MEIBUKAN MAGAZINE House Of The Pure

European Medieval and Renaissance Martial Arts Courtesy of the Musee du Louvre, . Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople on 12 April 1204 Courtesy of the Musee du Louvre, Paris. Entry Crusaders into Constantinople on 12

THE INTERNATIONAL WEB BASED MARTIAL ARTS January 2006 MAGAZINE AS A PDF DOCUMENT Special Edition no 1

House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 MEIBUKAN MAGAZINE House of the Pure Martial Arts SPECIAL EDITION No. 1 JANUARY 2006

HISTORY 2 MISSION STATEMENT A Short Introduction to Historical European Martial Arts

Meibukan Magazine is an initiative of founders Lex Opdam and Mark Hemels. Aim of this web based REVIEW 4 magazine is to spread the knowledge and spirit of Renaissance by John Clements the martial arts. In a non profitable manner Meibukan Magazine draws attention to the historical, spiritual Medieval Swordsmanship by John Clements and technical background of the oriental martial arts. Medieval Combat by 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- FEATURE 5 thentic martial arts traditions. Renaissance Martial Arts Literature FORMAT FEATURE 8 Meibukan Magazine is published several times a year How to tell if your is a Martial Art or a Combat Sport in an electronical format with an attractive mix of subjects and styles. Each issue of at least twelve pages is published as pdf-file for easy printing. Published FEATURE 11 editions remain archived on-line. We have chosen a Consideration of & in Renaissance Fencing low picture resolution for easy downloading.

Readers of the webzine are enthousiasts and practi- ORGANISATION tioners of the spirit of the martial arts world wide. ARMA: The Association for Renaissance Martial Arts 18

PRODUCTION HISTORY The Grand Assault: Notes on Its History 20 Editor in chief Lex Opdam HISTORY Executive editors of the Mind: Towards a Historiography of Fencing 25 Jeroen Verhoeven Lex Opdam REVIEW Editorial Board The Sword and the Centuries by Alfred Hutton 26 Matthew Jones Iwan Meij The Book of the Sword by Richard Burton Mark Hemels

Contributors REVIEW John Clements The Secret History of the Sword by Christoph Amberger 31 Russell Hogg Ken Mondschein Diane Skoss Paladin Press

Art director Lex Opdam

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House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 A Short Introduction to Historical European Martial Arts

- by John Clements -

Despite the fact there is a more than the English term, "martial arts" - from hundreds of detailed, often well-illus- 2,400-year-old military tradition within "arts of Mars", the Roman god of war. trated, technical manuals on their fight- Western civilization of close-combat pro- The term "martial art" was used in regard ing methods which reveal their craft to ficiency, few subjects have received as to fighting skills as early as the 1550s be one of sophisticated and sysematic unfortunate neglect by historians and and an English fencing manual of 1639 skill. When studied from within their academics than the martial arts of West- referred specifically to the science and own cultural context these little known ern Europe. But a growing amount of art of swordplay. In reference to Medi- surviving manuals present a portrait of modern research has centered on the his- eval and Renaissance combat systems highly developed and innovative European torical methods of using various types of the terms "fencing" and "martial arts" martial arts. Today, dozens of these obscure Medieval and Renaissance swords and should thus be viewed as synonymous. manuscripts and printed books provide weaponry in historically accurate and Fencing was in essence the "exercise of an unequaled resource for modern stu- martially sound manners. This emerg- arms" - and arms meant more than just dents and practitioners. ing study of historical European mar- using a sword. The popular myth of untutored knights tial arts involves a fascinating combi- Prior to the advent in the mid 1500s of clumsily swinging crude swords while nation of military history, fencing history, specific civilian weapons for urban du- lumbering around in heavy armor is literature, art, language, and archaeology. eling, the use of personal fighting skills shredded by the actual evidence. The The history of European arms and armor in Western Europe were primarily for unequivocal picture presented by his- is itself one of established continuity military purposes rather than private torical sources is one of trained warriors marked by sudden developments of ne- self-defense, and fencing was therefore expertly employing skillfully-designed cessitated innovation. As new tools were by definition a martial (i.e., military) art. weapons with brutal efficiency. But these devised, so too were new methods for The study of arms in the Middle Ages masters were no mere "fencers". Theirs using them. These methods in turn in- and Renaissance was for the large part were complete fighting systems as suited fluenced still newer designs. By study- not exclusively fixed upon either judi- to armored as to unarmored combat. ing the historical systems for employ- cial combat or the duel of honor, or even They taught integrated martial arts of ing such arms and armor, we come to on the knightly chivalric . both armed and unarmed components. the best possible understanding for how Yet neither was it intended for battle- Grappling and wrestling techniques and why they were designed as they were. field use alone. were vital elements. The weapons of This further leads to a greater apprecia- , staff, and axe were studied as vig- tion for the little known martial arts of A Medieval Heritage orously as pole-weapons, shields, and the age. From about the 12th century, profes- especially all manner of swords. Their While the term "martial arts" today is typi- sional instructors of fencing existed methods were specialized for foot or cally synonymous with "Asian fighting across Europe. Many of these "Masters mounted, single combat or group. art", for centuries highly sophisticated of Defence", or instructors in arms, be- By the early 1500s, the transformation European martial systems existed. It is came highly regarded international ex- of warfare by firearms and the break- from the Latin that we actually derive perts. Over time they uniquely produced down of the old feudal order limited the avenues for both redress of personal grievance and exhibition of martial skill. Social and technological changes in the Renaissance accelerated experimenta- tion in fighting arts and civilian schools of fence proliferated. The result was an explosion in the popularity of dueling, first as an augment of common street fighting and vendetta brawling, and later for pri- vate affairs of reputation and honor. Into this environment the systematic study of fencing grew into a new "Science of

2 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 Defence" emphasizing urban self-de- highly effective martial arts eventually fense. The modern obsession with the culminating in the development of the formal duel as depicted in period litera- penultimate weapon of street-fighting and ture as well as in modern recreation dueling, the quick and vicious . popular media, and sport fencing has Through experiment and observation tended to obscure the larger context of they discerned that the thrust traveled urban combat and the general armed in a shorter line than the arc of a cut and violence inherent in the age. The roman- against an unarmored foe would strike ticized view of gentlemen defending sooner and reach farther. The rapier was their reputations and character is dwarfed developed along these principles. Thrust- by accounts of sudden assaults, vicious ing was already well known in Medieval ambushes and general street-fighting combat and the new style of foyning among all classes. fence was thus not any "evolution", but Renaissance fencing masters were com- rather an adaptation to a changed envi- monly soldiers and scholars as well as ronment. Rather than for war or battle- accomplished men of learning. Among field, the slender, deceptive rapier was their patrons were nobles, princes, and a personal weapon for civilian-wear and kings as well as commoners, knights, private quarrels. It was first designed for and soldiers. Geometry, mathematics, the needs of back-alley encounters and anatomy, and philosophy played major public ambush. Indeed, it was the first roles in their teachings. The early Span- truly civilian weapon for urban self-de- ish master Pietro Monte was a theolo- fence developed in any society. It rose progress in a vacuum. There is an obvi- gian, mathematician, scholar and even from practical tool, to popular "gentleman's ous direct and discernible link between taught darts to Leonardo Da Vinci. He art". Elegant in its lethality, it represents the brutal, practical fighting methods of was a prodigious writer on martial arts, one of the most innovative and original the Middle Ages and the more sophisti- military theory, theology, and eventually aspects of Western martial culture and cated, elegant Renaissance fencing sys- produced volumes on wrestling, health, one with no parallel in other cultures. tems. No tradition of fighting or method- gymnastics, ballistics, and swordsman- While never eclipsing cutting swords ology of combat exists by itself. It comes ship. The fencing author Camillo Agrippa entirely, as a specialized weapon for per- into being due to environmental pressure was an engineer, mathematician, and fenc- sonal single-combat, it was unequaled for as only a processing or refinement of ing instructor to the artist Michelangelo. almost 200 years until the widespread what existed previously. So it was with The Frenchmen Girard Thibault was a adoption of effective and reliable hand- the fencing arts of the Renaissance. painter, architect and even a physician. guns. They followed a more than 2,000-year- Like much of progress in Renaissance old military tradition within Western Renaissance Adaptations learning and science, advances in self- civilization of close-combat proficiency. Renaissance Masters systematized and defense were based on what had already The techniques developed and taught by innovated the study of Western fight- been commonly established for centu- the Masters of Defence were not "tricks" ing skills into sophisticated, versatile, and ries. They were not able to achieve their nor merely based only on brute strength. They were moves they knew worked in combat, that they had discerned, had named, and had taught to others. But, to fencers in much later centuries, (bound by rules of deportment and the etiquette of convention) these earlier fighting styles (designed to face a range of arms and armors) would naturally seem less "scientific". With the disconnection that occurred between older traditions and the precise sporting swordplay of later gentlemen duelists, it is reasonable that the earlier, more dynamic, flexible, and inclusive methods would incorrectly seem to only be a mix of chaotic gim- micks unconnected by any larger "theory". Eventually, due to changing historical and social forces, the traditional martial skills and teachings of European Masters of Defence fell out of common use.

3 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 Renaissance Swordsmanship The Illustrated Use of and Cut-and-Thrust Swords by John Clements

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

available at www.paladin-press.com

RENAISSANCE SWORDSMANSHIP This is the most thorough work ever about his- torical swordsmanship. It is both a general refer- ence and an instructional guide for advanced and beginning sword enthusiasts, students of military history and martial artists. Includes rare historical info and 100 original drawings.

By Paladin Press

Medieval Swordsmanship Illustrated Methods and Techniques Little to nothing of their methods actu- genuity that was applied to classical arts by John Clements ally survive in modern fencing sports and sciences was directed equally to- 8 1/2 x 11, softcover, today which, based on conceptions of wards the weapons of war and skills of illus., 344 pp. 18th century small-sword combat, are battle. In short, the Western world's available at far removed from their martial origins contributions to martial arts are far-rang- www.paladin-press.com in the Renaissance. Later centuries in ing and far-reaching. Modern , MEDIEVAL SWORDSMANSHIP Europe saw only limited and narrow ap- wrestling, and sport fencing are the very From the author of Renaissance Swordsmanship plication of swords and traditional arms, blunt and shallow tip of a deep history comes the most comprehensive and historically only some of which survived for a time which, when explored and developed accurate view ever of the lost fighting arts of Medieval knights, warriors and men-at-arms. to become martial sports. properly, provides a link to traditions Based on years of extensive training and research which are as rich and complex as any to in the use of European swords, it contains highly Modern Research & Practice effective fighting techniques for the sword, sword emerge from Asia. Today, as more and & shield, long-sword, great-sword, pole-arm and In a sense, our European martial culture more students of historical European more. And with more than 200 illustrations and is itself something still very much with martial arts ("HEMA") earnestly study rare historical documents, it is a scholarly refer- ence as well as a hands-on training guide for us today. But it now bears little resem- the subject they are reclaiming it from martial artists of all levels. blance to its Renaissance heritage. The fantasy, myth, and misconception. This By Paladin Press technological revolution in Western mili- is not about costumed role-play or the- tary science which swept the 18th cen- atrical stunt shows, but scholarly re- tury left behind the old ideas of an indi- search combined with genuine martial Medieval Combat A Fifteenth-Century Manual vidual, armored warrior trained in per- arts training. As a result a more realistic of Swordfighting and Close- sonal hand-to-hand combat. It was re- appreciation of our Western martial cul- Quarter Combat by Hans Talhoffer placed with the new "Western Way of ture is now emerging full force. War" utilizing ballistics and associated 9 x 6, hardcover, 320 pp. organizational concepts. This very approach available at itself, emphasizing more and more a John Clements is a profes- www.paladin-press.com technical, mechanical, and industrial sional writer-researcher and leading authority on historical MEDIEVAL COMBAT method of armed combat, is the Western Now one of the most influential and lavishly drawn martial "tradition" now. Indeed, it is this fencing and one of the world’s fencing manuals of the Middle Ages is available very martial way that is now the model foremost practitioners of Me- in English for the first time. Halhoffer’s profes- sional fencing manual of 1467 reveals the intrica- for all modern armed forces the world dieval and Renaissance fight- cies of the medieval art of fighting, covering both over. In a sense, to see a modern aircraft ing methods. John Clements the “judicial duel” (an officially sanctioned fight to resolve a legal dispute) and personal combat. In carrier, fighter squadron, or armored bat- is director of the well known illustrated detail, it provides careful instruction in talion is very much the embodiment of ARMA - Association for Re- footwork, avoidance and the ability to judge and a continuing and ever evolving European manuipulate timing and distance to exploit and naissance Martial Arts. enhance the sword’s inherent cutting and thrust- martial tradition. ing capabilities. In addition, it covers the supple- mental skills of grappling, kicking, throwing and From the time of the ancient Greeks Link to ARMA webpage onward Western Civilization has always disarming an opponent, plus the techniques of to read more articles mounted combat and unarmoured fighting with the been a source of uniquely resourceful from the hand of John Clements long sword, long knife, pole-axe, dagger, sword ideas and specialized innovation. For www.thearma.org and buckler. better or worse, the same technical in- By Paladin Press

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

The little known surviving treatises and guidebooks of fighting skills produced by European authors are numerous and diverse. Books and manuscripts on personal combat skills flourished in the 15th and 16th centuries.

- by John Clements -

The oldest known European fighting emphasis on unarmored foot-combat duced a detailed wrestling manuscript text is an anonymous German sword and with long-swords that incorporate grap- about 1462, of which a well-illustrated buckler manual (MS I.33) produced pling techniques. later edition still exists. around c. 1295. Its watercolor pages fea- With the development of printmaking Fillipo Vadi in the 1480s produced an- ture a series of images of a monk and in Europe during the 1400s, there also other major Italian work on fighting his partner performing various attacks came a revival of science and classical from the period, which was highly in- and counter attacks and has recently humanism. Both prints and drawings fluenced by Fiore's. The Hispano-Italian come to be more appreciated as a source were integral in the effort to communi- knight Pietro Monte produced several for study of historical European martial cate rediscoveries as well as new ideas. tittles on fighting and combat skills arts. The writings of the great Swabian during the 1480s and '90s, including the master in the “Princes and Lords learn to survive first published wrestling book. Hans 1380s were highly influential among with this art, in earnest and in play. Czynner produced an illustrated color German masters for the next two centu- But if you are fearful, then you work of armored combat on the tech- ries. His teachings, as chronicled by the should not learn to fence. Because niques of "half-swording" and dagger priest and master-at-arms, Hanko a despondent heart will always be fighting in armor. Hanns Wurm's color- Doebringer, were expanded and written defeated, regardless of all skill.” fully inked manual, Das Ringersbuch, on by many others throughout the 1400s of c. 1500 features a range of illustrated and early 1500s including Paulus Kal, Fechtmeister , 1440 wrestling moves and is characteristic of Peter Falkner, Hans von Speyer, Ludwig unarmed texts of the period. Around Von Eyb, Gregor Erhart, Sigmund In 1410 the Bolognese master Fiore dei 1512 the artist Albrecht Dürer produced Schining, Andre Pauernfeindt, and oth- Liberi produced a systematic work, Flos a beautifully and realistically drawn ers. Two major commentators were Duellatorium in Armis, which repre- work illustrating sword and wrestling Sigmund Ringeck and Peter Von Danzig sents the major Italian contribution to techniques. Several versions of Jörg in the 1450s. Among their teachings, 15th century martial arts literature. Wilhalm's work survive including a these Fechtbuchs ("fight books" or Three different editions of Fiore's work large hand-written color 1523 edition "fencing books") present a consistent survive and have become major resources featuring an array of unarmored and ar- for modern students. The Fechtbuch of Hans Talhoffer, covering, among other things, swordplay, judicial combat, dag- ger fighting and wrestling was also in- fluential. It was produced in several versions from the 1440s to 1460s. Other important fighting texts surviving from the 15th century include works such as the , the anonymous "Gladiatorie" and "Goliath" manu- scripts, as well as the Solothurner Fechtbuch. There is also an anonymous 15th century work on the use of the medieval 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 works on swordplay from England also survive (the MS 3542 and MS 39564 docu- ments). Fabian von Auerswald also pro-

5 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 mored long sword techniques. About Dell'Agochie in 1572, Camillo Palladini 1540 compiled an from c. 1580, Alfonso Fallopia in 1584, immense and a well-illustrated tome on Nicoletto Giganti in 1606, Salvator weapon arts including swords, staffs, Fabris also in 1606, and later Francesco daggers, and other weapons. Alfieri in 1640. Nearly all these works Di Antonio Manciolino's work of 1531 reflect the transition from military is the first known printed Italian fencing swords to the civilian duelling rapiers. manual. One of the more significant In 1610, the Ridolfo Capo Ferro's, Gran masters of the 1500s was the Bolognese Simulacro, was first published. Consid- teacher Achille Marrozo. His Opera Nova ered the great Italian master of the ra- of 1536 is considered the first text to pier and father of modern fencing, his emphasize the use of the thrust as well work codified much of civilian foyning as the cut in using a slender tapering fence for the duel. These Italian fenc- single-hand blade. His work however still ing texts offer some of the best of illus- covered the traditional military weapons trated examples of rapier fencing. of the age. The master Jeronimo De Carranza wrote In 1548 the Spanish knight Juan Quixada ian self-defense concerns and the devel- his influential tome on Spanish fencing, de Reayo produced a little known text opment of slender duelling swords. An De La Philosophia de las Armas, in on mounted combat that reflects tradi- English version was first translated in 1569. It was to become one of two ma- tional 15th century methods. In 1550 the 1594. The Italian Girolamo Cavalcabo's jor Spanish fencing manuals that formed Florentine master and contemporary of work of c.1580, concerned primarily the heart of the Spanish school for later Marozzo, Francesco Altoni, wrote his with sword and dagger, was translated centuries. The other great Spanish master own fencing text that disputed some into German and French several times over of the age was Don Luis P. de Narvaez, ideas of Marozzo. Often attributed to the the coming decades. In 1595 Vincentio whose 1599, Libro de las Grandezas de 1570s, Angelo Viggianni's significant Saviolo produced, His Practice in Two la Espada ("Book of the Grandeur of work of 1551, Lo Schermo, also focused Books, one of the more influential (and the Sword") presented rapier material on the use of a long, slender, tapering today popular) of late Renaissance manu- somewhat different than his master single-hand sword. Camillo Agrippa's als. Saviolo's method reflects the chang- Carranza's. Narvaez's book is the other of treatise on the science of arms from ing form of civilian blade in use. An Eng- only two major Spanish fencing manu- 1553 was one of the first to focus on lish version of the text was influential at als from the time. Several Spanish mas- use of the thrust over the cut in civilian the time. ters during the 1600s produced fencing swordplay. Considered another one of books rewriting the teachings of the more significant Italian fencing ”So from this art comes all sorts Carranza or Narvaez and favouring one works of the 1500s, Agrippa's treatise of good, with arms cities are or the other. In 1640, Mendes de also represents the transition from mili- subdued and all the crowds Carmona, a fencing master from Seville, tary to civilian swordplay and the use restrained; and in itself has such produced his, Libro de la of even more narrow swords. dignity, that often it brings joy to berdadera de las armas, an unpublished The Dutch artist Martinus Heemskreck the heart, and always drives out manuscript recently discovered. in 1552 illustrated a text, Fechten & The young Italian soldier and swords- cowardice …If you will be , with several woodcuts of short man, Frederico Ghisliero, in 1587 pro- sword, two-handed sword, and wrestling. renowned in the art, you’ll never be duced an unpublished work, the Regole, The German master in poor, in any place. This virtue is revealing connections to Spanish styles. 1570 produced a large and extremely so glorious that, if even once About 1600 Don Pedro de Heredia pro- well illustrated training manual that re- poverty would show you his cards, duced his, Traité des Armes, an illus- presents one of the high points of 16th then wealth will embrace you trated color manuscript on rapier that century works. The work covered a host thanks to your art.” included grappling techniques. Heredia of assorted swords and weapons and was a master-of-arms, cavalry captain combined some Italian and German ele- Maestro Filippo Vadi, Liber de Arte and member of the war council of the ments. Meyer included material on Gladiatoria Dimicandi, c.1482 king of Spain. His work represents a classroom play as well as earnest self- pragmatic Spanish style not wrapped in defence. Jacob Sutor later produced a Giovanni Antonio Lovino in 1580 pro- the geometrical ideas of Carranza and fighting manual in 1612 that was mostly duced a large and elaborate fencing trea- Narvaez. Heredia's manual is evidence an updated version of Meyer's earlier tise on rapier as well as other swords and the Spanish school was neither uniform work. weapons. Until recently, only limited nor monolithic. Mendes de Carmona's, In 1570, Giacomo Di Grassi produced, portions of Lovino's work were previ- Libro de la destreza berdadera de las His True Arte of Defense, a major work ously known. Other important Italian armas, an unpublished manuscript of on fencing from the period that reveals fencing works of the late Renaissance 1640 has also recently been redisco- elements of the changing nature of civil- include those by the masters Giovanni vered. Carmona was a fencing master in

