The Cockpit-in-Court was an early theatre in London, located at the Palace of Whitehall, next to St. James's Park, now the site of 70 Whitehall, in Westminster.
A retrospective plan of Whitehall Palace as it was in 1680, by Fisher. The Cockpit is the octagonal building near the top left corner. The Banqueting House is just to the left of the centre. Whitehall follows the line of the road marked "White Hall" from the right and continues through the west side of the Privy Garden. North is at the top.
Cockfighting is a blood sport involving roosters ("cocks"), held in a ring called a cockpit. The first documented use of the word gamecock, denoting use of the cock as to a "game", a sport, pastime or entertainment, was recorded in 1634, after the term "cock of the game" used by George Wilson, in the earliest known book on the sport of cockfighting in The Commendation of Cocks and Cock Fighting in 1607. But it was during Magellan's voyage of discovery of the Philippines in 1521 when modern cockfighting was first witnessed and documented for Westerners by the Italian Antonio Pigafetta, Magellan's chronicler, in the Kingdom of Taytay.
Cockfight in London, c. 1808
Colonel Mordaunt's cockfight in Lucknow, 1784–1786, by Johann Zoffany
The wantilan, a Balinese cockfighting pavilion, and important temple ritual
In this ancient Roman mosaic, two cocks face off in front of a table displaying the purse for the winner between a caduceus and a palm of victory (National Archaeological Museum of Naples)
