The Marquess of Queensberry: The Man Who Broke the Rules

WHAT’S in a reputation?

In the wake of Mike Tyson’s doomed enterprise into effective eating, a menu that famously featured Evander Holyfield’s proper ear, he would possibly properly have defended his actions as being in the spirit of the Queensberry Rules, whereby random cannibalism is permissible, as exemplified by the third Marquis of that title. A protracted shot, possibly, however price a attempt.

The Queensberry Rules are the basis stone – the Twelve Commandments – of trendy boxing, the code that separates it from the brutal and semi-legal world of the London Prize Ring, the place naked fists have been the weapons, the size of a spherical was dictated by a knockdown and a combat would solely finish when one or different of the combatants was bodily unable to proceed.

The guidelines that bear the title of the Marques would possibly infer their creator was a person of temperance, legislative nous, a bringer of gentle into darkness, and that is right to the extent that the noble Lord didn’t truly create them – he merely endorsed the work of the nice Welsh sports activities guru John Graham Chambers, whose title has needed to take a again seat in historical past while the Marquess nonetheless basks in the glory of Chambers’ work – one of the facet advantages of being a member of the British aristocracy in years passed by.

So who was Queensberry? Lord John Sholto Douglas, 9^th Marquess of Queensberry was an eccentric, a fanatical horseman, a steeple chaser who competed in a quantity of Grand Nationals and innumerable fox hunts, (breaking most of his­­­­ bones in the course of) an newbie boxer, a belligerent atheist and half of the Victorian sporting scene the place quick girls and sluggish horses have been the medium, and a person’s price was judged on how a lot of his substance he was ready to squander on a protracted shot. Queensberry’s personal father, the 8^th Marquess misplaced the bulk of the household fortune on a horse known as Rambler – the title ought to have been a warning – and shot himself shortly thereafter, only one of many suicides in the Douglas household over the many years.

James, the Third Marques, as beforehand talked about, trod over the borders of culinary etiquette when – so the legend goes – he escaped from his locked quarters to kill and spit roast an unnamed kitchen boy in 1703. That he was solely ten at the time of this escapade throws some doubt on the narrative, however he was additionally alleged to own unnatural energy and no sanity in any respect. He was returned to confinement by his household and was conveniently useless by the age of eighteen, establishing a tragic sample of psychological instability in the Douglas line that persists to today.

Queensberry, who succeeded to the title while nonetheless a 14-year-old Naval cadet, was a member of that part of the British aristocracy that was by no means seen at Court, however who possessed wealth, land, and the energy that these two belongings deliver – the three cherries on the fruit machine of life. Where he differed from his friends was that whereas they typically hid their scandals and eccentricities from the inquisitive gaze of the public, he positively sought it. His life constituted a succession of battles, feuds, scandals and tragedies all pursued with brutal anger, tough phrases and blows – he was an aristocrat all proper, however seldom a gentleman. Above all he was an consideration seeker in the age of a rising press. It appears ironic however suiting that his reminiscence is tied endlessly to that different nice exhibitionist, Oscar Wilde, who declared, “If I cannot be famous, then I shall be notorious,” – and who succeeded in being each.

Having resigned his fee in the Royal Navy at the age of twenty, Queensberry spent two years at Cambridge University the place he achieved little educational glory however loved a full sporting life of cricket, athletics and, of course, boxing, turning into the college light-weight champion. It was right here that he struck up a friendship with Chambers, the nice legislator and organiser of sport in Victorian Britain, and in 1866 grew to become a founding member of the Amateur Athletics Club (later to evolve into the Amateur Athletic Association). In the following yr he lent his titled moniker to the revolutionary code that Chambers had drawn up, the precept factors of which have been the introduction of gloves, a set quantity of three minute rounds and the ten second knockdown rule. They additionally included the injunction that “you must not fight simply to win; no holds barred is not the way; you must win by the rules,” phrases that Queensberry would possibly properly have profited from had he utilized them to his personal life.

His marriage – he had sired 4 sons and a daughter in the area of seven years – fell aside in the face of his blatant womanising and his youngsters grew up hating him. His loudly avowed atheism misplaced him his place in the House of Lords when he refused to take the oath of allegiance on the Bible, branding it as “Christian tomfoolery”. His vicious mood led him into brawls and appearances in the Justice of the Peace’s courts the place nominal fines did not curb his behaviour.

