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WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006House of the Pure Martial Arts

Special Edition no 1THE INTERNATIONAL WEB BASED MARTIAL ARTSMAGAZINE AS A PDF DOCUMENT

January 2006

House Of The Pure Martial ArtsMEIBUKAN MAGAZINE

EuropeanMedieval and Renaissance

Martial Arts

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MEIBUKAN MAGAZINESPECIAL EDITION No. 1 JANUARY 2006House of the Pure Martial Arts

Meibukan Magazine is published several times a yearin an electronical format with an attractive mix ofsubjects and styles. Each issue of at least twelve pagesis published as pdf-file for easy printing. Publishededitions remain archived on-line. We have chosen alow picture resolution for easy downloading.

Readers of the webzine are enthousiasts and practi-tioners of the spirit of the martial arts world wide.

Editor in chiefLex Opdam

Executive editorsJeroen Verhoeven

Lex Opdam

Editorial BoardMatthew Jones

Iwan MeijMark Hemels

ContributorsJohn ClementsRussell Hogg

Ken MondscheinDiane SkossPaladin Press

Art directorLex Opdam

Meibukan Magazine is pleased to submit views, con-cerns and experiences on any subject matter IF re-lated to the mission statement expressed by theMeibukan Magazine. Therefore articles, photographsand illustrations are welcome, although MeibukanMagazine is selective and can not garantee that sub-missions will be placed. Submission can be mailedto our P.O. Box by floppy, CD or DVD, or can besent to our e-mail address.

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Meibukan Magazine is an initiative of founders LexOpdam and Mark Hemels. Aim of this web basedmagazine is to spread the knowledge and spirit ofthe martial arts. In a non profitable manner MeibukanMagazine draws attention to the historical, spiritualand technical background of the oriental martial arts.Starting point are the teachings of Okinawan karate-do. As ‘House of the Pure Martial Arts’, however,Meibukan Magazine offers a home to the various au-thentic martial arts traditions.

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HISTORYA Short Introduction to Historical European Martial Arts

REVIEWRenaissance Swordsmanship by John ClementsMedieval Swordsmanship by John ClementsMedieval Combat by Hans Talhoffer

FEATURERenaissance Martial Arts Literature

FEATUREHow to tell if your Fencing is a Martial Art or a Combat Sport

FEATUREConsideration of Grappling & Wrestling in Renaissance Fencing

ORGANISATIONARMA: The Association for Renaissance Martial Arts

HISTORYThe Grand Assault: Notes on Its History

HISTORYDaggers of the Mind: Towards a Historiography of Fencing

REVIEWThe Sword and the Centuries by Alfred HuttonThe Book of the Sword by Richard Burton

REVIEWThe Secret History of the Sword by Christoph Amberger

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A Short Introduction toHistorical European Martial Arts

- by John Clements -

Despite the fact there is a more than2,400-year-old military tradition withinWestern civilization of close-combat pro-ficiency, few subjects have received asunfortunate neglect by historians andacademics than the martial arts of West-ern Europe. But a growing amount ofmodern research has centered on the his-torical methods of using various types ofMedieval and Renaissance swords andweaponry in historically accurate andmartially sound manners. This emerg-ing study of historical European mar-tial arts involves a fascinating combi-nation of military history, fencing history,literature, art, language, and archaeology.The history of European arms and armoris itself one of established continuitymarked by sudden developments of ne-cessitated innovation. As new tools weredevised, so too were new methods forusing them. These methods in turn in-fluenced still newer designs. By study-ing the historical systems for employ-ing such arms and armor, we come tothe best possible understanding for howand why they were designed as they were.This further leads to a greater apprecia-tion for the little known martial arts ofthe age.While the term "martial arts" today is typi-cally synonymous with "Asian fightingart", for centuries highly sophisticatedEuropean martial systems existed. It isfrom the Latin that we actually derive

the English term, "martial arts" - from"arts of Mars", the Roman god of war.The term "martial art" was used in regardto fighting skills as early as the 1550sand an English fencing manual of 1639referred specifically to the science andart of swordplay. In reference to Medi-eval and Renaissance combat systemsthe terms "fencing" and "martial arts"should thus be viewed as synonymous.Fencing was in essence the "exercise ofarms" - and arms meant more than justusing a sword.Prior to the advent in the mid 1500s ofspecific civilian weapons for urban du-eling, the use of personal fighting skillsin Western Europe were primarily formilitary purposes rather than privateself-defense, and fencing was thereforeby definition a martial (i.e., military) art.The study of arms in the Middle Agesand Renaissance was for the large partnot exclusively fixed upon either judi-cial combat or the duel of honor, or evenon the knightly chivalric tournament.Yet neither was it intended for battle-field use alone.

A Medieval HeritageFrom about the 12th century, profes-sional instructors of fencing existedacross Europe. Many of these "Mastersof Defence", or instructors in arms, be-came highly regarded international ex-perts. Over time they uniquely produced

hundreds of detailed, often well-illus-trated, technical manuals on their fight-ing methods which reveal their craft tobe one of sophisticated and sysematicskill. When studied from within theirown cultural context these little knownsurviving manuals present a portrait ofhighly developed and innovative Europeanmartial arts. Today, dozens of these obscuremanuscripts and printed books providean unequaled resource for modern stu-dents and practitioners.The popular myth of untutored knightsclumsily swinging crude swords whilelumbering around in heavy armor isshredded by the actual evidence. Theunequivocal picture presented by his-torical sources is one of trained warriorsexpertly employing skillfully-designedweapons with brutal efficiency. But thesemasters were no mere "fencers". Theirswere complete fighting systems as suitedto armored as to unarmored combat.They taught integrated martial arts ofboth armed and unarmed components.Grappling and wrestling techniqueswere vital elements. The weapons ofdagger, staff, and axe were studied as vig-orously as pole-weapons, shields, andespecially all manner of swords. Theirmethods were specialized for foot ormounted, single combat or group.By the early 1500s, the transformationof warfare by firearms and the break-down of the old feudal order limited theavenues for both redress of personalgrievance and exhibition of martial skill.Social and technological changes in theRenaissance accelerated experimenta-tion in fighting arts and civilian schoolsof fence proliferated. The result was anexplosion in the popularity of dueling, firstas an augment of common street fightingand vendetta brawling, and later for pri-vate affairs of reputation and honor. Intothis environment the systematic studyof fencing grew into a new "Science of



Defence" emphasizing urban self-de-fense. The modern obsession with theformal duel as depicted in period litera-ture as well as in modern recreationpopular media, and sport fencing hastended to obscure the larger context ofurban combat and the general armedviolence inherent in the age. The roman-ticized view of gentlemen defendingtheir reputations and character is dwarfedby accounts of sudden assaults, viciousambushes and general street-fightingamong all classes.Renaissance fencing masters were com-monly soldiers and scholars as well asaccomplished men of learning. Amongtheir patrons were nobles, princes, andkings as well as commoners, knights,and soldiers. Geometry, mathematics,anatomy, and philosophy played majorroles in their teachings. The early Span-ish master Pietro Monte was a theolo-gian, mathematician, scholar and eventaught darts to Leonardo Da Vinci. Hewas a prodigious writer on martial arts,military theory, theology, and eventuallyproduced volumes on wrestling, health,gymnastics, ballistics, and swordsman-ship. The fencing author Camillo Agrippawas an engineer, mathematician, and fenc-ing instructor to the artist Michelangelo.The Frenchmen Girard Thibault was apainter, architect and even a physician.

Renaissance AdaptationsRenaissance Masters systematized andinnovated the study of Western fight-ing skills into sophisticated, versatile, and

highly effective martial arts eventuallyculminating in the development of thepenultimate weapon of street-fighting anddueling, the quick and vicious rapier.Through experiment and observationthey discerned that the thrust traveledin a shorter line than the arc of a cut andagainst an unarmored foe would strikesooner and reach farther. The rapier wasdeveloped along these principles. Thrust-ing was already well known in Medievalcombat and the new style of foyningfence was thus not any "evolution", butrather an adaptation to a changed envi-ronment. Rather than for war or battle-field, the slender, deceptive rapier wasa personal weapon for civilian-wear andprivate quarrels. It was first designed forthe needs of back-alley encounters andpublic ambush. Indeed, it was the firsttruly civilian weapon for urban self-de-fence developed in any society. It rosefrom practical tool, to popular "gentleman'sart". Elegant in its lethality, it representsone of the most innovative and originalaspects of Western martial culture andone with no parallel in other cultures.While never eclipsing cutting swordsentirely, as a specialized weapon for per-sonal single-combat, it was unequaled foralmost 200 years until the widespreadadoption of effective and reliable hand-guns.Like much of progress in Renaissancelearning and science, advances in self-defense were based on what had alreadybeen commonly established for centu-ries. They were not able to achieve their

progress in a vacuum. There is an obvi-ous direct and discernible link betweenthe brutal, practical fighting methods ofthe Middle Ages and the more sophisti-cated, elegant Renaissance fencing sys-tems. No tradition of fighting or method-ology of combat exists by itself. It comesinto being due to environmental pressureas only a processing or refinement ofwhat existed previously. So it was withthe fencing arts of the Renaissance.They followed a more than 2,000-year-old military tradition within Westerncivilization of close-combat proficiency.The techniques developed and taught bythe Masters of Defence were not "tricks"nor merely based only on brute strength.They were moves they knew worked incombat, that they had discerned, hadnamed, and had taught to others. But, tofencers in much later centuries, (boundby rules of deportment and the etiquetteof convention) these earlier fightingstyles (designed to face a range of armsand armors) would naturally seem less"scientific". With the disconnection thatoccurred between older traditions andthe precise sporting swordplay of latergentlemen duelists, it is reasonable thatthe earlier, more dynamic, flexible, andinclusive methods would incorrectlyseem to only be a mix of chaotic gim-micks unconnected by any larger "theory".Eventually, due to changing historicaland social forces, the traditional martialskills and teachings of European Mastersof Defence fell out of common use.

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Little to nothing of their methods actu-ally survive in modern fencing sportstoday which, based on conceptions of18th century small-sword combat, arefar removed from their martial originsin the Renaissance. Later centuries inEurope saw only limited and narrow ap-plication of swords and traditional arms,only some of which survived for a timeto become martial sports.

Modern Research & PracticeIn a sense, our European martial cultureis itself something still very much withus today. But it now bears little resem-blance to its Renaissance heritage. Thetechnological revolution in Western mili-tary science which swept the 18th cen-tury left behind the old ideas of an indi-vidual, armored warrior trained in per-sonal hand-to-hand combat. It was re-placed with the new "Western Way ofWar" utilizing ballistics and associatedorganizational concepts. This very approachitself, emphasizing more and more atechnical, mechanical, and industrialmethod of armed combat, is the Westernmartial "tradition" now. Indeed, it is thisvery martial way that is now the modelfor all modern armed forces the worldover. In a sense, to see a modern aircraftcarrier, fighter squadron, or armored bat-talion is very much the embodiment ofa continuing and ever evolving Europeanmartial tradition.From the time of the ancient Greeksonward Western Civilization has alwaysbeen a source of uniquely resourcefulideas and specialized innovation. Forbetter or worse, the same technical in-

genuity that was applied to classical artsand sciences was directed equally to-wards the weapons of war and skills ofbattle. In short, the Western world'scontributions to martial arts are far-rang-ing and far-reaching. Modern boxing,wrestling, and sport fencing are the veryblunt and shallow tip of a deep historywhich, when explored and developedproperly, provides a link to traditionswhich are as rich and complex as any toemerge from Asia. Today, as more andmore students of historical Europeanmartial arts ("HEMA") earnestly studythe subject they are reclaiming it fromfantasy, myth, and misconception. Thisis not about costumed role-play or the-atrical stunt shows, but scholarly re-search combined with genuine martialarts training. As a result a more realisticappreciation of our Western martial cul-ture is now emerging full force.

John Clements is a profes-sional writer-researcher andleading authority on historicalfencing and one of the world’sforemost practitioners of Me-dieval and Renaissance fight-ing methods. John Clementsis director of the well knownARMA - Association for Re-naissance Martial Arts.

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Link to ARMA webpageto read more articles

from the hand of John Clementswww.thearma.org

MEDIEVAL COMBATNow one of the most influential and lavishly drawnfencing manuals of the Middle Ages is availablein English for the first time. Halhoffer’s profes-sional fencing manual of 1467 reveals the intrica-cies of the medieval art of fighting, covering boththe “judicial duel” (an officially sanctioned fightto resolve a legal dispute) and personal combat. Inillustrated detail, it provides careful instruction infootwork, avoidance and the ability to judge andmanuipulate timing and distance to exploit andenhance the sword’s inherent cutting and thrust-ing capabilities. In addition, it covers the supple-mental skills of grappling, kicking, throwing anddisarming an opponent, plus the techniques ofmounted combat and unarmoured fighting with thelong sword, long knife, pole-axe, dagger, swordand buckler.

By Paladin Press

Medieval CombatA Fifteenth-Century Manualof Swordfighting and Close-Quarter Combatby Hans Talhoffer

9 x 6, hardcover, 320 pp.

available atwww.paladin-press.com

Renaissance SwordsmanshipThe Illustrated Use of Rapiersand Cut-and-Thrust Swordsby John Clements

8 1/2 x 11, softcover,illus., 152 pp.

RENAISSANCE SWORDSMANSHIPThis is the most thorough work ever about his-torical swordsmanship. It is both a general refer-ence and an instructional guide for advanced andbeginning sword enthusiasts, students of militaryhistory and martial artists. Includes rare historicalinfo and 100 original drawings.

By Paladin Press


Medieval SwordsmanshipIllustrated Methods andTechniquesby John Clements

8 1/2 x 11, softcover,illus., 344 pp.

MEDIEVAL SWORDSMANSHIPFrom the author of Renaissance Swordsmanshipcomes the most comprehensive and historicallyaccurate view ever of the lost fighting arts ofMedieval knights, warriors and men-at-arms.Based on years of extensive training and researchin the use of European swords, it contains highlyeffective fighting techniques for the sword, sword& shield, long-sword, great-sword, pole-arm andmore. And with more than 200 illustrations andrare historical documents, it is a scholarly refer-ence as well as a hands-on training guide formartial artists of all levels.

By Paladin Press



http://www.paladin-press.com



http://www.thearma.org


Renaissance Martial Arts Literature


The oldest known European fightingtext is an anonymous German sword andbuckler manual (MS I.33) producedaround c. 1295. Its watercolor pages fea-ture a series of images of a monk andhis partner performing various attacksand counter attacks and has recentlycome to be more appreciated as a sourcefor study of historical European martialarts. The writings of the great Swabianmaster Johannes Liechtenauer in the1380s were highly influential amongGerman masters for the next two centu-ries. His teachings, as chronicled by thepriest and master-at-arms, HankoDoebringer, were expanded and writtenon by many others throughout the 1400sand early 1500s including Paulus Kal,Peter Falkner, Hans von Speyer, LudwigVon Eyb, Gregor Erhart, SigmundSchining, Andre Pauernfeindt, and oth-ers. Two major commentators wereSigmund Ringeck and Peter Von Danzigin the 1450s. Among their teachings,these Fechtbuchs ("fight books" or"fencing books") present a consistent

emphasis on unarmored foot-combatwith long-swords that incorporate grap-pling techniques.With the development of printmakingin Europe during the 1400s, there alsocame a revival of science and classicalhumanism. Both prints and drawingswere integral in the effort to communi-cate rediscoveries as well as new ideas.

duced a detailed wrestling manuscriptabout 1462, of which a well-illustratedlater edition still exists.Fillipo Vadi in the 1480s produced an-other major Italian work on fightingfrom the period, which was highly in-fluenced by Fiore's. The Hispano-Italianknight Pietro Monte produced severaltittles on fighting and combat skillsduring the 1480s and '90s, including thefirst published wrestling book. HansCzynner produced an illustrated colorwork of armored combat on the tech-niques of "half-swording" and daggerfighting in armor. Hanns Wurm's color-fully inked manual, Das Ringersbuch,of c. 1500 features a range of illustratedwrestling moves and is characteristic ofunarmed texts of the period. Around1512 the artist Albrecht Dürer produceda beautifully and realistically drawnwork illustrating sword and wrestlingtechniques. Several versions of JörgWilhalm's work survive including alarge hand-written color 1523 editionfeaturing an array of unarmored and ar-

The little known surviving treatises and guidebooks of fighting skills produced byEuropean authors are numerous and diverse. Books and manuscripts on personal

combat skills flourished in the 15th and 16th centuries.

In 1410 the Bolognese master Fiore deiLiberi produced a systematic work, FlosDuellatorium in Armis, which repre-sents the major Italian contribution to15th century martial arts literature.Three different editions of Fiore's worksurvive and have become major resourcesfor modern students. The Fechtbuch ofHans Talhoffer, covering, among otherthings, swordplay, judicial combat, dag-ger fighting and wrestling was also in-fluential. It was produced in severalversions from the 1440s to 1460s. Otherimportant fighting texts surviving fromthe 15th century include works such asthe Codex Wallerstein, the anonymous"Gladiatorie" and "Goliath" manu-scripts, as well as the SolothurnerFechtbuch. There is also an anonymous15th century work on the use of themedieval pole-axe, Le Jeu de la Hache.The King of Portugal, Dom Duarte, pro-duced several training texts in the 1420s.While two obscure 15th century workson swordplay from England also survive(the MS 3542 and MS 39564 docu-ments). Fabian von Auerswald also pro-

“Princes and Lords learn to survivewith this art, in earnest and in play.But if you are fearful, then youshould not learn to fence. Becausea despondent heart will always bedefeated, regardless of all skill.”

Fechtmeister Sigmund Ringeck, 1440

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mored long sword techniques. About1540 Paulus Hector Mair compiled animmense and a well-illustrated tome onweapon arts including swords, staffs,daggers, and other weapons.Di Antonio Manciolino's work of 1531is the first known printed Italian fencingmanual. One of the more significantmasters of the 1500s was the Bologneseteacher Achille Marrozo. His Opera Novaof 1536 is considered the first text toemphasize the use of the thrust as wellas the cut in using a slender taperingsingle-hand blade. His work however stillcovered the traditional military weaponsof the age.In 1548 the Spanish knight Juan Quixadade Reayo produced a little known texton mounted combat that reflects tradi-tional 15th century methods. In 1550 theFlorentine master and contemporary ofMarozzo, Francesco Altoni, wrote hisown fencing text that disputed someideas of Marozzo. Often attributed to the1570s, Angelo Viggianni's significantwork of 1551, Lo Schermo, also focusedon the use of a long, slender, taperingsingle-hand sword. Camillo Agrippa'streatise on the science of arms from1553 was one of the first to focus onuse of the thrust over the cut in civilianswordplay. Considered another one ofthe more significant Italian fencingworks of the 1500s, Agrippa's treatisealso represents the transition from mili-tary to civilian swordplay and the useof even more narrow swords.The Dutch artist Martinus Heemskreckin 1552 illustrated a text, Fechten &Ringen, with several woodcuts of shortsword, two-handed sword, and wrestling.The German master Joachim Meyer in1570 produced a large and extremelywell illustrated training manual that re-presents one of the high points of 16thcentury works. The work covered a hostof assorted swords and weapons andcombined some Italian and German ele-ments. Meyer included material onclassroom play as well as earnest self-defence. Jacob Sutor later produced afighting manual in 1612 that was mostlyan updated version of Meyer's earlierwork.In 1570, Giacomo Di Grassi produced,His True Arte of Defense, a major workon fencing from the period that revealselements of the changing nature of civil-

ian self-defense concerns and the devel-opment of slender duelling swords. AnEnglish version was first translated in1594. The Italian Girolamo Cavalcabo'swork of c.1580, concerned primarilywith sword and dagger, was translatedinto German and French several times overthe coming decades. In 1595 VincentioSaviolo produced, His Practice in TwoBooks, one of the more influential (andtoday popular) of late Renaissance manu-als. Saviolo's method reflects the chang-ing form of civilian blade in use. An Eng-lish version of the text was influential atthe time.

