The Knightly Art An Overview of European Martial Arts in the Late Middle Ages
© 2006 Gregory D. Mele
Introduction The history of personal combat has usually been relegated to fencing historians, who in turn defined medieval combat as rough, untutored fighting 1 on the battlefield, between nobles, whereas truly scientific, systematic, and civilian martial arts arose with rapier fencing in the mid- 16th century.
It was perhaps inevitable that as most fin de siecle fencing historians looked at the evidence they had available to them, they looked at the records of the medieval masters-at-arms, and simply didn’t see what they thought of as fencing . Fencing derives from the word defense , and since the Middle “ges had simply meant the art of defense , specifically when armed with any hand weapon, be that a sword, knife or quarterstaff, be that in a duel, a street brawl or on a battlefield. But by the late 19th century, the art of fencing focused on single-combat within the formal, and increasingly non-lethal, duel. For most, training was really only for the friendly combat-sport that had grown out of the martial art. Broadsword, heavy saber and bayonet fencing continued to be practiced, but usually only by current or former military men, and with increasingly less frequency, as the revolver at last made the sword completely obsolete on the battlefield. Even in military fencing, the aesthetics of the age meant that grappling and in-fighting was strictly forbidden in the fencing salle. Unarmed combat was a separate discipline, divided into boxing and wrestling, each of which were also increasingly had their sportive, rather than defensive, applications as a focus.
What was taught? In contrast, the medieval master-at-arms taught cognate martial arts: complete systems of armed and unarmed defense, designed for both the battlefield and personal defense. Their diverse curriculum combined unarmed and weapons combat, both in and out of armour, fought both on foot and on horseback. Training in this robust art was usually based on a foundation in close- quarter combat and swordsmanship. Close-quarter combat was itself comprised of two key components: wrestling and dagger combat. As a battlefield art, wrestling was particularly aggressive, focusing on ending a fight quickly through either joint-breaking, throws or lethal force, rather than seeking submission. Dagger combat was split between unarmed defenses against the dagger and dagger vs. dagger dueling; a far more likely scenario for the 15th century knife-fighter than it is for his 21st century counterpart.
Swordsmanship formed the basis for training with all long, hand-weapons. The central weapon was usually either the longsword