armed-combat.com is a review of military books focusing on battlefield tactics and the experience of war at the sharp end
Search this site:	Search Amazon.co.uk (UK):	Search Amazon.com (USA):

home > features > western martial arts

Western Martial Arts

a short Introduction to the revival of western martial arts

The revival of Western Martial Arts has been a bit of a discovery. I first became aware of it with the publication of Terry Brown's English Martial Arts (Anglo-Saxon Books, 1997). This awareness was reinforced by a History Channel documentary that featured work being done on mediaeval swordsmanship by the Royal Armouries in Leeds (http://www.armouries.org.uk) under the direction of the Head of Interpretation, John Waller, an experienced action arranger and historical consultant for stage and screen, and founder of the European Historical Combat Guild (http://www.ehcg.org). British TV viewers may have seen him in the recent (Autumn 2002) Warrior School series on Channel 5. Newspaper TV pundits set out to sneer but invariably betrayed their fascination: boys will be boys! Other important elements have been the work of John Clements, author of Medieval Swordsmanship and Renaissance Swordsmanship, and Director of the The Association for Renaissance Martial Arts - ARMA (http://www.thehaca.com), and that of Christoph Amberger, author of Secret History of the Sword: Adventures in Ancient Martial Arts (http://www.swordhistory.com/home.html).

Although a trace of Western Martial Arts survived in modern sport-fencing (highly stylised and far removed from its martial origins), the twentieth-century martial arts scene has been dominated by Eastern Martial Arts such as Judo, Karate, Kung Fu and Kick Boxing. While Eastern Martial Arts are variously pursued for sport or civilian self-defence, Western Martial Arts are much more focused on historical battlefield weapon handling, and are thus arguably more deserving of the term 'martial'.

As Western Martial Arts have not been passed down by a direct organic link with the past, their study, teaching and acquisition is a process of reconstruction, or, if you like, 'living archaeology'. The sources of this reconstruction are Mediaeval and Renaissance manuals, modern research on the nature, functionality and potential of historical weaponry, and the application of martial arts experience and common sense gained in other styles.

Whilst the use of swords and staffs is hardly applicable to modern civilian or military life, the pursuit of any martial art is going to improve balance, timing, speed, accuracy, general fitness, the efficiency of body mechanics, co-ordination, discipline and confidence, and Western Martial Arts thus deserve the same credibility and respect as any other martial arts training system. One can imagine that training with traditional weapons could even be applied to self-defence with an improvised object such as a stick, umbrella, or broom-handle but let's not push that claim too far.

Traditional Western Martial Arts embraced a wide range of weapon skills. Terry Brown's website (http://www.maisters.demon.co.uk/weapons.htm) identifies traditional English close-quarter weapons/weapon systems to have included various types of sword; sword-and-buckler, sword-and-shield, and sword-and-dagger; cudgel, corn flail and maul (mallet); staff, bill, battle-axe and halberd; and spear, pike and half-pike. The weapons/systems demonstrated in Terry Brown's book are broadsword, quarterstaff, sword-and-dagger, sword-and-buckler, bill, and bare fist. Whilst traditional Western Martial Arts could have sporting aspects and whilst not all the weapons concerned were necessarily lethal, training in these weapons was for 'deadly serious' use whether in war or peace.

Any discussion of the sword immediately pushes us into a terminological minefield. Broadsword is a generic term for a broad-bladed cutting sword, but revived Western Martial Arts appear to place particular focus on the mediaeval long-sword, that is a sword with both a long blade and a grip long enough to be used in two hands.

Early medieval long-swords had parallel edges and were intended principally for slashing. In response to improvements in armour, later mediaeval swords tapered towards the point creating a very acute triangular shape. This not only improved their penetration capability, but, in moving the centre-of-gravity closer to the hilt, the accuracy with which stabs could be delivered. (With the eclipse of armour by firearms, military swords reverted to prioritising slashing.) True two-handed swords, or great-swords, also developed and were used in the Later Middle Ages and early Renaissance.

In the Sixteenth Century the rapier, a purely thrusting sword, became popular and we associate this with the art of 'fencing' as opposed to the more general terms of ‘swordplay’ or ‘swordsmanship’. The rapier and the small-sword which was derived from it were certainly lethal enough, but primarily civilian ornaments and duelling weapons rather than military ones. They appear to be rather scorned, along with sport-fencing, at least by English Western Martial Arts enthusiasts. The combination of broadsword-and-dagger is encountered, but sword-and-dagger fighting seems primarily to reference the rapier, and thus civilian use. (Rapiers and daggers were sometimes made as a matching pair).

The buckler was a small shield and the sword-and-buckler combination was typical of the weapons used by English archers for close-defence during the Hundred Years War. Sword-and-bucklermen continued to feature in the Spanish Colunelas until their replacement by the pike-and-firearm-only Tercios in the early 1530s.