Dell'Agochie in 1572, Camillo Palladinifrom c. 1580, Alfonso Fallopia in 1584,Nicoletto Giganti in 1606, SalvatorFabris also in 1606, and later FrancescoAlfieri in 1640. Nearly all these worksreflect the transition from militaryswords to the civilian duelling rapiers.In 1610, the Ridolfo Capo Ferro's, GranSimulacro, was first published. Consid-ered the great Italian master of the ra-pier and father of modern fencing, hiswork codified much of civilian foyningfence for the duel. These Italian fenc-ing texts offer some of the best of illus-trated examples of rapier fencing.The master Jeronimo De Carranza wrotehis influential tome on Spanish fencing,De La Philosophia de las Armas, in1569. It was to become one of two ma-jor Spanish fencing manuals that formedthe heart of the Spanish school for latercenturies. The other great Spanish masterof the age was Don Luis P. de Narvaez,whose 1599, Libro de las Grandezas dela Espada ("Book of the Grandeur ofthe Sword") presented rapier materialsomewhat different than his masterCarranza's. Narvaez's book is the other ofonly two major Spanish fencing manu-als from the time. Several Spanish mas-ters during the 1600s produced fencingbooks rewriting the teachings ofCarranza or Narvaez and favouring oneor the other. In 1640, Mendes deCarmona, a fencing master from Seville,produced his, Libro de la destrezaberdadera de las armas, an unpublishedmanuscript recently discovered.The young Italian soldier and swords-man, Frederico Ghisliero, in 1587 pro-duced an unpublished work, the Regole,revealing connections to Spanish styles.About 1600 Don Pedro de Heredia pro-duced his, Traité des Armes, an illus-trated color manuscript on rapier thatincluded grappling techniques. Herediawas a master-of-arms, cavalry captainand member of the war council of theking of Spain. His work represents apragmatic Spanish style not wrapped inthe geometrical ideas of Carranza andNarvaez. Heredia's manual is evidencethe Spanish school was neither uniformnor monolithic. Mendes de Carmona's,Libro de la destreza berdadera de lasarmas, an unpublished manuscript of1640 has also recently been redisco-vered. Carmona was a fencing master in

”So from this art comes all sortsof good, with arms cities aresubdued and all the crowdsrestrained; and in itself has suchdignity, that often it brings joy tothe heart, and always drives outcowardice …If you will berenowned in the art, you’ll never bepoor, in any place. This virtue isso glorious that, if even oncepoverty would show you his cards,then wealth will embrace youthanks to your art.”

Maestro Filippo Vadi, Liber de Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi, c.1482

Giovanni Antonio Lovino in 1580 pro-duced a large and elaborate fencing trea-tise on rapier as well as other swords andweapons. Until recently, only limitedportions of Lovino's work were previ-ously known. Other important Italianfencing works of the late Renaissanceinclude those by the masters Giovanni

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Paradoxes of Defense defending tradi-tional English swordplay in 1599. Hewrote his, Brief Instructions Upon myParadoxes of Defence, a year later. Hiswork is the primary source for informa-tion on English methods of martial artsfrom the Renaissance and is a favoritestudy source for modern students of his-torical fencing. Silver, a critic of the ra-pier, pragmatically described the use ofshort sword or back-sword, buckler,staff, and dagger. In 1614, George Halewrote, The Private Schoole of Defence,commenting on English fighting schoolsof the day as well as recommendationson the rapier method. In 1617 JosephSwetnam wrote a rapier and back swordtreatise entitled, The Schoole of theNoble and Worthy Science of Defence,and in 1639 one "G. A." published a bookon swordsmanship, Pallas Armata - TheGentleman's Armory. It has been sug-gested that the author was one, GideonAshwell. By 1650 the Marquise ofNewcastle wrote his own short treatise,The Truthe off the Sorde, a little-knownwork based on the Spanish School.This description of Renaissance martialarts literature is far from complete.Many other fighting manuals were cer-tainly produced in the 16th and 17thcenturies by a host of other masters andwriters. In 1620 for example, HansWilhelm Schöffer fashioned an enor-mous work, Fechtkunst, that contained672 crude rapier illustrations, each onefully described and annotated. OtherGerman fencing teachers in the early1600s were rewriting Italian texts.The Dutchman, Johannes GeorgiusPascha, in 1657 offered a rapier text thatincluded substantial material on the pikeand unarmed combat. Fencing works

besides those focused on swords orwrestling were also written during theRenaissance. For example, AndresLegnitzer wrote on the spear in the early1400s, while Ott Jud did the same onwrestling and Hans Lecküchner alsomade a treatise on the Langen Messer("large-knife"). In 1603, the Italian, Leliode Tedeschi, produced a manual on theart of disarming while in 1616 the Span-iard Atanasio de Ayala wrote a short textdealing with staff weapons andBonaventura Pistofilo's Il Torneo, Bo-logna 1627, was on the use of the polaxe.Antonio Quintino's 1613, "Jewels ofWisdom", included 16 pages of grap-pling and wrestling in swordplay as wellas material on animal fighting. Before1620 Giovan' Battista Gaiani had alsowritten two books on swordsmanship forhorseback.The teachings of these masters do notappear to reflect a set "style" or a "Way"so much as a systematic tradition of us-ing proven and efficient techniqueswithin a sophisticated understanding ofgeneral fighting principles. Much ofwhat we know of these many guide-books and fighting treatises is changingand expanding. Although just beginning,serious modern study and interpretationof Renaissance martial arts literature isnow well underway. In addition to thosedescribed here, many other martial artsmanuals were known to have been pro-duced, but existing copies have yet tobe found. Previously unexamined col-lections that have recently become avail-able and should soon open up will in-evitably bring to light even more sourcemanuals. It is an exciting time for re-search as the hunt for further Renais-sance martial arts literature continues.

Seville, who previously wrote a workon Carranza's method. His previouslyunknown work is a substantial manu-script covering the principles and fun-damentals of fencing and tactics to usein specific situations. The most elabo-rate and lavishly illustrated Renaissancefencing text was that of Girard Thibaultd'Anvers', Academie De L'Espee (c.1630), written in French by a Flemishmaster teaching a version of the Span-ish rapier. The only truly French fenc-ing texts known from the Renaissanceare that of Henry de Sainct Didier in1573, Tracicte' contenan les ecrets dupremier livre de l'espee seule, andFrancois Dancie, wrote his, L'espée deCombat, in Tulle, in 1623. The nextknown is Charles Besnard's later, LeMaitre d'arme Liberal, of 1653.The master George Silver published his

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How to tell if your Fencing isa Martial Art or a Combat Sport


Just as within the traditional Asian martial arts, the emerging Western martialarts community today is often debating the meaning of "Martial Art" as opposedto "martial sport". The issue is clearest with regard to Medieval and Renaissancecombative systems -without question the main focus of historical European mar-

tial arts. On the one hand, as these weapons and skills were originally intended forbattlefield, judicial combats, and earnest self-defence, they are clearly fightingarts. Yet, in their study and practice today these concerns are far from their

purpose. The distinction then between art and sport can be a blurry one; espe-cially since historically, ritualistic combat sports and non-lethal mock-combat

competitions were long a part of European martial culture. The general differencebetween the two today however can be distinguished by examining them with

regard to a few specific concerns.

Fencing…was the Art of the Sword, oras Medieval and Renaissance schoolsmore appropriately considered it, the artof using weapons, particularly swords.But, over time the sword lost its valueas a weapon of war and as older hand-weapons and arms faded before the chal-lenge of ballistics, fencing was nar-rowed. With only a few exceptionsamong the military, mainly cavalry,swords became almost the sole procli-vity of the aristocracy and fencing be-came synonymous with preparation forthe gentlemanly duel of single swordalone. The older elements of battlefieldcombat and sudden street-fighting fadedfrom concern, replaced exclusively bythat of private affair of honor. Eventu-ally, fencing became sport and pastime,a refined, athletic game of set rules andetiquette. Finally, over time myths arosethat fencing had somehow reached itszenith only after it stopped using realweapons in real fighting.In contrast, the study of historical me-thods of European fencing is now becom-ing increasingly popular. A variety ofearlier combative systems are being re-constructed and interpreted along his-torical lines from historical sources. Thequestion therefore arises as to whetherthese practices represent the earnest skillsof a martial art, or constitute those of astylized combat sport? For that matter,

how do you objectively determine ifwhat you are studying, or what you arebeing taught, is a legitimate historicalfighting skill, or merely re-packagedmodern or classical fencing or even the-atrical fighting? Is your craft display ori-ented or results oriented? Is it about ef-fectively ending fights quickly or ar-tificially prolonging them for entertain-ment value? How can these issues beevaluated? The answer depends uponthe approach, the attitude, and the in-tention of your study and the tools itemploys in its method.

Here then are some ways to consider ifyour own form of fencing practice is amartial art or a combat sport:

1. Is it practiced as a method of self-defense?What this means is, is your system offighting focused on scoring and winningcompetitions or on staying alive? Doesit understand the distinction? Does itteach you to do whatever works or whatthe rules of a game allow? Are you re-hearsing moves as lethal killing actionsapplicable in real fighting, or as onlythose movements allowed under pretendtournaments? Do you ever stop to rec-ognize and comprehend the difference?Do you train in your fencing art as"preparation" for combat -even though

you know it will never occur -or justplay it as a game?

2. Is it a tool of learning or an end initself?Does your fencing concern itself withhow to win a bout by scoring, or withthe effects of what the weapon wouldactually do? Do you conduct mock fight-ing to get good at mock fighting, or doyou conduct mock fighting to get goodat the core elements of the craft itself?Does your fencing even consist of any-thing other than a mock fighting game?

3. Does it rely for its basis on histori-cally accurate replica weapons?What this means is, are your swords re-productions of real historical tools withthe equivalent dimensions of weight,length, and balance of actual blades? Orare they modern simulators with featuresthat authentic pieces do not have (e.g.,extreme flexibility, light-weight, rubberpoints, padding, special handles, modernmaterials, etc.). Real weapons handle oneway and special training weapons an-other. The more realistic your weapon,the more realistic your technique andyour understanding of fundamentalprinciples and concepts. Each digressionfrom this causes a degree of misinter-pretation of the methods developed withand for real weapons in real combat. Do

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you ever work with real weapons or justsimulators? Unless you also train strenu-ously with real weapons how else canyou be cognizant of the differences im-posed by using approximations?

4. Does it include the widest range oftechniques possible?Are you able to practice and executeactions and moves that would have beenreasonably used in historical combat ina manner by which people really fought,or are you limited and restricted to abelief as to what is sporting, chivalric,or gentlemanly fair? Does your concernfor safety in mock fighting mean thatmore lethal and dangerous techniquesare never explored or learned at any timeunder any conditions of training? Areyou learning to prevent disarms, sei-zures and takedowns performed againstyou, or even to safely fall and roll?

5. Does it let you use both arms natu-rally?Are you able to utilize your second handin defense, for parrying, grasping, trap-ping, and disarming? Does your fencingprepare you for countering an opponenttrained to use both his hands in grab-bing or seizing your arm, clothing, hilt,or weapon? Or following styles of courtfencing and later smallsword duelling, areyou forced by convention and traditionto pretend you and your opponent onlyhave one arm?

6. Does it make multiple opponents aconsideration?Personal combat was not only aboutone-on-one duels. The dynamic of onefighting against many is very differentthan one against another solo. Does yourfencing ever incorporate practice at fac-ing more than one antagonist or com-bating groups of attackers from any di-rection? Or is it instead always just aboutdueling a single opponent with a singleweapon?

7. Does it only take place in standard-ized clothing?Historically, combat could occur at anytime at any place, not just when twoparties formally agreed to it. Are theeffects of wearing historical garmentssuch as leathers, thick wool, baggy pantsand shirts, heavy boots, or maile armor

taken into consideration? Or is all yourfencing conducted in the same uniformwith participants imagined to only beidentically clad duelists exclusively inshirtsleeves or bare chests?

8. Does practice occur on diverse ter-rain?Historically, combat could occur underany conditions and on any type of floor-ing or ground. Do you always fence onthe same general type of surface, or doyou make an effort to experience theeffects of moving on broken earth,gravel, mud, sand, high grass, knee-deep water, rocky footing, etc.?

9. Does it consider secondary or com-panion weapons?Historically, fencing was about the useof all hand weapons, not just swords,and not just the single sword amongcertain gentleman or the aristocracy (atleast, not until the late 17th century).Swordsmanship at one time would notbe considered complete without skill ineffectively facing shields, pole-arms,and daggers. Is your fencing solely thatof the single sword, or does it take intoaccount the possibility of successfullyencountering diverse and dissimilarweapons with your sword?

10. Are close-in actions ever takeninto account?What happens when each fighter comesagainst the other body to body (corps-á-corps)? Is all fencing stopped, or issome minimal amount of bumping andjostling permitted? What about whatreally could happen in a fight, wheregrabbing and pulling of clothes oc-curred as well as tripping, face knock-ing, arm locking, wrist twisting, hair-pulling, eye-gouging, biting, hilt-striking,etc.? Is this all ignored or are fencers atleast instructed in how to safely engagein or prevent their being grabbed, pushed,tripped, or caught in a head-lock? Areall these things merely assumed to beuniversally negated by the applicationof "proper" fencing skill with the singlesword, or is the unpleasant reality con-sidered?

11. Is grappling and wrestling evertaken into account?Historical accounts of both grappling

and wrestling in Renaissance-era swordcombats and duels abound. These skillswere common among fencers of allclasses into the 17th century and be-yond. But such skills were dropped fromlater forms of private combat within thecode duello. In your fencing, if twocombatants do close upon one anotherdoes all action then cease? Or if a seizureor disarm should be employed, does ac-tion again cease or are the fencers ableto explore the counter-techniques ofgrappling and wrestling as a defenseagainst an armed adversary? What hap-pens if you are disarmed or drop yourblade? Would you know how to con-tinue with any chance of success?

12. Are dissimilar tools utilized?Except in arranged duels of honor, sel-dom were weapons carefully comparedbefore fighting to ensure uniformity oflength, weight, sharpness, balance, orother quality. Does all your fencing oc-cur between two equally-paired weapons,or do you appreciate the experience offacing a shorter or longer blade, a lighteror heavier blade, a wider or thinnerblade? What about weapons of differenthilt styles, such as those that can aid inparrying and trapping?

13. Is there any recognition of the dif-ference between the effects of attacksupon different parts of humananatomy?Wounds to the limbs do not produce thesame results as those to the head or body,and those to the face are not the same asthose to the torso. Does your simula-tion recognize the effects of wounds todifferent portions of the body? Doesyour fencing take this into account andteach appropriate tactics or does it treatall hits as causing the same degree of"incapacitation"? Does it even allow fortargeting of the whole body in the firstplace, or does it impose artificial restric-tions upon the freedom to strike at anyvulnerable part of an opponent's anatomy?Further, does your fencing always ceaseaction after a single hit, or are the com-batants ever allowed to continue on tomake successive hits within an exchangeof actions?

14. Does it encourage or rely on theexercise of test-cutting?

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It is easy to make claims about whatdifferent sword forms could or woulddo without ever actually trying it out. Itis also easy to misinterpret the differentdegrees of "cut" that can be made withdifferent techniques of assorted bladetypes on a person. Whether foyning-fence or cut-and-thrust fence, can youreally make assumptions without per-sonal experience in using sharp bladeson test targets? Does your fencing in-corporate the practice of hitting with atrue edge using the correct physicalmechanics to actually cause maximumresults? Are different swords and dif-ferent target materials utilized for cut-ting practice? Or is cutting with a realsword considered something "obvious"and "easy" that requires no real effort?

15. Does it teach you to draw yourweapon?Fighting with swords was not alwaysabout facing-off with an opponent untila third party verbally started things withan official instruction. Being able tounsheathe your weapon in a quick andefficient manner (as well as possiblystifling the opponent's) was at one timea skill to learn. Does your fencing takeinto account the drawing of a weaponor of even wearing a belt and hanger, ordoes it all occur only after blades aredrawn and combatants face off at a setdistance? Combat did not all occur asformal duels but more often as suddenambushes and violent assaults. Do youever even practice attacking from dif-ferent distances and even from a run-ning attack or is it always started fromthe same standardized range?

16. Is mock-combat approached as ifit were real?In reality we only have one life to riskand there are no "points" to "score" inearnest fights for survival. To serve itstrue purpose of preparation for real en-counters, mock-combat must be con-ducted with an attitude that appreciatesthe inherent danger and consequencesof fighting. Do you approach it with theunderstanding that the penalty for fail-ing to defend is your death, or just theloss of a match? Is there a realistic de-gree of hesitation or apprehension infighting because you are aware of thelethality of techniques as well as the

need for actions to be performed safelyin order to prevent accidental injury toyour partner? Or in contrast, is yourfencing so safe and so focused on scor-ing that you are free to attempt any at-tack on an "opponent" regardless of howexposed or vulnerable it would leaveyou in real combat with sharp weapons?

These questions above show there canbe far more to fencing than the duel ofsingle sword against single sword.Modern fencing, like many other com-bat sports today, is approached as a"non-lethal combative." Quite obviously,there are techniques a fighter, as opposedto a sportsman, wants in his arsenal thatthe other does not, and vice-versa. Theformer seeks skill for theoretical real lifeand death encounters, the latter, for win-ning within the agreed rules of a game.Between a martial art and a combatsport, even when each is pursued as a"non-lethal combative", there are differ-ences in the tools and their application,in the conditions, the environment, train-ing exercises, practice drills, equipment,clothing, and range of activities and ac-tions, as well as general intent. Eachmay be about self-expression and formas well as function. But a martial sportis concerned with a sense of sportsman-ship and the thrill of fair competition. Itis about winning or losing a fun game.A martial art in contrast, can be said tobe about theoretical life or death sur-vival in a violent encounter or contest.We might further consider that when-ever historical fighting methods -thatwere devised for real weapons to actu-ally kill and maim -are applied for pur-poses of sporting play, there is a sig-nificant and profound change that mustoccur as a result. The ancient goal oftraining to learn to defeat real opponentswith martial efficiency and deadlinessis replaced with the idea of scoringpoints by following agreed upon rulerestrictions. This surely leads to a mis-understanding and misapplication of

the-overall method for properly han-dling a weapon lethally, in favor of whatworks in the sport. When practitionershave to study the instructions of the oldmasters in light of what they are "allowed"to do "under the rules", it changes the en-tire outlook of how and why they prac-tice their swordplay in the first place.When you practice with a true martialspirit, handling weapons and moving asif to kill or be killed, it changes your out-look and your understanding. It is pro-foundly different than practicing to win agame -even when such games are hard-fought emotionally charged athletic con-tests. The significance of this differencewithin the modern reconstruction of his-torical European martial arts cannot beunderstated.These same criteria above can also beapplied to determining whether or notyour fencing is a martial art or a perfor-mance art, in other words, whether it iseither display oriented or combat ori-ented. Does it have as it goal the execu-tion of a ballet-like series of choreographicmovement patterns or the developmentof spontaneous execution of techniqueswith adversarial-counter timing? Is itapplicable only to the conditions of solopresentation routines, or can it be ap-plied effectively against an opponent infree-play?These questions address concerns rel-evant to historical fencing study. Con-sidering these questions helps to ap-proach the subject of historical fencingfrom the context of a true martial art, anearnest combat skill -its original pur-pose. In conclusion, it is clear there ismuch to consider that is simply outsidethe purview of traditional (i.e., classi-cal or modern) fencing study and thisreflects the perspective the ARMA takestoward the subject in its own practice.One of the best questions to consider inyour fencing then, is: If you had to fighta real duel in say, three months, wouldyou train differently than you do now?If so, why not train that way already?

