matches did not feature on the formal fixture list during royal festivities. Visiting dignitaries and their most faithful courtiers were invited on an individual basis to engage in a game of "paume’ after they had attended the official events of the programme such as horse races, feats of arms, banquets, concerts and the performance of plays. For the aristocracy organising a tennis match was a low-profile affair, for which participants and spectators were usually handpicked. This way the elite could indulge in the game wholeheartedly without being observed by a member of the lower orders. One French king, however, had no reason to feel embarrassed about his performance at any tennis court. Henry II (1547-1559) was seen as one of the best paume-players of his age and he liked to play before as many people as possible. Some observers were duly surprised to see the king lose a match (as well as some money) when he played his favourite game of tiers (three against three). As the Venetian Capello noted on Henry’s tennis playing: "no one would know that it is the king who is playing because they observe neither ceremony nor etiquette for him. They even discuss his faults and I have observed on several occasions that a disputed point has been given against him". Henry may well have been the only Renaissance king who refused to allow any deference for his royal status when engaging in sports.
Le Jeu Royal de la Paume came to a virtual end during the French Revolution of 1789, when anything that was associated with the king had to be abolished. The venue for the announcement on 20 June 1789 was carefully chosen: the Royal Tennis Court of Versailles Palace. The announcement of the French Revolution became known as the Tennis Court Oath (Le Serment du Jeu de Paume). The Jeu de Paume of Versailles still stands but now serves as a museum, not to be confused with the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, the famous museum for modern art in Paris. As the name suggests this was also originally a tennis court, or actually two: in 1861 Napoleon III gave permission for their construction in the gardens of the Tuileries.
The Burgundian Duke Philip the Good may well challenge Italy’s claim as to the construction of the first walled-in tennis court(kaatsbaan). The city accounts for the years 1453-1455 inform us of the masonry costs for the ducal Jeu de Paume (an open court) erected at Bruges’ Prinsenhof Palace, the Duke’s favourite residence. Besides Philip, and his son Charles the Bold, possessed tennis courts at virtually all other ducal palaces: the Temple in Paris being the best-known. It is not likely that these early jeu de paume courts featured a net to separate the two teams. Just as was the case in Italy the tennis net (or cord) was introduced in the Low Countries by the year 1490, so the poem Le Jeu de Palme by Jean Molinet suggests. In this allegory Molinet, Duke Philip the Fair’s official chronicler, describes through a playful metaphor how in July 1492 the City of Ghent had to sustain an attack by Archduke Maximilian and his army of tennis players. At the time the players did not use a racket yet, but were wearing gloves (mind Molinet’s pun: glove=gant, Ghent=Gand) to hit the ball across the net (Molinet: "dessus la corde"). Molinet must have used the metaphor of a game of tennis as this happened to be his patron’s favourite pastime. Philip the Fair may well have been the first tennis player to use a racket. In 1506 he played a historic match at the royal tennis court of Windsor Castle. His opponent, Lord Marquess as well as King Henry VII, who was watching, must have been amazed to see the Duke projecting the ball across the net by means of such an impressive instrument. According to the inventory drawn up after his death (as a result of a game of tennis during which he had drunk too much cold water) in 1506 Philip owned "3 raquettes et 4 gants pour jouer a la palme". There are clear indications that the racket was invented in the Low Countries and that the word "racquet" is derived from the Dutch verb "raecke" (= hit, strike). Several of the tennis matches Philip the Fair’s son, emperor Charles V, played against other Renaissance rulers were witnessed by contemporary writers: in 1522 the emperor and King Henry VIII played tennis with Philibert, Prince of Orange and the Marquis of Brandenburg at Bridewell Palace. The pallacorda (designed by Giulio Romano) of the Palazzo Te in Mantua was the venue of another of the emperor’s famous tennis matches. Here he played for over 3 hours with Duke Federigo Gonzaga. Charles V’s major residence in Brussels, the Coudenberg Palace, had two tennis courts.
The members of the League of Nobility, the leaders of the Protestant rebellion against the Spanish Inquisition in 1566, were also avid tennis players. For them as well as for William of Nassau, Prince of Orange, it was certainly not just a matter of prestige to have a tennis court they indulged in the sport for its sheer intensity and excitement. For them it was the perfect antidote after their exploits on the battlefields. One of two tennis buildings that still exist in Holland is Hendrik van Brederode’s Kaetsbaen at House Ter Kleef in Haarlem. Ter Kleef was largely destroyed by the Spaniards under Don Federico in 1573 during the siege of Haarlem. The tennis court was spared, not for Federico’s love of the game but because the building was used as a prison. Many of the prisoners died on the tennis court because, as an eye-witness quoted, Federico had promised them their lives but not their food! Ironically the building now houses the canteen for a municipal office of the city.
The Princes of Orange had tennis courts at virtually all their palaces, the most famous being the Binnenhof, Breda, Dieren and the Nassau Palace in Brussels. Tennis in the Low Countries, however, was not the exclusive reserve of royalty. Between 1550-1700 hundreds of tennis courts were built, especially in Antwerp (30 courts) and Amsterdam (20), which were perfectly catered to the needs of the elite classes. The effects which tennis courts and their concomitants gambling and alcohol had on the younger generation, however, was a source of contention among contemporary Dutch writers. By 1730 most tennis courts in the towns had been demolished. Outside the urban centres tennis continued to be played until about 1770 on courts which were attached to country inns.
