first stirrings of Britain's Olympic beginnings". Origins The first event was likely held in 1612, organised by lawyer Robert Dover, although different sources give dates from 1601 until 1612. Little is known about Dover. He was probably born between 1575 and 1582 in Norfolk, one of four children born to John Dover, and may have been admitted to Queens' College at Cambridge in 1583, leaving early to avoid swearing the Oath of Supremacy. Dover was admitted to Gray's Inn on 27 February 1636, and was probably called to the bar in 1611, the same year he likely moved to Saintbury, near Chipping Campden, with his wife and children. It is unclear whether Dover began the games from scratch, or took over from an existing event, perhaps a church ale. The games had the approval of King James, who in his book of advice to his son, Basilikon Doron (1599), had written that to promote good feeling among the common people towards their king, "certain days in the year would be appointed, for delighting the people with public spectacles of all honest games, and exercise of arms". Although there was at that time in England a growing admiration for the ancient Greeks, Dover may have been motivated by military rather than cultural considerations. His biographer, Christopher Whitfield, claimed that Dover combined ancient countryside practices with "classical mythology and Renaissance culture, whilst linking them with the throne and the King's Protestant Church". Dover believed that physical exercise was necessary for the defence of the kingdom. He may also have believed that the games would bring rich and poor together, increasing social harmony, an ideal that might explain why the event captured the public imagination; the poetry of the period eulogises the games as "an occasion of social harmony and communal joy". Endymion Porter, a member of the court of King James, had an estate in the village of Aston-sub-Edge, close to Dover's home. Dover acted as Porter's legal agent between 1622 and 1640, and through him James sent some of his own clothes to Dover, "purposely to grace him and consequently the solemnity [of the g]". James may also have granted Dover a coat of arms, with the motto "Do Ever Good", as claimed by Dover's grandson, a claim that was rejected by the heraldic authorities in 1682. The Annalia Dubrensia (Annals of Dover), a collection of poems praising Dover and his