Hollywood may have Little John holding a staff symmetrically ('half-staffing') but it was usually held like a two-handed sword with both hands at one end. Terry Brown's book illustrates a reversed left-handed grip which may be a deliberate ploy for attacking the opponent's unshielded side, particularly when the sword arm is raised. Staff fighting in Eastern Martial Arts seems to emphasize developing equal skill with both grips. Stick-fighting was a widespread European tradition and survived in England into the Nineteenth Century.

RIK - 9 January 2003

© armed-combat.com 1/2003

WEAPONS

John Waller on, inter alia, the broadsword versus thrusting sword issue.
http://www.thehaca.com/spotlight/JohnWaller.htm

The Secret History Of The Sword
http://www.swordhistory.com/home.html
Website of the book by Christoph Amberger

The Sword & Buckler Tradition
http://www.thehaca.com/essays/SwordandBuckler.htm

A Brief History of the Quarterstaff by Frank Docherty http://ejmas.com/jwma/jwmaart_docherty_0501.htm

'Quarter-staff: A Practical Manual' by Thomas A McCarthy (1883)
http://ejmas.com/jmanly/jmanlyart_mccarthy_0901.htm

The Manly Art of Quarter-Staff: Origins of a Victorian Combat Sport by Tony Wolf
http://www.alliancemartialarts.com/quarterstaff.htm

Lee's Stick Fighting Resources Page
http://abraxis.com/lverner/otherma/stick.htm

Stick-Fencing Timeline (American Heritage
Fighting Arts Association)
http://ahfaa.org/wsfftimeline.htm

Irish stick fighting
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/4933/shillelagh.html

'Self-defence with a Walking-stick: The Different Methods of Defending Oneself with a Walking-Stick or Umbrella when Attacked under Unequal Conditions.' by E.W. Barton-Wright (1901)
http://ejmas.com/jnc/jncart_barton-wright_0200.htm

Non-Asian weapons, fencing and fighting methods
http://www.freedom2000net.com/userpages/bordenm/library/Articles/Non-asianfightingmethods.html
Glossary of weapons, military and civilian, from the The Martial Arts Library.

Martial Staff (blog)
http://www.martialstaff.com

CLUBS AND INITIATIVES

European Historical Combat Guild
http://www.ehcg.net

The Association for Renaissance Martial Arts (Houston)
http://www.thehaca.com
ARMA was formerly HACA (Historical Armed Combat Association)

Academy of European Medieval Martial Arts (Toronto)
http://www.aemma.org
Articles section: http://www.aemma.org/articles_top.htm

The Company of Maisters of the Science of Defence (London)
http://www.maisters.demon.co.uk

Boars Tooth Fight School (Folkestone)
http://www.boarstooth.org

The Exiles - Company of Medieval Martial Artists (Dagenham)
http://www.the-exiles.org

The Linacre School of Defence (Oxford)
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~zool0328/lsd.html

The Dawn Duellists Society (Edinburgh)
http://www.dawnduellists.org.uk

The Oakeshott Institute
http://www.oakeshott.org
The Oakeshott Institute (named after historical arms expert Ewart Oakeshott) is an education and research centre for furthering study of ancient arms and armor.

Schola Gladiatoria (London and North Devon)
http://mysite.freeserve.com/scholagladiatoria/index.jhtml
An historical European martial arts group based in London and North Devon, England.

Live Steel Fight Academy (Pottstown, PA , USA)
http://www.theoldcelt.com/fightschoolmain.html

The British Federation for Historical Swordplay
http://www.bfhs.co.uk
Represents some 16 UK societies practicing WMA today.

MacDonald Academy (Edinburgh)
http://www.historicalfencing.org/Macdonaldacademy

WEB FORUMS

Western Arts forum at Yahoo
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/western-arts

My Armoury
http://www.myarmoury.com

Sword Forum International
http://www.swordforum.com

EQUIPMENT SUPPLIERS

Purpleheart Armoury
http://www.woodenswords.com/WMA/index.htm
Replica wooden swords for training.

Del Tin Armi Antiche
http://www.deltin.it/home.htm
Judging from the website these are absolutely beautiful replica swords. Only the Italians could make things that look this good!

Albion Armorers
http://www.albion-swords.com
Supplier of high-quality swords for the serious enthusiast and Western Martial Artist alike.

Arms and Armor
http://www.armor.com
Makers of high quality swords and other medieval/renaissance weapons.

New Stirling Arms
http://www.newstirlingarms.com/about.html
Wooden weapons supplier. Makers of the "perfect waster".

MUSEUMS

The Wallace Collection
http://www.the-wallace-collection.org.uk
The London museum with one of the world's finest collections of arms and armour. Oddly, there doesn't seem to be much on the website about its arms and armour.