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Consideration of Grappling &Wrestling in Renaissance Fencing


The skills of grappling and the art ofwrestling have a long legacy in Europe.In the early 1500s, many soldiers, schol-ars, priests, and nobles wrote that wres-tling was important in preparing aristo-cratic youth for military service. The de-tailed depictions of unarmed techniquesin many Medieval fencing manuals (suchas those by Fiore Dei Liberi and HansTalhoffer) are well known and accountsof wrestling and grappling abound indescriptions of 15th century tournaments

gins, where each seeks to throw downthe other or cast him on the ground, andto harm and overcome him with manyother means." But just how all this heri-tage relates to the foyning fence of theRenaissance is less well understood.This has been an area traditionally over-looked by enthusiasts and it is under-standable that many enthusiasts havecome to the wrong conclusions.Nonetheless, all historical armed com-bat (Medieval and Renaissance, cuttingor thrusting) involved some degree ofgrappling and wrestling techniques. But,as few Renaissance fencing manualsinclude detailed sections on grapplingand wrestling or even discuss seizuresand disarms, the popular view has beenthat they were not used or were viewedwith disdain. Besides, aren't unarmedand pugilistic attacks merely unskilled"thuggery" practiced only by the lowerclasses? After all, surely one should notneed to wrestle if one knows the sword"to perfection" (…and yet how many are"perfect" with their sword, we mightask?).This common view makes perfect sense,after all, as a slender cut-and-thrust swordor rapier is a weapon whose characteris-tics are perfectly suited to keeping anopponent off and killing him at range.Intentionally closing-in to resort tohands-on brute strength would seemantithetical to the very nature and ad-vantage of the weapon. In actuality, thematter is that such actions were notprimitive, but advanced techniques thatrequired considerable practice and skillto execute -and knowing them couldmake a fighter a more well-rounded anddangerous opponent in combat. Yet,fencing historians have typically seenthese advanced techniques as being cru-dities and mere "tricks". Part of thisprejudice perhaps stems from the survi-ving 18th & 19th century view of sword

play as being essentially that of personal"duel of honor" or gentlemanly privatequarrel. The traditional focus there hasbeen on fencing as "blade on blade"action rather than on "fighting" withswords in battle or sudden urban assault.This was not the case in the 1500s and1600s. Armed fighting ranged from allmanner of encounters with all mannerof bladed weapons.Yet, because approval of grappling andwrestling in the period was inconsistent

and judicial contests. A 1442 tournamentfight in Paris "with weapons as we areaccustomed to carrying in battle" in-cluded in its fourth article the stipula-tion "that each of us may help each otherwith wrestling, using legs, feet, arms orhands." English knightly tournaments aslate as 1507 allowed combatants "ToWrestle all maner of wayes" or to fight"with Gripe, or otherwise". The Hispano-Italian master Pietro Monte in the 1480seven recognized wrestling as the "foun-dation of all fighting", armed or unarmed.Albrecht Duerer's Fechtbuch of 1512 con-tains more material on wrestling thanon swordplay, yet the relationship be-tween them is noticeable. The oldestknown fencing text, the late 13th cen-tury treatise MS I.33, even states, "Forwhen one will not cede to the other, butthey press one against the other and rushclose, there is almost no use for arms,especially long ones, but grappling be-

and often curtailed during fencing prac-tice, understanding its true value can beconfusing now for students unfamiliarwith either the actual evidence or theactual techniques. In the early 1500s theItalian solider-priest Celio Calacagninilisted wrestling as an exercise requiredfor preparing upper-class youths formilitary service. In 1528, the courtierBaldassare Castiglione wrote, " it is ofthe highest importance to know how towrestle, since this often accompaniescombat on foot." In 1531 the Englishscholar and diplomat Sir Thomas Elyotwrote, "There be divers maners ofwrastlinges" and "undoubtedly it shallbe founde profitable in warres, in casethat a capitayne shall be constrayned tocope with his aduersary hande to hande,hauyng his weapon broken or loste. Alsoit hath ben sene that the waiker persone,by the sleight of wrastlyng, hath ouer-throwen the strenger, almost or he coulde

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fasten on the other any violent stroke."In 1575, Michel de Montaigne, the FrenchRenaissance thinker, essayist, and court-ier, wrote "our very exercises and recre-ations, running, wrestling …and fencing".In the notorious 1547 duel between thenobles Jarnac and Chastaignerai, Jarnacwas so concerned at Chastaignerai'swell known skill as a wrestler (not tomention fencing) that to avoid thechance of a close struggle, he insistedboth parties each wear two daggers.Alfred Hutton's account from Vulson dela Colombière in 1549 of a judicial com-bat between one D'aguerre and Fendillesstates, "D'aguerre let fall his sword, andbeing an expert wrestler (for be it under-stood that no one in those days was con-sidered a complete man-at-arms unlesshe was proficient in the wrestling art),threw his enemy, held him down, and,having disarmed him of his morion,dealt him many severe blows on thehead and face with it…".A Ritterakedemie or "Knight's School"was reportedly set up in 1589 at Tübingenin Germany to instruct aristocratic youthsin skills which included wrestling, fenc-ing, riding, dancing, tennis, and fire-arms. Joachim Meyer offered significantelements of grappling and wrestlingwith swords in his Fechtbuch of 1570.In the 1580s the French general Francoisde la Noue advocated wrestling in thecurriculum of military academies andthe chronicler of duels, Brantome, also

tells us that wrestling was highly regardedat the French court. The Bolognese mas-ter, Lelio de Tedeschi, even produced amanual on the art of disarming in 1603.In 1625, Englishman Richard Peekefought in a rapier duel at Cadiz, defeat-ing the Spaniard Tiago by sweeping hislegs out from under him after trappinghis blade with his hilt. In 1617 JosephSwetnam commented on the value ofskill in wrestling for staff fighting. Butas Dr. Anglo has pointed out, in 1622,Englishman Henry Peacham questionedwhether "throwing and wrestling" weremore befitting common soldiers ratherthan nobility, while his contemporaryLord Herbert of Cherbury who studiedmartial arts in France, found them "quali-ties of great use". At the turn of the 17thcentury in France, the celebrated rapierduelists Lagarde and Bazanez came intoconflict (the celebrated "duel of the hat")and ended up on the ground violentlystabbing and fighting each other.There is evidence close-in techniqueswere excluded from the German Fecht-schulen events of the 1500s where, inorder to perform safe displays, ruleswere in place to prevent such techniques.Similarly, the 1573 Sloane manuscript ofthe London Masters of Defence statesthat in Prize Playing events "who soeverdothe play agaynst ye prizor, and dothstrike his blowe and close withall so thatthe prizor cannot strike his blowe afteragayne, shall Wynn no game for annyVeneye". The implication in such casesis that while closing and seizing is effec-tive and understood, it is inappropriate forthe public display intended to show astudent's skill at defending and deliveringblows. In 1579, Heinrich Von Gunterrodtnoted that "Fencing is a worthy, manly,and most noble Gymnastic art, establishedby principles of nature…which serves

both gladiator and soldier, indeed every-one, in …battles, and single-combats,with every hand-to-hand weapon, andalso wrestling, for strongly defending,and achieving victory. " Von Gunterrodt(the late 13th century treatise MS I.33)also observed: in fencing, "when one willnot cede to the other, but they press oneagainst the other and rush close, thereis almost no use for arms, especiallylong ones, but grappling begins, whereeach seeks to throw down the other orcast him on the ground, and to harm andovercome him with many other means."George Silver's views of 1599 advocating"gryps and seizures" in swordplay arewell known. Interestingly though, Silverlamented how such things were nolonger being taught by teachers of de-fence, saying "…there are now in thesedayes no gripes, closes, wrestlings,striking with the hilts, daggers, or buck-lers, used in Fence-schools". However,Silver also describes situations which arequite familiar and reasonable to thosewho today practice rapier fencing withmore inclusive guidelines for intentionalclose-contact. Silver, in his Paradoxesof Defence, section 31, actually complainsthat the rapier's excessive length allowsfor close-in fighting without much fearbecause there is little threat to preventit once the point is displaced. He writes:"Of the single rapier fight between val-iant men, having both skill, he that isthe best wrestler, or if neither of themcan wrestle, the strongest man mostcommonly kills the other, or leaves himat his mercy". He then describes whathappens typically when the fighters bothrush together, explaining:"When two valiant men of skill at singlerapier do fight, one or both of them mostcommonly standing upon their strengthor skill in wrestling, will presently seek

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his legs out from under him, slashed hisrear, and then stomped on him a fewtimes while he was down.Hutton tells us how in the year 1626,the Marquis de Beuvron and Francois eMontmorency, Comte de Boutteville,the notorious rabid duelist and bully,fought a duel together in which both at-tacked "each other so furiously that theysoon come to such close quarters that theirlong rapiers are useless. They throw themaside, and, grappling with one another,attempt to bring their daggers into play."In 1671 an affray took place in Montreal,Canada, between Lieutenant de Carionand Ensign de Lormeau. While walk-ing home with his wife, de Lormeau wasconfronted by de Carion backed by twofriends. Provoked into fighting by deCarion, both men drew swords and ex-changed blows. De Lormeau was wound-

clad in defensive armor or not". He addsthat, "Even in Spain, where it might bethought that mathematical and philo-sophical speculation had eliminatedsuch sordid realities, wrestling trickswere still taught by the masters -as wellillustrated in early seventeenth-centurymanuscripts treatises by Pedro de Heredia,cavalry captain and member of the warcouncil of the King of Spain". Heredia'sillustrations of rapier include several ef-fective close-in actions that hark backto similar techniques of Marozzo andeven Fiore Dei Liberi in 1410.The chronicler of duels, Brantome, tellsus of a judicial duel in the mid-1500swherein the Baron de Gueerres foughtone Fendilles. Having received a terriblethrust in the thigh, the Baron availedhimself of his wrestling skills and "closedwith his antagonist and bore him to theground; and there the two lay andstruggled". He also relates a sword &dagger duel between the Spanish CaptainAlonso de Sotomayor and the knightBayard. After some figting Sotomayormissed a thrust which Bayard answeredby deeply piercing his throat that he couldnot withdraw his weapon. Sotomayor wasstill able to grapple with Bayard so thatboth fell where Bayard then managedto stab Sotomayor in the face with hisdagger.Some would still give us the impressiontoday that personal combat in the Re-naissance consisted only of cavaliersand courtiers formally dueling eachother and apparently no gentleman orcourtier in the period ever fought underany other condition or for any other rea-son other than affairs of honor. Of course,it must be thoroughly understood that itwas the Renaissance aristocracy whowere primarily recording accounts ofduels and frays and who naturally wrotealmost exclusively about combatsamong their own social class. Naturally,proper duels (illegal or not) were farmore interesting to them than everydayfights (by gentry or commoner) whichgarnered neither reputation nor honor.But the actual evidence from the periodsuggests a very different character thana conception of simple "honorable"swordplay.In the 1470s Paris de Puteo had notedthat in a formal duel if a sword was bro-ken he might properly fight by twisting

to run into the close…But happeningboth of one mind, they rather do bringthemselves together. That being done,no skill with rapiers avail, they presentlygrapple fast their hilts, their wrists, arms,bodies or necks, as in …wrestling, orstriving together, they may best find fortheir advantages. Whereby it most com-monly falls out, that he that is the bestwrestler, or strongest man (if neither ofthem can wrestle) overcomes, wrestlingby strength, or fine skill in wrestling,the rapier from his adversary, or cast-ing him from him, wither to the ground,or to such distance, that he may by rea-son thereof, use the edge or point of hisrapier, to strike or thrust him, leavinghim dead or alive at his mercy."In his section 34, Of the long single ra-pier, or rapier and poniard fight betweentwo unskillful men being valiant, Silveralso observes:"When two unskillful men (being val-iant) shall fight with long single rapiers,there is less danger in that kind of fight,by reason of their distance in convenientlength, weight, and unwieldiness, than iswith short rapiers, whereby it comes topass, that what hurt shall happen to bedone, if any with the edge or point oftheir rapiers is done in a moment, andpresently will grapple and wrestle to-gether, wherein most commonly thestrongest or best wrestler overcomes,and the like fight falls out between them,at the long rapier and poniard, but muchmore deadly, because instead of closeand wresting, they fall most commonlyto stabbing with their poniards."Of course, some might argue Silver wasnot a "rapier master" and so did not un-derstand "proper" fencing. Regardless,he was obviously an experienced, highlyskilled martial artist and expert swords-man who had seen valid methods of ra-pier fighting in actual use. Then there isthe case of "Austin Bagger, a very tallgentleman of his hands, not standingmuch upon his skill" who Silver de-scribes as having with his sword andbuckler fought the "Italian teacher ofoffense", Signior Rocco with his two-handed-sword. Silver relates how Bag-ger "presently closed with him, andstruck up his heels, and cut him overthe breech, and trod upon him, and mostgrievously hurt him under his feet."Which means he charged forward, swept

ed three times, including wounds to thehead and arm. Both wrestled briefly be-fore de Carion struck de Lormeau repeat-edly on the head with his pommel. Theywere then separated by some five pass-ing onlookers and both combatants sur-vived.Closing in to strike, to grab, trip, throw,or push the opponent down is seen incountless Renaissance fencing manualsfrom the cut-and-thrust style swords ofMarozzo in 1536 to the slender rapierof Giovanni Lovino in 1580 and that ofL'Lange in 1664. Jacob Wallhausen's1616 depictions of military combat (ar-mored and unarmored) show much thesame. Dr. Sydney Anglo calls this des-perate armed or unarmed combat "all-infighting" as opposed to formal duels withrules, and describes it as: "one other areaof personal combat which was taughtby masters throughout Europe, and waspracticed at every level of the social hi-erarchy whether the antagonists were

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cumbent manner in which their fellowperished). Giraldi Cinzio described aduel of c. 1564 in which an old fencingmaster named Pirro at Beneveto foughtwith Sergesto, a young former student.Pirro struck him on the back of the kneewith the flat of his blade, pushed him tothe ground, disarmed him and, seizinghis throat, made him surrender.The master Salvatore Fabris in 1606depicted a range of close-in and second-hand actions even showing a closing totake down the opponent by grabbinghim around the waist. Yet Fabris onlyincluded material on grips and seizingreluctantly, because his text was focusedon defense with the sword in a way soeffective that gentlemen would "neverneed to come to grips or the seizing ofswords". As with other masters, hismethod was essentially aimed at encoun-ters of honor within the code duello. Ap-parently though, whatever his opinionof them as appropriate for his readers,he did understand and teach these otherskills in some way to prepare his stu-dents for them. Fabris' close-in moveswere influential enough for several laterrapier masters, including Heussler in1615, L'Lange in 1664, and Porath aslate as 1693, to all copy them (SiegmundWeischner in his small-sword treatise,Die Ritterliche Geschicklichkeit imFechten, of 1765 also shows a varietyof closing actions and grapples similarto Fabris).Given the range of techniques and actionsin the historical accounts, a pattern isdiscernable. In a 1613 rapier duel be-tween Sir John Heidon, the Earl ofDorset, and Lord Bruce, Heidon notonly put his opponent on the ground,but jumped on him afterward. Heidonwrote: "And there we wrestled for thetwo greatest and dearest prizes we couldever expect trial for -life and honor.

Myself being wounded…I struck…passedthrough his body, and drawing back mysword, repassed through again…I easilybecame master of him, laying him on hisback, when, being upon him …I couldnot find in my heart to offer him anymore violence, only keeping him down".In a single combat during the EnglishCivil Wars, Scotsman Sir Ewen Lochiel,chief of the clan Cameron fought a val-iant English officer after several momentsand exchange of blows, Lochiel finallydisarmed his antagonist and they wrestleduntil they fell to the ground grappling.The Englishman gained the advantagebut Lochiel managed to get his handsfree, grabbed his foes collar and: "fasten-ing his teeth upon his throat, broughtaway a mouthful of flesh, which, he said,was 'the sweetest bit he ever had in hislife.'In his 1657 work on rapiers, weapons,and unarmed combat the German mas-ter of arms, Johan Georg Pascha, revealsan extraordinary range of unarmed tech-niques (which some have said resemblestyles of Chinese Ming Chung kung fu).It would not be difficult to believe thatPascha, who was also a rapier master,

his opponent's arm, biting him, etc. Butby 1553, the Venetian Antonio Possevinostated that to purposely discard a service-able weapon in favor of fist fighting orto engage in wrestling, kicking, etc. wasdishonorable because the contest shouldbe a test of strength not of the body. Suchactions were deemed appropriate fordueling gentry if conducted within thecourse of an armed struggle -that is, theywere allowable while still armed. Fromthe early 1500s there is the account of aformal duel sanctioned by the GrandDuke Alphonso in Ferrara, Italy wherethe challenged party (in an obvious at-tempt to prevent such actions) attemptedto wear armor with sharp projections atplaces where an adversary would typi-cally try to take hold. Objecting, the Dukesummoned forth a smith to file down theoffending sharp points on grounds thatsuch was not the proper manner of ar-mor worn by knights in war.One late 1500s duel between a SignorAmadeo and one Crequi was fought onan island in the Rhone. Crequi broughtAmadeo to the ground and without moreado killed him there (Amadeo's relativeslater complained of the undignified re-