6 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 Seville, who previously wrote a work Paradoxes of Defense defending tradi- besides those focused on swords or on Carranza's method. His previously tional English swordplay in 1599. He wrestling were also written during the unknown work is a substantial manu- wrote his, Brief Instructions Upon my Renaissance. For example, Andres script covering the principles and fun- Paradoxes of Defence, a year later. His Legnitzer wrote on the spear in the early damentals of fencing and tactics to use work is the primary source for informa- 1400s, while did the same on in specific situations. The most elabo- tion on English methods of martial arts wrestling and Hans Lecküchner also rate and lavishly illustrated Renaissance from the Renaissance and is a favorite made a treatise on the Langen Messer fencing text was that of Girard Thibault study source for modern students of his- ("large-knife"). In 1603, the Italian, Lelio d'Anvers', Academie De L'Espee (c. torical fencing. Silver, a critic of the ra- de Tedeschi, produced a manual on the 1630), written in French by a Flemish pier, pragmatically described the use of art of disarming while in 1616 the Span- master teaching a version of the Span- short sword or back-sword, buckler, iard Atanasio de Ayala wrote a short text ish rapier. The only truly French fenc- staff, and dagger. In 1614, George Hale dealing with staff weapons and ing texts known from the Renaissance wrote, The Private Schoole of Defence, Bonaventura Pistofilo's Il Torneo, Bo- are that of Henry de Sainct Didier in commenting on English fighting schools logna 1627, was on the use of the polaxe. 1573, Tracicte' contenan les ecrets du of the day as well as recommendations Antonio Quintino's 1613, "Jewels of premier livre de l'espee seule, and on the rapier method. In 1617 Joseph Wisdom", included 16 pages of grap- Francois Dancie, wrote his, L'espée de Swetnam wrote a rapier and back sword pling and wrestling in swordplay as well Combat, in Tulle, in 1623. The next treatise entitled, The Schoole of the as material on animal fighting. Before known is Charles Besnard's later, Le Noble and Worthy Science of Defence, 1620 Giovan' Battista Gaiani had also Maitre d'arme Liberal, of 1653. and in 1639 one "G. A." published a book written two books on swordsmanship for The master George Silver published his on swordsmanship, Pallas Armata - The horseback. Gentleman's Armory. It has been sug- The teachings of these masters do not gested that the author was one, Gideon appear to reflect a set "style" or a "Way" Ashwell. By 1650 the Marquise of so much as a systematic tradition of us- Newcastle wrote his own short treatise, ing proven and efficient techniques The Truthe off the Sorde, a little-known within a sophisticated understanding of work based on the Spanish School. general fighting principles. Much of This description of Renaissance martial what we know of these many guide- arts literature is far from complete. books and fighting treatises is changing Many other fighting manuals were cer- and expanding. Although just beginning, tainly produced in the 16th and 17th serious modern study and interpretation centuries by a host of other masters and of Renaissance martial arts literature is writers. In 1620 for example, Hans now well underway. In addition to those Wilhelm Schöffer fashioned an enor- described here, many other martial arts mous work, Fechtkunst, that contained manuals were known to have been pro- 672 crude rapier illustrations, each one duced, but existing copies have yet to fully described and annotated. Other be found. Previously unexamined col- German fencing teachers in the early lections that have recently become avail- 1600s were rewriting Italian texts. able and should soon open up will in- The Dutchman, Johannes Georgius evitably bring to light even more source Pascha, in 1657 offered a rapier text that manuals. It is an exciting time for re- included substantial material on the pike search as the hunt for further Renais- and unarmed combat. Fencing works sance martial arts literature continues.

7 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 How to tell if your Fencing is a Martial Art or a Combat Sport

Just as within the traditional Asian martial arts, the emerging Western martial arts community today is often debating the meaning of "Martial Art" as opposed to "martial sport". The issue is clearest with regard to Medieval and Renaissance combative systems -without question the main focus of historical European mar- tial arts. On the one hand, as these weapons and skills were originally intended for battlefield, judicial combats, and earnest self-defence, they are clearly fighting arts. 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 difference between the two today however can be distinguished by examining them with regard to a few specific concerns.

- by John Clements -

Fencing…was the Art of the Sword, or how do you objectively determine if you know it will never occur -or just as Medieval and Renaissance schools what you are studying, or what you are play it as a game? more appropriately considered it, the art being taught, is a legitimate historical of using weapons, particularly swords. fighting skill, or merely re-packaged 2. Is it a tool of learning or an end in But, over time the sword lost its value modern or or even the- itself? as a weapon of war and as older hand- atrical fighting? Is your craft display ori- Does your fencing concern itself with weapons and arms faded before the chal- ented or results oriented? Is it about ef- how to win a bout by scoring, or with lenge of ballistics, fencing was nar- fectively ending fights quickly or ar- the effects of what the weapon would rowed. With only a few exceptions tificially prolonging them for entertain- actually do? Do you conduct mock fight- among the military, mainly cavalry, ment value? How can these issues be ing to get good at mock fighting, or do swords became almost the sole procli- evaluated? The answer depends upon you conduct mock fighting to get good vity of the aristocracy and fencing be- the approach, the attitude, and the in- at the core elements of the craft itself? came synonymous with preparation for tention of your study and the tools it Does your fencing even consist of any- the gentlemanly duel of single sword employs in its method. thing other than a mock fighting game? alone. The older elements of battlefield combat and sudden street-fighting faded Here then are some ways to consider if 3. Does it rely for its basis on histori- from concern, replaced exclusively by your own form of fencing practice is a cally accurate replica weapons? that of private affair of honor. Eventu- martial art or a combat sport: What this means is, are your swords re- ally, fencing became sport and pastime, productions of real historical tools with a refined, athletic game of set rules and 1. Is it practiced as a method of self- the equivalent dimensions of weight, etiquette. Finally, over time myths arose defense? length, and balance of actual blades? Or that fencing had somehow reached its What this means is, is your system of are they modern simulators with features zenith only after it stopped using real fighting focused on scoring and winning that authentic pieces do not have (e.g., weapons in real fighting. competitions or on staying alive? Does extreme flexibility, light-weight, rubber In contrast, the study of historical me- it understand the distinction? Does it points, padding, special handles, modern thods of European fencing is now becom- teach you to do whatever works or what materials, etc.). Real weapons handle one ing increasingly popular. A variety of the rules of a game allow? Are you re- way and special training weapons an- earlier combative systems are being re- hearsing moves as lethal killing actions other. The more realistic your weapon, constructed and interpreted along his- applicable in real fighting, or as only the more realistic your technique and torical lines from historical sources. The those movements allowed under pretend your understanding of fundamental question therefore arises as to whether tournaments? Do you ever stop to rec- principles and concepts. Each digression these practices represent the earnest skills ognize and comprehend the difference? from this causes a degree of misinter- of a martial art, or constitute those of a Do you train in your fencing art as pretation of the methods developed with stylized combat sport? For that matter, "preparation" for combat -even though and for real weapons in real combat. Do

8 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 you ever work with real weapons or just taken into consideration? Or is all your and wrestling in Renaissance-era sword simulators? Unless you also train strenu- fencing conducted in the same uniform combats and duels abound. These skills ously with real weapons how else can with participants imagined to only be were common among fencers of all you be cognizant of the differences im- identically clad duelists exclusively in classes into the 17th century and be- posed by using approximations? shirtsleeves or bare chests? yond. But such skills were dropped from later forms of private combat within the 4. Does it include the widest range of 8. Does practice occur on diverse ter- code duello. In your fencing, if two techniques possible? rain? combatants do close upon one another Are you able to practice and execute Historically, combat could occur under does all action then cease? Or if a seizure actions and moves that would have been any conditions and on any type of floor- or disarm should be employed, does ac- reasonably used in historical combat in ing or ground. Do you always fence on tion again cease or are the fencers able a manner by which people really fought, the same general type of surface, or do to explore the counter-techniques of or are you limited and restricted to a you make an effort to experience the grappling and wrestling as a defense belief as to what is sporting, chivalric, effects of moving on broken earth, against an armed adversary? What hap- or gentlemanly fair? Does your concern gravel, mud, sand, high grass, knee- pens if you are disarmed or drop your for safety in mock fighting mean that deep water, rocky footing, etc.? blade? Would you know how to con- more lethal and dangerous techniques tinue with any chance of success? are never explored or learned at any time 9. Does it consider secondary or com- under any conditions of training? Are panion weapons? 12. Are dissimilar tools utilized? you learning to prevent disarms, sei- Historically, fencing was about the use Except in arranged duels of honor, sel- zures and takedowns performed against of all hand weapons, not just swords, dom were weapons carefully compared you, or even to safely fall and roll? and not just the single sword among before fighting to ensure uniformity of certain gentleman or the aristocracy (at length, weight, sharpness, balance, or 5. Does it let you use both arms natu- least, not until the late 17th century). other quality. Does all your fencing oc- rally? Swordsmanship at one time would not cur between two equally-paired weapons, Are you able to utilize your second hand be considered complete without skill in or do you appreciate the experience of in defense, for parrying, grasping, trap- effectively facing shields, pole-arms, facing a shorter or longer blade, a lighter ping, and disarming? Does your fencing and daggers. Is your fencing solely that or heavier blade, a wider or thinner prepare you for countering an opponent of the single sword, or does it take into blade? What about weapons of different trained to use both his hands in grab- account the possibility of successfully hilt styles, such as those that can aid in bing or seizing your arm, clothing, hilt, encountering diverse and dissimilar parrying and trapping? or weapon? Or following styles of court weapons with your sword? fencing and later smallsword duelling, are 13. Is there any recognition of the dif- you forced by convention and tradition 10. Are close-in actions ever taken ference between the effects of attacks to pretend you and your opponent only into account? upon different parts of human have one arm? What happens when each fighter comes anatomy? against the other body to body (corps- Wounds to the limbs do not produce the 6. Does it make multiple opponents a á-corps)? Is all fencing stopped, or is same results as those to the head or body, consideration? some minimal amount of bumping and and those to the face are not the same as Personal combat was not only about jostling permitted? What about what those to the torso. Does your simula- one-on-one duels. The dynamic of one really could happen in a fight, where tion recognize the effects of wounds to fighting against many is very different grabbing and pulling of clothes oc- different portions of the body? Does than one against another solo. Does your curred as well as tripping, face knock- your fencing take this into account and fencing ever incorporate practice at fac- ing, arm locking, wrist twisting, hair- teach appropriate tactics or does it treat ing more than one antagonist or com- pulling, eye-gouging, biting, hilt-striking, all hits as causing the same degree of bating groups of attackers from any di- etc.? Is this all ignored or are fencers at "incapacitation"? Does it even allow for rection? Or is it instead always just about least instructed in how to safely engage targeting of the whole body in the first dueling a single opponent with a single in or prevent their being grabbed, pushed, place, or does it impose artificial restric- weapon? tripped, or caught in a head-lock? Are tions upon the freedom to strike at any all these things merely assumed to be vulnerable part of an opponent's anatomy? 7. Does it only take place in standard- universally negated by the application Further, does your fencing always cease ized clothing? of "proper" fencing skill with the single action after a single hit, or are the com- Historically, combat could occur at any sword, or is the unpleasant reality con- batants ever allowed to continue on to time at any place, not just when two sidered? make successive hits within an exchange parties formally agreed to it. Are the of actions? effects of wearing historical garments 11. Is grappling and wrestling ever such as leathers, thick wool, baggy pants taken into account? 14. Does it encourage or rely on the and shirts, heavy boots, or maile armor Historical accounts of both grappling exercise of test-cutting?

9 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 It is easy to make claims about what different sword forms could or would do without ever actually trying it out. It is also easy to misinterpret the different degrees of "cut" that can be made with different techniques of assorted blade types on a person. Whether foyning- fence or cut-and-thrust fence, can you really make assumptions without per- need for actions to be performed safely the-overall method for properly han- sonal experience in using sharp blades in order to prevent accidental injury to dling a weapon lethally, in favor of what on test targets? Does your fencing in- your partner? Or in contrast, is your works in the sport. When practitioners corporate the practice of hitting with a fencing so safe and so focused on scor- have to study the instructions of the old true edge using the correct physical ing that you are free to attempt any at- masters in light of what they are "allowed" mechanics to actually cause maximum tack on an "opponent" regardless of how to do "under the rules", it changes the en- results? Are different swords and dif- exposed or vulnerable it would leave tire outlook of how and why they prac- ferent target materials utilized for cut- you in real combat with sharp weapons? tice their swordplay in the first place. ting practice? Or is cutting with a real When you practice with a true martial sword considered something "obvious" These questions above show there can spirit, handling weapons and moving as and "easy" that requires no real effort? be far more to fencing than the duel of if to kill or be killed, it changes your out- single sword against single sword. look and your understanding. It is pro- 15. Does it teach you to draw your Modern fencing, like many other com- foundly different than practicing to win a weapon? bat sports today, is approached as a game -even when such games are hard- Fighting with swords was not always "non-lethal combative." Quite obviously, fought emotionally charged athletic con- about facing-off with an opponent until there are techniques a fighter, as opposed tests. The significance of this difference a third party verbally started things with to a sportsman, wants in his arsenal that within the modern reconstruction of his- an official instruction. Being able to the other does not, and vice-versa. The torical European martial arts cannot be unsheathe your weapon in a quick and former seeks skill for theoretical real life understated. efficient manner (as well as possibly and death encounters, the latter, for win- These same criteria above can also be stifling the opponent's) was at one time ning within the agreed rules of a game. applied to determining whether or not a skill to learn. Does your fencing take Between a martial art and a combat your fencing is a martial art or a perfor- into account the drawing of a weapon sport, even when each is pursued as a mance art, in other words, whether it is or of even wearing a belt and hanger, or "non-lethal combative", there are differ- either display oriented or combat ori- does it all occur only after blades are ences in the tools and their application, ented. Does it have as it goal the execu- drawn and combatants face off at a set in the conditions, the environment, train- tion of a ballet-like series of choreographic distance? Combat did not all occur as ing exercises, practice drills, equipment, movement patterns or the development formal duels but more often as sudden clothing, and range of activities and ac- of spontaneous execution of techniques ambushes and violent assaults. Do you tions, as well as general intent. Each with adversarial-counter timing? Is it ever even practice attacking from dif- may be about self-expression and form applicable only to the conditions of solo ferent distances and even from a run- as well as function. But a martial sport presentation routines, or can it be ap- ning or is it always started from is concerned with a sense of sportsman- plied effectively against an opponent in the same standardized range? ship and the thrill of fair competition. It free-play? is about winning or losing a fun game. These questions address concerns rel- 16. Is mock-combat approached as if A martial art in contrast, can be said to evant to historical fencing study. Con- it were real? be about theoretical life or death sur- sidering these questions helps to ap- In reality we only have one life to risk vival in a violent encounter or contest. proach the subject of historical fencing and there are no "points" to "score" in We might further consider that when- from the context of a true martial art, an earnest fights for survival. To serve its ever historical fighting methods -that earnest combat skill -its original pur- true purpose of preparation for real en- were devised for real weapons to actu- pose. In conclusion, it is clear there is counters, mock-combat must be con- ally kill and maim -are applied for pur- much to consider that is simply outside ducted with an attitude that appreciates poses of sporting play, there is a sig- the purview of traditional (i.e., classi- the inherent danger and consequences nificant and profound change that must cal or modern) fencing study and this of fighting. Do you approach it with the occur as a result. The ancient goal of reflects the perspective the ARMA takes understanding that the penalty for fail- training to learn to defeat real opponents toward the subject in its own practice. ing to defend is your death, or just the with martial efficiency and deadliness One of the best questions to consider in loss of a match? Is there a realistic de- is replaced with the idea of scoring your fencing then, is: If you had to fight gree of hesitation or apprehension in points by following agreed upon rule a real duel in say, three months, would fighting because you are aware of the restrictions. This surely leads to a mis- you train differently than you do now? lethality of techniques as well as the understanding and misapplication of If so, why not train that way already?