The German princes liked to indulge in recreational pursuits just as much as their other European counterparts. The game of tennis they picked up at a relatively late stage, however, as they preferred to engage in the more popular medieval military sports such as hunting and jousting. To judge by the name Ballhaus that the Germans gave to their tennis courts, they had got acquainted with the game in Northern Italy where, as we saw, Galeazzo Maria Sforza had a Sala della Balla as early as 1474. Also the German name for tennis, Ballspiel, appears to be derived from the Italian gioco della palla. Emperor Ferdinand I, as far as we know, was in 1525 the first to have such a Ballhaus constructed at his castle in Vienna, the name of which still survives as the famous theatre. Between 1579, when Duke Wilhelm V had a Ballhaus built at his München Residenz, and 1620 some 25 "herzogliche" and "fürstliche" tennis courts were erected in the Germanic States. In this period hardly any member of the high nobility could afford not to have such an indoor sports facility. The best-known Ballhäuser could be found at the castles of Kassel, Bückeburg, Dresden,Wolfenbüttel and Heidelberg. Mattheus Merian, in the various editions of his Topographia Germaniae (c.1642), included engravings of a number of interesting examples: Count Palatine Johan Casimir’s Ballenhaus at Heidelberg and two tennis courts at Austrian Castles, Ambrass and Salzburg.The German students of noble birth also had to be educated in chivalrous exercises such as fencing, riding, dancing as well as in tennis. In 1593 the celebrated Collegium Illustre of Tübingen had a tennis court attached to its academy buildings and Ballenmeister were employed to train the students in this most noble of games. The university of Ingolstadt soon followed suit whereas an 18th century timetable of Leipzig university shows tennis was still part of the curriculum for the young scholars.
Schloss Heidelberg had a second Ballhaus (the first dates from c.1618) built as late as 1717, to indicate that the German kurfürstliche princes still loved playing the game as well. The Princes Von Thurn und Taxis had had a long association with the construction of tennis courts at their favourite residences and their Ballhaus of Schloss Regensburg was extended in 1783. However, most of Germany’s fürstliche Ballhäuser had been pulled down by this time or used for other purposes: for example as riding school (Bückeburg) or Opera House (Dresden).
Foundation
The Dutch RTA was founded in 1986, after a group of six (lawn) tennis players of the Oranje Tennis Club in The Hague, had been invited to Seacourt Tennis Club in Hayling Island to get acquainted with real tennis. Present membership: 55.
Purpose:
The realisation of a real tennis court in Holland
Stimulating the practice of the real tennis sport
Trying to achieve an international level of play
Initiating research into the history of the game of tennis, particularly in Holland
Championships
Between 1987-1992 the Dutch RTA organised its National Real Tennis Championships at Seacourt, during which years the players received excellent training from Chris Bray, Peter Brake and Seacourt’s headpro Peter Dawes. Ned Danby, his son Nick and other Seacourt members showed sincere interest in the progress all the Dutch players were making and regularly watched the semi-finals and finals from the dedans.
Since 1993 the Dutch RTA Championships have been held at The Oratory. By courtesy of Lady Rose a number of champion matches are also played in the marvellous, historical setting of Hardwick House tennis court. The Oratory, with its first-rate sporting facilties such as lawn tennis courts, 9-hole golfcourse and its indoor swimming-pool, has attracted a large number of participants. The present number of players taking part in the Dutch Real Tennis Championships is: ladies 4, men 20.
Summary 1999 Championships
A Real Tennis Court in Holland
Realising a real tennis court in Holland is proving to be a very difficult proposition. In 1991 a first attempt was made when there were plans to have a real tennis court incorporated into a multi-purpose complex at Houtrust in The Hague. A special Dutch RTA appeal in the Annual Report of the Tennis & Rackets Association produced an overwhelming response from abroad: 30 potential life memberships and 30 overseas members. Support for the project in Holland, however, proved to be minimal. The game is completely unknown in the Netherlands and as a result potential sponsors are not likely to gain any exposure from it.
In 1994 an attempt was made to have the Kaatsbaan of House Ter Kleef in Haarlem (see page Kaatsbaan) restored to its former glory, when in the 16th century it served as Hendrik van Brederode’s tennis court. Unfortunately this initiative proved unsuccessful as at the time no alternative location was available for the present users of the building. The Dutch RTA will closely monitor the city of Haarlem’s planning intentions as to this unique tennis monument.
In early January 1999 the Dutch RTA were approached by the The Hague Squash Club to investigate the possibilities to have a real tennis court incorporated into the design for a new squash complex at Klein Zwitserland in The Hague. The location - with a lawn tennis, field hockey and business club - would be perfect for a real tennis court, but at present the city of The Hague’s strict planning regulations seem to obstruct the real tennis option. The combination of 5 squash courts and a real tennis court cannot be realised at the space allotted to the project. A two-storey complex is no alternative as this would exceed the city of The Hague’s maximum height regulations for the site.
The funds required to make a Dutch RTA real tennis courts viable amount to a minimum of Dfl 1,000,000 or £ 300.000. Any new initiative will have to be primarily a private one, possibly in combination with a grant by the Dutch National Lottery, as has been the case for a number of recently built or refurbished real tennis courts in England. To cover part of the annual running costs of the court corporate memberships may be introduced for companies. For this option, however, the real tennis club has to upgrade its projected facilties substantially. Should the Klein Zwitserland project fail, the Dutch RTA will continue its search for other opportunities to have the first Dutch real tennis court erected early in the next millennium.
Dutch RTA News
On 12 June 1999, with a firm strike of his redoubtable forehand, Prince Maurits of Orange unveiled a commemorative plaque with the following text: "Here at the Binnenhof lay between 1500-1650 Holland’s first tennis court, the Kaatsbaan of the Princes of Orange". The Binnenhof in The Hague is at present the residence of the Dutch Parliament. The historic unveiling on the sacred soil of the former Princes of Orange castle was a joint initiative of the Oranje Tennis Club and the Dutch RTA.
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