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making a blow at it; or, if you thinkyourself as powerful as your adversary,oppose force to force, then the weakermust go to the ground, if some know-ledge of wrestling does not prevent it."During a duel in 1772, Richard Sheridanand Captain Mathews, after missing withpistols, they closed with small-swords,which were each broken on the firstlunge. "They then fought with the brokenparts until each received many wounds,Sheridan some very dangerous ones.They at last fell to the ground and foughtuntil separated by their seconds, Mr.Sheridan being borne from the field witha portion of his antagonist's weapon stick-ing through an ear, his breast-bonetouched, his whole body covered with

punch" martial artists). It is perfectlyreasonable that two gentlemen wouldprefer to have an "honorable" quarrelsettled by "sword skill", rather than risk"scuffling in the dirt"- and gettingbashed in the face (of which there areseveral accounts). But just as with schoolsof modern martial arts or knife-fightingor hand-gun training now, there weretheories of fighting back then that weremore ideal than reality. There were alsostyles that felt no cause to address certainpossibilities that would be more or lessunlikely to be employed by the partiesin a formal aristocratic duel.Yet, because a Renaissance master ofarms produced one text on one aspectof fighting (i.e., rapier dueling) for oneparticular audience, does it necessarilymean that we can assume he was not atall adept at other styles of sword or rapierfighting? When reconstructing aspectsof Renaissance fencing today, it is nar-row and self-defeating to attempt to can-onize the minority of masters who eitherdisapproved of or failed to address closefighting from those who did. As Dr. Anglohas concluded, "Whatever the theoreticalstatus of wrestling among the learnedand knightly classes, it is obvious fromsurviving treatises that, up to the earlyseventeenth century and even beyond,many master of arms recognized the ad-vantage bestowed upon their pupils by thephysical exercise of wrestling - in orderto develop agility, strength, and dexterity -and by practicing unarmed combat to

would have utilized these in his fencingmethod. We must consider that since hedid not show them does not necessarilyserve as evidence he excluded them. Afighter always uses what he knows. AsDr. Anglo relates, "For many centuries,the fighting taught by professional mas-ters was relevant either on the battle-field, in the formal duel or in a brawl.The space given to the difficult skillsrequired in each case varied from au-thor to author, place to place, and (cer-tainly) from time to time." Dr. Anglopoints out that in the late 1600s, thephilosopher John Locke wrote that anunskilled fencer with skill in wrestling hasthe "odds against a moderate fencer".Locke believed for a man to prepare hisson for duels, "I had much rather mineshould be a good wrestler than an ordi-nary fencer; which the most any gentle-man can attain to in it, unless he will beconstantly in the fencing school, andevery day exercising." Scots master, SirWilliam Hope in his 1707, "New Method"fencing book also speaks highly of gripsand tripping (although not as somethingto be casually practiced in class). In 1720,Sir Thomas Parkyns in his Cornish-Hugg Wrestler explained, "I illustratehow useful Wrestling is to a Gentlemanin Fencing, in the following Example ofParrying, and leave it to the ingenious, tomake a farther Application as oft as anOpportunity shall offer itself."Even into the 1700s there are notableaccounts of grappling, wrestling and all-out fighting occuring during upper-classduels between skilled fencers. In a 1750

small-sword duel between two Germannoblemen, Swiegel and Freychappel, thecombat lasted nearly an hour during whichboth were wounded many times. Even-tually, Freychappel in trying to rush hisopponent, tripped and fell and was in-stantly run through and killed bySwiegel. In his 1771 fencer's guide forbroadsword, A. Lonnergan at one pointinstructs, "When I begin to advance theleft hand to disarm you, spring back,

wounds and blood, and his face nearlybeaten to a jelly with the hilt of Matthews'sword." That some Renaissance mastersand courtiers did frown on these closefighting actions is true. The view that alengthy agile sword should alone besufficient for defense is a reasonable one(and is highly reminiscent today of therecent grappling/ground-fighting defi-ciency so effectively argued against bythe more traditional "stand-up kick/

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Seizures, disarms, close-in grabs, andleft-hand parries have always been tricky,always been risky, and always requiredpractice in all types of fencing. Perhapsthere have always been fencers too con-servative to approve of them or to riskcoming corps-a-corps ("body to body")at all. But this doesn't mean that in theright circumstances they did not workand cannot work again. These were (andare) advanced techniques and even foradvanced students may not always workperfectly (but then, what techniquesdo?). If the circumstances are correct,and they fail, it is the fighter not the tech-nique which is at fault. Interestingly, someschools and masters were still teachinggrips and seizures up to the 19th century.Against a lighter, shorter blade, theseactions are indeed harder to effect, butthat only meant a swordsman wouldhave to be careful in the attempt -whichwas true with earlier weapons, as well.Referring to French military duels with"skewers" (epees) of the 1880s, one au-thor related "If it were not for the pros-pect of that pointed rapier before themthese soldiers might sometimes kick andmaul each other to death."For some sword enthusiasts today, his-torical fencing means martial arts, ortechniques approached purely for self-defence, i.e., killing skills. For others,fencing itself seems to mean only theart of the single sword and only whenconducted in a traditional pedagogy ofmock dueling (a combat selon les règlesor a combat "according to the rules").Yet, historians of dueling have pointedout that in the 1500s and 1600s, littledistinction was frequently made betweenbrawls, sudden affrays, rencounters, pri-vate assaults, and "duels" (either formalor a' la mazza). This distinction evenappears to have been the exceptionrather than the rule. Some more traditionalfencers may see as "brutal" any earlierstyle that employs close-in actions, handand foot blows, seizures, grappling, andtake-downs. This is understandable, asthese much ignored and long overlookedtechniques are difficult to learn, dangerousto casually practice, and highly awkwardto safely use in free-play or bouting.They may be considered "artless", "vul-gar", or "base" to attempt to use them "inplace of proper fence". This is a real shame.For these techniques have historical and

use against the assaults of an armed as-sailant or in any other mortal affray".The abandonment by later generations(living under very different conditions)of techniques which were a long-estab-lished part of the repertoire of manymasters does not negate either their sig-nificance or their martial effectiveness(all Hollywood musketeer slapstickaside). Just because later 18th and 19thcentury duelists decided certain moveswere "dastardly" and "unsuited" to theirnotions (artificial or not) of "fair" gentle-manly contests, does not mean all menfighting for their very lives in the vio-lent 1500s and 1600s felt the same. AsDr. Anglo has keenly summarized,"There were many different types ofsword, and they were not all handled inthe same way. There were many differ-ent masters, and - however much theytraveled about to gain experience, cop-ied each other, or developed similar so-lutions to similar questions - they eachhad their own ideas about how to dothings…the history of fencing is a gooddeal less straightforward than was at onetime supposed".There is little question that a swords-man in the 1500s & 1600s had to befully skilled, not just for facing gentle-men il duello, but for a fight a' la machiaor duel a' la mazza (essentially a privateless formal quarrel out in the woods byeither noble or commoner). He also hadto be ready to defend himself against anyunexpected onslaught, sudden ambush,or assault by strangers. He had to drawhis weapon, size up the situation, facemultiple attackers and survive or safelyflee. In other words, he had to be ableto fight those who weren't "playing bythe rules". There are numerous accountsof gentlemen in hot temper vengefullysurprising their rivals. Affairs of honorwherein the adversary stood firm politelyannouncing, "On guard, sir!" was the ex-ception not the rule.

martial validity and they can be as fluidand graceful as any weapon and shouldthey serve to win a life-and death fight,to the winner they are neither impropernor crude. In The Martial Arts of Re-naissance Europe, Dr. Anglo, astutelycomments on the styles of fighting inthe Renaissance stating: "The techniquesinvolved - dealing with unequal odds,left hand parrying, wrestling throws,ruthless battering about the head, stab-bings, wards, and a total commitment todeath and destruction - are all much thesame as those described and illustratedby masters of arms from the late four-teenth century onwards. And, howevermuch such behavior may later have beenfrowned upon by academic fencers, simi-lar practices were still being taught longafter they are conventionally supposed tohave vanished from the sophisticatedswordsman's repertory”.The view that rapiers were too quick toallow successful closing or grappling issimply untrue. But, it's understandablethat as these moves weren't used, theyweren't taught any longer, and not beingtaught they fell out of use. One fights theway one trains after all. Wisely, one wouldnot attempt these actions against an op-ponent unless one had practiced themconsiderably in the first place, otherwisethey would certainly be foolish to attemptexcept in desperation (which did occur).Surely it is unreasonable to believe thatthese things could never have happenedbecause an opponent would be hit beforeclosing to range is not borne out by theavailable evidence. Nor is it supported bymodern contests between "grappling"

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tering actions as crucial, vital, and in-tegral elements in all historical armedcombat, including rapier. These actionswere real, they were historical, and theyworked. They were used by all mannersof fighters from all classes of society(indeed, they continued to later be de-scribed as highly useful by several 18thcentury small-sword masters). In ourmodern study now we must not suppressthem, ignore them, or make excuses forour ignorance of them because they donot somehow fit a preconceived notionof how "proper" fencing (whether Medi-eval or Renaissance) should have beenconducted. Instead, we must expose them,explore them, and try to master them.There is certainly far, far more that canbe said about this subject, and grapplingand wrestling in Renaissance fencingalone could easily be separated into twoor more distinct areas of research. Theskills of entering in close to grab anopponent's arm, hand or blade, disarmthem or trap them were used and aresomething that today's student of his-torical fencing should explore in detail.The techniques of closing to take downor trip up an opponent can make all thedifference in a real sword fight and to-day are elements worthy of long-terminvestigation by Renaissance fencingstudents. It has often been said that weshould not become prisoners to ourstyle. Good ideas come from every-where. There are brilliant ideas in fight-ing and there are foolish ones. The jobof any earnest instructor is to honestlypoint them out. To quote the Master Vadifrom c. 1480, "You can also use in thisArt strokes and close techniques thatyou find simpler; leave the more com-plex, take those favoring your side andoften you will have honour in the Art."

Editor's Note: The reader should notethat this article contains some quota-tions taken from archaic English. Itsspelling is quite different from our mod-ern counterpart.

versus "non-grappling fencers". Giventhe variety and length of rapier bladesand Renaissance swords that existed,and the greater and greater informationnow coming to light on the variousmethods for using them, it would indeedbe a difficult proposition to justify. Thus,today's historical fencing practitionersshould endeavor to experience the op-portunity to go up against someoneskilled in them and use caution in de-claring across the board they do notwork or would not be effective.Were grappling and wrestling techniquesalways used in rapier fencing then? No,of course not. But has their historical andmartial importance to rapier fencing beenoverlooked and under appreciated? Yes,from the evidence presented it obviouslyseems so. If a fighter could kill or defeathis adversary by skill with his blade alone,he surely would. That is what wieldingthe armament is all about after all. But,if opportunity presented itself and circum-stances demanded it, he would utilizeevery action in his repertoire. Knowledgeof grappling and wrestling would makeit all the harder for such moves to besuccessfully used against him. We mightponder if there is a gap or hole in astudent's rapier skills if they are com-pletely ignorant of these techniques, butwho knows? All we can do today isexamine the accounts of duels and com-pare them with the theoretical instruc-tions in the manuals and our own limitedmodern experiments. It can be hard tojudge the value these moves contain

if modern rapier fencing enthusiasts to-day do not themselves regularly practicethem, may not even be aware of them,and neither have used them successfullynor had them employed effectivelyagainst themselves.Perhaps then, when it comes to fightingwith historical hand-weapons, the veryview that there is such a thing as "close-quarter" combat is itself artificial? Sincevirtually all "all-out" Medieval and Re-naissance combat involved, or at leastanticipated and assumed, close-in tech-niques of grappling and wrestling, therewas no real necessity to distinguish close-quarter from "non close-quarter". Therewas only the need to identify classes oftechniques that worked at one range oranother, and were employed either di-rectly by weapon or by empty hand andbody. It would seem it was not untilclose-in actions were later disavowed ordiscarded that a distinction apparentlydeveloped. It may very well be that itwas only the structured rules which lim-ited the application of grappling andwrestling, first within certain tournamentsand judicial duels and then the gentle-manly Code Duello, that armed combat(and fencing in general) came to be char-acterized as something "other" thanclose-combat (i.e., fighting at a rangeother than the weapon's "reach").

ARMA's perspective is that of trainingand instructing. Hence, our purpose isnot academic theorizing but to interpretand practice this subject as a martial artand to train in these skills -as close aswe can approximate to how they werehistorically intended to really be used(in a traditional approach). Since itsbeginnings, ARMA has emphasized sei-zures, disarms, grappling, and close en-

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ARMA - the Association for Renais-sance Martial Arts, is an educationalnon-profit organization dedicated to thestudy and practice of historical fencingand the exploration and promotion ofour Western martial heritage.

The ARMA focuses on the interpreta-tion and legitimate reconstruction ofMedieval and Renaissance combat sys-tems as a modern discipline. The ARMAendeavors to approximate historicalfighting skills through a curriculum of re-constructed techniques, principles, andmethods for using a variety of swords,spears, shields, staff weapons, daggers,and unarmed grappling and wrestlingskills as taught in period books andmanuscripts.

The ARMA’s efforts are directed towardresurrecting and recreating a legitimatecraft of European fighting skills in amanner that is historically valid andmartially sound. We rely for our sourcematerial upon the dozens of rare surviv-ing manuals of Medieval and Renais-sance Masters of Defence.

The ARMA was established to promotethe study of European fighting arts andarms & armor of the 15th – 17th centu-ries. We are first and foremost a mar-tial arts association. The earnest ap-proach we advocate differs substantiallyfrom much of the fluff and fantasy-ori-ented escapism that in the past has oc-cupied this subject. The ARMA does notconduct costumed role-playing nor holdtournaments and sporting competitions.

ARMAThe Association for

Renaissance Martial ArtsThe ARMA was the first comprehensive attempt at an organization established specificallyto advance scholarship into, and practice of, Medieval and Renaissance fighting arts, and

offer a modern historically based curriculum. ARMA's intention is not the "play anddisplay" way. We place concern exclusively on acquiring technical knowledge and physicalskills, rather than theoretical or academic understanding focused only on form –as these

were not what the craft historically was all about.

We also do not perform choreographedfighting stunts. Accurate investigationand interpretation of historical Europeanfighting skills is our primary objective.Our emphasis is also on Spathology –the study of swords.

Purpose:

Study European arms and armor fromthe point of view of their historical func-tion and use.Study historical source litertaure as in-structional fighting guides.Examine historical European martialculture within a broader historiographiccontext.Study, Interpret, Practice, Promote, andTeach the martial arts of RenaissanceEurope.

Objectives:The ARMA offers classes, workshops,and seminars through our continuallyrevised system of established drills andexercises (Armatura). Our curriculumalso includes a Certification & Rankingstructure for students and instructors.The ARMA provides a Training Pro-gram allowing students to learn andpractice within a common structure thatis historically valid and martially sound.The ARMA seeks to advance the qualityof skills demonstrated with Medieval andRenaissance weaponry.The ARMA offers Associate Membersa variety of benefits, advantages, andopportunities in pursuit of their studies.The ARMA attempts to improve the re-lationship between practitioners andacademics in order to stimulate the ex-change of knowledge and encourageunderstanding of historical Europeancombat skills.The ARMA makes it a primary aim toraise the level of scholarship within thehistorical fencing community with its

The ARMA is a leading voice in the res-urrection and revival of lost Europeanfighting arts. Founded in 1992, and onlinesince 1996, (under the original name“HACA”) we have been at the forefrontof the Medieval and Renaissance fencingstudies revival. The ARMA website is theleading online resource for the subject.The ARMA’s influence and popularityhas been an inspiration to many. In a seaof misinformation, misconception, andsheer fiction, ours is one of few islandsof reliable experience and information.We continually revise and amend ourtraining aids and study materials.

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emerging interest in source texts.A large part of the ARMA's energy isdirected at interpretation and integrationof translated source material into a prac-tical hands-on curriculum. Interpretationand reconstruction of Medieval andRenaissance fighting arts are still only intheir infancy. Bringing to public studythe numerous manuals of the Mastersof Defence is an important part of ourefforts. The ARMA encourages andsupports efforts at translating these in-valuable texts.The wealth of fighting manuals cur-rently being studied by many in the his-torical fencing community is only thetip of a very large iceberg. We have onlyjust begun to scratch the surface in ex-amining the profusion of material nowcoming to light. Avoiding misinterpre-tation and error in our study is a con-tinual challenge. While the Internet isfrequently awash with inaccurate infor-mation on our subject, the growing com-munity of serious enthusiasts and ama-teur researchers of Medieval and Renais-sance fighting arts has long been in needof reputable sources of guidance.In the effort to bring a higher degree ofintegrity, dignity, and authority to these

efforts, the ARMA has gathered a listof knowledgeable specialists in severalmajor fields on which we can call on asreference sources. As ARMA ExpertConsultants we have historians, anthro-pologists, linguists, forensic pathologists,curators, armorers, swordsmiths, metal-lurgists, researchers, scholars, fencers,martial artists, and reenactors. Our panelincludes such noted individuals as Dr.Sydney Anglo, David Edge of the WallaceCollection, John Waller of the RoyalArmories, and a variety of historians,professors, scientists, bladesmiths, andcraftsmen.We are passionate about our subject andit is our sincere wish to see historicalEuropean martial arts acquire the respectand attention they deserve. Our intentis directed toward raising the credibility,legitimacy, and standards of practicewithin this field while redevelopinggenuine martial skills and teaching abil-ity. To this end, we have established along-term research effort as well as aproven Training Program.

The ARMA's efforts consists ofone main and one supporting program:

ARMA -The main branch consists ofour research efforts and Training Pro-gram - A Western martial arts study sys-tem for Student Ranking or InstructorCertification. Using the ARMA StudyApproach and Training Methodology,it offers students the chance to exchangeideas as well as benefit from the exper-tise offered by ARMA instructors andsenior students. We have a developedcurriculum of classes and workshops.

ARMA-Youth - A kids program empha-sizing history, physical fitness, and theethics of personal responsibility andservice derived from the best ChivalricValues of Western Civilization. ARMA-Youth offers a healthy approach to learn-ing about Medieval and Renaissanceculture and our Western martial heritagefor teens and kids under age 16.

Further ARMA activities include:Develop a continually refined and increas-ingly accurate interpretation of the his-torical teachings from the source literature.Maintain a practical understanding ofhow these principles and concepts were

applied by fighting men in actual combat.Follow a broad, pragmatic interpretationof the historical sources that is focusedon earnest physical application of theirteachings.Refine a curriculum of martial trainingand practice through transcriptions,translations, interpretations, and physicalapplication of the source literature.Encouraging the development of histori-cal fencing equipment and commercialtraining gear while supporting and pro-moting the production of historically ac-curate replica swords and weaponry.Promoting interest in and advancementof Medieval and Renaissance fencing.Raising the quality of discourse on thesubject while promoting its investigation.Protecting the rights of enthusiasts topurchase and own accurate replicas ofswords and historical weaponry throughlegal and legislative action.Offering to the public reliable educationalresources and expert guidance on thefighting arts of the Middle Ages andRenaissance as well as a consulting ser-vice for schools and the media.Developing and supporting affiliatedStudy Groups following the ARMA sys-tem and our work to be strong, quick,and fluid in our techniques.Networking with the worldwide commu-nity of historical-fencers and promotingopen dialogue and exchange.

The ARMA receives dozens of newmembership requests every month andselects only a few. Generally we lookfor those who are not already deeplyinvolved in study of Asian martial arts.Additionaly, from outside the USA wenow only accept new Study Groups of 4or more individual appplicants.

For more information aboutARMA go to ARMA’s website:

www.thearma.org

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http://www.thearma.org


The Grand Assault:Notes on Its History

In the late 19th Century, a Saturday’s entertainment might involve men swingingbroadswords at one another, cudgeling one another at quarterstaff, or having an

elegant bout with foils and dueling weapons.

- by Russel Hogg -

Most people view warfare and its grimaccoutrements with horror and distaste,and excessive bloodlust and aggressive-ness are generally viewed as negativesin most cultures. Simultaneously, manycultural traditions throughout historyhave exhibited a seemingly paradoxicalfascination for the fighting arts and havehonored those who have attained profi-ciency in the skills of combat. Literarysources such as The Iliad, Beowulf, andThe Song of Roland clearly reflect thereverence that the authors' societies heldfor bravery in their warrior class - notto mention more modern pieces such asThe Lord of the Rings or Rob Roy. Giventhe mass appreciation for well-honed re-flexes and combative prowess as wellas the notion that fighting is indeed fun- especially when there are no lives atstake - martial demonstrations and con-tests are a common theme. From bronze-age Crete we have frescoes depicting box-ing and wrestling; later on we have evi-dence of war dancers and Olympicwrestlers in Classical Greece. FromRome, of course, we have the gladiato-rial combats, from medieval Europe wesee Knights in tournaments and jousts.In nineteenth century Europe, we see thegrand assault of arms: large, sometimesexorbitant contests and demonstrationsof swordplay as it was practiced inFrance and Italy, in which fencing mas-ters and amateurs played out their skillbefore some of the most esteemed per-sonages of the time.