10 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 Consideration of Grappling & Wrestling in Renaissance Fencing

- by John Clements -

The skills of grappling and the art of gins, where each seeks to down play as being essentially that of personal wrestling have a long legacy in Europe. the other or cast him on the ground, and "duel of honor" or gentlemanly private In the early 1500s, many soldiers, schol- to harm and overcome him with many quarrel. The traditional focus there has ars, priests, and nobles wrote that wres- other means." But just how all this heri- been on fencing as "blade on blade" tling was important in preparing aristo- tage relates to the foyning fence of the action rather than on "fighting" with cratic youth for military service. The de- Renaissance is less well understood. swords in battle or sudden urban assault. tailed depictions of unarmed techniques This has been an area traditionally over- This was not the case in the 1500s and in many Medieval fencing manuals (such looked by enthusiasts and it is under- 1600s. Armed fighting ranged from all as those by and Hans standable that many enthusiasts have manner of encounters with all manner Talhoffer) are well known and accounts come to the wrong conclusions. of bladed weapons. of wrestling and grappling abound in Nonetheless, all historical armed com- Yet, because approval of grappling and descriptions of 15th century tournaments bat (Medieval and Renaissance, cutting wrestling in the period was inconsistent or thrusting) involved some degree of grappling and wrestling techniques. But, as few Renaissance fencing manuals include detailed sections on grappling and wrestling or even discuss seizures and disarms, the popular view has been that they were not used or were viewed with disdain. Besides, aren't unarmed and pugilistic attacks merely unskilled "thuggery" practiced only by the lower classes? After all, surely one should not need to wrestle if one knows the sword and judicial contests. A 1442 tournament "to perfection" (…and yet how many are and often curtailed during fencing prac- fight in Paris "with weapons as we are "perfect" with their sword, we might tice, understanding its true value can be accustomed to carrying in battle" in- ask?). confusing now for students unfamiliar cluded in its fourth article the stipula- This common view makes perfect sense, with either the actual evidence or the tion "that each of us may help each other after all, as a slender cut-and-thrust sword actual techniques. In the early 1500s the with wrestling, using legs, feet, arms or or rapier is a weapon whose characteris- Italian solider-priest Celio Calacagnini hands." English knightly tournaments as tics are perfectly suited to keeping an listed wrestling as an exercise required late as 1507 allowed combatants "To opponent off and killing him at range. for preparing upper-class youths for Wrestle all maner of wayes" or to fight Intentionally closing-in to resort to military service. In 1528, the courtier "with Gripe, or otherwise". The Hispano- hands-on brute strength would seem Baldassare Castiglione wrote, " it is of Italian master Pietro Monte in the 1480s antithetical to the very nature and ad- the highest importance to know how to even recognized wrestling as the "foun- vantage of the weapon. In actuality, the wrestle, since this often accompanies dation of all fighting", armed or unarmed. matter is that such actions were not combat on foot." In 1531 the English Albrecht Duerer's Fechtbuch of 1512 con- primitive, but advanced techniques that scholar and diplomat Sir Thomas Elyot tains more material on wrestling than required considerable practice and skill wrote, "There be divers maners of on swordplay, yet the relationship be- to execute -and knowing them could wrastlinges" and "undoubtedly it shall tween them is noticeable. The oldest make a fighter a more well-rounded and be founde profitable in warres, in case known fencing text, the late 13th cen- dangerous opponent in combat. Yet, that a capitayne shall be constrayned to tury treatise MS I.33, even states, "For fencing historians have typically seen cope with his aduersary hande to hande, when one will not cede to the other, but these advanced techniques as being cru- hauyng his weapon broken or loste. Also they press one against the other and rush dities and mere "tricks". Part of this it hath ben sene that the waiker persone, close, there is almost no use for arms, prejudice perhaps stems from the survi- by the sleight of wrastlyng, hath ouer- especially long ones, but grappling be- ving 18th & 19th century view of sword throwen the strenger, almost or he coulde

11 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 tells us that wrestling was highly regarded both gladiator and soldier, indeed every- at the French court. The Bolognese mas- one, in …battles, and single-combats, ter, Lelio de Tedeschi, even produced a with every hand-to-hand weapon, and manual on the art of disarming in 1603. also wrestling, for strongly defending, In 1625, Englishman Richard Peeke and achieving victory. " Von Gunterrodt fought in a rapier duel at Cadiz, defeat- (the late 13th century treatise MS I.33) ing the Spaniard Tiago by sweeping his also observed: in fencing, "when one will legs out from under him after trapping not cede to the other, but they press one his blade with his hilt. In 1617 Joseph against the other and rush close, there fasten on the other any violent stroke." Swetnam commented on the value of is almost no use for arms, especially In 1575, Michel de Montaigne, the French skill in wrestling for staff fighting. But long ones, but grappling begins, where Renaissance thinker, essayist, and court- as Dr. Anglo has pointed out, in 1622, each seeks to throw down the other or ier, wrote "our very exercises and recre- Englishman Henry Peacham questioned cast him on the ground, and to harm and ations, running, wrestling …and fencing". whether "throwing and wrestling" were overcome him with many other means." In the notorious 1547 duel between the more befitting common soldiers rather George Silver's views of 1599 advocating nobles Jarnac and Chastaignerai, Jarnac than nobility, while his contemporary "gryps and seizures" in swordplay are was so concerned at Chastaignerai's Lord Herbert of Cherbury who studied well known. Interestingly though, Silver well known skill as a wrestler (not to martial arts in , found them "quali- lamented how such things were no mention fencing) that to avoid the ties of great use". At the turn of the 17th longer being taught by teachers of de- chance of a close struggle, he insisted century in France, the celebrated rapier fence, saying "…there are now in these both parties each wear two daggers. duelists Lagarde and Bazanez came into dayes no gripes, closes, wrestlings, Alfred Hutton's account from Vulson de conflict (the celebrated "duel of the hat") striking with the hilts, daggers, or buck- la Colombière in 1549 of a judicial com- and ended up on the ground violently lers, used in Fence-schools". However, bat between one D'aguerre and Fendilles stabbing and fighting each other. Silver also describes situations which are states, "D'aguerre let fall his sword, and There is evidence close-in techniques quite familiar and reasonable to those being an expert wrestler (for be it under- were excluded from the German Fecht- who today practice rapier fencing with stood that no one in those days was con- schulen events of the 1500s where, in more inclusive guidelines for intentional sidered a complete man-at-arms unless order to perform safe displays, rules close-contact. Silver, in his Paradoxes he was proficient in the wrestling art), were in place to prevent such techniques. of Defence, section 31, actually complains threw his enemy, held him down, and, Similarly, the 1573 Sloane manuscript of that the rapier's excessive length allows having disarmed him of his morion, the London Masters of Defence states for close-in fighting without much fear dealt him many severe blows on the that in Prize Playing events "who soever because there is little threat to prevent head and face with it…". dothe play agaynst ye prizor, and doth it once the point is displaced. He writes: A Ritterakedemie or "Knight's School" strike his blowe and close withall so that "Of the single rapier fight between val- was reportedly set up in 1589 at Tübingen the prizor cannot strike his blowe after iant men, having both skill, he that is in to instruct aristocratic youths agayne, shall Wynn no game for anny the best wrestler, or if neither of them in skills which included wrestling, fenc- Veneye". The implication in such cases can wrestle, the strongest man most ing, riding, dancing, tennis, and fire- is that while closing and seizing is effec- commonly kills the other, or leaves him arms. Joachim Meyer offered significant tive and understood, it is inappropriate for at his mercy". He then describes what elements of grappling and wrestling the public display intended to show a happens typically when the fighters both with swords in his Fechtbuch of 1570. student's skill at defending and delivering rush together, explaining: In the 1580s the French general Francois blows. In 1579, Heinrich Von Gunterrodt "When two valiant men of skill at single de la Noue advocated wrestling in the noted that "Fencing is a worthy, manly, rapier do fight, one or both of them most curriculum of military academies and and most noble Gymnastic art, established commonly standing upon their strength the chronicler of duels, Brantome, also by principles of nature…which serves or skill in wrestling, will presently seek

12 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 to run into the close…But happening his legs out from under him, slashed his clad in defensive armor or not". He adds both of one mind, they rather do bring rear, and then stomped on him a few that, "Even in Spain, where it might be themselves together. That being done, times while he was down. thought that mathematical and philo- no skill with rapiers avail, they presently Hutton tells us how in the year 1626, sophical speculation had eliminated grapple fast their hilts, their wrists, arms, the Marquis de Beuvron and Francois e such sordid realities, wrestling tricks bodies or necks, as in …wrestling, or Montmorency, Comte de Boutteville, were still taught by the masters -as well striving together, they may best find for the notorious rabid duelist and bully, illustrated in early seventeenth-century their advantages. Whereby it most com- fought a duel together in which both at- manuscripts treatises by Pedro de Heredia, monly falls out, that he that is the best tacked "each other so furiously that they cavalry captain and member of the war wrestler, or strongest man (if neither of soon come to such close quarters that their council of the King of Spain". Heredia's them can wrestle) overcomes, wrestling long rapiers are useless. They throw them illustrations of rapier include several ef- by strength, or fine skill in wrestling, aside, and, grappling with one another, fective close-in actions that hark back the rapier from his adversary, or cast- attempt to bring their daggers into play." to similar techniques of Marozzo and ing him from him, wither to the ground, In 1671 an affray took place in Montreal, even Fiore Dei Liberi in 1410. or to such distance, that he may by rea- Canada, between Lieutenant de Carion The chronicler of duels, Brantome, tells son thereof, use the edge or point of his and Ensign de Lormeau. While walk- us of a judicial duel in the mid-1500s rapier, to strike or thrust him, leaving ing home with his wife, de Lormeau was wherein the Baron de Gueerres fought him dead or alive at his mercy." confronted by de Carion backed by two one Fendilles. Having received a terrible In his section 34, Of the long single ra- friends. Provoked into fighting by de thrust in the thigh, the Baron availed pier, or rapier and poniard fight between Carion, both men drew swords and ex- himself of his wrestling skills and "closed two unskillful men being valiant, Silver changed blows. De Lormeau was wound- with his antagonist and bore him to the also observes: ground; and there the two lay and "When two unskillful men (being val- struggled". He also relates a sword & iant) shall fight with long single rapiers, dagger duel between the Spanish Captain there is less danger in that kind of fight, Alonso de Sotomayor and the knight by reason of their distance in convenient Bayard. After some figting Sotomayor length, weight, and unwieldiness, than is missed a thrust which Bayard answered with short rapiers, whereby it comes to by deeply piercing his throat that he could pass, that what hurt shall happen to be not withdraw his weapon. Sotomayor was done, if any with the edge or point of still able to grapple with Bayard so that their rapiers is done in a moment, and both fell where Bayard then managed presently will grapple and wrestle to- to stab Sotomayor in the face with his gether, wherein most commonly the dagger. strongest or best wrestler overcomes, Some would still give us the impression and the like fight falls out between them, ed three times, including wounds to the today that personal combat in the Re- at the long rapier and poniard, but much head and arm. Both wrestled briefly be- naissance consisted only of cavaliers more deadly, because instead of close fore de Carion struck de Lormeau repeat- and courtiers formally dueling each and wresting, they fall most commonly edly on the head with his pommel. They other and apparently no gentleman or to stabbing with their poniards." were then separated by some five pass- courtier in the period ever fought under Of course, some might argue Silver was ing onlookers and both combatants sur- any other condition or for any other rea- not a "rapier master" and so did not un- vived. son other than affairs of honor. Of course, derstand "proper" fencing. Regardless, Closing in to strike, to grab, trip, throw, it must be thoroughly understood that it he was obviously an experienced, highly or push the opponent down is seen in was the Renaissance aristocracy who skilled martial artist and expert swords- countless Renaissance fencing manuals were primarily recording accounts of man who had seen valid methods of ra- from the cut-and-thrust style swords of duels and frays and who naturally wrote pier fighting in actual use. Then there is Marozzo in 1536 to the slender rapier almost exclusively about combats the case of "Austin Bagger, a very tall of Giovanni Lovino in 1580 and that of among their own social class. Naturally, gentleman of his hands, not standing L'Lange in 1664. Jacob Wallhausen's proper duels (illegal or not) were far much upon his skill" who Silver de- 1616 depictions of military combat (ar- more interesting to them than everyday scribes as having with his sword and mored and unarmored) show much the fights (by gentry or commoner) which buckler fought the "Italian teacher of same. Dr. Sydney Anglo calls this des- garnered neither reputation nor honor. offense", Signior Rocco with his two- perate armed or unarmed combat "all-in But the actual evidence from the period handed-sword. Silver relates how Bag- fighting" as opposed to formal duels with suggests a very different character than ger "presently closed with him, and rules, and describes it as: "one other area a conception of simple "honorable" struck up his heels, and cut him over of personal combat which was taught swordplay. the breech, and trod upon him, and most by masters throughout Europe, and was In the 1470s Paris de Puteo had noted grievously hurt him under his feet." practiced at every level of the social hi- that in a formal duel if a sword was bro- Which means he charged forward, swept erarchy whether the antagonists were ken he might properly fight by twisting

13 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 his opponent's arm, biting him, etc. But cumbent manner in which their fellow Myself being wounded…I struck…passed by 1553, the Venetian Antonio Possevino perished). Giraldi Cinzio described a through his body, and drawing back my stated that to purposely discard a service- duel of c. 1564 in which an old fencing sword, repassed through again…I easily able weapon in favor of fist fighting or master named Pirro at Beneveto fought became master of him, laying him on his to engage in wrestling, kicking, etc. was with Sergesto, a young former student. back, when, being upon him …I could dishonorable because the contest should Pirro struck him on the back of the knee not find in my heart to offer him any be a test of strength not of the body. Such with the flat of his blade, pushed him to more violence, only keeping him down". actions were deemed appropriate for the ground, disarmed him and, seizing In a single combat during the English dueling gentry if conducted within the his throat, made him surrender. Civil Wars, Scotsman Sir Ewen Lochiel, course of an armed struggle -that is, they The master Salvatore Fabris in 1606 chief of the clan Cameron fought a val- were allowable while still armed. From depicted a range of close-in and second- iant English officer after several moments the early 1500s there is the account of a hand actions even showing a closing to and exchange of blows, Lochiel finally formal duel sanctioned by the Grand take down the opponent by grabbing disarmed his antagonist and they wrestled Duke Alphonso in Ferrara, Italy where him around the waist. Yet Fabris only until they fell to the ground grappling. the challenged party (in an obvious at- included material on grips and seizing The Englishman gained the advantage tempt to prevent such actions) attempted reluctantly, because his text was focused but Lochiel managed to get his hands to wear armor with sharp projections at on defense with the sword in a way so free, grabbed his foes collar and: "fasten- places where an adversary would typi- effective that gentlemen would "never ing his teeth upon his throat, brought cally try to take hold. Objecting, the Duke need to come to grips or the seizing of away a mouthful of flesh, which, he said, summoned forth a smith to file down the swords". As with other masters, his was 'the sweetest bit he ever had in his offending sharp points on grounds that method was essentially aimed at encoun- life.' such was not the proper manner of ar- ters of honor within the code duello. Ap- In his 1657 work on rapiers, weapons, mor worn by knights in war. parently though, whatever his opinion and unarmed combat the German mas- One late 1500s duel between a Signor of them as appropriate for his readers, ter of arms, Johan Georg Pascha, reveals Amadeo and one Crequi was fought on he did understand and teach these other an extraordinary range of unarmed tech- an island in the Rhone. Crequi brought skills in some way to prepare his stu- niques (which some have said resemble Amadeo to the ground and without more dents for them. Fabris' close-in moves styles of Chinese Ming Chung kung fu). ado killed him there (Amadeo's relatives were influential enough for several later It would not be difficult to believe that later complained of the undignified re- rapier masters, including Heussler in Pascha, who was also a rapier master, 1615, L'Lange in 1664, and Porath as late as 1693, to all copy them (Siegmund Weischner in his small-sword treatise, Die Ritterliche Geschicklichkeit im Fechten, of 1765 also shows a variety of closing actions and grapples similar to Fabris). Given the range of techniques and actions in the historical accounts, a pattern is discernable. In a 1613 rapier duel be- tween Sir John Heidon, the Earl of Dorset, and Lord Bruce, Heidon not only put his opponent on the ground, but jumped on him afterward. Heidon wrote: "And there we wrestled for the two greatest and dearest prizes we could ever expect trial for -life and honor.

14 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 would have utilized these in his fencing method. We must consider that since he did not show them does not necessarily serve as evidence he excluded them. A fighter always uses what he knows. As Dr. 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 skills required in each case varied from au- thor to author, place to place, and (cer- tainly) from time to time." Dr. Anglo points out that in the late 1600s, the philosopher John Locke wrote that an unskilled fencer with skill in wrestling has the "odds against a moderate fencer". Locke believed for a man to prepare his son for duels, "I had much rather mine should be a good wrestler than an ordi- Courtesy of the ARMA. Courtesy of the nary fencer; which the most any gentle- man can attain to in it, unless he will be making a blow at it; or, if you think " martial artists). It is perfectly constantly in the fencing school, and yourself as powerful as your adversary, reasonable that two gentlemen would every day exercising." Scots master, Sir oppose force to force, then the weaker prefer to have an "honorable" quarrel William Hope in his 1707, "New Method" must go to the ground, if some know- settled by "sword skill", rather than risk fencing book also speaks highly of grips ledge of wrestling does not prevent it." "scuffling in the dirt"- and getting and tripping (although not as something During a duel in 1772, Richard Sheridan bashed in the face (of which there are to be casually practiced in class). In 1720, and Captain Mathews, after missing with several accounts). But just as with schools Sir Thomas Parkyns in his Cornish- pistols, they closed with small-swords, of modern martial arts or knife-fighting Hugg Wrestler explained, "I illustrate which were each broken on the first or hand-gun training now, there were how useful Wrestling is to a Gentleman . "They then fought with the broken theories of fighting back then that were in Fencing, in the following Example of parts until each received many wounds, more ideal than reality. There were also Parrying, and leave it to the ingenious, to Sheridan some very dangerous ones. styles that felt no cause to address certain make a farther Application as oft as an They at last fell to the ground and fought possibilities that would be more or less Opportunity shall offer itself." until separated by their seconds, Mr. unlikely to be employed by the parties Even into the 1700s there are notable Sheridan being borne from the field with in a formal aristocratic duel. accounts of grappling, wrestling and all- a portion of his antagonist's weapon stick- Yet, because a Renaissance master of out fighting occuring during upper-class ing through an ear, his breast-bone arms produced one text on one aspect duels between skilled fencers. In a 1750 touched, his whole body covered with of fighting (i.e., rapier dueling) for one particular audience, does it necessarily mean that we can assume he was not at all adept at other styles of sword or rapier fighting? When reconstructing aspects of Renaissance fencing today, it is nar- row and self-defeating to attempt to can- onize the minority of masters who either Courtesy of the ARMA. Courtesy of the disapproved of or failed to address close small-sword duel between two German wounds and blood, and his face nearly fighting from those who did. As Dr. Anglo noblemen, Swiegel and Freychappel, the beaten to a jelly with the hilt of Matthews' has concluded, "Whatever the theoretical combat lasted nearly an hour during which sword." That some Renaissance masters status of wrestling among the learned both were wounded many times. Even- and courtiers did frown on these close and knightly classes, it is obvious from tually, Freychappel in trying to rush his fighting actions is true. The view that a surviving treatises that, up to the early opponent, tripped and fell and was in- lengthy agile sword should alone be seventeenth century and even beyond, stantly run through and killed by sufficient for defense is a reasonable one many master of arms recognized the ad- Swiegel. In his 1771 fencer's guide for (and is highly reminiscent today of the vantage bestowed upon their pupils by the broadsword, A. Lonnergan at one point recent grappling/ground-fighting defi- physical exercise of wrestling - in order instructs, "When I begin to advance the ciency so effectively argued against by to develop agility, strength, and dexterity - left hand to disarm you, spring back, the more traditional "stand-up / and by practicing unarmed combat to

