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A Quick and Dirty Treatise on Historical Fencing

Written by Enrico Toro

"Et l'oggetto di questa scienza altro non è che il riparare et il ferire . . . le quali non potrà alcuno sapere se prima non havrà la cognitione dè tempi e delle misure . . ."
[ . . . and the goal of this science is nothing else but to parry and to wound . . . Things nobody can perform unless they are aware of times and measures . . .]

—Nicoletto Giganti, 1606

A Short History.

It's easy today to have a very distorted view of what fencing was at the time of the Ring of Fire. Real fencing is not Errol Flynn or the Three Musketeers. Hollywood swashbuckling movies set in the early modern era feature unrealistic flamboyant fencing. The only other fencing moderns see is lightning-fast Olympic fencing. Both of these are far different from the fencing taught in the 1630s in hundreds of academies throughout Europe.

The slow rate of fire and the poor accuracy of firearms made fencing the most common form of self-defense. And as any form of self-defense it was quick, lethal, and, most of the time, brutal.

Dueling and the use of the sword are as old as human civilization. During the period from the end of the Middle Ages until the Ring of Fire, the art of sword fighting changed radically. Those changes set the foundations of fencing as we know it now. This article will focus on Europe during that period.

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the use of plate mail transformed fencing into something very technical. The first known treatise was written in 1295, in Germany. This manuscript, called I33, codifies a form of combat with sword and buckler. During this time fencers developed the thrust with a long sword. Its purpose was to find openings in a foe's armor. This attack became a well-known technique amongst fighters. The use of the two-handed sword, with a complex system based on many different guards, began a codification of the techniques used, the birth of the first styles and what is considered the first form of true fencing. General military sword fighting was still based mostly on strength. Cutting blows, as opposed to the thrusts and lunges, were still used in combination with grappling techniques to knock down an adversary who was well protected by plate armor.

A radical change happened once the invention and the development of firearms greatly reduced the effectiveness of armor. Because firearms began to appear on the battlefield during the sixteenth century, the use of a complete plate armor was limited mostly to heavy cavalry in tournaments and in battle. After 1490, duels were fought mainly afoot and with much lighter weaponry.

The rise of the thrust, and the decline of the cutting stroke in fencing, began a demand for different swords. Sword making answered this call for lighter weapons, and swords became longer, thinner, and more suitable for lunges. The broadsword became a sidesword easy to carry all the time. Typical Renaissance sword fighting required the use of sword and a small target shield or sword and dagger. Even the use of a target shield faded during the sixteenth century, giving way to fighting with sword and dagger. This last style is considered more effective, as a dagger can be used as a defense, and it can become a terrible offensive weapon in close combat.

Another innovation of this period was the growing use of the sword alone. This was permitted by the development of fencing techniques that favored the use of the blade both for defense and offense. In the second half of the sixteenth century, numerous fencing treatises were printed and the number of wards (ten or sixteen) dropped to the four standard wards based on the different hand positions. The wards (or guards) are the basic fighting stances from which any attack and defense develop. The Pallas Armata, a fencing treatise of 1639, describes the different wards:

There are but four guards according to the four ways thou canst turn thy hand, viz. Prime, Secunde, Tertz, and Quarte.

"The Prime is when thou holdest thy Rapier in such a manner that the outside side of thy hand doth look towards thy left side out, and the inside of thy hand look towards thy right side out. This is subdivided into a straight Prime, when thy point looketh straight forwards, and into a hanging Prime, when thy point doth look towards the ground.

The Secunde is, when thou holdest thy Rapier in such a sort that the outside of thy hand looketh upwards, and the inside of thy hand towards the ground. This is likewise subdivided into a straight Secunde when thy point looketh straight forwards; into a handing Secunde, when thy point looketh downwards towards the ground, and finally into the middle Secunde, when thou holdest thy Rapier with a Secunde and a bowed arm, so that the point of thy Rapier looks sheer out towards thy left side.

The Tertz is when thou dost hold thy Rapier in such fashion that the outside of thy hand looks towards thy right side out, and the inside of thy hand towards thy left side out.

This again is subdivided into the High Tertz when thou holdest thy point upwards yet with bended arm, so that thy hilt equalize thy Right breast in height; into a Middle Tertz, when thou holdest thy weapon with a bent arm that the point looks straight out forwards, so that the Hilt in height equalize thy waist: And lastly into a Low Tertz, when thou holdest thy weapon with a straight arm downwards, so that thy Hilt be equal to thy knee in height, or a little below.

The Quarte is when thou holdest thy Rapier in such a manner with a bended arm, that the outside of thy hand look down towards the ground, but the inside upwards. This is likewise subdivided into a straight Quarte when thou holdest thy Rapier with a Quarte and let the point sink down."

All the writing about fencing in this period (mostly in Italian) was abundantly detailed and showed a very quick evolution of the art of combat.

Italian-style fencing was practiced throughout Europe, in courts and salles, the private gyms where fencing was taught. At the end of the sixteenth century the sword assumed a shape that would last for another fifty years. It was enriched by a basket hilt to better protect the sword wielder's hand, and it was longer and thinner than a sidesword. Englishmen called it a rapier. The end of the century also brought the birth of the disengagement technique that would be thoroughly developed in its many variants during the following century. The most used of these disengagements is the cavazione or trade, the maneuver that permits one to exchange or switch sides on the opponent's sword, without making contact with it.

It is the seventeenth century that sees the birth of national styles and a more clear-cut division between dueling styles and military styles.

This development can be attributed to several factors: the growing influence of the printing press, the beginnings of a modern mentality that brought the rise of centralized nation-states, the birth of "modern" scientific methods (many books have amazing anatomic and geometric details), the rise of the middle class with the consequent increase in students of the "gentlemanly arts of combat," and the need for a more codified method of teaching.

Dueling swords became lighter, fencing became faster, and the combination of thrusts and parries more complicated. Furthermore, the seventeenth century saw the introduction of two new kinds of blades: the small sword, a thrusting-only sword, thinner and shorter than a normal rapier, and the saber.

The saber, a curved sword with one cutting edge, began to be used in Western Europe but became widespread only during the eighteenth century. The small sword was developed in France at the time when a distinct French school of fencing was also coming into being. The small sword's lightness permitted a faster style that influenced greatly the future classical fencing and modern fencing and began a path that brought the introduction of the foil in the nineteenth century.

The second half of the century saw the transition from fencing in single to double time. In "single time," the swordsman's main goal is to provoke an attack and counter into the opponent's offense while blocking the path of the incoming blade with one's own. In "double time," an incoming attack is first parried with the sword blade and then followed up with a fast counterattack (riposte). Fencing in double time wasn't unknown before, but it was neglected as the fencer's movements required were too fast to be performed ...