OriginsLike the gladiatorial combats and jouststhat preceded them, the Grand Assaultswere a symptom of particular socio-his-torical forces; as such, it is difficult to

duplicate them today. During the timeof the grand assaults, fencing stood as ahighly popular pastime of Europe's eliteclasses. In Italy and France, the privilegeof carrying a sword had belonged largelyto the nobility. The seventeenth-centuryfencing master François Dancie evennotes, with some distaste, that the onlyway one can distinguish between a gentle-man and the newer class of wealthy mer-chant is through the wearing of a sword.1

Accordingly, the nobles learned the properusage of these weapons from skilledfencing masters who were, in turn givenhigh social status so that gentlemenwould not have to demean themselvesby learning their art from a working pro-letariat. Beginning with the reign ofLouis XIV, fencing masters could evenearn a title of nobility themselves. In thefirst part of the 1800s the fashion ofdaily sword-wear died off (possibly asa side effect of the French Revolution),but with the continuing threat of the dueland the increasing popularity of fencingas an art form, it maintained its popu-larity among the upper classes.Even prior to Louis XIV's mandate, thereis clear evidence that competitions inswordsmanship were popular in manyparts of Europe. In Tudor England, forexample, candidates for the title of"Maister of Defence" had to go througha sort of final examination known as theprize fight, in which they would pit theirskill against other swordsmen in a pub-lic forum - often an inn. After the Com-pany of Maisters dissolved in the mid-1700s, professional combatants such asthe famous James Figg continued tostage fights for a paying audience in amanner somewhat similar to that of pro-fessional boxing matches today. Whereas

these pursuits typically attracted a moreproletarian interest in England, swords-manship contests on the continent main-tained a more aristocratic bent. In onesuch example in 1611, the Flemish-bornand Spanish-trained fencing masterknown as Girard Thibault is known tohave participated in and won a fencingcontest in Rotterdam. The Dutch masterswere so impressed by his fencing style(which they had never witnessed before)that they invited him to teach in theNetherlands.2

Domenico and Henry Angelo, a fatherand son who popularized French methodsof fence in London during the late eight-eenth century, were also involved infencing exhibitions. Domenico, havingcome to London in pursuit of an amournamed "Peg" Worthington, was proddedby his aristocratic friends to open a fenc-ing school after he trounced one Dr.Keys - "reputed the most expert fencerin Ireland" - in a public trial of skill in1760. At the match were present "manyladies of rank and fashion, as well asnoblemen and gentlemen" - a typicalaristocratic crowd for a fencing event,although perhaps more than Angelo hadexpected.3

Fencing contests in the Angelos' timeappear to have consisted largely of publicchallenges and demonstrations, thoughtournament-style competition was notuncommon. In his Reminiscences (whichare generally more concerned with socialrecollections than fencing), Henry Angelorecalls several instances of public chal-lenges, most notably that between twofencers named LeBrun and Lapière athis fencing school on Haymarket Street.We are told little beyond the fact thatLeBrun won twelve touches to one.4

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The Angelos also sponsored numerouspublic exhibitions, the most famous ofwhich featured the Chevalier de SaintGeorge and the Chevalier d'Eon - bothclose friends of the Angelo family andtwo of the most highly lauded fencersof the time. In 1787 the Prince of Waleshimself witnessed one of these demon-strations, which was immortalized in anetching by the artist Thomas Rowlandson.Henry also mentions an Irish organiza-tion called the Knights of Tara, whichheld an annual meeting of amateurs,with a "diamond-cut sword" as the grandprize. True to the later Grand Assaultstyle, "this exhibition was always hon-ored with the presence of the lord-lieu-tenant and ladies, and concluded with aball in the evening."5

In France, evidence for fencing compe-titions in the later eighteenth and earlynineteenth century is somewhat scarcer.Given the aristocratic history and tiesof fencing, the French Revolution did agreat deal to upset public exhibitionsand competitions in Paris; the revolu-tionaries, for example disbanded thecompany of Maistres en faict d'armesde Paris (True Masters of Arms of Paris)and revoked the privileges of theAcademie d'Armes; the latter organiza-tion did not re-form until 1886, and theformer was never revived.6 Yet despiteits lower profile during this transition,fencing remained a popular and impor-tant pastime - so much so that Napo-leon mandated that all military recruitsbe taught the usage of the foil.7 Undersuch famous masters as Jean-LouisMichel and Augustin Grisier, fencing'spopularity increased as it spread to non-aristocratic people who had never beenexposed to it before.As in England, fencing demonstrationsseem to have consisted of organizedcontests and public challenges. We dohave a text on the preparation of rulesfor a concours d'escrime (fencing contest)that was held in 1790 in Marseille,8 andthere are numerous anecdotes of exhi-bitions that involved famous masterssuch as the above-mentioned Jean-Louis,St. George, and Eon. Another such figureis that of Louis-Justin Lafaugère - a mili-tary master who took part in many foildemonstrations, including one in 1816against the Comte de Bondy, who hadissued a public challenge. The bout took

place "in the ballroom of an elegant houseon the Quai d'Orsay," with numerous ea-ger spectators to witness Lafaugère's vic-tory.9 This elaborate type of setting istypical of early fencing contests, andwas eventually epitomized in the grandassaults.

Grand Assaults and "The Golden Ageof Fencing"The grand assault proper developed inthe late 1860s and early 1870s in tunewith the economic and historical forcesthat gave birth to France's gilded age,La Belle Epoque. According to RobertMilton, the sports column writer for theFrench newspaper Le Figaro, this was"a time when everything is made grand- Grand Review or Grand Minister. It isthus that we announce the Grand As-sault."10 If Milton's tone is any indica-tor, this 1882 event may have been thefirst usage of the term in such a man-ner, but we do know regardless thatfencing contests and exhibitions hadbegun to expand considerably in theirscope by the late 1860's, when the fa-mous master Louis Merignac exhibitedhis skill against three fencers namedHeidenbrunze, de Tours, and Gaspardin the Paris Exposition.11

With increased prosperity came an in-creased interest in fencing. The attendanceat fencing exhibitions rose dramatically,with hundreds and occasionally thousandsof spectators standing by to watch thefeats of martial prowess. The assaultsbecame important social events, fre-quented by the brightest stars of both

French and International society. TheAmerican publication Harper's Weeklyreports one such event, which had 700attendees - admirals, generals, journal-ists, artists, authors, noblemen, the en-tire cabinet, and even the President ofFrance himself.12 Le Figaro lists a num-ber of Grand Assaults with such emi-nent observers as General Ney, the Duked'Elchingen, and the Viscount de Langle,not to mention the dames elegantes andother enthusiasts.13

The above-mentioned Harper's articlealso notes that this particular series ofexhibitions took place in a concert roomof the President's residence at the Elysees.This is certainly no rarity, as the grandassaults are defined by their glamorousvenues in addition to their illustriouscrowds and participants. The fencingcritic Adolphe Tavernier mentions severalassaults taking place at the Cirque D'Hiverand the Grand Hotel, as well as at thehouse of the prince A. de Chimay.14 Theformer two places hosted a number ofassaults throughout the 1880s and 1890salongside Le Grand Cirque, whichhosted the 1882 event that Milton dis-cussed above. Not only did these venuesprovide the elegance suited to such anevent, but they also had the capacity tohold the large audiences that theseevents often drew. Assaults could lastfor an evening - usually ending at mid-night on these occasions - or for as longas three days. If laden with social ac-coutrements beyond fencing and con-versation, a grand assaut d'escrime couldbecome a gala d'escrime, accompanied

1859 foil bout at Grand Assault in Boston (from Harper's Weekly)

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by dances and even, in some cases, by"admirably served buffets."15 Fencingexhibitions, therefore, were not onlyimportant for the fencers themselves,but were also a major component of Pa-risian social life; missing an importantassault or gala d'escrime would meanthat a person had missed out on socialopportunities. Given the vast interest infencing, it is not surprising that modernfencing historians generally regard thistime period as the "golden age" of theart. Newspaper articles not only adver-tised events and reported on scores, theyoffered detailed descriptions of individualmatches for those who had missed theevents, as well as offering criticism ofthe fencers themselves. Tavernier's 1885book, Amateurs et Salles d'Armes de Parisserved as a Who's Who of Parisian circles,offering biographies and descriptions ofthe dashing figures and their schools sothat the public could keep track. It was,in essence, the nineteenth-century Frenchequivalent of baseball cards or Sports Il-lustrated magazine.These events were radically different fromtoday's fencing competitions. More oftenthan not, they were organized more asexhibitions or prize fights than competi-tions per se. Poster and newspaper ad-vertisements before the assaults gave apre-determined list of the encounters;for the most part each participant wouldfence only once, although exceptionsdid occur in the larger events. Thus theobjective of each fencer was generallynot only to win the event, but also tomake a good showing in his (or occa-sionally her) encounter.Maître GerardSix notes that these events were oftenas much for show as for victory, as awell-fenced and elegant bout at a grandassault acted as a personal advertise-ment for those masters participating.16

It is also worth noting that decorum andmanners were considered of the utmostimportance in these galas d'escrime. LeFigaro reports of a sabre bout betweenone Casella and Lantieri: "(they were)excessively courteous… where each hitwas announced without hesitation bythe two champions."17

Unlike modern competitions, the weap-ons practiced at the individual assaultsvaried a good deal depending on par-ticipants, tastes, objectives, etc. Foil, ofcourse acted as a mainstay and could be

seen in almost every event. Sabre, too, wascommonly demonstrated, and oftentimescapped off the events.18 The 1882 GrandAssault, which lasted three days, standsas an unusual case in that it seems tohave consisted only of bouts at thenewly developed epée de combat (du-eling sword) and sabre; if any foil boutsdid take place, the paper neglected tomention it.19 Epée events became morecommon as time went on and theweapon became more popular; in 1897,Le Figaro sponsored an internationalepée contest, which was won by MaîtreAnthime Spinnewyn (as he makes sureto mention in his treatise on theweapon).20 In contrast to modern events,which are limited to foil, epée, and sa-bre, the Grand Assaults also took ad-vantage of the knowledge of other typesof fence to create more dramatic demon-strations. Backsword and broadsword(heavier cutting weapons) contests fea-tured regularly, as did bouts at singlestick- a practice weapon for the backsword,and favorite of Theodore Roosevelt.The New York Times reports a grand as-sault at the Cirque D'Été in 1895, in which"shield, sword, rapier, two-handed sword,cutlass, and bayonet" were all used "[toexhibit] the various ways in which twomen have cut each other's throats at dif-ferent epochs in history," and in whichthe famous renaissance duel betweenJarnac and La Chastaignerie was recre-ated.21 The English fencers Egerton Castleand Alfred Hutton gave exhibitions oflongsword, rapier and dagger, and sides-

word (amongst others) at the grand as-saults in which they participated in the1890s; other British exhibitions in-cluded such events as mounted combatwith sword and lance and assaults atquarterstaff.22 Women did not usuallyparticipate in the grand assaults, al-though they were able to occasionallyshow off their considerable skill at thefoils in these events. The French authorGuy de Maupassant gives a fictional ac-count of a grand assault in which thespectators are so moved by the beautyof a bout between two young womenthat they pay no attention to the sabrebout that follows it.23

The New Seed: Grand Assaults AcrossThe PondLa Belle Epoque in France coincidedwith the end of Reconstruction and thebirth of The Gilded Age in the UnitedStates. This was a period of prosperityfor the Americans just as it was for theFrench, and well-to-do Americans be-gan to fall in love all over again withthings European. Americans had largelytended to ignore fencing with the excep-tion of the Louisiana Creoles, who werewell-known for their love of dueling andwho also were known to host their ownGrand Assaults; in 1840, for example acompetition was held in New Orleansin which the masters of the day activelyexcluded the famous duelist and teacherJose "Pepe" Llulla, purportedly out ofjealousy at his success. As fencing beganto decline in New Orleans some thirtyyears later, fencing became a fad almostovernight in the country's other majormetropolitan areas.24 Prior to the mid-1870s it is an immense challenge to findany mention of the discipline in Ameri-can newspapers; after 1880, the papersalmost abound with fencing news. AsKen Mondschein has pointed out in hisarticle "The Other Wild West", the pa-pers which did focus on fencing tendedto be those which catered to a more mon-etarily-endowed crowd, with Harper'sWeekly and the New York Tribune lead-ing the way.25

By the mid-1890s New York had twosuccessful clubs and Boston had one; theera of New World Grand Assaults hadbegun. The earliest of these events tookplace in 1876, when the French immi-grant Master Regis Senac fenced against

Poster for grand assault, 1900

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Colonel T. H. Monstery "for the champi-onship of the United States and SpanishAmerica" at Tammany Hall. Although thetitle itself was of questionable value(given the dearth of fencing in the west-ern hemisphere at the time), the eventdid have most of the qualifications of atrue grand assault: a large crowd, a pre-determined match-up, and an illustriouslocation. After having lost the foil eventand having won the sabre event, Monsterydefaulted, and Senac was declared win-ner on the understanding that Monsterywould challenge Senac again.26 Appar-ently the second contest never materi-alized, but Senac fenced for the "Cham-pionship of the Americas" at least threemore times, finally losing to a French-man named Louis Treuchet after hav-ing defeated Errico Casella and AlbertVaughn. All of these contests were fencedat Tammany Hall with the exception ofSenac vs. Casella, which was fenced atCosmopolitan Hall.27 Senac hosted andparticipated in a number of other demon-strations throughout the 1880s and 1890s,at one point even fencing against threeopponents at once.28

In 1895, Boston enjoyed a true galad'escrime at Papant's Hall, where theBoston Fencing Club invited the bestfencers to an event so filled with spec-tators that the only open space was thefencing strip itself. This particular assaultfeatured broadsword and singlestick,much to the delight of the spectatorswho had never witnessed such an eventbefore. The commentator for Harper'sWeekly notes that "The example of Bos-ton may be profitably imitated by therest of the country. There is no healthiersport than fencing."29

In 1893 and 1894 there passed a whirl-wind of fencing assaults such as NewYork had never encountered before. InNovember, December, and January, thethree great Italian masters Eugenio Pini,Agesilao Greco, and Carlo Pessina madea stopover to demonstrate their tremen-dous skills to the people of the NewWorld. The stay began with a galad'escrime at The Fencer's Club (which isstill in existence in New York), wherethe visiting French military master L.Vauthier faced off against M. Jacoby,the former instructor at The Fencer'sClub; in addition to foil, there were dem-onstrations of broadsword, dueling sword

sword, and even "Japanese singlesticks”(i.e., kendo practiced with shinai) byShilo Sacaze of Nagasaki. Amongst theattendees that night was none other thanMark Twain.30 Although they werepresent, the three Italians did not fencein this event; they did participate in agrand assault three weeks later at theLyceum Opera House, where a hordeof Italian immigrants was so enthusias-tic that - in the words of the reporter -they reminded one of "a mob of ravinglunatics" or a "theatre riot." In a venueso packed that there wasn't even stand-ing room available, the Italians faced offagainst such worthies as M. Gouspy andLouis Senac (the son of Regis). The crowdgrew so boisterous at one point that Pini,"his countrymen's idol," had to admon-ish them during the bout with the state-ment that "true Italians should alwaysbe courteous to a worthy adversary."31

Greco managed to defeat the young Senachandily, despite having been wounded onthe head in a mounted broadsword tour-nament at Madison Square Garden onlydays before!

Olympics, World War, and the Declineof Grand AssaultsTwo bells struck the death-knell of thegrand assaults. The first of these was thefirst Olympic Games in 1896, in whichfencing was one of the four initial events.With the Olympics, international compe-tition grew increasingly important, andfencing contests became more and moreorganized toward the goal of victory overthe entire field of competitors, rather thana demonstration of skill. The tourna-ment-style format, in which fencers areeliminated one-by-one until there is onlyone left standing (so to speak) became thenorm in the new Federation Internationaled'Escrime (F.I.E.), as evidenced in issuesof the French fencing magazine Escrimeet le tir in the 1920's. With only foil, epée,and sabre left as "official" fencing weap-ons, such disciplines as broadsword andsinglestick fell into increasing disuse.Given the severe politico-economic dis-ruption of the two world wars - not tomention the myriad of fencers who mettheir deaths as a result of these wars -people had fewer resources to devote tothe extravagant galas d'escrime. Fencingcompetitions, in effect, became singularin focus as all of the glamour of the galas

was eliminated. The widespread adoptionof electrical scoring in the middle of thetwentieth century also began to alter therules and the fencing itself, so that it be-came more difficult for non-initiates tounderstand and appreciate the phrasesof a fencing bout. Thus fencing lost whatfew spectators it had retained by the endof the century.The last of the grand assaults - not inname, but in spirit - was among the mostfamous fencing matches in the historyof the discipline: that between the Frenchchampion Lucien Gaudin and his Italiancounterpart Aldo Nadi in 1922. A resultof a public challenge rather than a tour-nament or competition, the event tookplace before a sold-out crowd of thou-sands. Gaudin stood as the official vic-tor at the end, though of course propo-nents of French and Italian styles argueto this day about who "should have won."The importance of this match wasdeemed so great that the French gov-ernment awarded Gaudin the Legion ofHonor for his victory. Nadi himself con-tinued to draw tremendous audiences atdemonstrations, fencing before a capac-ity crowd at New York's Plaza Hotel in1935. Such events became increasinglyrare, and although Nadi was one of thefirst of the new generation of "sportfencers," one could also argue that hewas one of the last carriers of the flashi-ness and romanticism of the grand as-saults - thus he could draw the hugecrowds that he did. When Nadi died,much of that magnetism died with him.The appeal of combat exhibitions anddemonstrations of skill did not die outwith the grand assaults. It lingers on inthe fans of televised sporting events suchas football, boxing, wrestling, sumo, orrugby, all of which have a mass appealsimilar to that which the assaults enjoyeda little more than a century ago.

Nadi (left) vs. Gaudin from "Escrime et le Tir"

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Yet although fencing is seldom viewedas a "spectator sport" today, it may bepremature to ascribe the grand assaultsas a curiosity of a dim past. The Associa-tion for Historical Fencing (AHF), found-ed in order to preserve and encouragefencing as it was practiced in the nine-teenth century and before, is fighting toraise public awareness of the disciplineand has begun an initiative to revive thegrand assault tradition. In July 2003, theAHF held its first annual Grand Assaultof Arms at the City Center in New York.This tremendously successful event drewfencers from across the country to com-pete in foil, epée, sabre, and singlestick.As with the grand assaults of old, it ad-vertised and drew public attendance. Inaddition to the competitions, the event of-fered demonstrations of older weaponssuch as French small sword and Italianrapier - the dueling weapons that werethe ancestors of the fencing implementswe know today. Each year, it is hoped thatthe scope of this event will increase untilit has all the glamour of the galas of old.With growing interest in fencing and arapidly expanding movement of fenc-ers interested in preserving and resurrect-ing older styles, weapons, and techniques,the grand assault of a thousand spectatorsmay linger only one or two bends upthe road.