15 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 use against the assaults of an armed as- Seizures, disarms, close-in grabs, and sailant or in any other mortal affray". left-hand parries have always been tricky, The abandonment by later generations always been risky, and always required (living under very different conditions) practice in all types of fencing. Perhaps of techniques which were a long-estab- there have always been fencers too con- lished part of the repertoire of many servative to approve of them or to risk masters does not negate either their sig- coming corps-a-corps ("body to body") nificance or their martial effectiveness at all. But this doesn't mean that in the (all Hollywood musketeer slapstick right circumstances they did not work aside). Just because later 18th and 19th and cannot work again. These were (and century duelists decided certain moves are) advanced techniques and even for were "dastardly" and "unsuited" to their advanced students may not always work notions (artificial or not) of "fair" gentle- perfectly (but then, what techniques manly contests, does not mean all men do?). If the circumstances are correct, fighting for their very lives in the vio- and they fail, it is the fighter not the tech- lent 1500s and 1600s felt the same. As nique which is at fault. Interestingly, some Dr. Anglo has keenly summarized, schools and masters were still teaching "There were many different types of grips and seizures up to the 19th century. sword, and they were not all handled in Against a lighter, shorter blade, these martial validity and they can be as fluid the same way. There were many differ- actions are indeed harder to effect, but and graceful as any weapon and should ent masters, and - however much they that only meant a swordsman would they serve to win a life-and death fight, traveled about to gain experience, cop- have to be careful in the attempt -which to the winner they are neither improper ied each other, or developed similar so- was true with earlier weapons, as well. nor crude. In The Martial Arts of Re- lutions to similar questions - they each Referring to French military duels with naissance Europe, Dr. Anglo, astutely had their own ideas about how to do "skewers" (epees) of the 1880s, one au- comments on the styles of fighting in things…the is a good thor related "If it were not for the pros- the Renaissance stating: "The techniques deal less straightforward than was at one pect of that pointed rapier before them involved - dealing with unequal odds, time supposed". these soldiers might sometimes kick and left hand parrying, wrestling throws, There is little question that a swords- maul each other to death." ruthless battering about the head, stab- man in the 1500s & 1600s had to be For some sword enthusiasts today, his- bings, wards, and a total commitment to fully skilled, not just for facing gentle- torical fencing means martial arts, or death and destruction - are all much the men il duello, but for a fight a' la machia techniques approached purely for self- same as those described and illustrated or duel a' la mazza (essentially a private defence, i.e., killing skills. For others, by masters of arms from the late four- less formal quarrel out in the woods by fencing itself seems to mean only the teenth century onwards. And, however either noble or commoner). He also had art of the single sword and only when much such behavior may later have been to be ready to defend himself against any conducted in a traditional pedagogy of frowned upon by academic fencers, simi- unexpected onslaught, sudden ambush, mock dueling (a combat selon les règles lar practices were still being taught long or assault by strangers. He had to draw or a combat "according to the rules"). after they are conventionally supposed to his weapon, size up the situation, face Yet, historians of dueling have pointed have vanished from the sophisticated multiple attackers and survive or safely out that in the 1500s and 1600s, little swordsman's repertory”. flee. In other words, he had to be able distinction was frequently made between The view that rapiers were too quick to to fight those who weren't "playing by brawls, sudden affrays, rencounters, pri- allow successful closing or grappling is the rules". There are numerous accounts vate assaults, and "duels" (either formal simply untrue. But, it's understandable of gentlemen in hot temper vengefully or a' la mazza). This distinction even that as these moves weren't used, they surprising their rivals. Affairs of honor appears to have been the exception weren't taught any longer, and not being wherein the adversary stood firm politely rather than the rule. Some more traditional taught they fell out of use. One fights the announcing, "On guard, sir!" was the ex- fencers may see as "brutal" any earlier way one trains after all. Wisely, one would ception not the rule. style that employs close-in actions, hand not attempt these actions against an op- and foot blows, seizures, grappling, and ponent unless one had practiced them take-downs. This is understandable, as considerably in the first place, otherwise these much ignored and long overlooked they would certainly be foolish to attempt techniques are difficult to learn, dangerous except in desperation (which did occur). to casually practice, and highly awkward Surely it is unreasonable to believe that to safely use in free-play or bouting. these things could never have happened They may be considered "artless", "vul- because an opponent would be hit before gar", or "base" to attempt to use them "in closing to range is not borne out by the place of proper fence". This is a real shame. available evidence. Nor is it supported by For these techniques have historical and modern contests between "grappling"

16 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 tering actions as crucial, vital, and in- tegral elements in all historical armed combat, including rapier. These actions were real, they were historical, and they worked. They were used by all manners of fighters from all classes of society (indeed, they continued to later be de- scribed as highly useful by several 18th century small-sword masters). In our modern study now we must not suppress them, ignore them, or make excuses for our ignorance of them because they do not somehow fit a preconceived notion of how "proper" fencing (whether Medi- versus "non-grappling fencers". Given if modern rapier fencing enthusiasts to- eval or Renaissance) should have been the variety and length of rapier blades day do not themselves regularly practice conducted. Instead, we must expose them, and Renaissance swords that existed, them, may not even be aware of them, explore them, and try to master them. and the greater and greater information and neither have used them successfully There is certainly far, far more that can now coming to light on the various nor had them employed effectively be said about this subject, and grappling methods for using them, it would indeed against themselves. and wrestling in Renaissance fencing be a difficult proposition to justify. Thus, Perhaps then, when it comes to fighting alone could easily be separated into two today's historical fencing practitioners with historical hand-weapons, the very or more distinct areas of research. The should endeavor to experience the op- view that there is such a thing as "close- skills of entering in close to grab an portunity to go up against someone quarter" combat is itself artificial? Since opponent's arm, hand or blade, disarm skilled in them and use caution in de- virtually all "all-out" Medieval and Re- them or trap them were used and are claring across the board they do not naissance combat involved, or at least something that today's student of his- work or would not be effective. anticipated and assumed, close-in tech- torical fencing should explore in detail. Were grappling and wrestling techniques niques of grappling and wrestling, there The techniques of closing to take down always used in rapier fencing then? No, was no real necessity to distinguish close- or trip up an opponent can make all the of course not. But has their historical and quarter from "non close-quarter". There difference in a real sword fight and to- martial importance to rapier fencing been was only the need to identify classes of day are elements worthy of long-term overlooked and under appreciated? Yes, techniques that worked at one range or investigation by Renaissance fencing from the evidence presented it obviously another, and were employed either di- students. It has often been said that we seems so. If a fighter could kill or defeat rectly by weapon or by empty hand and should not become prisoners to our his adversary by skill with his blade alone, body. It would seem it was not until style. Good ideas come from every- he surely would. That is what wielding close-in actions were later disavowed or where. There are brilliant ideas in fight- the armament is all about after all. But, discarded that a distinction apparently ing and there are foolish ones. The job if opportunity presented itself and circum- developed. It may very well be that it of any earnest instructor is to honestly stances demanded it, he would utilize was only the structured rules which lim- point them out. To quote the Master Vadi every action in his repertoire. Knowledge ited the application of grappling and from c. 1480, "You can also use in this of grappling and wrestling would make wrestling, first within certain tournaments Art strokes and close techniques that it all the harder for such moves to be and judicial duels and then the gentle- you find simpler; leave the more com- successfully used against him. We might manly Code Duello, that armed combat plex, take those favoring your side and ponder if there is a gap or hole in a (and fencing in general) came to be char- often you will have honour in the Art." student's rapier skills if they are com- acterized as something "other" than pletely ignorant of these techniques, but close-combat (i.e., fighting at a range who knows? All we can do today is other than the weapon's "reach"). examine the accounts of duels and com- pare them with the theoretical instruc- ARMA's perspective is that of training tions in the manuals and our own limited and instructing. Hence, our purpose is modern experiments. It can be hard to not academic theorizing but to interpret judge the value these moves contain and practice this subject as a martial art and to train in these skills -as close as we can approximate to how they were Editor's Note: The reader should note historically intended to really be used that this article contains some quota- (in a traditional approach). Since its tions taken from archaic English. Its beginnings, ARMA has emphasized sei- spelling is quite different from our mod- zures, disarms, grappling, and close en- ern counterpart. Courtesy of the ARMA Courtesy of the

17 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 ARMA The Association for Renaissance Martial Arts The ARMA was the first comprehensive attempt at an organization established specifically to 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 and display" way. We place concern exclusively on acquiring technical knowledge and physical skills, rather than theoretical or academic understanding focused only on form –as these were not what the craft historically was all about.

ARMA - the Association for Renais- We also do not perform choreographed Purpose: sance Martial Arts, is an educational fighting stunts. Accurate investigation non-profit organization dedicated to the and interpretation of historical European Study European arms and armor from study and practice of historical fencing fighting skills is our primary objective. the point of view of their historical func- and the exploration and promotion of Our emphasis is also on Spathology – tion and use. our Western martial heritage. the study of swords. Study historical source litertaure as in- structional fighting guides. The ARMA focuses on the interpreta- Examine historical European martial tion and legitimate reconstruction of culture within a broader historiographic Medieval and Renaissance combat sys- context. tems as a modern discipline. The ARMA Study, Interpret, Practice, Promote, and endeavors to approximate historical Teach the martial arts of Renaissance fighting skills through a curriculum of re- Europe. constructed techniques, principles, and methods for using a variety of swords, Objectives: spears, shields, staff weapons, daggers, The ARMA offers classes, workshops, and unarmed grappling and wrestling ARMA. Courtesy of the and seminars through our continually skills as taught in period books and The ARMA is a leading voice in the res- revised system of established drills and manuscripts. urrection and revival of lost European exercises (Armatura). Our curriculum fighting arts. Founded in 1992, and online also includes a Certification & Ranking The ARMA’s efforts are directed toward since 1996, (under the original name structure for students and instructors. resurrecting and recreating a legitimate “HACA”) we have been at the forefront The ARMA provides a Training Pro- craft of European fighting skills in a of the Medieval and Renaissance fencing gram allowing students to learn and manner that is historically valid and studies revival. The ARMA website is the practice within a common structure that martially sound. We rely for our source leading online resource for the subject. is historically valid and martially sound. material upon the dozens of rare surviv- The ARMA’s influence and popularity The ARMA seeks to advance the quality ing manuals of Medieval and Renais- has been an inspiration to many. In a sea of skills demonstrated with Medieval and sance Masters of Defence. of misinformation, misconception, and Renaissance weaponry. sheer fiction, ours is one of few islands The ARMA offers Associate Members The ARMA was established to promote of reliable experience and information. a variety of benefits, advantages, and the study of European fighting arts and We continually revise and amend our opportunities in pursuit of their studies. arms & armor of the 15th – 17th centu- training aids and study materials. The ARMA attempts to improve the re- ries. We are first and foremost a mar- lationship between practitioners and tial arts association. The earnest ap- academics in order to stimulate the ex- proach we advocate differs substantially change of knowledge and encourage from much of the fluff and fantasy-ori- understanding of historical European ented escapism that in the past has oc- combat skills. cupied this subject. The ARMA does not The ARMA makes it a primary aim to conduct costumed role-playing nor hold raise the level of scholarship within the tournaments and sporting competitions. historical fencing community with its Courtesy of the ARMA. Courtesy of the

18 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 efforts, the ARMA has gathered a list applied by fighting men in actual combat. of knowledgeable specialists in several Follow a broad, pragmatic interpretation major fields on which we can call on as of the historical sources that is focused reference sources. As ARMA Expert on earnest physical application of their Consultants we have historians, anthro- teachings. pologists, linguists, forensic pathologists, Refine a curriculum of martial training curators, armorers, swordsmiths, metal- and practice through transcriptions, lurgists, researchers, scholars, fencers, translations, interpretations, and physical martial artists, and reenactors. Our panel application of the source literature. includes such noted individuals as Dr. Encouraging the development of histori- Sydney Anglo, David Edge of the Wallace cal fencing equipment and commercial Collection, John Waller of the Royal training gear while supporting and pro- Armories, and a variety of historians, moting the production of historically ac- professors, scientists, bladesmiths, and curate replica swords and weaponry. Courtesy of the ARMA. Courtesy of the craftsmen. Promoting interest in and advancement emerging interest in source texts. We are passionate about our subject and of Medieval and Renaissance fencing. A large part of the ARMA's energy is it is our sincere wish to see historical Raising the quality of discourse on the directed at interpretation and integration European martial arts acquire the respect subject while promoting its investigation. of translated source material into a prac- and attention they deserve. Our intent Protecting the rights of enthusiasts to tical hands-on curriculum. Interpretation is directed toward raising the credibility, purchase and own accurate replicas of and reconstruction of Medieval and legitimacy, and standards of practice swords and historical weaponry through Renaissance fighting arts are still only in within this field while redeveloping legal and legislative action. their infancy. Bringing to public study genuine martial skills and teaching abil- Offering to the public reliable educational the numerous manuals of the Masters ity. To this end, we have established a resources and expert guidance on the of Defence is an important part of our long-term research effort as well as a fighting arts of the Middle Ages and efforts. The ARMA encourages and proven Training Program. Renaissance as well as a consulting ser- supports efforts at translating these in- vice for schools and the media. valuable texts. The ARMA's efforts consists of Developing and supporting affiliated The wealth of fighting manuals cur- one main and one supporting program: Study Groups following the ARMA sys- rently being studied by many in the his- tem and our work to be strong, quick, torical fencing community is only the ARMA -The main branch consists of and fluid in our techniques. tip of a very large iceberg. We have only our research efforts and Training Pro- Networking with the worldwide commu- just begun to scratch the surface in ex- gram - A Western martial arts study sys- nity of historical-fencers and promoting amining the profusion of material now tem for Student Ranking or Instructor open dialogue and exchange. coming to light. Avoiding misinterpre- Certification. Using the ARMA Study tation and error in our study is a con- Approach and Training Methodology, The ARMA receives dozens of new tinual challenge. While the Internet is it offers students the chance to exchange membership requests every month and frequently awash with inaccurate infor- ideas as well as benefit from the exper- selects only a few. Generally we look mation on our subject, the growing com- tise offered by ARMA instructors and for those who are not already deeply munity of serious enthusiasts and ama- senior students. We have a developed involved in study of Asian martial arts. teur researchers of Medieval and Renais- curriculum of classes and workshops. Additionaly, from outside the USA we sance fighting arts has long been in need now only accept new Study Groups of 4 of reputable sources of guidance. ARMA-Youth - A kids program empha- or more individual appplicants. In the effort to bring a higher degree of sizing history, physical fitness, and the integrity, dignity, and authority to these ethics of personal responsibility and service derived from the best Chivalric Values of Western Civilization. ARMA- Youth offers a healthy approach to learn- ing about Medieval and Renaissance culture and our Western martial heritage for teens and kids under age 16. Courtesy of the ARMA Courtesy of the Further ARMA activities include: Develop a continually refined and increas- ingly accurate interpretation of the his- For more information about torical teachings from the source literature. ARMA go to ARMA’s website: Maintain a practical understanding of www.thearma.org how these principles and concepts were Courtesy of the ARMA. Courtesy of the

19 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 The Grand Assault: Notes on Its History

In the late 19th Century, a Saturday’s entertainment might involve men swinging broadswords at one another, cudgeling one another at , or having an elegant bout with foils and dueling weapons.

- by Russel Hogg -

Most people view warfare and its grim duplicate them today. During the time these pursuits typically attracted a more accoutrements with horror and distaste, of the grand assaults, fencing stood as a proletarian interest in England, swords- and excessive bloodlust and aggressive- highly popular pastime of Europe's elite manship contests on the continent main- ness are generally viewed as negatives classes. In Italy and France, the privilege tained a more aristocratic bent. In one in most cultures. Simultaneously, many of carrying a sword had belonged largely such example in 1611, the Flemish-born cultural traditions throughout history to the nobility. The seventeenth-century and Spanish-trained fencing master have exhibited a seemingly paradoxical fencing master François Dancie even known as Girard Thibault is known to fascination for the fighting arts and have notes, with some distaste, that the only have participated in and won a fencing honored those who have attained profi- way one can distinguish between a gentle- contest in Rotterdam. The Dutch masters ciency in the skills of combat. Literary man and the newer class of wealthy mer- were so impressed by his fencing style sources such as The Iliad, Beowulf, and chant is through the wearing of a sword.1 (which they had never witnessed before) The Song of Roland clearly reflect the Accordingly, the nobles learned the proper that they invited him to teach in the reverence that the authors' societies held usage of these weapons from skilled Netherlands.2 for bravery in their warrior class - not fencing masters who were, in turn given Domenico and Henry Angelo, a father to mention more modern pieces such as high social status so that gentlemen and son who popularized French methods The Lord of the Rings or Rob Roy. Given would not have to demean themselves of fence in London during the late eight- the mass appreciation for well-honed re- by learning their art from a working pro- eenth century, were also involved in flexes and combative prowess as well letariat. Beginning with the reign of fencing exhibitions. Domenico, having as the notion that fighting is indeed fun Louis XIV, fencing masters could even come to London in pursuit of an amour - especially when there are no lives at earn a title of nobility themselves. In the named "Peg" Worthington, was prodded stake - martial demonstrations and con- first part of the 1800s the fashion of by his aristocratic friends to open a fenc- tests are a common theme. From bronze- daily sword-wear died off (possibly as ing school after he trounced one Dr. age Crete we have frescoes depicting box- a side effect of the French Revolution), Keys - "reputed the most expert fencer ing and wrestling; later on we have evi- but with the continuing threat of the duel in Ireland" - in a public trial of skill in dence of war dancers and Olympic and the increasing popularity of fencing 1760. At the match were present "many wrestlers in Classical Greece. From as an art form, it maintained its popu- ladies of rank and fashion, as well as Rome, of course, we have the gladiato- larity among the upper classes. noblemen and gentlemen" - a typical rial combats, from medieval Europe we Even prior to Louis XIV's mandate, there aristocratic crowd for a fencing event, see Knights in tournaments and jousts. is clear evidence that competitions in although perhaps more than Angelo had In nineteenth century Europe, we see the swordsmanship were popular in many expected.3 grand assault of arms: large, sometimes parts of Europe. In Tudor England, for Fencing contests in the Angelos' time exorbitant contests and demonstrations example, candidates for the title of appear to have consisted largely of public of swordplay as it was practiced in "Maister of Defence" had to go through challenges and demonstrations, though France and Italy, in which fencing mas- a sort of final examination known as the tournament-style competition was not ters and amateurs played out their skill prize fight, in which they would pit their uncommon. In his Reminiscences (which before some of the most esteemed per- skill against other swordsmen in a pub- are generally more concerned with social sonages of the time. lic forum - often an inn. After the Com- recollections than fencing), Henry Angelo pany of Maisters dissolved in the mid- recalls several instances of public chal- Origins 1700s, professional combatants such as lenges, most notably that between two Like the gladiatorial combats and jousts the famous James Figg continued to fencers named LeBrun and Lapière at that preceded them, the Grand Assaults stage fights for a paying audience in a his fencing school on Haymarket Street. were a symptom of particular socio-his- manner somewhat similar to that of pro- We are told little beyond the fact that torical forces; as such, it is difficult to fessional boxing matches today. Whereas LeBrun won twelve touches to one.4

