In the history of mankind, the fine art of killing one another in a civilized and uniformed manner has been elusive. Our collective history is littered with heroes who engaged one another in epic struggles; Achilles and Hektor outside the walls of Troy, King Arthur and his son Mordred, and Lady Braddock and Mrs. Elphinstone over an issue of one of the participant’s true age, are just some examples. Traditionally, the sword has been the European choice of weapon to settle affairs of the law, honor, love, and for the purpose of self defense.
Swordsmanship in the Western tradition can be broken up into several schools of thought. These schools were influenced by the times as well as culture. Some of the major movements in Western Swordsmanship were German Leichtenauer, Italian Bolognese, Italian and Spanish rapier, and French Baroque.
German Long Sword 14th-16th Century
The Germans developed techniques with the long sword in fighting books known as Fechtbücher ,most notably from the 14th century master Johannes Liechtenauer. Long swords of the period were double-edged weapons of great length that were wielded with both hands. The warrior flowed from various guard, or ward, positions that allowed him to strike with a cut or a thrust. The warrior did not make wild swings, but rather measured strikes by moving from guard position to guard position. Case in point; a warrior in the Vom Tag, or roof, guard stood with his body turned, lead foot forward, while his sword was held high above his head. If he were to strike downwards he could flow into the Alber, or fool, guard where the sword was held with the point at the ground. From this position he could sweep his blade up and move into another guard position. From every guard the warrior could defend and attack.
Blade on blade contact was not necessarily performed through strikes and blocks in a repetitive manner. A warrior could strike an opponent’s blade, then attempt to side-step and thrust, or close in and grapple. Unlike later swordsmanship styles, the German long sword method advocated hand to hand combat in conjunction with blade work.
Example here.
Bolognese School 16th Century
In the 16th century the Italians and Spanish developed a new type of warrior to deal with the pike formations that were dominating the European battlefields. Lightly armored warriors wielding small shields and cut and thrust swords were employed to race in against the Swiss Pikemen and Landsknecht mercenaries. From this method of warfare came the Bolognese school of swordsmanship.
Achille Marozzo published a fencing manual in 1536 under the title Opera Nova dell’Arte delle Armi, or New Book of Fighting. Marozzo was a product of the early Renaissance and his book was decorated with pictures to help clarify his tactics. The weapon of choice is labeled today as a ‘side sword’, which in essence was a light, one handed cut and thrust blade. Marozzo taught roughly thirteen guards from which a warrior could cut and thrust while using his small shield for defense. Marozzo advocated his system for not only warfare, but also duels of honor. The Bolognese, or Dardi, school of swordsmanship started by Marozzo dominated Italy until the 1600’s.
Example here.
Italian Rapier 16th-18th Century
In the late 1500’s and 1600’s the rapier came into fashion. It was a long, thin single-handed, thrusting sword, and became the civilian weapon of choice. While a long sword and armor might be forbidden in a township, the rapier could be worn at the side as a point of fashion. Besides, it was less cumbersome than moving about carrying a heavy sword and shield! In more modern terms the rapier was the cowboy’s pistol. He could wear it in society, defend himself if needs be, but probably wouldn’t want to go to war with it. Two distinct schools formed around the rapier.
The Italian School of Rapier combat was a true blending of Renaissance ideals. The Italians combined art and literature in their fighting manuals, while incorporating math from Aristotle and the latest biology of the times. The Italian method of rapier combat started with Camillo Agrippa, who took Marozzo’s many guards and condensed them to four. These guards allowed a fighter to protect himself the moment he drew his weapon, and guard his left, center and right. From these same positions the fighter could perform a thrust powered by his legs known as a lunge. While cutting with the rapier was possible, it was not recommended because of how long it took, and because it was rarely fatal. A thrust was quicker and deadlier, and so it made sense to the Italians to rely on the lunge not the cut.
The Italian method was deeply concerned about time. In films a rapier fight often depicts two swashbucklers clashing blades and performing acrobatic stunts. In reality, the Italian rapier fighter attempted to perform a lunge and instantly kill his opponent, or block an incoming attack with the forte (strong part) of his sword and respond with a lunge of his own at the same time. This is known as single-time fighting. The fighting was very linear and there were no ‘true parries’ where a blade was knocked aside without some offensive response. Capo Ferro, Di Grassi, and Fabris wrote fighting manuals in the late 16th and early 17th century that differed from one another in some ways, but preserved a linear, mathematical Italian method that dominated swordsmanship all across Europe, from Italy to England to Sweden!
Duels of honor were explicitly mentioned in a variety of the Italian manuals, which justified the rapier as a tool of solving issues of honor, not just defense. This perhaps assured their predominance in Europe for some time.
For example: Fabris; Di Grassi; Capo Ferro.
Spanish Rapier 16th-19th Century
Meanwhile the Spanish took the ideas of Marozzo and applied it to the rapier in a very different way. The Spanish school of swordsmanship, known as La Destreza, was codified by Jerónimo Caranza in the late 16th century and was the foundation of a school of thought that lasted until the 1800’s. While the Italian method was linear and aggressive, even in defense, the Spanish system was circular, deceptive and patient. Spanish fighters steadily circled their opponents while keeping their blade held high and the point aimed at an enemy’s face. Slowly circling, the Spanish fighter sought to deflect approaching enemy strikes and respond with a thrust of his own. Because the Spanish fighter circled, he didn’t lunge into an enemy, but rather side-stepped while extending his arm to deflect and strike. In this manner the Spanish fighter was a moving target at all times, and thus difficult to strike.
The Spanish method valued patience and was often ridiculed as much as it was feared. In England, when the play Romeo and Juliet was performed, the character of Tybalt used the Spanish method of rapier combat. This instantly drew forth boos and catcalls from the audience that saw the system as cowardly and villainous. Meanwhile Romeo used the more ‘manly’ and ‘brave’ Italian system in his scenes. One must bear in mind that England had recently been attacked by the Spanish Armada and that Italian fencing masters, such as Di Grassi, were popular at the time.
Example here.
French Small Sword 18th -19th Century
In the 18th century the rapier began to lose its value. Blade lengths had steadily increased, and while this made a fighter more deadly, it also made wearing the weapon cumbersome. From France a new school developed that adopted a new weapon known as the small sword, or court sword. This blade was triangular in shape and much smaller than a rapier. It could be easily worn at the side and not knock anything over. It remained a tool of self defense, a means of settling affairs of honor, and eventually as an item of pure ceremony. Paintings of Napoleon from the 1800’s for example depict him with such a blade at his side that is purely decorative.
The smaller blade and social graces of the Baroque period altered the method of fighting. Combat remained linear, but went from the Italian single-time method, to a two-time method where a fighter attempted to solidly parry a strike, before responding with their own. The blades were unsharpened except at the tip, thus required point control and precision. Monsieur L’Abbat of France created a fighting manual that used explanatory plates to visually demonstrate the various thrusts, parries, and off-hand disarms that were acceptable with the weapon. It was France that led the way in small sword techniques and later its sport related descendents.
Example here.
Decline of the Dueling Sword 19th Century
During the 1800’s sword was no longer socially acceptable to be worn in daily attire. In warfare their use was limited and dueling was akin to murder in most Western societies. Additionally, the pistol became the preferred method of settling affairs of honor when the need arose, or in the matter of self defense.
By the 1900’s the value of the sword as a weapon of war, civilian defense, or casual decoration faded. The horrors of trench warfare of WWI further relegated blade use to mostly ceremony. Certain swordsmanship traditions remained, most notably Hungarian Saber, German Academic, and Sport Fencing, but the days of the blade on the battlefield, or in the streets of a city, were essentially over.