1 Dancie, F. L'espée de combat. 16172 Verwey, Herman de la Fontaine. Gerard Thibaultand his Academie de l'Espée.3 Angelo, H. The Reminiscences of Henry Angelo,Vol I. New York: Benjamin Blom, 1969. p. 76.4 Angelo, H. The Reminiscences of Henry Angelo,Vol. II. New York: Benjamin Blom 1969. p. 261.5 Angelo, H. Reminiscences Vol. II, p. 228.6 Wackermann, P.C. Histoire des Maitres d'Armes.Paris, 2002. p. 36, 90, 100.7 Wackermann 40.8 Seignon, Monsieur, Projet de l'Établissement d'unPrix pour un Concours d'Escrime, Dans la Ville deMarseille. Marseille: P.A. Favet, 1790.9 Gaugler, W.M. The History of Fencing. Bangor,Maine: Laureate Press 1998. p. 109.10 Le Figaro. Jan 12, 1882.11 Tavernier, A. Amateurs et Salles D'Armes de Paris.Paris, 1885. p. 135.12 Harper's Weekly. May 11, 1895.13 Le Figaro. March 22, 1880.14 Tavernier 137, 138.15 Le Figaro. March 22, 1880.16 Personal communication.17 Le Figaro. Jan 16, 1882.18 Le Figaro. Jan. 12, 1882, AND de Maupassant, G. Le Bel Ami. Paris: Garnier, 198819 Le Figaro. Jan 16, 1882.20 Spinnewyn, A., & Manoury. L'escrime a l'epée.Paris: 1898.21 The New York Times. May 5, 1895.22 Wolf, T. "A Grand Assault-at-Arms." Journal ofManly Arts, 2001.23 Maupassant.24 The New York Times. May 2, 1897.25 Mondschein, K. "The Other Wild West."Hammerterz Forum.26 The New York Times. April 11, 1876.27 Mondschein 2, ANDThe New York Times. April 6, 1884.The New York Times. March 4, 1887.28 The New York Times. Jan. 7, 1883.29 Harper's Weekly. March 26, 1895.30 The New York Times. Nov. 21, 1893.31 The New York Times. Dec. 12, 1893.

BibliographyAngelo, H., The Reminiscences of Henry Angelo, Vol I& II. New York: Benjamin Blom, 1969.Aylward, J.D., The English Master of Arms. London:Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1956.Barry, Herbert, The Noble Science: Sloane MS 2530.Newark: U. Delaware Press, 1991.Dancie, François, L'Espée du Combat, ou l'Usage duTir des Armes. 1617.Escrime et le tir.Le Figaro, Paris.Gaugler, William L., The History of Fencing. Bangor,Maine: Laureate, 1998.Harper's Weekly, New York.Maupassant, Guy de, Le Bel Ami. Paris: Garnier, 1988.Mondschein, K., "The Other Wild West." HammerterzForum andAssociation for Historical Fencing Online,www.ahfi.org.New York Times, New York.Seignon, Monsieur, Projet de l'Établissement d'un Prixpour un Concours d'Escrime, Dans la Ville de Marseille.Marseille: P.A. Favet, 1790.Spinnewyn, Anthime, & Paul Manoury. L'escrime al'epée. Paris: J Rothschild, 1898.Tavernier, Adolphe, Amateurs et Salles D'Armes deParis. Paris, 1885.Verwey, Herman de la Fontaine, Gerard Thibault andhis Academie de l'Espée.Wackermann, P.C., Histoire des Maitres d'Armes. Paris,2002.Wolf, T., "A Grand Assault-at-Arms." Journal of ManlyArts, 2001. http://ejmas.com/jmanly/jmanlyframe.htm.

Russell Hogg began fencing in theOlympic style in 1993, trainingwith a number of instructors andmasters before moving to NewYork in 2000. After a brief hiatusfrom fencing, he switched fromsport to the traditional, combat-ori-ented style taught at the MartinezAcademy of Arms. A Ph.D. candi-date in anthropology, his primaryinterest lies in the classical duel-ing weapons of the 19th century(primarily the French epée de com-bat and the Italian dueling sabre),and in the evolution of the Frenchschool of fence from the sixteenthcentury to the early twentieth.

24

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Daggers of the Mind:Towards a Historiography of Fencing

- by Ken Mondschein -

If historians from Karl Marx to MichelFoucault have dealt with conflict be-tween dominant and subordinate groupsas a primary theme in their work, it isarguably because of their Europeanbackground. The notion of social class,it has oft been noted, is more in the foreof the French or British mind than it isin the American. After all, one often-admired quality of American society is itssupposed "egalitarianism." The UnitedStates has had a civil war, but never arevolt of the plebes.1 Therefore, to theAmerican-born historian, conflict andcompetition between social equals wouldseem to be a more authentically pressingissue than conflict between social classes.Classical fencing-that is, a systematizedmethod of civilian combat with thesword, for sport and for self-defense-isa virtual repository of attitudes, norms,and codes for dealings between socialequals. It is, after all, rooted in the real-ity of the duel, the antagonistic and ritu-alistic combat between two adversaries,intended to settle a question of honor;that is to say, of social status amongstone's peers.2 Through the bourgeois ap-propriation of aristocratic, chivalric ide-als, such as the bearing of arms, the codeduello participates in what the medieval-ist Johann Huizinga called the "identi-fication of an aesthetic concept with anethical ideal."3

However, though the oldest existingmartial tradition in the Western world,the Italian school of fence, reckons it-self to be almost five hundred years old,4

academic consideration of the subjectmay almost be said to still be in the DarkAges. Some of the most well-known andfrequently cited works on the history offencing are more than a century old, and

are inundated with at titudes and as-sumptions that, while typical of theirage, are badly in need of reappraisal.Yet, these selfsame attitudes are, in turn,very revealing of the mindset and men-talities prevalent amongst the educatedelites in the mid- to late- nineteenth cen-tury, and which to an extent, are stillcurrent in our own society.A study of these works would, arguably,be even more revealing of the "spirit ofthe age" than reading the works of writ-ers such as Nietzche, since it would tellus what was going on not in the mindof the philosopher, but in the mind ofthe (admittedly well-dressed) man onthe street. Since fencing is, perforce, apastime of the elite, the segment of so-ciety most likely to have been schooledin depth in the various mental habits andviewpoints of their culture, it will reflecta "pop culture" version of this culture'sbiases. This group's perceptions of, andthoughts about, their leisure activity will,logically, reflect their ways of thinking,not only about practical matters, but abouttheir aesthetic tastes, their hopes, dreams,and ideals. An analysis of works on fenc-ing and dueling will, likewise, provideus with the views of this upper crust to-wards conflict, fair play, and the placeof the aggressive instinct in society. Inthese aspects, it may be broader andeven more valuable than a detailed, in-depth analysis of one influential histori-cal writer, such as Ranke or Gibbon.Finally, the study is also of interest tohistorians of science, since classicalfencing was, and is, reckoned to be notjust a physical activity, contingent uponreflexes and brawn, but a science -anaesthetic science, subject to eternal anduniversal rules, as if the same Platonic

truths embrace geometry, fencing, andart. The better we understand the clock-work of the universe, the better we canmake it work for us. The attitudes to-wards fencing will, therefore, also re-flect attitudes towards science and scien-tific progress.The three primary English-language his-torians of fencing in the nineteenth cen-tury were Edgerton Castle, Captain AlfredHutton, and the famous adventurer andexplorer Sir Richard Burton, whosemajor contributions, respectively, areSchools and Masters of Fence, OldSword Play, and The Book of the Sword(all published in 1892). Castle deals withthe history of the art itself, Hutton withthe practical points of Renaissanceswordsmanship, reconstructing tech-nique from an antiquarian point of view,and Burton with the archaeology anddevelopment of the sword itself.The most significant of these writers isCastle, who is still widely quoted as ahistorical authority in works on fenc-ing. Burton, though a colorful charac-ter, is not as useful, since The Book ofthe Sword mainly deals with the evolu-tion of the weapon itself, and thus is notof as much interest to the historian whowishes to deal with social conceptions ofit use. Finally, though the bulk of Hutton'swork deals with the actual technical as-pects of the use of "old" weapons, the in-troductory portions are very revealing.The primary assumption underlying thewritings of these men is that human his-tory since the Renaissance has, underthe aegis of reason, been a continuingmarch towards greater and greater "per-fection." Like the Swiss historian JacobBruckhardt's view of the Renaissance,Hutton, Castle, and Burton display a

25

A look at the scholarly myths about Western martial arts.



strong moral and historical positivism.To them, the invention of fencing, be-gun in the glorious days of the ItalianRenaissance, paralleled the progress ofthe scientific revolution and the evolu-tion of the "modern" age towards greatermoral, intellectual, and physical enlight-enment and refinement, to a point, infact, where dueling had vanished, andthe study of the sword was wholly anacademic, leisure-time activity. (At thetime of writing, no Englishman had en-gaged in a sword duel for years.)5 AsCastle says in his introduction to Schoolsand Masters: "The author does not pro-fess... to analyze closely the contents ofall the books written on the imperfectplay of our ancestors, nor to trace everylink in the chain of (fencing's) develop-ment, from the "pancratium" of the fif-teenth century, in which leaping andwrestling were of more avail than aughtelse, to the courteous and academic 'as-sault' of modern days, where eleganceand precision of movement are morehighly considered -or ought to be- thanmere superiority in the number of hits."6

As part and parcel of this bias, we see astrong tendency that, the later and fur-ther north one looks, the more "perfect"the development of the art is accountedto have been. Hutton, trying to say in afew paragraphs what Castle said in a book,is even more revealing. For instance, inhis introduction to Old Sword-Play, hemakes blanket statements such as: "...inWestern Europe the long, handsome ra-pier had by degrees given place to theshort walking sword, which, however,did not assume a settled form until thecentury following (the eighteenth); butthe Italians, who were the original teach-ers of our art, adhered to the earlier form.This change of pattern in the sword ne-cessitated a change in the method ofusing it, and hence arose the two greatand only "schools" of fence, the Italianand the French."From this point on we deal with theFrench system alone, and we find thatas the short, light swords improved intheir form, the art of wielding them ad-vanced in precision and grace, whichlatter quality may be said to have attainedits perfection about the middle of the eight-eenth century."7

Hutton summarily drops his discussionof the Italian school as soon as it cedes

to the French-the students have sur-passed the masters. Likewise, he appar-ently does not feel the Italian school tohave been "perfect" in and of itself, butrather only an antecedent to the Frenchschool, in which the art reached its ulti-mate culmination. In this, we might de-tect an obvious nationalistic and evenracialist bias-fencing could never be"perfected" by those swarthy Italians.Similarly, Hutton ignores, and Castledismisses, the Spanish school. Whiletheir southern cousins might have beeninspired artists with brush, pen, andsword, it was up to the Northern Euro-pean countries to give the Renaissanceits true intellectual direction.To Burckhardt, as well, the Italian des-pots were almost animalistic-to be ad-mired for their fierceness and politicaleffectiveness, to be sure, but still ruledmore by a fiery heart than a cool mind.Ignoring the history of the communes,so important to the development of civichumanism and such movements as theSavonarolan millennial community inFlorence, emphasis was placed on the"tyrants," the great political powers andartistic patrons. Their epitome was CesareBorgia, who was the despotic son of aSpanish pope of few scruples, and whowas the admired hero of Machiavelli,whose very name was a byword for po-litical cynicism and moral indifference.The Italians had genius, to be sure, as isseen in the art of Michaelangelo andLeonardo Da Vinci, but the history text-books then switched their focus (as theystill do today) from the Italian wars tothe theology of Luther and Calvin, orto the consolidation of the French statein the seventeenth century. The Italianswere ruled by "tyrants," the French by"autocrats."Fencing, likewise, was held to have beenperfected by the "refined" French, whoin this period pioneered the "small sword,"or "walking sword," as Hutton calls it,that combined the functions of mascu-line jewelry and self-defense.8 Even to-day, few costume dramas set in the sev-enteenth or eighteenth century seemcomplete without an affair d'honorsettled at sword's point.9 Italian tech-nique, meanwhile, remained "coarse"and "primitive," using a heavier weaponthat was little more than a scaled-downrapier. Physical labor and brute strength,

The Sword and TheCenturiesby Alfred Hutton

8 ½ x 5 ½ , softcover,photos, illus., 400 pp.

THE SWORD AND THE CENTURIES

This vividly descriptive book traces thesword and its use throughout the GoldenAge of swordsmanship. Using examplesdrawn from history, Alfred Hutton chartsthe development of various types of weap-ons, demonstrates the techniques and tac-tics of key practitioners and brings the forethe heroes and villains of legendary duels,private quarrels and prize fights. Hutton ex-amines such deadly weapons as the two-hand sword, the rapier foil, the stiletto, theflamberge, the small sword, the falchion andthe broadsword. He illustrates their use withfamous and infamous fights from the his-tory of combat. A superb introduction to thecomplex history of the sword.

By Paladin Press


The Book of The Swordby Richard F. Burton

6 1/8 x 9 1/4, softcover,300 illus., 336 pp.

THE BOOK OF THE SWORD

Eloquent, exceptionally erudite history ofthe "Queen of Weapons." Traces sword’sorigin - from prehistory to its full growthduring early Roman Empire. Discusses ear-liest weapons of stone, bone, horn and woodas well as variations: sabre, broadsword,cutlass, scimitar and more. Enhanced bynearly 300 excellent line drawings.

Table of Contents for The Book of the SwordFOREWARD / LIST OF AUTHORITIES / I. PREAMBLE: ONTHE ORIGIN OF WEAPONS / II. "MAN'S FIRST WEAPONS-THE STONE AND THE STICK. THE EARLIEST AGES OFWEAPONS. THE AGES OF WOOD, OF BONE, AND OFHORN" / III. "THE WEAPONS OF THE AGE OF WOOD :THE BOOMERANG AND THE SWORD OF WOOD; OFSTONE, AND OF WOOD AND STONE COMBINED" / IV. THEPROTO-CHALCITIC OR COPPER AGE OF WEAPONSV. "THE SECOND CHALCITIC AGE OF ALLOYS-BRONZE,BRASS, ETC : THE AXE AND THE SWORD" / VI. THEPROTO-SIDERIC OR EARLY IRON AGE OF WEAPONS / VII.THE SWORD : WHAT IS IT? / VIII. THE SWORD IN AN-CIENT EGYPT AND IN MODERN AFRICA / IX. "THESWORD IN KHITA-LAND, PALESTINE AND CANAAN;PHŒNICIA AND CARTHAGE; JEWRY, CYPRUS, TROY,AND ETRURIA" / X. "THE SWORD IN BABYLONIA,ASSYRIA AND PERSIA, AND ANCIENT INDIA" / XI. THESWORD IN ANCIENT GREECE : HOMER ; HESIOD ANDHERODOTUS: MYCENÆXII. THE SWORD IN ANCIENT ROME: THE LEGION ANDTHE GLADIATOR / XIII. THE SWORD AMONGST THE BAR-BARIANS (EARLY ROMAN EMPIRE) / CONCLUSION / IN-DEX

By Dover Publications

available atwww.amazon.comwww.doverpublications.com

26



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Italians were, in practice, inferior in anywise to the French in the practical ap-plication of the art of the sword. We findin contemporary accounts of contests be-tween fencing masters that the southernersat least held their own. Whereas it is truethat, the style of the "home team" waspreferred as the most beautiful, elegant,and effective, we see in such events asthe French tour of the Italian ScuolaMagistrale in 1889, the visitors gave asgood as they got.12 Fencing was a com-mon and widely followed sport in thelate nineteenth century in such places asParis, at least amongst the upper classes.Newspapers even employed fencing crit-ics who, in many ways, filled the rolesthat both sports writers and theater crit-ics do in modern mass media-for fenc-ing was, as we have said, an aestheticas well as an athletic exercise. As onesuch critic, the French fencing masterRupiere, remarked with obvious nation-alistic bias: "The Roman masters havenot yet abandoned theatrical postures,useless movements and contortions, andthe continuous beating of the adversary'sblade, which they search for in a mo-notonous fashion... but the attack ex-ecuted from immobility (i.e. in theFrench manner) is always superior to theattack performed with an advance (atypically Italian maneuver)..."13

However, another French master, VictorMaurel, disagreed with the "sour grapes"approach and wrote this on the difficultythe French fencers had with the Italians:

"Above all, the purpose of fencing tothe Italian fencers is combat; their aimis to hit and not be hit. We, instead, ad-mire, above all, aesthetic bouts. Here isthe habitual expression, and we hear thisheresy daily: 'One beautiful hit equalsten bad ones.' With this attitude, one canobtain only a conventional art that is nolonger combat (i.e. no longer has prac-tical martial applications), and thatplaces one in a position of inferioritywhen faced with men who fence seri-ously."14

The boldfaced words are significant.What can we read into this preferencefor "aesthetic bouts," that rhymes sowell with Castle's earlier comment on"the courteous and academic 'assault' ofmodern days"? Clearly, to this mindset,the artistic and the scientific are one-"truth is beauty, and beauty is truth," asKeats said. But why, as far as fencinggoes, was beauty more important thaneffectiveness?Peter Gay, in The Cultivation of Hatred,the third volume of his great psycho-logical study of the nineteenth centuryEuropean bourgeois psyche, does notspecifically handle fencing, though hedoes discuss the German student ritualof the mensur.15 Still, Gay may give usa methodological pointer that can helpus arrive at an answer. We would suggestthat, by the formalization of violence, itis, in a way, controlled. The world is thusordered, and the raw id, while acknow-ledged and given vent to, is removedone step from reality and thereby bothdiffused and taken out of sight. The vio-lent instinct, in other words, is both so-cialized and hidden, acknowledged anddenied. Gay says the mensur "is a superbinstance of the clash between the twomeanings of cultivation, an exercise inaggression checked by accepted rules,"but this may be said, to an extent, ofsimilar ritual, or indeed, of any sport.16

Further, in agonistic fencing, at least, thereality of conflict and death is given aveneer of sociability. In civilized society,which is to say progressed society, one isnot in daily peril of one's life. Saber-toothed tigers do not haunt Picadilly Cir-cus, waiting to pounce on unsuspectingpedestrians, and Genghis Khan almostnever leads his Mongol hordes downBond Street, stopping to loot Sotheby'son the way to Buckingham Palace. Like

in the most courtly fashion, were consid-ered uncouth. The featherweight smallsword provided a personal weapon aslight, elegant, and refined as the spirititself. Even if the profession of the gentle-man was to carry a sword, the fashion-able courtier of the Age of Enlightenmentwas determined that his "work" wouldinvolve as little actual sweat as possible.This perception is borne out by a well-known anecdote of the famous fencingmaster Domenico Angelo defeating a cer-tain Dr. Keys in a celebrated early-eight-eenth century contest. Keys, an Irishmanof considerable size and strength, chal-lenged the French-schooled Angelo to afencing match in a London tavern,which often served as venues for suchentertainments. According to Angelo'sson, the challenger cut a "a tall, athleticfigure... his shirt sleeves tucked up, ex-posing a pair of brawny arms, sufficientto cope in the ring with Broughton orSlack (two famous pugilists of the day)."Angelo, however, easily put by all ofKeyes' powerful attacks with small,skillful, and effortless motions, and thenwent on to score a number of unansweredhits on his exhausted adversary.10

Clearly, what this meant to contempo-raries can be easily interpolated: the in-tellect and science of the Enlightenment,or at least of the self-made gentlemanand courtier of that era, had triumphedover brute force, as personified by theuncouth Irish. Angelo went on to becomean enormously influential and success-ful teacher of fencing and other manlygraces to the gentlemen of England, andis a significant reason why Hutton andCastle would eventually come out as suchaficionados of the French method.11

Similarly, improvement in technique,with all its moral implications, is thelogical result of technological develop-ment. In fact, it is the logical result ofit. As Hutton says, "(The) change of pat-tern in the sword necessitated a changein the method of using it." Moral, artistic,and ethical development go hand-in-handwith mechanical progress; the industrialrevolution, according to this mindset,could only produce beneficial results.Technical improvement leads to over-all improvement, just as oil painting issuperior to panel painting.However, despite Hutton and Castle'simpressions, it is not the case that the