20 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 The Angelos also sponsored numerous public exhibitions, the most famous of which featured the Chevalier de Saint George and the Chevalier d'Eon - both close friends of the Angelo family and two of the most highly lauded fencers of the time. In 1787 the Prince of Wales himself witnessed one of these demon- strations, which was immortalized in an etching by the artist Thomas Rowlandson. Henry also mentions an Irish organiza- tion called the Knights of Tara, which held an annual meeting of amateurs, with a "diamond-cut sword" as the grand prize. True to the later Grand Assault style, "this exhibition was always hon- ored with the presence of the lord-lieu- Courtesy of Russel Hogg. tenant and ladies, and concluded with a 1859 bout at Grand Assault in Boston (from Harper's Weekly) ball in the evening."5 In France, evidence for fencing compe- place "in the ballroom of an elegant house French and International society. The titions in the later eighteenth and early on the Quai d'Orsay," with numerous ea- American publication Harper's Weekly nineteenth century is somewhat scarcer. ger spectators to witness Lafaugère's vic- reports one such event, which had 700 Given the aristocratic history and ties tory.9 This elaborate type of setting is attendees - admirals, generals, journal- of fencing, the French Revolution did a typical of early fencing contests, and ists, artists, authors, noblemen, the en- great deal to upset public exhibitions was eventually epitomized in the grand tire cabinet, and even the President of and competitions in Paris; the revolu- assaults. France himself.12 Le Figaro lists a num- tionaries, for example disbanded the ber of Grand Assaults with such emi- company of Maistres en faict d'armes Grand Assaults and "The Golden Age nent observers as General Ney, the Duke de Paris (True Masters of Arms of Paris) of Fencing" d'Elchingen, and the Viscount de Langle, and revoked the privileges of the The grand assault proper developed in not to mention the dames elegantes and Academie d'Armes; the latter organiza- the late 1860s and early 1870s in tune other enthusiasts.13 tion did not re-form until 1886, and the with the economic and historical forces The above-mentioned Harper's article former was never revived.6 Yet despite that gave birth to France's gilded age, also notes that this particular series of its lower profile during this transition, La Belle Epoque. According to Robert exhibitions took place in a concert room fencing remained a popular and impor- Milton, the sports column writer for the of the President's residence at the Elysees. tant pastime - so much so that Napo- French newspaper Le Figaro, this was This is certainly no rarity, as the grand leon mandated that all military recruits "a time when everything is made grand assaults are defined by their glamorous be taught the usage of the foil.7 Under - Grand Review or Grand Minister. It is venues in addition to their illustrious such famous masters as Jean-Louis thus that we announce the Grand As- crowds and participants. The fencing Michel and Augustin Grisier, fencing's sault."10 If Milton's tone is any indica- critic Adolphe Tavernier mentions several popularity increased as it spread to non- tor, this 1882 event may have been the assaults taking place at the Cirque D'Hiver aristocratic people who had never been first usage of the term in such a man- and the Grand Hotel, as well as at the exposed to it before. ner, but we do know regardless that house of the prince A. de Chimay.14 The As in England, fencing demonstrations fencing contests and exhibitions had former two places hosted a number of seem to have consisted of organized begun to expand considerably in their assaults throughout the 1880s and 1890s contests and public challenges. We do scope by the late 1860's, when the fa- alongside Le Grand Cirque, which have a text on the preparation of rules mous master Louis Merignac exhibited hosted the 1882 event that Milton dis- for a concours d'escrime (fencing contest) his skill against three fencers named cussed above. Not only did these venues that was held in 1790 in Marseille,8 and Heidenbrunze, de Tours, and Gaspard provide the elegance suited to such an there are numerous anecdotes of exhi- in the Paris Exposition.11 event, but they also had the capacity to bitions that involved famous masters With increased prosperity came an in- hold the large audiences that these such as the above-mentioned Jean-Louis, creased interest in fencing. The attendance events often drew. Assaults could last St. George, and Eon. Another such figure at fencing exhibitions rose dramatically, for an evening - usually ending at mid- is that of Louis-Justin Lafaugère - a mili- with hundreds and occasionally thousands night on these occasions - or for as long tary master who took part in many foil of spectators standing by to watch the as three days. If laden with social ac- demonstrations, including one in 1816 feats of martial prowess. The assaults coutrements beyond fencing and con- against the Comte de Bondy, who had became important social events, fre- versation, a grand assaut d'escrime could issued a public challenge. The bout took quented by the brightest stars of both become a gala d'escrime, accompanied

21 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 by dances and even, in some cases, by word (amongst others) at the grand as- "admirably served buffets."15 Fencing saults in which they participated in the exhibitions, therefore, were not only 1890s; other British exhibitions in- important for the fencers themselves, cluded such events as mounted combat but were also a major component of Pa- with sword and lance and assaults at risian social life; missing an important quarterstaff.22 Women did not usually assault or gala d'escrime would mean participate in the grand assaults, al- that a person had missed out on social though they were able to occasionally opportunities. Given the vast interest in show off their considerable skill at the fencing, it is not surprising that modern foils in these events. The French author fencing historians generally regard this Guy de Maupassant gives a fictional ac- time period as the "golden age" of the count of a grand assault in which the art. Newspaper articles not only adver- spectators are so moved by the beauty tised events and reported on scores, they of a bout between two young women offered detailed descriptions of individual that they pay no attention to the matches for those who had missed the bout that follows it.23 events, as well as offering criticism of the fencers themselves. Tavernier's 1885 The New Seed: Grand Assaults Across Courtesy of Russel Hogg. book, Amateurs et Salles d'Armes de Paris Poster for grand assault, 1900 The Pond served as a Who's Who of Parisian circles, La Belle Epoque in France coincided offering biographies and descriptions of seen in almost every event. Sabre, too, was with the end of Reconstruction and the the dashing figures and their schools so commonly demonstrated, and oftentimes birth of The Gilded Age in the United that the public could keep track. It was, capped off the events.18 The 1882 Grand States. This was a period of prosperity in essence, the nineteenth-century French Assault, which lasted three days, stands for the Americans just as it was for the equivalent of baseball cards or Sports Il- as an unusual case in that it seems to French, and well-to-do Americans be- lustrated magazine. have consisted only of bouts at the gan to fall in love all over again with These events were radically different from newly developed epée de combat (du- things European. Americans had largely today's fencing competitions. More often eling sword) and sabre; if any foil bouts tended to ignore fencing with the excep- than not, they were organized more as did take place, the paper neglected to tion of the Louisiana Creoles, who were exhibitions or prize fights than competi- mention it.19 Epée events became more well-known for their love of dueling and tions per se. Poster and newspaper ad- common as time went on and the who also were known to host their own vertisements before the assaults gave a weapon became more popular; in 1897, Grand Assaults; in 1840, for example a pre-determined list of the encounters; Le Figaro sponsored an international competition was held in New Orleans for the most part each participant would epée contest, which was won by Maître in which the masters of the day actively fence only once, although exceptions Anthime Spinnewyn (as he makes sure excluded the famous duelist and teacher did occur in the larger events. Thus the to mention in his treatise on the Jose "Pepe" Llulla, purportedly out of objective of each fencer was generally weapon).20 In contrast to modern events, jealousy at his success. As fencing began not only to win the event, but also to which are limited to foil, epée, and sa- to decline in New Orleans some thirty make a good showing in his (or occa- bre, the Grand Assaults also took ad- years later, fencing became a fad almost sionally her) encounter.Maître Gerard vantage of the knowledge of other types overnight in the country's other major Six notes that these events were often of fence to create more dramatic demon- metropolitan areas.24 Prior to the mid- as much for show as for victory, as a strations. Backsword and broadsword 1870s it is an immense challenge to find well-fenced and elegant bout at a grand (heavier cutting weapons) contests fea- any mention of the discipline in Ameri- assault acted as a personal advertise- tured regularly, as did bouts at can newspapers; after 1880, the papers ment for those masters participating.16 - a practice weapon for the backsword, almost abound with fencing news. As It is also worth noting that decorum and and favorite of Theodore Roosevelt. Ken Mondschein has pointed out in his manners were considered of the utmost The New York Times reports a grand as- article "The Other Wild West", the pa- importance in these galas d'escrime. Le sault at the Cirque D'Été in 1895, in which pers which did focus on fencing tended Figaro reports of a sabre bout between "shield, sword, rapier, two-handed sword, to be those which catered to a more mon- one Casella and Lantieri: "(they were) cutlass, and bayonet" were all used "[to etarily-endowed crowd, with Harper's excessively courteous… where each hit exhibit] the various ways in which two Weekly and the New York Tribune lead- was announced without hesitation by men have cut each other's throats at dif- ing the way.25 the two champions."17 ferent epochs in history," and in which By the mid-1890s New York had two Unlike modern competitions, the weap- the famous renaissance duel between successful clubs and Boston had one; the ons practiced at the individual assaults Jarnac and La Chastaignerie was recre- era of New World Grand Assaults had varied a good deal depending on par- ated.21 The English fencers Egerton Castle begun. The earliest of these events took ticipants, tastes, objectives, etc. Foil, of and Alfred Hutton gave exhibitions of place in 1876, when the French immi- course acted as a mainstay and could be , rapier and dagger, and sides- grant Master Regis Senac fenced against

22 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 Colonel T. H. Monstery "for the champi- sword, and even "Japanese ” was eliminated. The widespread adoption onship of the United States and Spanish (i.e., kendo practiced with shinai) by of electrical scoring in the middle of the America" at Tammany Hall. Although the Shilo Sacaze of Nagasaki. Amongst the twentieth century also began to alter the title itself was of questionable value attendees that night was none other than rules and the fencing itself, so that it be- (given the dearth of fencing in the west- Mark Twain.30 Although they were came more difficult for non-initiates to ern hemisphere at the time), the event present, the three Italians did not fence understand and appreciate the phrases did have most of the qualifications of a in this event; they did participate in a of a fencing bout. Thus fencing lost what true grand assault: a large crowd, a pre- grand assault three weeks later at the few spectators it had retained by the end determined match-up, and an illustrious Lyceum Opera House, where a horde of the century. location. After having lost the foil event of Italian immigrants was so enthusias- The last of the grand assaults - not in and having won the sabre event, Monstery tic that - in the words of the reporter - name, but in spirit - was among the most defaulted, and Senac was declared win- they reminded one of "a mob of raving famous fencing matches in the history ner on the understanding that Monstery lunatics" or a "theatre riot." In a venue of the discipline: that between the French would challenge Senac again.26 Appar- so packed that there wasn't even stand- champion Lucien Gaudin and his Italian ently the second contest never materi- ing room available, the Italians faced off counterpart in 1922. A result alized, but Senac fenced for the "Cham- against such worthies as M. Gouspy and of a public challenge rather than a tour- pionship of the Americas" at least three Louis Senac (the son of Regis). The crowd nament or competition, the event took more times, finally losing to a French- grew so boisterous at one point that Pini, place before a sold-out crowd of thou- man named Louis Treuchet after hav- "his countrymen's idol," had to admon- sands. Gaudin stood as the official vic- ing defeated Errico Casella and Albert ish them during the bout with the state- tor at the end, though of course propo- Vaughn. All of these contests were fenced ment that "true Italians should always nents of French and Italian styles argue at Tammany Hall with the exception of be courteous to a worthy adversary."31 to this day about who "should have won." Senac vs. Casella, which was fenced at Greco managed to defeat the young Senac The importance of this match was Cosmopolitan Hall.27 Senac hosted and handily, despite having been wounded on deemed so great that the French gov- participated in a number of other demon- the head in a mounted broadsword tour- ernment awarded Gaudin the Legion of strations throughout the 1880s and 1890s, nament at Madison Square Garden only Honor for his victory. Nadi himself con- at one point even fencing against three days before! tinued to draw tremendous audiences at opponents at once.28 demonstrations, fencing before a capac- In 1895, Boston enjoyed a true gala Olympics, World War, and the Decline ity crowd at New York's Plaza Hotel in d'escrime at Papant's Hall, where the of Grand Assaults 1935. Such events became increasingly Boston Fencing Club invited the best Two bells struck the death-knell of the rare, and although Nadi was one of the fencers to an event so filled with spec- grand assaults. The first of these was the first of the new generation of "sport tators that the only open space was the first in 1896, in which fencers," one could also argue that he fencing strip itself. This particular assault fencing was one of the four initial events. was one of the last carriers of the flashi- featured broadsword and singlestick, With the Olympics, international compe- ness and romanticism of the grand as- much to the delight of the spectators tition grew increasingly important, and saults - thus he could draw the huge who had never witnessed such an event fencing contests became more and more crowds that he did. When Nadi died, before. The commentator for Harper's organized toward the goal of victory over much of that magnetism died with him. Weekly notes that "The example of Bos- the entire field of competitors, rather than The appeal of combat exhibitions and ton may be profitably imitated by the a demonstration of skill. The tourna- demonstrations of skill did not die out rest of the country. There is no healthier ment-style format, in which fencers are with the grand assaults. It lingers on in sport than fencing."29 eliminated one-by-one until there is only the fans of televised sporting events such In 1893 and 1894 there passed a whirl- one left standing (so to speak) became the as football, boxing, wrestling, , or wind of fencing assaults such as New norm in the new Federation Internationale rugby, all of which have a mass appeal York had never encountered before. In d'Escrime (F.I.E.), as evidenced in issues similar to that which the assaults enjoyed November, December, and January, the of the French fencing magazine Escrime a little more than a century ago. three great Italian masters Eugenio Pini, et le tir in the 1920's. With only foil, epée, Agesilao Greco, and Carlo Pessina made and sabre left as "official" fencing weap- a stopover to demonstrate their tremen- ons, such disciplines as broadsword and dous skills to the people of the New singlestick fell into increasing disuse. World. The stay began with a gala Given the severe politico-economic dis- d'escrime at The Fencer's Club (which is ruption of the two world wars - not to still in existence in New York), where mention the myriad of fencers who met the visiting French military master L. their deaths as a result of these wars - Vauthier faced off against M. Jacoby, people had fewer resources to devote to the former instructor at The Fencer's the extravagant galas d'escrime. Fencing Club; in addition to foil, there were dem- competitions, in effect, became singular onstrations of broadsword, dueling sword in focus as all of the glamour of the galas Courtesy of Russel Hogg. Nadi (left) vs. Gaudin from "Escrime et le Tir"

23 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 Yet although fencing is seldom viewed 1 Dancie, F. L'espée de combat. 1617 as a "spectator sport" today, it may be 2 Verwey, Herman de la Fontaine. Gerard Thibault and his Academie de l'Espée. premature to ascribe the grand assaults 3 Angelo, H. The Reminiscences of Henry Angelo, as a curiosity of a dim past. The Associa- Vol I. New York: Benjamin Blom, 1969. p. 76. tion for Historical Fencing (AHF), found- 4 Angelo, H. The Reminiscences of Henry Angelo, ed in order to preserve and encourage Vol. II. New York: Benjamin Blom 1969. p. 261. Meibukan Magazine 5 fencing as it was practiced in the nine- Angelo, H. Reminiscences Vol. II, p. 228. 6 Wackermann, P.C. Histoire des Maitres d'Armes. is searching for serious and teenth century and before, is fighting to Paris, 2002. p. 36, 90, 100. reliable submissions for their raise public awareness of the discipline 7 Wackermann 40. and has begun an initiative to revive the 8 Seignon, Monsieur, Projet de l'Établissement d'un SPECIAL EDITIONS grand assault tradition. In July 2003, the Prix pour un Concours d'Escrime, Dans la Ville de Marseille. Marseille: P.A. Favet, 1790. Please do not send full articles with the first AHF held its first annual Grand Assault 9 Gaugler, W.M. The History of Fencing. Bangor, contact! Send an email with a synopsis of what of Arms at the City Center in New York. Maine: Laureate Press 1998. p. 109. you are proposing. If it is of interest, we will This tremendously successful event drew 10 Le Figaro. Jan 12, 1882. contact you to send the actual material. Include 11 Tavernier, A. Amateurs et Salles D'Armes de Paris. in your email a short summary of your fencers from across the country to com- background and credentials. pete in foil, epée, sabre, and singlestick. Paris, 1885. p. 135. 12 Harper's Weekly. May 11, 1895. As with the grand assaults of old, it ad- 13 Le Figaro. March 22, 1880. vertised and drew public attendance. In 14 Tavernier 137, 138. addition to the competitions, the event of- 15 Le Figaro. March 22, 1880. 16 Personal communication. fered demonstrations of older weapons 17 Le Figaro. Jan 16, 1882. MEIBUKAN MAGAZINE such as French and Italian 18 Le Figaro. Jan. 12, 1882, AND P.O. Box 8, 6663 ZG, Lent, Netherlands rapier - the dueling weapons that were de Maupassant, G. Le Bel Ami. Paris: Garnier, 1988 Email: 19 the ancestors of the fencing implements Le Figaro. Jan 16, 1882. [email protected] 20 Spinnewyn, A., & Manoury. L'escrime a l'epée. we know today. Each year, it is hoped that Meibukan Magazine wants to present the scope of this event will increase until Paris: 1898. 21 The New York Times. May 5, 1895. articles related to a main subject in every it has all the glamour of the galas of old. 22 Wolf, T. "A Grand Assault-at-Arms." Journal of Special Edition. We are looking out for With growing interest in fencing and a Manly Arts, 2001. submissions which have a diversity in rapidly expanding movement of fenc- 23 Maupassant. articles that vary from history, leading 24 people, masters, philosophy, science, ers interested in preserving and resurrect- The New York Times. May 2, 1897. 25 Mondschein, K. "The Other Wild West." interviews etc. which should give the ing older styles, weapons, and techniques, Hammerterz Forum. reader insight and information on the the grand assault of a thousand spectators 26 The New York Times. April 11, 1876. main subject and are applicable to our may linger only one or two bends up 27 Mondschein 2, AND mission statement. The author(s)/organisation(s) who provide the road. The New York Times. April 6, 1884. The New York Times. March 4, 1887. the submission for a special subject are 28 also welcome to promote their Bibliography The New York Times. Jan. 7, 1883. 29 organisation/school and are welcome to Angelo, H., The Reminiscences of Henry Angelo, Vol I Harper's Weekly. March 26, 1895. & II. New York: Benjamin Blom, 1969. 30 The New York Times. Nov. 21, 1893. submit an article about their organisation. Aylward, J.D., The English Master of Arms. London: 31 The New York Times. Dec. 12, 1893. Such an article must be strongly related to Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1956. the main subject. After submitting the articles as described above, and after an Barry, Herbert, The Noble Science: Sloane MS 2530. Russell Hogg Newark: U. Delaware Press, 1991. began fencing in the agreement with Meibukan Magazine for Dancie, François, L'Espée du Combat, ou l'Usage du Olympic style in 1993, training possible publication in a Special Edition, Tir des Armes. 1617. with a number of instructors and the author(s)/or organisation(s) are Escrime et le tir. masters before moving to New welcome to submit promotional material Le Figaro, Paris. York in 2000. After a brief hiatus like book/DVD reviews (from the Gaugler, William L., The History of Fencing. Bangor, publisher or an independent known from fencing, he switched from Maine: Laureate, 1998. writer). In principle there is no limit Harper's Weekly, New York. sport to the traditional, combat-ori- towards the number of book/DVD Maupassant, Guy de, Le Bel Ami. Paris: Garnier, 1988. ented style taught at the Martinez reviews, but depending on the amount of Mondschein, K., "The Other Wild West." Hammerterz Academy of Arms. A Ph.D. candi- articles and author(s)/organisation(s), Forum andAssociation for Historical Fencing Online, Meibukan Magazine will decide the exact www.ahfi.org. date in anthropology, his primary amount of promotional material that will New York Times, New York. interest lies in the classical duel- be placed. Seignon, Monsieur, Projet de l'Établissement d'un Prix ing weapons of the 19th century pour un Concours d'Escrime, Dans la Ville de Marseille. (primarily the French epée de com- Marseille: P.A. Favet, 1790. For more details go to Spinnewyn, Anthime, & Paul Manoury. L'escrime a bat and the Italian dueling sabre), www.meibukanmagazine.org l'epée. Paris: J Rothschild, 1898. and in the evolution of the French Tavernier, Adolphe, Amateurs et Salles D'Armes de school of fence from the sixteenth At the moment we are looking for Paris. Paris, 1885. century to the early twentieth. in-dept articles about Uechi-ryu, Verwey, Herman de la Fontaine, Gerard Thibault and Shorin-ryu, Goju-ryu and others. his Academie de l'Espée. Wackermann, P.C., Histoire des Maitres d'Armes. Paris, Link to the webpage of the 2002. Association for Historical Fencing Wolf, T., "A Grand Assault-at-Arms." Journal of Manly to read more articles about fencing: Arts, 2001. http://ejmas.com/jmanly/jmanlyframe.htm. www.ahfi.org