He warred publicly along with his three eldest sons, any notion of discretion merely being lacking from his DNA. When Francis, his eldest, was elected to the Lords below the patronage of the Earl of Rosebery his fury knew no bounds – the thought of his son taking a seat in the House from which he had excluded himself being greater than he might bear. He smelt gay favouritism in his son’s development and that “snob queers like Rosebery” had corrupted his son. Two fragments of his correspondence in the course of this dispute give a flavour of the man: “Cher fat Boy,” he writes to Rosebery “I presume the savoury odour of your Jew money bags has too delicious a fragrance to allow me to expect any justice in high quarters,” and one other to the Prime Minister was headed “copy of letter sent to the Christian whoremonger and hypocrite Gladstone.” It is scarcely any surprise that he discovered himself excluded from the society of his day. Francis died in a ‘shooting accident’ a yr later – it was almost definitely suicide.

Alfred, Lord Douglas, his third son was at the centre of the most well-known scandal of the day as a consequence of his gay affair with Oscar Wilde, then at the peak of his literary profession with The Importance of Being Earnest working to packed homes in the West End. Queensberry, satisfied (accurately on this case) of the nature of the relationship, pursued Wilde relentlessly, finally posting him the notorious observe, “To Oscar Wilde posing as a somdomite (sic)” that provoked Wilde to sue him for slander. During the course of his ‘campaign’ Queensberry was approached in the avenue by his second son, Percy, who had taken Alfred’s facet and tried to intervene on his behalf. A fistfight ensued which drew an enthusiastic crowd earlier than being damaged up by the police. The brawl between the two aristocrats, father and son, was entrance web page information, with illustrations to brighten up the occasion, the age of paparazzi mendacity some fifty years in the future.

The trial, when it befell in April 1895, and its successor, introduced by Queensbury, resulted in Wilde’s smash, imprisonment and impoverished loss of life in exile simply 5 years later. Alfred, in the meantime lay low on the continent, his superior station in life defending him from the authorized penalties of what in these days was nonetheless a felony offence.

The affair was a sensation and the victorious Queensberry the hero of the hour as the British public wallowed in the delights of a bit of queer bashing. In many quarters he was seen as the protecting father saving his son from the corrupting affect of the older man. In truth his relationship with Alfred was one of mutual loathing, he simply hated the effete, intelligent, witty, refined Wilde much more – Oscar representing every little thing he was not.

Queensberry’s transient second in the sunshine of public affection didn’t final lengthy, nonetheless, as his damaging traits as soon as once more got here to the fore. There was a farcical marriage to a vicar’s daughter from Eastbourne that lasted not more than a yr and was terminated by his lack of ability to consummate the union. Proof of his impotence in the authorized proceedings supplied juicy studying for the identical public that had as soon as hailed him.

His bodily and psychological well being started to say no quickly, syphilis being an unconfirmed suspect. A stroke left him helpless and he died on the January 31, 1900. A go to from his son Percy ended when the stricken marquis spat in his face.

The Sporting Times gave Queensberry a wry valedictory discover, “It is not for us here to inquire into the workings of his peculiar mind. It had a craving for something; it knew not what.”

And there we would depart the story of this abrasive, pushed, sad man, however for the undeniable fact that his ghost continues to be with us, taking part in a supporting function in the cartoon sequence Mike Tyson Mysteries, a playful and fantastical spoof of Scooby Doo. Queensberry’s ghost is an effete toff, fluttering round as Tyson’s life-style coach, making an attempt to place a bit polish on his cost’s behaviour. What the Marquess himself would make of this watery depiction we are able to solely think about!

* As a rider his first winner was in the Dumfriesshire Hunt Club chase in 1865, and his final was at Sandown Park in 1883.

THE MARQUESS OF QUEENSBERRY RULES (1867)

1. To be a good stand-up boxing match in a 24.4 metre ringor as close to that dimension as practicable.
2. No wrestling allowed.
3. The rounds to be of three minutes’ period, and one minute’s time between rounds.
4. If both man falls by means of weak point or in any other case, he should rise up unassisted, the boxer has 10 seconds to permit him to take action, the different man in the meantime to return to his nook, and when the fallen man is on his legs the spherical is to be resumed and continued till the three minutes have expired. If one man fails to come back to the scratch in the 10 depend allowed, it shall be in the energy of the referee to offer his award in favour of the different man.
5. A person hanging on the ropes in a helpless state, along with his toes off the floor, shall be thought of down.
6. No seconds or some other individual to be allowed in the ring throughout the rounds.
7. Should the contest be stopped by any unavoidable interference, the referee to call the time and place as quickly as doable for ending the contest; in order that the match should be received and misplaced, except the backers of each males agree to attract the stakes.
8. The gloves to be fair-sized boxing gloves of the highest quality and new.
9. Should a glove burst, or come off, it should be changed to the referee’s satisfaction.
10. A person on one knee is taken into account down and if struck is entitled to the stakes.
11. That no sneakers or boots with spikes or sprigs (wire nails) be allowed.
12. The contest in all different respects to be ruled by revised London Prize Ring Rules.