Drawing of Captain Alfred Hutton

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rode off to defend Christendom, or at leasthis own bit of it, and was passed to thenew noveau riche, who, even if they werethe "nobility of the robe," still armedthemselves. Thence, third-hand, was ittraded down to the gentlemen of theeighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Ifthe duellist of the sixteenth century wentout into the field to prove himself wor-thy of the esteem of his peers; the duel-list of the nineteenth, with his internal-ized sense of honor, may perhaps be saidto have followed his to footsteps of hispredecessor to prove to his peers that hewas worthy of his own self-respect.The French duel of the nineteenth cen-tury, as Kevin McAleer points out in hisexcellent book on Duelling, was a com-paratively bloodless affair, usually con-ducted with epees, or else wildly inac-curate smoothbore pistols. Though therewas much elan, pomp, and circum-stance, there were relatively few fatali-ties, since it was usually stopped beforea lethal wound was inflicted. Neitherside truly wished to be kill or be killed-to try one's courage, or at least make agood show of it, was enough.17 Indeed,it was more of a social happening, andthe supposedly illegal affair would bewell-covered by the press, with reportersremarking on the style and panache withwhich the duelists had conducted them-selves. So, even what was in theory deadlycombat was, in fact, extremely conven-tional in all its aspects.18 Therefore, weshould not be surprised if The Devil's

Dictionary defines a duel as "a ceremonynecessary before the reconciliation of twoenemies. A long time ago, someone diedin a duel."One the other hand, the favored duelingweapon of the Germans (as McAleerrecords) was a much more lethal rifledversion of the pistol at murderous ranges,or, on other occasions, the dangerous anddisfiguring saber. McAleer further sug-gests that this, along with the brutalmensur, may have something to sayabout the essential character of Germansociety, as opposed to the character ofFrench society.19 A large segment of theGerman population, apparently, wasmore willing to risk death, pain, or otherunpleasantness for peer approval, andwas more conformist and obedient toauthority, not just because it was author-ity per se, but because it was sociallyexpected to be obedient.20 Accordingly,the German duel was much deadlierthan its French counterpart.It should be noted, though, that bothsides, come 1914, died in the trencheswith equal aplob. The aesthetic appealof a beautiful death was revealed to beno more than a mask, the rouge-bright-ened cheek of an aged courtesan whowas yet acknowledged the most beauti-ful woman to ever live. It has been sug-gested, both by McAleer and others, thatthe carnage of the World Wars, morethan the anti-duelling societies, waswhat helped to put a brake on the frivo-lous shedding of blood.Thus far, we have seen several obviousnineteenth century ideas -progressivemoral positivism, nationalism and ra-cialism, and the conflation of aestheticideas, ethics, and scientific truth-crop upin our discussion.21 Likewise, display-ing another sort of "pop Darwinism,"both Hutton and Castle, in Old Sword-Play and Schools and Masters, completelydiscount any offshoots of, or strangePleistocene antecedents to, what wasseen as the final development of theevolution of the art. An excellent exampleof this is the Spanish school of fence,which in itself was a remarkable culturalartifact and which most probably was theantecedent to the Italian school, yet ismysteriously glossed over in Hutton'swork, and denigrated in Castle's:"It is a remarkable fact that in Spain, thereputed birthplace of systematic swords-

wise, we do not die in polite society; we"pass on," and we are not fired, but rather"let go."By sweeping these grim realities underthe rug, the euphemistic hiding awayand disguising of war, death, sickness,and other unpleasantness, is thus main-tained. The reality of death at a sword'spoint was likewise masked by the extremeacademic formalization of the training.One does not really penetrate anotherman with one's steel, one achieves a "tou-che" with the "fleuret." (The Freudianovertones of this need not be remarkedupon.) The fact of violence is thus in-corporated into the socially constructed,self-referential web of ideas that con-stitute "culture."Even when the bourgeois gentleman waswilling to lay down his life, such as in aduel or in the opening days of WorldWar I, it was for an abstract idea suchas honor or love of country-an aestheticideal taking on the substance of an ethi-cal concept in his mind and in the mindsof the onlookers. The duelist makes him-self the subject of the onlookers, wish-ing to win acclaim, objectifying him-self and his opponent. In their agon isplayed out both their own drama, up-holding their status in the eyes of theirpeers, and exorcising the collective in-security of their entire class, perchedmidway between chevalier and shop-keeper. Nor should it be forgotten thatthis ideal was one that began with thefeudal knight, who collected rents and

Sir Walter Pollock and Egerton Castle demonstrating in London, 1889.

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Medieval school, despite the fact that aperusal of surviving manuals will showthat its intent was likewise to resolvecivilian affairs of honor. Castle seemsto contradict himself, on not one, buton several accounts, in his attempt to fitestablished historical facts into hisscheme. He states that "beyond that factthat there were regular and well-knownschools of arms in Spain during the fif-teenth century, and the fact that Span-ish bands-the best trained in the use ofarms of all European troops at that pe-riod-overran Italy and the Low Coun-tries during the sixteenth century, thereare no reasons, notwithstanding the cur-rent opinion to that effect, to ascribe toSpain the birthplace of the art."26 Yet,he also says that Achille Marozzo (aBolognese master of the early 16th cen-tury) "is generally looked upon as thefirst writer of note on the art of fenc-ing. It would perhaps be wiser to con-sider him as the greatest teacher of theold school, the rough and undisciplinedswordsmanship of which depended asmuch on violence and sudden inspirationas on carefully cultivated skill,"27 butdoes not say how Marozzo was any dif-ferent from the Spanish. The wide cul-tural contact between Spain and Italy,such as the occupation of the Kingdomof Naples or the election of a Valencian,Rodrigo Borgia, to the office of Pope, andthe ascendance of duels "in shirtsleeves"during this period, which we have nega-tive evidence of in the form of the practice'sdenigration by the Milanese master-at-arms Pietro Monte,28 does not figure intohis history. In this moral positivism, wemay see reflected a supreme confidencein one's own world, and at least lip ser-vice towards the fruits of "progress." Yet,there is also doubt. Ironically enough,there is a certain amount of reactionaryinterest, even of antiquarism, inherentin the study of fencing, associated as itis with the privileges of the aristocracy.Even the emphasis on aesthetics above allis a strange and contradictory feature.Indeed, the entire purpose of Castle'sfriend Alfred Hutton's work on Old SwordPlay is the study of historical weapons.We may then, if it is not too general astatement, include this nineteenth cen-tury interest in swordplay, old and mod-ern, as an element of the "romantic" move-ment.

manship, so little progress should havebeen made towards what may be calledthe more practical use of the sword. Whilstthe Italians, and, after their example, theFrench, Germans, and English, graduallydiscovered that simplification led to per-fection, the Spanish masters, on the con-trary, seemed to aim at making fencing amore and more mysterious science, requir-ing for its use a knowledge of geometryand natural philosophy, and whose prin-ciples were only explainable on meta-physical grounds."22

Castle likewise completely discounts thepossibility of there having been a validschool of arms at any time before theRenaissance:"The rough untutored fighting of theMiddle Ages represented faithfully thereign of brute force in social life as wellas in politics. The stoutest arm and theweightiest sword won the day, even asdid the sturdiest baron or the most war-like king. Those were the days of crush-ing blows with mace or glaive, when aknight's superiority in action dependedupon his power of wearing heavier ar-mor and dealing heavier blows than hisneighbour, when strength was laudedmore than skill, and minstrels sang ofenchanted blades that nought couldbreak."23

Later, he makes such ridiculous state-ments as, "...the habit of wearing defen-

Edgerton Castle

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sive armour in battle, and, indeed, onmost occasions out of doors, caused thesword to be regarded in the light of aweapon of offense only, sufficient reli-ance being placed on headpiece andcarapace for protection," and: "Thechivalrous science never had anythingbut a retarding effect on the science offence."24

Whereas this is to some extent true, tothe degree that there was no specificallycivilian form of armed self-defense forsettling affairs of honor, this is not tosay that there was no evidence of a sys-tem of systematic swordplay. Becauseof his selective blindness and prejudice(for, no doubt, there were a great manyZulus and Hindus who would have dis-agreed with his position on "the reignof brute force" in British politics), Castleapparently did not even bother to lookclose to home for evidence. The RoyalArmouries are in possession of the firstknown fechtbuch ("fighting manual"),written in Germany in the late thirteenthor early fourteenth century, and cata-logued as Cotton MS I-33. Whereas thesword-and-buckler play shown thereinis quite different from both Castle's"modern" fencing and from what we areused to seeing as "medieval sword fight-ing" in the movies, the work is obvi-ously Scholastic in flavor in that it seeksto systematize and explain a method-ological system of all-purpose armedself-defense.Later, Castle even handles, in a semi-fa-vorable light, the German Marxbruder,one of several German guilds (federfecthten)that taught der ridderiche kunst, a system-atic style of fighting with the long sword,and which incorporated such weaponsas the rapier and smallsword as theycame into fashion. This school may evenbe traced back to the mid-fourteenthcentury, placing it firmly as a "Medieval"school that taught "Medieval" weapons.25

The cultured art of fencing, to this mind-set, was necessarily a rational, humanis-tic invention, one that involved a degreeof thought and sophistication impossibleto what was seen as the superstitious,backwards Medieval mind. Therefore,it was something that would naturallycome into being with the Renaissancein Italy and the rediscovery of classicallearning. Castle generally regards theearly Spanish school as an offshoot of the

29



the six-shooter and Gatling gun is mostcertainly a rejection of unbeautiful mo-dernity. Certainly, both Castle and Huttonseemingly identify with the weaponedgentleman of a bygone age. The duel,the idea of a man defending himself andhis honor, was an anachronism in an ageof shopkeepers, where a person's worthwas increasingly considered only as whatcould be quantified into figures of pro-duction and consumption, and where thelaw court had replaced the dueling field.However, these nineteenth century ro-mantics are not alone. Indeed, they weredreaming a dream that we have neverquite woken up from. Certainly, we candetect such biases in the work of histo-rians, such as E.P. Thompson, who studythe pre- or earlymodern era. SinceThompson's work deals with the Englishworking class, rather than the aristoc-racy, he looks at his era as an age ofmoral economy, of a time when a personwas considered as part of a community,not as an individually quantitized wage-earner, and where economic transactionshad a social, not just a fiscal, aspect. Asan avowed Marxist, it would seem thathe would clearly prefer this social mi-lieu to that of the capitalist world.Though there have been few recent workson the history of fencing per se, there havebeen several which deal with dueling, thusgiving us some sort insight into what con-temporary historians think about thesematters.29 McAleer's somewhat icono-clastic, but thoroughly enjoyable, Du-elling has already been mentioned. An-other recent work is Billacois' The Duel:Its Rise and Fall in Early Modern France.

This last work, however, has some seri-ous flaws. Billacois proceeds from a his-torical perspective admittedly influencedby the French Cartesian school. Thoughhe admits the problems with attemptingto reconstruct an extralegal practicethrough strict adherence to documenta-tion,30 he also makes use of a number ofworks, such as treatises on honor anddueling, in order to gain some perspec-tive on the matter. Yet, nowhere amongstthese is a fencing manual, in which fenc-ing masters, the recognized arbiters ofthe extralegal duel, invariably also in-cluded essays treating with the implica-tions of the code of honor. To attempt ahistory of the social implications of duel-ing without using such sources is like at-tempting a book on human anatomywithout ever dissecting a cadaver, or at-tempting a book on the Roman law codewithout ever learning to read Latin. Be-cause of this, he can not see the forestfor the trees.Furthermore, Billacois is unforgivablyFrancocentric, utterly dismissive of thesignificance of the duel in Spain or Italy.Whereas the English historians Huttonand Castle see the French as cool-headedand elegant, at least when compared tothe Italians, Billacois subscribes to themyth of the Gallic fighting-cock. Hadhe, however, even made a cursory sur-vey of schools and masters of fence, heprobably would have realized that theduel was not merely an foreign phenom-enon imported into France, where, likejazz, it achieved its "true realization" asa socio-artistic form. Rather, Billacoismakes bald, unsupported statementssuch as, "the duel never had a properlynative existence in the Iberian penin-sula,"31 while seemingly insensate of allevidence to the contrary.Nor does he examine the plethora of Ital-ian fencing manuals, despite the fact thatthey were written in a fragmented andchaotic political and social climate thatwe would think more likely to produceduels than would 17th century France.In fact, it was the Italians, not the French,who exported fencing masters to Eng-land and the Low Countries.32 TheFrench duel would seem to have beenmost in vogue at a time when the new"nobility of the robe," bourgeois risingin social status, were in conflict with oneanother and with the old "nobility of the

Yet, what is this chimera called "roman-ticism?" Like the Questing Beast fromLe Morte D'Arthur, many have soughtto capture its quintessence, but it haseluded them all. There are so many va-rieties, from the retro-Medievalism ofScott and the Pre-Raphaelites to the uto-pian idealism of the Chartists and theSocialists, to Lord Byron's aristocraticrejection of the world and his foppishdissipation, that no definition can pos-sibly encapsulate them all. In fact, ro-manticism can only be defined by whatit is not, or, in other words, what it is inopposition to: modernity.The romantic is disaffected with themodern age, with its soot-darkened skiesand its replacement of vast tracts ofcountryside with housing developments,with its weapons of mass destruction andits poverty-stricken slums. Machines areefficient, but they are unbeautiful, re-placing personal handiwork with mass-produced product and reducing the in-dividual to no more than a variable inan equation of profit. The modern city,moreover, is an alienated place, wheredisplaced strangers, brought in from in-timately small villages, are housed inimpersonal, identical apartment buildings.Instead, the romantic longs for a utopia,either in the past or in the future, or hid-den away in some undeveloped corner ofthe world, where their own vision of hap-piness is realized. Modernity is ugly andunaesthetic; the romantic vision is beau-tiful and aesthetic, a chiliastic hope forthe ideal world. And, as the contempo-rary or near-contemporary writings ofSir Walter Scott and the paintings of thepre-Raphaelite brotherhood amply dem-onstrate, the image of the long-ago andfar-away romanticized Middle Ageswere seen as a more aesthetic, if brutal,time, when idealists, not accountants, heldsway over public life. In France, this isreflected in the writings of AlexandreDumas, where D'Artagnan and theThree Musketeers carve out their des-tiny in Riechlieu's France with a rapier'spoint. The image of the sword in suchas John Waterhouse's The Accolade isone of the tool and symbol of the justidealist, the fantastical knight-errant ofMallory who fought for love and honor,good and right, God and country, notfor profit and money.Learning to use the sword in the age of

Sir Richard Burton

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sword," attempting to conform to the oldmilitary ideas of aristocracy and thusprove their worthiness. Billacois doesnot seem to handle this idea, either proor con, in his book, instead merelypointing out that incidence of duelingdiminishes in times of war, and that, inpeace, Huguenots and Catholics werelikely to find each other at the ends ofeach other's swords.Finally, Billacois suggests, in the con-clusion to The Duel, that dueling was aself-destructive method of resistance tothe king's newly centralized power com-parable with modern-day airline hijack-ing. Billacois' assertion is itself an ex-cellent example of transferring the thoughtand concerns of one's one own timesonto a bygone age. Though, certainly,there is a political aspect that can be readinto the duel, it was never meant as such.Dueling was, by definition, ostensiblya private affair, played out in front ofone's peers, and not a public political act.That "sticking it to The Man" was at thefore of the minds of seventeenth centuryduelists seems unlikely in the extreme;more likely, they sought simply to stickit to the one particular man who theyfelt had insulted them, with or withoutthe permission of centralized authority.It would seem that researchers into earlymodern aristocratic culture would ben-efit greatly from a well-written second-ary source on the matter. So, if Hutton,Castle, et al. are scions of the "modern"school of thought, what would a "post-modern" history of fencing be like fenc-ing? We know what a Ranke or a Gibbonwould say on the matter, and even whatthe modern Cartesian school would say,but what would a Foucault or a Diderotsay? We must now cease criticizing, andattempt to answer the questions that wehave raised.First of all, it should be instantly recog-nized that fashions in weapons, be theypart of one's costume or solely intendedfor use on the "field of honor," are, likethe duel itself, social constructions. By itsvery definition, a duel is a combat by con-vention. The weapons used, be they ra-piers, small swords, epees, sabers, pis-tols, or sledgehammers waist-deep in aLouisiana bayou, are an agreed-uponconvention. The way of fighting, at anappointed place and time, with an air ofnonchalance, is conventional.33 The code

of honor is likewise a convention, beingno more or less than what it is agreed tobe by society. It is not based not on one'sown feelings of self-worth and inner life,the bourgeois, nineteenth-century devel-opment of which Peter Gay has excel-lently chronicled in The Naked Heart,but on the acclimation of one's peers.34

It is a relic from a time when one's outerself was one's inner self. From the firstinsult to the final blow, and the resolu-tion afterwards, all is dictated not by theduelists themselves, but by the code.The technical aspects of the "science offence," as well, might be seen as conven-tions. For instance, the hand positions forparries, numbered in the French schoolfrom one to eight, are pedagogical con-structions, used to describe more accu-rately various actions that might be takenduring a match. When Hutton transcribesexercises for the broadsword or two-handed sword, he also translates theactions into the commonly understoodlanguage. Thus, Marozzo's colorfullynamed "Porta di ferro alta" is "quarte,"the "Cinghiara porta di ferro" is "tierce."35

While this would seem to indicate a con-tinuity of tradition, in that the samephysical motions are merely describedby different names, we must ask if thereis some overlooked cultural parallax here.Can a nineteenth-century Englishmanfence like a sixteenth-century Italian, orwould the conventions and training ofhis own school and his own time pe-riod-such as the supposed superiority ofthe parry-riposte action, as opposed tothe counter-action in single time-limithim?36

So, even the most necessary elementsof the pedagogical system might be seenas no more than what they are agreed tobe. Against this heresy, however, the"moral positivist" might reply that cer-tain laws of physics (such as rate timestime equals distance) will always applyto both swords and freight trains. Like-wise, certain biomechanical principleswill likewise always be true, even if muchof the rest is an edifice built upon thisbedrock. There can be no argumentagainst the fact that there are certain prin-ciples and practices that, barring accidentsof chance, will carry one through mostany encounter. The "science" of fencingmight be seen as a combination of bothpractical observation and cultural arti-

The Secret Historyof The Swordby J. Christoph Amberger

228x152 mm, 192 pp,33 photos

THE SECRET HISTORYOF THE SWORD

The Japanese don't hold a monopoly on fas-cinating sword history and evolving combatmethods. Europe has equally venerable swordtraditions, ably revealed and chronicled in J.Christoph Amberger's The Secret History ofthe Sword: Adventures in Ancient MartialArts. Evidently, your average Western sportsfencer has as little idea of the "true" historyof the art as does your average Japanese sportskendoka. Misinformation and myths abound(sound familiar?). In The Secret History ofthe Sword Amberger does a remarkable jobof laying many of these to rest, correcting pre-vailing misconceptions with numerous pri-mary accounts of sword combat throughoutEuropean history from medieval trial by com-bat to modern German student dueling frater-nities.Amberger uncovers many of the realities ofboth battle and personal combat with blades- and he knows whereof he speaks: as a mem-ber of a German student dueling fraternity heparticipated in seven Mensuren, armed witha live blade. His story and the others he pre-sents are loaded with useful information; al-though the book is obviously directed at theWestern sword aficianado, there is a great dealof value here for we students of the Japanesesword as well.The chapter "Men of Iron" covers a topic rel-evant to all involved in the pursuit and studyof combat systems, ancient or modern, East-ern or Western -the fact of fear and its effectson even the most well-trained combatants. Inother chapters he discusses the difficulty ofreconstructing ancient sword systems; unlikemany of the Japanese koryu, there is no di-rect transmission to draw on. But there aredetailed manuals and accounts, and these to-gether with research into the weapons mor-phology, the culture, and the socio-politicalclimate of the era in which a system existedallow one to make some educated guesses onhow the weapons might have been used invarious circumstances.The entire volume is simply fascinating read-ing; my sole complaint is that for someonenot up on the details of Western fencing ter-minology, it can get a little confusing at first.I found that Part Two cleared up a lot of thosedetails for me, so you might want to considerreading it first, then going back to the begin-ning. All in all, I recommend this book highlyto anyone with an interest in swords!