24 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 Daggers of the Mind: Towards a Historiography of Fencing

A look at the scholarly myths about Western martial arts.

- by Ken Mondschein -

If historians from Karl Marx to Michel are inundated with at titudes and as- truths embrace geometry, fencing, and Foucault have dealt with conflict be- sumptions that, while typical of their art. The better we understand the clock- tween dominant and subordinate groups age, are badly in need of reappraisal. work of the universe, the better we can as a primary theme in their work, it is Yet, these selfsame attitudes are, in turn, make it work for us. The attitudes to- arguably because of their European very revealing of the mindset and men- wards fencing will, therefore, also re- background. The notion of social class, talities prevalent amongst the educated flect attitudes towards science and scien- it has oft been noted, is more in the fore elites in the mid- to late- nineteenth cen- tific progress. of the French or British mind than it is tury, and which to an extent, are still The three primary English-language his- in the American. After all, one often- current in our own society. torians of fencing in the nineteenth cen- admired quality of American society is its A study of these works would, arguably, tury were Edgerton Castle, Captain Alfred supposed "egalitarianism." The United be even more revealing of the "spirit of Hutton, and the famous adventurer and States has had a civil war, but never a the age" than reading the works of writ- explorer Sir Richard Burton, whose revolt of the plebes.1 Therefore, to the ers such as Nietzche, since it would tell major contributions, respectively, are American-born historian, conflict and us what was going on not in the mind Schools and Masters of Fence, Old competition between social equals would of the philosopher, but in the mind of Sword Play, and The Book of the Sword seem to be a more authentically pressing the (admittedly well-dressed) man on (all published in 1892). Castle deals with issue than conflict between social classes. the street. Since fencing is, perforce, a the history of the art itself, Hutton with Classical fencing-that is, a systematized pastime of the elite, the segment of so- the practical points of Renaissance method of civilian combat with the ciety most likely to have been schooled swordsmanship, reconstructing tech- sword, for sport and for self-defense-is in depth in the various mental habits and nique from an antiquarian point of view, a virtual repository of attitudes, norms, viewpoints of their culture, it will reflect and Burton with the archaeology and and codes for dealings between social a "pop culture" version of this culture's development of the sword itself. equals. It is, after all, rooted in the real- biases. This group's perceptions of, and The most significant of these writers is ity of the duel, the antagonistic and ritu- thoughts about, their leisure activity will, Castle, who is still widely quoted as a alistic combat between two adversaries, logically, reflect their ways of thinking, historical authority in works on fenc- intended to settle a question of honor; not only about practical matters, but about ing. Burton, though a colorful charac- that is to say, of social status amongst their aesthetic tastes, their hopes, dreams, ter, is not as useful, since The Book of one's peers.2 Through the bourgeois ap- and ideals. An analysis of works on fenc- the Sword mainly deals with the evolu- propriation of aristocratic, chivalric ide- ing and dueling will, likewise, provide tion of the weapon itself, and thus is not als, such as the bearing of arms, the code us with the views of this upper crust to- of as much interest to the historian who duello participates in what the medieval- wards conflict, fair play, and the place wishes to deal with social conceptions of ist Johann Huizinga called the "identi- of the aggressive instinct in society. In it use. Finally, though the bulk of Hutton's fication of an aesthetic concept with an these aspects, it may be broader and work deals with the actual technical as- ethical ideal."3 even more valuable than a detailed, in- pects of the use of "old" weapons, the in- However, though the oldest existing depth analysis of one influential histori- troductory portions are very revealing. martial tradition in the Western world, cal writer, such as Ranke or Gibbon. The primary assumption underlying the the Italian school of fence, reckons it- Finally, the study is also of interest to writings of these men is that human his- self to be almost five hundred years old,4 historians of science, since classical tory since the Renaissance has, under academic consideration of the subject fencing was, and is, reckoned to be not the aegis of reason, been a continuing may almost be said to still be in the Dark just a physical activity, contingent upon march towards greater and greater "per- Ages. Some of the most well-known and reflexes and brawn, but a science -an fection." Like the Swiss historian Jacob frequently cited works on the history of aesthetic science, subject to eternal and Bruckhardt's view of the Renaissance, fencing are more than a century old, and universal rules, as if the same Platonic Hutton, Castle, and Burton display a

25 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 strong moral and historical positivism. to the French-the students have sur- To them, the invention of fencing, be- passed the masters. Likewise, he appar- The Sword and The Centuries gun in the glorious days of the Italian ently does not feel the Italian school to by Alfred Hutton

Renaissance, paralleled the progress of have been "perfect" in and of itself, but 8 ½ x 5 ½ , softcover, the scientific revolution and the evolu- rather only an antecedent to the French photos, illus., 400 pp. tion of the "modern" age towards greater school, in which the art reached its ulti- moral, intellectual, and physical enlight- mate culmination. In this, we might de- available at enment and refinement, to a point, in tect an obvious nationalistic and even www.paladin-press.com fact, where dueling had vanished, and racialist bias-fencing could never be THE SWORD AND THE CENTURIES the study of the sword was wholly an "perfected" by those swarthy Italians. academic, leisure-time activity. (At the Similarly, Hutton ignores, and Castle This vividly descriptive book traces the sword and its use throughout the Golden time of writing, no Englishman had en- dismisses, the Spanish school. While Age of swordsmanship. Using examples gaged in a sword duel for years.)5 As their southern cousins might have been drawn from history, Alfred Hutton charts Castle says in his introduction to Schools inspired artists with brush, pen, and the development of various types of weap- and Masters: "The author does not pro- sword, it was up to the Northern Euro- ons, demonstrates the techniques and tac- tics of key practitioners and brings the fore fess... to analyze closely the contents of pean countries to give the Renaissance the heroes and villains of legendary duels, all the books written on the imperfect its true intellectual direction. private quarrels and prize fights. Hutton ex- play of our ancestors, nor to trace every To Burckhardt, as well, the Italian des- amines such deadly weapons as the two- link in the chain of (fencing's) develop- pots were almost animalistic-to be ad- hand sword, the rapier foil, the stiletto, the ment, from the "pancratium" of the fif- mired for their fierceness and political flamberge, the small sword, the falchion and the broadsword. He illustrates their use with teenth century, in which leaping and effectiveness, to be sure, but still ruled famous and infamous fights from the his- wrestling were of more avail than aught more by a fiery heart than a cool mind. tory of combat. A superb introduction to the else, to the courteous and academic 'as- Ignoring the history of the communes, complex history of the sword. sault' of modern days, where elegance so important to the development of civic By Paladin Press and precision of movement are more humanism and such movements as the highly considered -or ought to be- than Savonarolan millennial community in mere superiority in the number of hits."6 Florence, emphasis was placed on the As part and parcel of this bias, we see a "tyrants," the great political powers and The Book of The Sword strong tendency that, the later and fur- artistic patrons. Their epitome was Cesare by Richard F. Burton ther north one looks, the more "perfect" Borgia, who was the despotic son of a 6 1/8 x 9 1/4, softcover, the development of the art is accounted Spanish pope of few scruples, and who 300 illus., 336 pp. to have been. Hutton, trying to say in a was the admired hero of Machiavelli, few paragraphs what Castle said in a book, whose very name was a byword for po- available at is even more revealing. For instance, in litical cynicism and moral indifference. www.amazon.com his introduction to Old Sword-Play, he The Italians had genius, to be sure, as is www.doverpublications.com makes blanket statements such as: "...in seen in the art of Michaelangelo and THE BOOK OF THE SWORD Western Europe the long, handsome ra- Leonardo Da Vinci, but the history text- Eloquent, exceptionally erudite history of pier had by degrees given place to the books then switched their focus (as they the "Queen of Weapons." Traces sword’s short walking sword, which, however, still do today) from the Italian wars to origin - from prehistory to its full growth did not assume a settled form until the the theology of Luther and Calvin, or during early Roman Empire. Discusses ear- century following (the eighteenth); but to the consolidation of the French state liest weapons of stone, bone, horn and wood the Italians, who were the original teach- in the seventeenth century. The Italians as well as variations: sabre, broadsword, cutlass, scimitar and more. Enhanced by ers of our art, adhered to the earlier form. were ruled by "tyrants," the French by nearly 300 excellent line drawings. This change of pattern in the sword ne- "autocrats." cessitated a change in the method of Fencing, likewise, was held to have been Table of Contents for The Book of the Sword FOREWARD / LIST OF AUTHORITIES / I. PREAMBLE: ON using it, and hence arose the two great perfected by the "refined" French, who THE ORIGIN OF WEAPONS / II. "MAN'S FIRST WEAPONS- THE STONE AND THE STICK. THE EARLIEST AGES OF and only "schools" of fence, the Italian in this period pioneered the "small sword," WEAPONS. THE AGES OF WOOD, OF BONE, AND OF HORN" / III. "THE WEAPONS OF THE AGE OF WOOD : and the French. or "walking sword," as Hutton calls it, THE BOOMERANG AND THE SWORD OF WOOD; OF STONE, AND OF WOOD AND STONE COMBINED" / IV. THE "From this point on we deal with the that combined the functions of mascu- PROTO-CHALCITIC OR COPPER AGE OF WEAPONS French system alone, and we find that line jewelry and self-defense.8 Even to- V. "THE SECOND CHALCITIC AGE OF ALLOYS-BRONZE, BRASS, ETC : THE AXE AND THE SWORD" / VI. THE as the short, light swords improved in day, few costume dramas set in the sev- PROTO-SIDERIC OR EARLY IRON AGE OF WEAPONS / VII. THE SWORD : WHAT IS IT? / VIII. THE SWORD IN AN- their form, the art of wielding them ad- enteenth or eighteenth century seem CIENT EGYPT AND IN MODERN AFRICA / IX. "THE SWORD IN KHITA-LAND, PALESTINE AND CANAAN; vanced in precision and grace, which complete without an affair d'honor PHŒNICIA AND CARTHAGE; JEWRY, CYPRUS, TROY, 9 AND ETRURIA" / X. "THE SWORD IN BABYLONIA, latter quality may be said to have attained settled at sword's point. Italian tech- ASSYRIA AND PERSIA, AND ANCIENT INDIA" / XI. THE SWORD IN ANCIENT GREECE : HOMER ; HESIOD AND its perfection about the middle of the eight- nique, meanwhile, remained "coarse" HERODOTUS: MYCENÆ eenth century."7 and "primitive," using a heavier weapon XII. THE SWORD IN ANCIENT ROME: THE LEGION AND THE GLADIATOR / XIII. THE SWORD AMONGST THE BAR- Hutton summarily drops his discussion that was little more than a scaled-down BARIANS (EARLY ROMAN EMPIRE) / CONCLUSION / IN- DEX of the Italian school as soon as it cedes rapier. Physical labor and brute strength, By Dover Publications

26 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 in the most courtly fashion, were consid- "Above all, the purpose of fencing to ered uncouth. The featherweight small the Italian fencers is combat; their aim sword provided a personal weapon as is to hit and not be hit. We, instead, ad- light, elegant, and refined as the spirit mire, above all, aesthetic bouts. Here is itself. Even if the profession of the gentle- the habitual expression, and we hear this man was to carry a sword, the fashion- heresy daily: 'One beautiful hit equals able courtier of the Age of Enlightenment ten bad ones.' With this attitude, one can was determined that his "work" would obtain only a conventional art that is no involve as little actual sweat as possible. longer combat (i.e. no longer has prac- This perception is borne out by a well- tical martial applications), and that known anecdote of the famous fencing places one in a position of inferiority master Domenico Angelo defeating a cer- when faced with men who fence seri- tain Dr. Keys in a celebrated early-eight- ously."14 eenth century contest. Keys, an Irishman The boldfaced words are significant. of considerable size and strength, chal- What can we read into this preference lenged the French-schooled Angelo to a for "aesthetic bouts," that rhymes so fencing match in a London tavern, well with Castle's earlier comment on which often served as venues for such "the courteous and academic 'assault' of entertainments. According to Angelo's modern days"? Clearly, to this mindset, Courtesy of Britain’s National Fencing Museum. Courtesy of Britain’s son, the challenger cut a "a tall, athletic Drawing of Captain Alfred Hutton the artistic and the scientific are one- figure... his shirt sleeves tucked up, ex- "truth is beauty, and beauty is truth," as posing a pair of brawny arms, sufficient Italians were, in practice, inferior in any Keats said. But why, as far as fencing to cope in the ring with Broughton or wise to the French in the practical ap- goes, was beauty more important than Slack (two famous pugilists of the day)." plication of the art of the sword. We find effectiveness? Angelo, however, easily put by all of in contemporary accounts of contests be- Peter Gay, in The Cultivation of Hatred, Keyes' powerful attacks with small, tween fencing masters that the southerners the third volume of his great psycho- skillful, and effortless motions, and then at least held their own. Whereas it is true logical study of the nineteenth century went on to score a number of unanswered that, the style of the "home team" was European bourgeois psyche, does not hits on his exhausted adversary.10 preferred as the most beautiful, elegant, specifically handle fencing, though he Clearly, what this meant to contempo- and effective, we see in such events as does discuss the German student ritual raries can be easily interpolated: the in- the French tour of the Italian Scuola of the mensur.15 Still, Gay may give us tellect and science of the Enlightenment, Magistrale in 1889, the visitors gave as a methodological pointer that can help or at least of the self-made gentleman good as they got.12 Fencing was a com- us arrive at an answer. We would suggest and courtier of that era, had triumphed mon and widely followed sport in the that, by the formalization of violence, it over brute force, as personified by the late nineteenth century in such places as is, in a way, controlled. The world is thus uncouth Irish. Angelo went on to become Paris, at least amongst the upper classes. ordered, and the raw id, while acknow- an enormously influential and success- Newspapers even employed fencing crit- ledged and given vent to, is removed ful teacher of fencing and other manly ics who, in many ways, filled the roles one step from reality and thereby both graces to the gentlemen of England, and that both sports writers and theater crit- diffused and taken out of sight. The vio- is a significant reason why Hutton and ics do in modern mass media-for fenc- lent instinct, in other words, is both so- Castle would eventually come out as such ing was, as we have said, an aesthetic cialized and hidden, acknowledged and aficionados of the French method.11 as well as an athletic exercise. As one denied. Gay says the mensur "is a superb Similarly, improvement in technique, such critic, the French fencing master instance of the clash between the two with all its moral implications, is the Rupiere, remarked with obvious nation- meanings of cultivation, an exercise in logical result of technological develop- alistic bias: "The Roman masters have aggression checked by accepted rules," ment. In fact, it is the logical result of not yet abandoned theatrical postures, but this may be said, to an extent, of it. As Hutton says, "(The) change of pat- useless movements and contortions, and similar ritual, or indeed, of any sport.16 tern in the sword necessitated a change the continuous beating of the adversary's Further, in agonistic fencing, at least, the in the method of using it." Moral, artistic, blade, which they search for in a mo- reality of conflict and death is given a and ethical development go hand-in-hand notonous fashion... but the attack ex- veneer of sociability. In civilized society, with mechanical progress; the industrial ecuted from immobility (i.e. in the which is to say progressed society, one is revolution, according to this mindset, French manner) is always superior to the not in daily peril of one's life. Saber- could only produce beneficial results. attack performed with an advance (a toothed tigers do not haunt Picadilly Cir- Technical improvement leads to over- typically Italian maneuver)..."13 cus, waiting to pounce on unsuspecting all improvement, just as oil painting is However, another French master, Victor pedestrians, and Genghis Khan almost superior to panel painting. Maurel, disagreed with the "sour grapes" never leads his Mongol hordes down However, despite Hutton and Castle's approach and wrote this on the difficulty Bond Street, stopping to loot Sotheby's impressions, it is not the case that the the French fencers had with the Italians: on the way to Buckingham Palace. Like