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31


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of universals, an ancient dilemma that wasrevived in the Middle Ages and, strangelyenough, is repeated in the twentieth cen-tury (see Figures A-C). At its heart, thecontroversy is one of certainty: Is thereabsolute truth, or is there not?The problem of universals proceedsfrom a classical philosophical argumentover the Platonic Ideas first proposedby the philosopher Porphyry. The "real-ist" position, held by orthodox thinkerssuch as Thomas Aquinas, affirms theexistence of these Ideas, which St. Au-gustine located in the mind of God.There is an essential "quiddity," or es-sence, of, for example, "man," that is com-mon to all men. Likewise, there is anessential characteristic common to allcombs, another common to all horses,and others common to immaterial con-cepts, such as "love" or "justice."Meanwhile, the "nominalist," position,as might be guessed, holds that these"universals" exist only as mental con-structions. One Medieval objection tothe Realist position, for instance, is howa singular essence can be divided amongstmany objects and still remain singular.39

This debate is not of interest just to phi-losophers and zoologists. For the Catho-lic believer, for instance, it calls intoquestion the theology of the Holy Trin-ity, where three persons partake in thesame essence.Likewise, it places us in a moral conun-drum: is there, then, such a thing as goodor justice, which are located in and iden-tified with God? Can anything be known

for certain? Without sure knowledge,how can we apply our intellect to act ina wise, rational, and moral manner? "Isthis a dagger I see before me, or is it buta dagger of the mind?" We can see that,in many ways, the nominalist position isechoed, at least on a basic level, by theNew Linguistics: Concepts only have ex-istence in the mind, since they are socialconstructions. The old problem of univer-sals has applications in such things as sta-tistics and feminist theory: How are allwomen alike? Does what applies to onewomen apply to all, or vice versa, orboth, or neither?40

One ancient proof of the Realist position,which also has hermetic, Pythagorean,and kabbalistic overtones, is throughmathematics and geometry. For instance,the square of the hypotenuse of a trianglewill always be equal to the sum of thesquares of the other two sides.41 Indeed,in Renaissance manuals, the Platonicforms were envisioned as geometricalforms, just as were the "crystal spheres"that were the homes of the planets.42

Thus, the position of geometry in theMedieval academic curriculum: To dem-onstrate mathematical truths.43

Castle summarizes the work of the fa-mous Spanish master Don Jeronimo deCarranza thusly: "[his] is the first of thelong series of ponderous Spanish trea-tises on the 'raison demonstrative,' inwhich the ruling principle, after the Ar-istotelian method, is the 'conocimieto dela cosa por su causa,' and the purpose,to demonstrate that a perfect theoreticalknowledge must infallibly lead to vic-tory, notwithstanding grievous physicaldisadvantage."44 Whereas we may dis-agree as to how "ponderous" it was, itwas certainly Aristotelian. Castle has hitthe nail right on the head: the Spanishmethod was a rational method of fight-ing, proceeding by established principlesin a way that could not help but succeed.The Spanish school of fence was thus"scientific" in the sense that it used ge-ometry as a proof of the efficacy of itssystem. The entire scheme, while conven-tional, as suits a ritualistic combat betweenequals, was also geometrically based. Wethus see how it was enmeshed in a com-plex teratogenic web of Scholastic phi-losophy, Christian doctrine, aesthetic taste,and scientific knowledge. It embodies theidea of gracia in all its connotations.

fact. It is the application of human rea-son, and human culture, to coarse andbrutal reality. As such, it might be de-scribed with equal accuracy as both an"art" and as an "science." The overlookedSpanish school of fence bears some dis-cussion here. Besides that fact that, asthe first purely civilian system of com-bat intended for use in settling privateaffairs of honor, it was of great influ-ence on the development of later schoolsof fence in other countries, it providesus with an excellent field, as it were, inwhich to set one historical constructionup against another for a trial by com-bat. Sadly maligned both by Castle andby later historians, and contrary to whatBillacois writes, the first Spanish fenc-ing manuals, treating with civilian com-bat, if not la verdadera destreza itself,date from 1474.37 Thus, they precede byhalf a century the Opera Nova of Marozzo(published in 1536), which is widely re-garded as the beginnings of the Italianschool.38 By applying a different histori-cal philosophy to the problem, we mayarrive at some valuable insights intoearly modern Spanish culture, just as weused Hutton and Castle to explore thenineteenth century.In practice, the Spanish method, as ittook its final form in the seventeenthcentury, appears far different from whatwe are accustomed to regard as fencing.It is a conventional, formalized, even ritu-alized, combat, appearing more like adance than a sword fight. The two com-batants face each other, walking the pe-rimeter of an imaginary circle inscribedon the floor. Their posture is upright, theirknees locked, as in the manner of aSpanish court dance, and their swordsare held out at arm's length. The fenc-ers and their weapons circle about oneanother, seeking an advantageous angle.When an attack is made, it is by step-ping off along an angle, in effect, in-scribing a chord in the circle. If donecorrectly, this will carry one's own bladehome, while avoiding the point of theadversary-fencing by numbers, if youwill. The overall appearance is one ofelegant menace.However, to understand the Spanishschool of fencing, it is first necessary tounderstand the culture that it proceedsfrom. We must begin, strangely enough,with Scholastic philosophy and the problem

Alfred Hutton 1910

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into the culture that produced them. Itis unfortunate that the study of relationsbetween equals, be they kinetic or oth-erwise, is mired in a century of outdatedideas. Besides, if the task of the histo-rian is to "interpret the past to thepresent," then in understanding theseartifacts of culture, we better understandourselves.

BibliographyGeneral and Historical Works:Anglo, Sidney. "The Man Who Taught Leonardo Darts:Pietro Monte and His 'Lost' Fencing Book." The Anti-quaries Journal.Anglo, Sidney. "How to Win at Tournaments."Billacois, Francois. The Duel: It's Rise and Fall in EarlyModern France. New Haven: Yale University Press.1990.Evangelista, Nick (Maitre d'Armes). The Man Who In-vented Sport Fencing. The American Citizen, Summer1993, p. 30.

Without understanding all of these, theaffair of honor in early modern Spain isimpossible to comprehend. The swords-man trained in the Spanish school useshis knowledge of the underlying foun-dations of the universe to affirm him-self in a cool, detached, and scientificmanner that, incidentally, is also a typeof kinetic art. As Carranza himself said,"la solucion de la dubda es el invenciode la verdad."45

It is these Medieval and Renaissancephilosophical roots that are the directantecedent to the "scientific moral posi-tivism" of the nineteenth century thatclaimed to have a monopoly on truth.Ironically, the historians of the "mod-ern," "perfect" mode of fencing wouldlater overlook these intellectual anteced-ents, just as they overlooked the schoolitself. Yet, without what had gone be-fore, what came later would never havebeen. Rather than being the capstone ofhistory, the "modern" era was, instead,both the heir and the traditor of a longlegacy.While all this may seem to be anotherexample of social construction heapedupon social construction, it must be re-membered that these techniques, or, weshould say, technologies, work, just asmedicine and aircraft and light switchesdo. Men (and women) were willing tostake their lives on the theories of thesefencing masters, just as today, we trustour doctors, airline pilots, and electricians.To the Spanish gentleman of the "earlymodern" era, or the duelist of fin de siecle

A view of a 18th-century fencing salle

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France, this was not a perspective or anidea; it was truth itself laid bare in steel.A proof of its lasting quality is that itdid not apparently die out until the nine-teenth century, and that, in fact, that theSpanish were long held to be some ofthe deadliest swordsmen around. Certainthings are always going to be eternallytrue, and there is nothing quite like stak-ing one's life on a mathematical formulato make one appreciate this.So, what is the point of this cockfightof ideas that has been presented in theguise of a discussion of the context ofschools of fence? It is simply that manyworks of culture besides historian's text,the art historian's painting, or the arch-aeologist's pot sherd can give us insightsinto the culture that produced them. It isunfortunate that the study of relationsbetween equals, be they kinetic or oth-erwise, is mired in a century of outdatedideas. Besides, if the task of the historianis to "interpret the past to the present,"then in understanding these artifacts ofculture, we better understand ourselves.

Frevert, Ute. Men of Honour: A Social and Cultural His-tory of the Duel. Cambridge MA: Blackwell. 1995.Gaugler, William (Maestro di Scherma) Epic Encoun-ters between Italian and French Fencing Masters, 1881-1911, The Sword, July 1988, p. 13.Gay, Peter. The Cultivation of Hatred. New York: W.W.Norton and Company. 1993.Huizinga, Johan. The Waning of the Middle Ages. NewYork: St. Martin's Press. 1924.Kiernan, V.G. The Duel in European History. New York:Oxford University Press. 1988.Martinez, Ramon. Martinez Classical Fencing and His-torical Swordsmanship Homepage (www.martinez-destreza.com).McAleer, Kevin.Duelling. Princeton : Princeton Univer-sity Press. 1994.Primary Sources and Other Technical Works Specifi-cally on Fencing:Anonymous. Tower of London Fectbuch. (MS of late13th/early 14th centuries. Catalogued as Cotton I-33).Angelo, Domenico. The School of Fencing. London,1787.Carranza, Don Jeronimo. De la Filosofia de las Armas.(1569).Castle, Edgerton. Schools and Masters of Fence Lon-don: George Bell and Sons. 1892.Galas, S. Matthew. Kindred Spirits. The Journal of AsianMartial Arts Volume 6, Number 3, 1997.Gaugler, William. The Science of Fencing. Bangor: Lau-reate Press. 1997.Hutton, Captain Alfred. Old Sword Play (hypertextverion prepared and edited by Bryan Maloney). http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/bjm10/hutton/hutton.html.Marozzo, Achille. Opera Nova. (Mitinae: 1536).Nadi, Aldo. On Fencing. Bangor: Laureate Press. 1997.Narvaez, Don Luis Pacheco de. Libro de las Grandezasde la Espada. (Madrid, 1600).Silver, George. Paradoxes of Defense. (London:1599).NB: Manuscripts and books out-of-print are available inreproduction from Dr. Patri J. Pugilese, 39 Capen Street,Medford, MA 02155. (781-396-2870), save for I-33.

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1 Though many of the events of the 1960s and 1990shave come close (the L.A. riots and the "levita-tion" of the Pentagon come to mind. For the latter,see Abbie Hoffman, Revolution for the Hell of It.)2 We differentiate here between the "classical" fenc-ing of the 19th and early 20th century and the mod-ern sport of fencing, which is a conventional gamebased on athletic strength and endurance, utilizingan electronic scoring apparatus to determinetouches.3 Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle Ages, p. 584 Gaugler, The Science of Fencing, p. xxiv. (Mae-stro Gaugler is both a professor of classical archae-ology and a fencing master of great repute).5 Castle, Schools and Masters, p. 312.6 Castle, Schools and Masters of Fence, p. 2. Em-phasis has been added to the most telling state-ments by printing them in boldface.7 Alfred Hutton, Old Sword-Play, hypertext ver-sion prepared by Bryan Maloney at http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/bjm10/hutton/hutton.html.8 The small sword is also significant for being thedirect ancestor of the modern sport fencing weap-ons used since the nineteenth century. The foil wasthe training tool for the small sword; the epee, adueling weapon that came into use after the swordceased to be a part of male costume, is employed



18 McAleer, Duelling, p. 190.19 The issue that enters into this, of course, is that ofwhether there is an "essential character" to the Ger-man national psyche. This has been of no smallimportance to historians of the Holocaust.20 The case of the German execution units in WorldWar II, as recounted in Browning's Ordinary Men,comes readily to mind. Browning suggests thatthese groups, composed mainly of poorly-trainedreservists, were willing to commit war crimes notso much out of obedience, but because it was ex-pected of them.21 Another example of moral positivism, ethics, andscientific truth is embodied in the racialism of theimperial era. "Taking up the white man's burden,"as Kipling wrote, involved acting in a paternalisticfashion to the "less developed" races that, inciden-tally, happened to be wholly favorable to one's owneconomic interests.22 Castle, Schools and Masters, p. 95.23 Castle, Schools and Masters, p. 6.24 Castle, Schools and Masters, p. 19.25 S. Matthew Galas, Kindred Spirits. The Journalof Asian Martial Arts Volume 6, Number 3, 1997.26 Castle, Schools and Masters, p. 46.27 Castle, Schools and Masters, p. 48.28 Monte is mentioned in Castiglione's Book of theCourtier as a master of feats of arms. Anglo, Sidney."The Man Who Taught Leonardo Darts: PietroMonte and His 'Lost' Fencing Book." The Anti-quaries Journal.29 No doubt corresponding to the unfortunate de-cline of the "art" of fencing in favor of the "sport"of fencing. Recall what Foucault said about com-petition.Authors such as Matthew Galas and WilliamGaugler seem to write for an audience of fencerswho are more interested in the technical aspectsthan in the sociological implications thereof.Though their works, particularly Dr. Gaugler's re-cent History of Fencing, are of excellent quality,their historical observations tend to be episodic andanecdotal-concentrating on the phenomon, ratherthan the nomenon, as it were. There has been littlemove towards an overall reappraisal of the phi-losophy of fencing history in its sociocultural con-text.30 Billacois, The Duel p. 72. Also see p. 60 and p.72.31 Billacois, The Duel, p. 36.32 c.f. George Silver's Paradoxes of Defense (1597),in which the proponent of good, old-fashioned Eng-lish broadsword-play rails against the "false fight"of the Italian rapier.33 Errol Flynn returning his adversary's fallenweapon, for instance, is tactically ludicrous, butexpected by the audience-Captain Blood or RobinHood is a "good guy," and expected to abide byrules of "fair play."34 A recent movie, Rob Roy, has said that "honor isthe gift that a man gives himself." Nothing couldbe further from the truth.35 These names occur at least as far back as thefifteenth century.36 The difference between these two is that the parry-riposte, performed with a lighter, quicker weapon,such as the "walking sword," puts aside the attack,

in much the same manner. Once the technique forthe weapon was established, it did change, but notas much or as radically as it did during the transi-tion from rapier to small sword. (The history ofschools of use of the dueling saber is complicated,but it is interesting that, as for foil, the Italian schooluses much the same technique as was used for ear-lier weapons).9 Dangerous Liasons comes to mind.10 Castle, Schools and Masters, p. 302.11 Nick Evangelista, The Man Who Invented SportFencing. The Amercian Citizen, Summer 1993, p.30.12 William Gaugler, Epic Encounters between Ital-ian and French Fencing Masters, 1881-1911, TheSword, July 1988, p. 13. (The Sword is the publi-cation of Britain's amateur fencing association.)13 Gaugler, Epic Encounters, p. 13.14 Gaugler, Epic Encounters, p. 13.15 For those unfamiliar with the mensur, it bearssome discussion here. Tracing its lineage back tothe student duels of the Middle Ages and continu-ing on to this day, the mensur, or "measure," ismore a ritual or rite of passage than a sport. Theadversaries, who are invariably drawn from twodifferent studentkorps (duelling fraternities), aremade to stand a sword's length away. The shorteris given a platform to stand on, so that they are ofequal height. They are dressed in thick leathers,with their necks well protected, their heads cov-ered by a leather cap, and their eyes shielded be-hind mesh goggles. However, their cheeks, chins,and faces are completely bare to the attacks of theiropponent's razor-sharp schlaeger, which come in alightning flurry as soon as the signal is given. Thescars (schmiss) gained by this are permanent, butare a mark of pride amongst mensur aficionados.Indeed, a hundred years ago, such scars were quitefashionable, and a well-marked veteran would beconsidered quite a catch by the young ladies, formembership in a studentkorps indicated wealth,education, breeding, membership in the ultimate"old boy's club," and a very bright future indeed.Moving, flinching, crying out in pain, or disobey-ing the rules, the referee, the doctors, or any oftheir orders in the slightest are absolutely verboten.Obedi-ence and the maintenance of a stiff upperlip (provided that it is still attached to one's face) isall in the mensur. One can easily understand whythis was thought to be an excellent manly exercisein Bismark's Germany. In fact, Bismark himselfhad engaged in not a few student duels, in the daysbefore they took this final form of immobile sto-icism. ("In my day, we didn't parry with our faces!"he is recorded as saying. Still, when the commandcame from high up to storm that trench, the trenchwas stormed.) Violence is still controlled, by thecontrol is "Apollonian"-placed under the domina-tion of the will -rather than "Dionysiac" -trans-formed into an artistic form.16 Gay, The Cultivation of Hatred, p. 9.17 See McAleer, Duelling, Chapter VI.The great Italian champion Aldo Nadi, in his rec-ollection of his own duel in his book On Fencing,is both introspective, as only the modern mentalitycan be, and worried about the possible legal con-sequences of his encounter.

and then replies, in two actions; the counter-actionseeks to deviate the oncoming steel in the processof striking back, in one action.37 These manuals, by Jayme Pons and Pedro de laTorre, are now, unfortunately, lost, but reference ismade to them in works by later masters, such asNarvaez, Palla Vicini, and Marcelli, who publishedin 1600, 1670, and 1686, respectively. (From theMartinez Classical Fencing FAQ). (It would bemuch appreciated if these incubalae could befound!)38 Gaugler, Science of Fencing, p. xxiv.39 Practitioners of sympathetic magic will objectthat this essence is not, in fact, subdivided. Whataffects a wax doll of John Silber, for instance, willaffect him.40 For an example of the legal application of this,see Joan Wallach Scott's essay on "The Sears Case"in Gender and the Politics of History, p. 167.41 The objection to this, of course, is that the tri-angle is likewise a social construction. This objec-tion is dealt with by means of what has becomeknown as the "big rock" proof. To wit:"You say that this triangle is naught but a socialconstruction?""Yes, I do.""Is this big rock here likewise a social construc-tion?""I would have to say that it is.""Then may I throw this nonexistent rock at yourhead?""Er..."42 Today, of course, we know that the planets fol-low elliptical orbits.43 For further discussion of this, c.f. ThomasAquinas' On Being and Essence and his SummaTheologica, chapter LXXXV.44 Castle, Schools and Masters, p. 96. Oddly enough,the same might be said for Castle's own school ofthought.45 Carranza, De la Filosofia de las Armas. (1569).

34

Ken Mondschein is a Ph.D can-didate in history at Fordham Uni-versity in New York. He createdand maintains the websiteHistoricalFencing.org, is the authorof the forthcoming book ''A His-tory of Single Life," and has writ-ten for Renaissance and Mysteriesmagazines, the New York Press,Disinformation, McSweeneys.net,and many other print and onlinepublications. In addition to fencing,Ken is an avid equestrian and holdsa Nidan in Japanese karate.

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