27 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 Dictionary defines a duel as "a ceremony necessary before the reconciliation of two enemies. A long time ago, someone died in a duel." One the other hand, the favored dueling weapon of the Germans (as McAleer records) was a much more lethal rifled version of the pistol at murderous ranges, or, on other occasions, the dangerous and disfiguring saber. McAleer further sug- gests that this, along with the brutal mensur, may have something to say about the essential character of German society, as opposed to the character of French society.19 A large segment of the German population, apparently, was more willing to risk death, pain, or other unpleasantness for peer approval, and was more conformist and obedient to Courtesy of Britain’s National Fencing Museum. Courtesy of Britain’s Sir Walter Pollock and Egerton Castle demonstrating in London, 1889. authority, not just because it was author- ity per se, but because it was socially wise, we do not die in polite society; we rode off to defend Christendom, or at least expected to be obedient.20 Accordingly, "pass on," and we are not fired, but rather his own bit of it, and was passed to the the German duel was much deadlier "let go." new noveau riche, who, even if they were than its French counterpart. By sweeping these grim realities under the "nobility of the robe," still armed It should be noted, though, that both the rug, the euphemistic hiding away themselves. Thence, third-hand, was it sides, come 1914, died in the trenches and disguising of war, death, sickness, traded down to the gentlemen of the with equal aplob. The aesthetic appeal and other unpleasantness, is thus main- eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. If of a beautiful death was revealed to be tained. The reality of death at a sword's the duellist of the sixteenth century went no more than a mask, the rouge-bright- point was likewise masked by the extreme out into the field to prove himself wor- ened cheek of an aged courtesan who academic formalization of the training. thy of the esteem of his peers; the duel- was yet acknowledged the most beauti- One does not really penetrate another list of the nineteenth, with his internal- ful woman to ever live. It has been sug- man with one's steel, one achieves a "tou- ized sense of honor, may perhaps be said gested, both by McAleer and others, that che" with the "fleuret." (The Freudian to have followed his to footsteps of his the carnage of the World Wars, more overtones of this need not be remarked predecessor to prove to his peers that he than the anti-duelling societies, was upon.) The fact of violence is thus in- was worthy of his own self-respect. what helped to put a brake on the frivo- corporated into the socially constructed, The French duel of the nineteenth cen- lous shedding of blood. self-referential web of ideas that con- tury, as Kevin McAleer points out in his Thus far, we have seen several obvious stitute "culture." excellent book on Duelling, was a com- nineteenth century ideas -progressive Even when the bourgeois gentleman was paratively bloodless affair, usually con- moral positivism, nationalism and ra- willing to lay down his life, such as in a ducted with epees, or else wildly inac- cialism, and the conflation of aesthetic duel or in the opening days of World curate smoothbore pistols. Though there ideas, ethics, and scientific truth-crop up War I, it was for an abstract idea such was much elan, pomp, and circum- in our discussion.21 Likewise, display- as honor or love of country-an aesthetic stance, there were relatively few fatali- ing another sort of "pop Darwinism," ideal taking on the substance of an ethi- ties, since it was usually stopped before both Hutton and Castle, in Old Sword- cal concept in his mind and in the minds a lethal wound was inflicted. Neither Play and Schools and Masters, completely of the onlookers. The duelist makes him- side truly wished to be kill or be killed- discount any offshoots of, or strange self the subject of the onlookers, wish- to try one's courage, or at least make a Pleistocene antecedents to, what was ing to win acclaim, objectifying him- good show of it, was enough.17 Indeed, seen as the final development of the self and his opponent. In their agon is it was more of a social happening, and evolution of the art. An excellent example played out both their own drama, up- the supposedly illegal affair would be of this is the Spanish school of fence, holding their status in the eyes of their well-covered by the press, with reporters which in itself was a remarkable cultural peers, and exorcising the collective in- remarking on the style and panache with artifact and which most probably was the security of their entire class, perched which the duelists had conducted them- antecedent to the Italian school, yet is midway between chevalier and shop- selves. So, even what was in theory deadly mysteriously glossed over in Hutton's keeper. Nor should it be forgotten that combat was, in fact, extremely conven- work, and denigrated in Castle's: this ideal was one that began with the tional in all its aspects.18 Therefore, we "It is a remarkable fact that in Spain, the feudal knight, who collected rents and should not be surprised if The Devil's reputed birthplace of systematic swords-

28 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 sive armour in battle, and, indeed, on Medieval school, despite the fact that a most occasions out of doors, caused the perusal of surviving manuals will show sword to be regarded in the light of a that its intent was likewise to resolve weapon of offense only, sufficient reli- civilian affairs of honor. Castle seems ance being placed on headpiece and to contradict himself, on not one, but carapace for protection," and: "The on several accounts, in his attempt to fit chivalrous science never had anything established historical facts into his but a retarding effect on the science of scheme. He states that "beyond that fact fence."24 that there were regular and well-known Whereas this is to some extent true, to schools of arms in Spain during the fif- the degree that there was no specifically teenth century, and the fact that Span- civilian form of armed self-defense for ish bands-the best trained in the use of settling affairs of honor, this is not to arms of all European troops at that pe- say that there was no evidence of a sys- riod-overran Italy and the Low Coun- tem of systematic swordplay. Because tries during the sixteenth century, there of his selective blindness and prejudice are no reasons, notwithstanding the cur- (for, no doubt, there were a great many rent opinion to that effect, to ascribe to Zulus and Hindus who would have dis- Spain the birthplace of the art."26 Yet, agreed with his position on "the reign he also says that Achille Marozzo (a of brute force" in British politics), Castle Bolognese master of the early 16th cen- apparently did not even bother to look tury) "is generally looked upon as the close to home for evidence. The Royal first writer of note on the art of fenc- Courtesy of Britain’s National Fencing Museum. Courtesy of Britain’s Edgerton Castle Armouries are in possession of the first ing. It would perhaps be wiser to con- known fechtbuch ("fighting manual"), sider him as the greatest teacher of the manship, so little progress should have written in Germany in the late thirteenth old school, the rough and undisciplined been made towards what may be called or early fourteenth century, and cata- swordsmanship of which depended as the more practical use of the sword. Whilst logued as Cotton MS I-33. Whereas the much on violence and sudden inspiration the Italians, and, after their example, the sword-and-buckler play shown therein as on carefully cultivated skill,"27 but French, Germans, and English, gradually is quite different from both Castle's does not say how Marozzo was any dif- discovered that simplification led to per- "modern" fencing and from what we are ferent from the Spanish. The wide cul- fection, the Spanish masters, on the con- used to seeing as "medieval sword fight- tural contact between Spain and Italy, trary, seemed to aim at making fencing a ing" in the movies, the work is obvi- such as the occupation of the Kingdom more and more mysterious science, requir- ously Scholastic in flavor in that it seeks of Naples or the election of a Valencian, ing for its use a knowledge of geometry to systematize and explain a method- Rodrigo Borgia, to the office of Pope, and and natural philosophy, and whose prin- ological system of all-purpose armed the ascendance of duels "in shirtsleeves" ciples were only explainable on meta- self-defense. during this period, which we have nega- physical grounds."22 Later, Castle even handles, in a semi-fa- tive evidence of in the form of the practice's Castle likewise completely discounts the vorable light, the German Marxbruder, denigration by the Milanese master-at- possibility of there having been a valid one of several German guilds (federfecthten) arms Pietro Monte,28 does not figure into school of arms at any time before the that taught der ridderiche kunst, a system- his history. In this moral positivism, we Renaissance: atic style of fighting with the long sword, may see reflected a supreme confidence "The rough untutored fighting of the and which incorporated such weapons in one's own world, and at least lip ser- Middle Ages represented faithfully the as the rapier and smallsword as they vice towards the fruits of "progress." Yet, reign of brute force in social life as well came into fashion. This school may even there is also doubt. Ironically enough, as in politics. The stoutest arm and the be traced back to the mid-fourteenth there is a certain amount of reactionary weightiest sword won the day, even as century, placing it firmly as a "Medieval" interest, even of antiquarism, inherent did the sturdiest baron or the most war- school that taught "Medieval" weapons.25 in the study of fencing, associated as it like king. Those were the days of crush- The cultured art of fencing, to this mind- is with the privileges of the aristocracy. ing blows with mace or glaive, when a set, was necessarily a rational, humanis- Even the emphasis on aesthetics above all knight's superiority in action depended tic invention, one that involved a degree is a strange and contradictory feature. upon his power of wearing heavier ar- of thought and sophistication impossible Indeed, the entire purpose of Castle's mor and dealing heavier blows than his to what was seen as the superstitious, friend Alfred Hutton's work on Old Sword neighbour, when strength was lauded backwards Medieval mind. Therefore, Play is the study of historical weapons. more than skill, and minstrels sang of it was something that would naturally We may then, if it is not too general a enchanted blades that nought could come into being with the Renaissance statement, include this nineteenth cen- break."23 in Italy and the rediscovery of classical tury interest in swordplay, old and mod- Later, he makes such ridiculous state- learning. Castle generally regards the ern, as an element of the "romantic" move- ments as, "...the habit of wearing defen- early Spanish school as an offshoot of the ment.

29 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 Yet, what is this chimera called "roman- This last work, however, has some seri- ticism?" Like the Questing Beast from ous flaws. Billacois proceeds from a his- Le Morte D'Arthur, many have sought torical perspective admittedly influenced to capture its quintessence, but it has by the French Cartesian school. Though eluded them all. There are so many va- he admits the problems with attempting rieties, from the retro-Medievalism of to reconstruct an extralegal practice Scott and the Pre-Raphaelites to the uto- through strict adherence to documenta- pian idealism of the Chartists and the tion,30 he also makes use of a number of Socialists, to Lord Byron's aristocratic works, such as treatises on honor and rejection of the world and his foppish dueling, in order to gain some perspec- dissipation, that no definition can pos- tive on the matter. Yet, nowhere amongst sibly encapsulate them all. In fact, ro- these is a fencing manual, in which fenc- manticism can only be defined by what ing masters, the recognized arbiters of it is not, or, in other words, what it is in the extralegal duel, invariably also in- opposition to: modernity. cluded essays treating with the implica- The romantic is disaffected with the tions of the code of honor. To attempt a Courtesy of Britain’s National Fencing Museum. Courtesy of Britain’s modern age, with its soot-darkened skies Sir Richard Burton history of the social implications of duel- and its replacement of vast tracts of ing without using such sources is like at- countryside with housing developments, the six-shooter and Gatling gun is most tempting a book on human anatomy with its weapons of mass destruction and certainly a rejection of unbeautiful mo- without ever dissecting a cadaver, or at- its poverty-stricken slums. Machines are dernity. Certainly, both Castle and Hutton tempting a book on the Roman law code efficient, but they are unbeautiful, re- seemingly identify with the weaponed without ever learning to read Latin. Be- placing personal handiwork with mass- gentleman of a bygone age. The duel, cause of this, he can not see the forest produced product and reducing the in- the idea of a man defending himself and for the trees. dividual to no more than a variable in his honor, was an anachronism in an age Furthermore, Billacois is unforgivably an equation of profit. The modern city, of shopkeepers, where a person's worth Francocentric, utterly dismissive of the moreover, is an alienated place, where was increasingly considered only as what significance of the duel in Spain or Italy. displaced strangers, brought in from in- could be quantified into figures of pro- Whereas the English historians Hutton timately small villages, are housed in duction and consumption, and where the and Castle see the French as cool-headed impersonal, identical apartment buildings. law court had replaced the dueling field. and elegant, at least when compared to Instead, the romantic longs for a utopia, However, these nineteenth century ro- the Italians, Billacois subscribes to the either in the past or in the future, or hid- mantics are not alone. Indeed, they were myth of the Gallic fighting-cock. Had den away in some undeveloped corner of dreaming a dream that we have never he, however, even made a cursory sur- the world, where their own vision of hap- quite woken up from. Certainly, we can vey of schools and masters of fence, he piness is realized. Modernity is ugly and detect such biases in the work of histo- probably would have realized that the unaesthetic; the romantic vision is beau- rians, such as E.P. Thompson, who study duel was not merely an foreign phenom- tiful and aesthetic, a chiliastic hope for the pre- or early- modern era. Since enon imported into France, where, like the ideal world. And, as the contempo- Thompson's work deals with the English jazz, it achieved its "true realization" as rary or near-contemporary writings of working class, rather than the aristoc- a socio-artistic form. Rather, Billacois Sir Walter Scott and the paintings of the racy, he looks at his era as an age of makes bald, unsupported statements pre-Raphaelite brotherhood amply dem- moral economy, of a time when a person such as, "the duel never had a properly onstrate, the image of the long-ago and was considered as part of a community, native existence in the Iberian penin- far-away romanticized Middle Ages not as an individually quantitized wage- sula,"31 while seemingly insensate of all were seen as a more aesthetic, if brutal, earner, and where economic transactions evidence to the contrary. time, when idealists, not accountants, held had a social, not just a fiscal, aspect. As Nor does he examine the plethora of Ital- sway over public life. In France, this is an avowed Marxist, it would seem that ian fencing manuals, despite the fact that reflected in the writings of Alexandre he would clearly prefer this social mi- they were written in a fragmented and Dumas, where D'Artagnan and the lieu to that of the capitalist world. chaotic political and social climate that Three Musketeers carve out their des- Though there have been few recent works we would think more likely to produce tiny in Riechlieu's France with a rapier's on the history of fencing per se, there have duels than would 17th century France. point. The image of the sword in such been several which deal with dueling, thus In fact, it was the Italians, not the French, as John Waterhouse's The Accolade is giving us some sort insight into what con- who exported fencing masters to Eng- one of the tool and symbol of the just temporary historians think about these land and the Low Countries.32 The idealist, the fantastical knight-errant of matters.29 McAleer's somewhat icono- French duel would seem to have been Mallory who fought for love and honor, clastic, but thoroughly enjoyable, Du- most in vogue at a time when the new good and right, God and country, not elling has already been mentioned. An- "nobility of the robe," bourgeois rising for profit and money. other recent work is Billacois' The Duel: in social status, were in conflict with one Learning to use the sword in the age of Its Rise and Fall in Early Modern France. another and with the old "nobility of the

30 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 sword," attempting to conform to the old of honor is likewise a convention, being military ideas of aristocracy and thus no more or less than what it is agreed to The Secret History of The Sword prove their worthiness. Billacois does be by society. It is not based not on one's by J. Christoph Amberger not seem to handle this idea, either pro own feelings of self-worth and inner life, 228x152 mm, 192 pp, or con, in his book, instead merely the bourgeois, nineteenth-century devel- 33 photos pointing out that incidence of dueling opment of which Peter Gay has excel- diminishes in times of war, and that, in lently chronicled in The Naked Heart, available at peace, Huguenots and Catholics were but on the acclimation of one's peers.34 www.barnesandnoble.com likely to find each other at the ends of It is a relic from a time when one's outer each other's swords. self was one's inner self. From the first THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE SWORD Finally, Billacois suggests, in the con- insult to the final blow, and the resolu- clusion to The Duel, that dueling was a tion afterwards, all is dictated not by the The Japanese don't hold a monopoly on fas- self-destructive method of resistance to duelists themselves, but by the code. cinating sword history and evolving combat the king's newly centralized power com- The technical aspects of the "science of methods. Europe has equally venerable sword traditions, ably revealed and chronicled in J. parable with modern-day airline hijack- fence," as well, might be seen as conven- Christoph Amberger's The Secret History of ing. Billacois' assertion is itself an ex- tions. For instance, the hand positions for the Sword: Adventures in Ancient Martial cellent example of transferring the thought parries, numbered in the French school Arts. Evidently, your average Western sports and concerns of one's one own times from one to eight, are pedagogical con- fencer has as little idea of the "true" history of the art as does your average Japanese sports onto a bygone age. Though, certainly, structions, used to describe more accu- kendoka. Misinformation and myths abound there is a political aspect that can be read rately various actions that might be taken (sound familiar?). In The Secret History of into the duel, it was never meant as such. during a match. When Hutton transcribes the Sword Amberger does a remarkable job Dueling was, by definition, ostensibly exercises for the broadsword or two- of laying many of these to rest, correcting pre- a private affair, played out in front of handed sword, he also translates the vailing misconceptions with numerous pri- mary accounts of sword combat throughout one's peers, and not a public political act. actions into the commonly understood European history from medieval trial by com- That "sticking it to The Man" was at the language. Thus, Marozzo's colorfully bat to modern German student dueling frater- fore of the minds of seventeenth century named "Porta di ferro alta" is "quarte," nities. duelists seems unlikely in the extreme; the "Cinghiara porta di ferro" is "tierce."35 Amberger uncovers many of the realities of both battle and personal combat with blades more likely, they sought simply to stick While this would seem to indicate a con- - and he knows whereof he speaks: as a mem- it to the one particular man who they tinuity of tradition, in that the same ber of a German student dueling fraternity he felt had insulted them, with or without physical motions are merely described participated in seven Mensuren, armed with the permission of centralized authority. by different names, we must ask if there a live blade. His story and the others he pre- sents are loaded with useful information; al- It would seem that researchers into early is some overlooked cultural parallax here. though the book is obviously directed at the modern aristocratic culture would ben- Can a nineteenth-century Englishman Western sword aficianado, there is a great deal efit greatly from a well-written second- fence like a sixteenth-century Italian, or of value here for we students of the Japanese ary source on the matter. So, if Hutton, would the conventions and training of sword as well. Castle, et al. are scions of the "modern" his own school and his own time pe- The chapter "Men of Iron" covers a topic rel- evant to all involved in the pursuit and study school of thought, what would a "post- riod-such as the supposed superiority of of combat systems, ancient or modern, East- modern" history of fencing be like fenc- the - action, as opposed to ern or Western -the fact of fear and its effects ing? We know what a Ranke or a Gibbon the counter-action in single time-limit on even the most well-trained combatants. In would say on the matter, and even what him?36 other chapters he discusses the difficulty of reconstructing ancient sword systems; unlike the modern Cartesian school would say, So, even the most necessary elements many of the Japanese koryu, there is no di- but what would a Foucault or a Diderot of the pedagogical system might be seen rect transmission to draw on. But there are say? We must now cease criticizing, and as no more than what they are agreed to detailed manuals and accounts, and these to- attempt to answer the questions that we be. Against this heresy, however, the gether with research into the weapons mor- phology, the culture, and the socio-political have raised. "moral positivist" might reply that cer- climate of the era in which a system existed First of all, it should be instantly recog- tain laws of physics (such as rate times allow one to make some educated guesses on nized that fashions in weapons, be they time equals distance) will always apply how the weapons might have been used in part of one's costume or solely intended to both swords and freight trains. Like- various circumstances. The entire volume is simply fascinating read- for use on the "field of honor," are, like wise, certain biomechanical principles ing; my sole complaint is that for someone the duel itself, social constructions. By its will likewise always be true, even if much not up on the details of Western fencing ter- very definition, a duel is a combat by con- of the rest is an edifice built upon this minology, it can get a little confusing at first. vention. The weapons used, be they ra- bedrock. There can be no argument I found that Part Two cleared up a lot of those piers, small swords, epees, sabers, pis- against the fact that there are certain prin- details for me, so you might want to consider reading it first, then going back to the begin- tols, or sledgehammers waist-deep in a ciples and practices that, barring accidents ning. All in all, I recommend this book highly Louisiana bayou, are an agreed-upon of chance, will carry one through most to anyone with an interest in swords! convention. The way of fighting, at an any encounter. The "science" of fencing appointed place and time, with an air of might be seen as a combination of both Diane Skoss www.koryubooks.com nonchalance, is conventional.33 The code practical observation and cultural arti-

31 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 fact. It is the application of human rea- for certain? Without sure knowledge, son, and human culture, to coarse and how can we apply our intellect to act in brutal reality. As such, it might be de- a wise, rational, and moral manner? "Is scribed with equal accuracy as both an this a dagger I see before me, or is it but "art" and as an "science." The overlooked a dagger of the mind?" We can see that, Spanish school of fence bears some dis- in many ways, the nominalist position is cussion here. Besides that fact that, as echoed, at least on a basic level, by the the first purely civilian system of com- New Linguistics: Concepts only have ex- bat intended for use in settling private istence in the mind, since they are social affairs of honor, it was of great influ- constructions. The old problem of univer- ence on the development of later schools sals has applications in such things as sta- of fence in other countries, it provides tistics and feminist theory: How are all us with an excellent field, as it were, in women alike? Does what applies to one which to set one historical construction women apply to all, or vice versa, or up against another for a trial by com- both, or neither?40 bat. Sadly maligned both by Castle and One ancient proof of the Realist position, by later historians, and contrary to what which also has hermetic, Pythagorean, Billacois writes, the first Spanish fenc- and kabbalistic overtones, is through Courtesy of Britain’s National Fencing Museum. Courtesy of Britain’s ing manuals, treating with civilian com- Alfred Hutton 1910 mathematics and geometry. For instance, bat, if not la verdadera destreza itself, the square of the hypotenuse of a triangle date from 1474.37 Thus, they precede by of universals, an ancient dilemma that was will always be equal to the sum of the half a century the Opera Nova of Marozzo revived in the Middle Ages and, strangely squares of the other two sides.41 Indeed, (published in 1536), which is widely re- enough, is repeated in the twentieth cen- in Renaissance manuals, the Platonic garded as the beginnings of the Italian tury (see Figures A-C). At its heart, the forms were envisioned as geometrical school.38 By applying a different histori- controversy is one of certainty: Is there forms, just as were the "crystal spheres" cal philosophy to the problem, we may absolute truth, or is there not? that were the homes of the planets.42 arrive at some valuable insights into The problem of universals proceeds Thus, the position of geometry in the early modern Spanish culture, just as we from a classical philosophical argument Medieval academic curriculum: To dem- used Hutton and Castle to explore the over the Platonic Ideas first proposed onstrate mathematical truths.43 nineteenth century. by the philosopher Porphyry. The "real- Castle summarizes the work of the fa- In practice, the Spanish method, as it ist" position, held by orthodox thinkers mous Spanish master Don Jeronimo de took its final form in the seventeenth such as Thomas Aquinas, affirms the Carranza thusly: "[his] is the first of the century, appears far different from what existence of these Ideas, which St. Au- long series of ponderous Spanish trea- we are accustomed to regard as fencing. gustine located in the mind of God. tises on the 'raison demonstrative,' in It is a conventional, formalized, even ritu- There is an essential "quiddity," or es- which the ruling principle, after the Ar- alized, combat, appearing more like a sence, of, for example, "man," that is com- istotelian method, is the 'conocimieto de dance than a sword fight. The two com- mon to all men. Likewise, there is an la cosa por su causa,' and the purpose, batants face each other, walking the pe- essential characteristic common to all to demonstrate that a perfect theoretical rimeter of an imaginary circle inscribed combs, another common to all horses, knowledge must infallibly lead to vic- on the floor. Their posture is upright, their and others common to immaterial con- tory, notwithstanding grievous physical knees locked, as in the manner of a cepts, such as "love" or "justice." disadvantage."44 Whereas we may dis- Spanish court dance, and their swords Meanwhile, the "nominalist," position, agree as to how "ponderous" it was, it are held out at arm's length. The fenc- as might be guessed, holds that these was certainly Aristotelian. Castle has hit ers and their weapons circle about one "universals" exist only as mental con- the nail right on the head: the Spanish another, seeking an advantageous angle. structions. One Medieval objection to method was a rational method of fight- When an attack is made, it is by step- the Realist position, for instance, is how ing, proceeding by established principles ping off along an angle, in effect, in- a singular essence can be divided amongst in a way that could not help but succeed. scribing a chord in the circle. If done many objects and still remain singular.39 The Spanish school of fence was thus correctly, this will carry one's own blade This debate is not of interest just to phi- "scientific" in the sense that it used ge- home, while avoiding the point of the losophers and zoologists. For the Catho- ometry as a proof of the efficacy of its adversary-fencing by numbers, if you lic believer, for instance, it calls into system. The entire scheme, while conven- will. The overall appearance is one of question the theology of the Holy Trin- tional, as suits a ritualistic combat between elegant menace. ity, where three persons partake in the equals, was also geometrically based. We However, to understand the Spanish same essence. thus see how it was enmeshed in a com- school of fencing, it is first necessary to Likewise, it places us in a moral conun- plex teratogenic web of Scholastic phi- understand the culture that it proceeds drum: is there, then, such a thing as good losophy, Christian doctrine, aesthetic taste, from. We must begin, strangely enough, or justice, which are located in and iden- and scientific knowledge. It embodies the with Scholastic philosophy and the problem tified with God? Can anything be known idea of gracia in all its connotations.

32 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 into the culture that produced them. It Frevert, Ute. Men of Honour: A Social and Cultural His- is unfortunate that the study of relations tory of the Duel. Cambridge MA: Blackwell. 1995. Gaugler, William (Maestro di Scherma) Epic Encoun- between equals, be they kinetic or oth- ters between Italian and French Fencing Masters, 1881- erwise, is mired in a century of outdated 1911, The Sword, July 1988, p. 13. ideas. Besides, if the task of the histo- Gay, Peter. The Cultivation of Hatred. New York: W.W. Norton and Company. 1993. rian is to "interpret the past to the Huizinga, Johan. The Waning of the Middle Ages. New present," then in understanding these York: St. Martin's Press. 1924. artifacts of culture, we better understand Kiernan, V.G. The Duel in European History. New York: Oxford University Press. 1988. ourselves. 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 late 13th/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.

Courtesy of Diderot's Encyclopedia. (1569). A view of a 18th-century fencing salle Castle, Edgerton. Schools and Masters of Fence Lon- don: George Bell and Sons. 1892. Without understanding all of these, the France, this was not a perspective or an Galas, S. Matthew. Kindred Spirits. The Journal of Asian affair of honor in early modern Spain is idea; it was truth itself laid bare in steel. Martial Arts Volume 6, Number 3, 1997. Gaugler, William. The Science of Fencing. Bangor: Lau- impossible to comprehend. The swords- A proof of its lasting quality is that it reate Press. 1997. man trained in the Spanish school uses did not apparently die out until the nine- Hutton, Captain Alfred. Old Sword Play (hypertext his knowledge of the underlying foun- teenth century, and that, in fact, that the verion prepared and edited by Bryan Maloney). http:// www.people.cornell.edu/pages/bjm10/hutton/ dations of the universe to affirm him- Spanish were long held to be some of hutton.html. self in a cool, detached, and scientific the deadliest swordsmen around. Certain Marozzo, Achille. Opera Nova. (Mitinae: 1536). manner that, incidentally, is also a type things are always going to be eternally Nadi, Aldo. On Fencing. Bangor: Laureate Press. 1997. Narvaez, Don Luis Pacheco de. Libro de las Grandezas of kinetic art. As Carranza himself said, true, and there is nothing quite like stak- de la Espada. (Madrid, 1600). "la solucion de la dubda es el invencio ing one's life on a mathematical formula Silver, George. Paradoxes of Defense. (London:1599). de la verdad."45 to make one appreciate this. NB: Manuscripts and books out-of-print are available in It is these Medieval and Renaissance So, what is the point of this cockfight reproduction from Dr. Patri J. Pugilese, 39 Capen Street, Medford, MA 02155. (781-396-2870), save for I-33. philosophical roots that are the direct of ideas that has been presented in the antecedent to the "scientific moral posi- guise of a discussion of the context of 1 tivism" of the nineteenth century that schools of fence? It is simply that many Though many of the events of the 1960s and 1990s have come close (the L.A. riots and the "levita- claimed to have a monopoly on truth. works of culture besides historian's text, tion" of the Pentagon come to mind. For the latter, Ironically, the historians of the "mod- the art historian's painting, or the arch- see Abbie Hoffman, Revolution for the Hell of It.) ern," "perfect" mode of fencing would aeologist's pot sherd can give us insights 2 We differentiate here between the "classical" fenc- later overlook these intellectual anteced- into the culture that produced them. It is ing of the 19th and early 20th century and the mod- ents, just as they overlooked the school unfortunate that the study of relations ern sport of fencing, which is a conventional game itself. Yet, without what had gone be- between equals, be they kinetic or oth- based on athletic strength and endurance, utilizing fore, what came later would never have erwise, is mired in a century of outdated an electronic scoring apparatus to determine touches. been. Rather than being the capstone of ideas. Besides, if the task of the historian 3 Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle Ages, p. 58 history, the "modern" era was, instead, is to "interpret the past to the present," 4 Gaugler, The Science of Fencing, p. xxiv. (Mae- both the heir and the traditor of a long then in understanding these artifacts of stro Gaugler is both a professor of classical archae- legacy. culture, we better understand ourselves. ology and a fencing master of great repute). While all this may seem to be another 5 Castle, Schools and Masters, p. 312. 6 example of social construction heaped Castle, Schools and Masters of Fence, p. 2. Em- phasis has been added to the most telling state- upon social construction, it must be re- Bibliography ments by printing them in boldface. membered that these techniques, or, we General and Historical Works: 7 Alfred Hutton, Old Sword-Play, hypertext ver- should say, technologies, work, just as Anglo, Sidney. "The Man Who Taught Leonardo Darts: sion prepared by Bryan Maloney at http:// medicine and aircraft and light switches Pietro Monte and His 'Lost' Fencing Book." The Anti- www.people.cornell.edu/pages/bjm10/hutton/ do. Men (and women) were willing to quaries Journal. hutton.html. Anglo, Sidney. "How to Win at Tournaments." 8 The small sword is also significant for being the stake their lives on the theories of these Billacois, Francois. The Duel: It's Rise and Fall in Early direct ancestor of the modern sport fencing weap- fencing masters, just as today, we trust Modern France. New Haven: Yale University Press. ons used since the nineteenth century. The foil was our doctors, airline pilots, and electricians. 1990. Evangelista, Nick (Maitre d'Armes). The Man Who In- the training tool for the small sword; the epee, a To the Spanish gentleman of the "early vented Sport Fencing. The American Citizen, Summer dueling weapon that came into use after the sword modern" era, or the duelist of fin de siecle 1993, p. 30. ceased to be a part of male costume, is employed

33 House of the Pure Martial Arts WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG Special Edition January 2006 in much the same manner. Once the technique for 18 McAleer, Duelling, p. 190. and then replies, in two actions; the counter-action the weapon was established, it did change, but not 19 The issue that enters into this, of course, is that of seeks to deviate the oncoming steel in the process as much or as radically as it did during the transi- whether there is an "essential character" to the Ger- of striking back, in one action. tion from rapier to small sword. (The history of man national psyche. This has been of no small 37 These manuals, by Jayme Pons and Pedro de la schools of use of the dueling saber is complicated, importance to historians of the Holocaust. Torre, are now, unfortunately, lost, but reference is but it is interesting that, as for foil, the Italian school 20 The case of the German execution units in World made to them in works by later masters, such as uses much the same technique as was used for ear- War II, as recounted in Browning's Ordinary Men, Narvaez, Palla Vicini, and Marcelli, who published lier weapons). comes readily to mind. Browning suggests that in 1600, 1670, and 1686, respectively. (From the 9 Dangerous Liasons comes to mind. these groups, composed mainly of poorly-trained Martinez Classical Fencing FAQ). (It would be 10 Castle, Schools and Masters, p. 302. reservists, were willing to commit war crimes not much appreciated if these incubalae could be 11 Nick Evangelista, The Man Who Invented Sport so much out of obedience, but because it was ex- found!) Fencing. The Amercian Citizen, Summer 1993, p. pected of them. 38 Gaugler, Science of Fencing, p. xxiv. 30. 21 Another example of moral positivism, ethics, and 39 Practitioners of sympathetic magic will object 12 William Gaugler, Epic Encounters between Ital- scientific truth is embodied in the racialism of the that this essence is not, in fact, subdivided. What ian and French Fencing Masters, 1881-1911, The imperial era. "Taking up the white man's burden," affects a wax doll of John Silber, for instance, will Sword, July 1988, p. 13. (The Sword is the publi- as Kipling wrote, involved acting in a paternalistic affect him. cation of Britain's amateur fencing association.) fashion to the "less developed" races that, inciden- 40 For an example of the legal application of this, 13 Gaugler, Epic Encounters, p. 13. tally, happened to be wholly favorable to one's own see Joan Wallach Scott's essay on "The Sears Case" 14 Gaugler, Epic Encounters, p. 13. economic interests. in Gender and the Politics of History, p. 167. 15 For those unfamiliar with the mensur, it bears 22 Castle, Schools and Masters, p. 95. 41 The objection to this, of course, is that the tri- some discussion here. Tracing its lineage back to 23 Castle, Schools and Masters, p. 6. angle is likewise a social construction. This objec- the student duels of the Middle Ages and continu- 24 Castle, Schools and Masters, p. 19. tion is dealt with by means of what has become ing on to this day, the mensur, or "measure," is 25 S. Matthew Galas, Kindred Spirits. The Journal known as the "big rock" proof. To wit: more a ritual or rite of passage than a sport. The of Asian Martial Arts Volume 6, Number 3, 1997. "You say that this triangle is naught but a social adversaries, who are invariably drawn from two 26 Castle, Schools and Masters, p. 46. construction?" different studentkorps (duelling fraternities), are 27 Castle, Schools and Masters, p. 48. "Yes, I do." made to stand a sword's length away. The shorter 28 Monte is mentioned in Castiglione's Book of the "Is this big rock here likewise a social construc- is given a platform to stand on, so that they are of Courtier as a master of feats of arms. Anglo, Sidney. tion?" equal height. They are dressed in thick leathers, "The Man Who Taught Leonardo Darts: Pietro "I would have to say that it is." with their necks well protected, their heads cov- Monte and His 'Lost' Fencing Book." The Anti- "Then may I throw this nonexistent rock at your ered by a leather cap, and their eyes shielded be- quaries Journal. head?" hind mesh goggles. However, their cheeks, chins, 29 No doubt corresponding to the unfortunate de- "Er..." and faces are completely bare to the attacks of their cline of the "art" of fencing in favor of the "sport" 42 Today, of course, we know that the planets fol- opponent's razor-sharp schlaeger, which come in a of fencing. Recall what Foucault said about com- low elliptical orbits. lightning flurry as soon as the signal is given. The petition. 43 For further discussion of this, c.f. Thomas scars (schmiss) gained by this are permanent, but Authors such as Matthew Galas and William Aquinas' On Being and Essence and his Summa are a mark of pride amongst mensur aficionados. Gaugler seem to write for an audience of fencers Theologica, chapter LXXXV. Indeed, a hundred years ago, such scars were quite who are more interested in the technical aspects 44 Castle, Schools and Masters, p. 96. Oddly enough, fashionable, and a well-marked veteran would be than in the sociological implications thereof. the same might be said for Castle's own school of considered quite a catch by the young ladies, for Though their works, particularly Dr. Gaugler's re- thought. membership in a studentkorps indicated wealth, cent History of Fencing, are of excellent quality, 45 Carranza, De la Filosofia de las Armas. (1569). education, breeding, membership in the ultimate their historical observations tend to be episodic and "old boy's club," and a very bright future indeed. anecdotal-concentrating on the phenomon, rather Moving, flinching, crying out in pain, or disobey- than the nomenon, as it were. There has been little ing the rules, the referee, the doctors, or any of move towards an overall reappraisal of the phi- Ken Mondschein is a Ph.D can- their orders in the slightest are absolutely verboten. losophy of fencing history in its sociocultural con- didate in history at Fordham Uni- Obedi-ence and the maintenance of a stiff upper text. versity in New York. He created lip (provided that it is still attached to one's face) is 30 Billacois, The Duel p. 72. Also see p. 60 and p. and maintains the website all in the mensur. One can easily understand why 72. this was thought to be an excellent manly exercise 31 Billacois, The Duel, p. 36. HistoricalFencing.org, is the author in Bismark's Germany. In fact, Bismark himself 32 c.f. George Silver's Paradoxes of Defense (1597), of the forthcoming book ''A His- had engaged in not a few student duels, in the days in which the proponent of good, old-fashioned Eng- tory of Single Life," and has writ- before they took this final form of immobile sto- lish broadsword-play rails against the "false fight" ten for Renaissance and Mysteries icism. ("In my day, we didn't parry with our faces!" of the Italian rapier. magazines, the New York Press, 33 he is recorded as saying. Still, when the command Errol Flynn returning his adversary's fallen Disinformation, McSweeneys.net, came from high up to storm that trench, the trench weapon, for instance, is tactically ludicrous, but was stormed.) Violence is still controlled, by the expected by the audience-Captain Blood or Robin and many other print and online control is "Apollonian"-placed under the domina- Hood is a "good guy," and expected to abide by publications. In addition to fencing, tion of the will -rather than "Dionysiac" -trans- rules of "fair play." Ken is an avid equestrian and holds formed into an artistic form. 34 A recent movie, Rob Roy, has said that "honor is a Nidan in Japanese karate. 16 Gay, The Cultivation of Hatred, p. 9. the gift that a man gives himself." Nothing could 17 See McAleer, Duelling, Chapter VI. be further from the truth. The great Italian champion Aldo Nadi, in his rec- 35 These names occur at least as far back as the ollection of his own duel in his book On Fencing, fifteenth century. Link to HistoricalFencing.org is both introspective, as only the modern mentality 36 The difference between these two is that the parry- webpage to read more articles can be, and worried about the possible legal con- riposte, performed with a lighter, quicker weapon, from the hand of Ken Mondschein: sequences of his encounter. such as the "walking sword," puts aside the attack, www.historicalfencing.org

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