THE SPORT AND ART OF THE SWORD

Chapter Two: Through The Ages;
The Known History Of Fencing

(Or: What REALLY happened to the dinosaurs...)

Fencing as we know it today is only about 600 years old, but the history of fencing is full of ancient traditions that can be traced back to the dark ages and beyond. Gladiatorial combat in ancient Rome was a popular, if lethal sport. Little is known about the training methods of the Roman soldiers, as the records of that era are incomplete.

After the fall of Rome, and the ensuing chaos of the collapse of civilization, Warlords rose to fill the vacuum. The strong ruled. The weak were subjugated, or perished. So came the Age of Kings, and the rise of chivalry.

The concept of chivalry, and chivalric codes of conduct were evolved for much the same reasons as the Geneva Convention laws of today. Chivalry was a code of behavior set to arbitrate how two foreign powers and their representatives treat each other, especially during warfare. Kings who were at war with each other often hired knights, much like mercenaries, to settle their differences in judicial combat. God was expected to side with the just cause, and bring forth a victor. Swords of this time were large, broad weapons, with rounded tips, little more than five-foot clubs with sharp edges.

Knightly armor of the middle ages usually consisted of tightly woven links of chain over a padded suit. This proved quite effective against the cutting edge of a sword, so other methods of destruction were devised. Maces (metal clubs), morningstars (metal clubs with spikes), and flails (Metal Clubs on the end of chains, often spiked) bashed our intrepid knights. Claymores (very large swords), waraxes (very large ones), and polearms (blades of many shapes and sizes on a stick) pummeled, cut, and poked through our armored heroes. To make matters worse, many of these weapons were made from the simple farm implements of the peasants they were sent to guard (subjugate). Armor at this point came to include plates of steel, which was by this time more accessible, and provided better protection from the various dangers which our friendly neighborhood sword-swinger had to face.

Many people believe the myth that the advances in technology, including the development of gunpowder and the crossbow rendered our knight's shiny armor obsolete. The reasons our chivalric defenders stopped wearing armor were more social and economic. As kings waged war on each other, using ever larger armies to consolidate their power over ever wider territories, they drained their treasuries building castles and palaces and living, well...like kings. Armor became more elaborate, decorated with gold and enamel. And heavy. While the weight of plate armor was well distributed over the hips and shoulders, it still took several attendants and quite some time to don, and sometimes years to make by highly skilled (and highly paid) artisans. Outfitting an army with the latest armor was simply too expensive, and impracticable. Armor sufficient to stop crossbows and the occasional (very occasional) shot from a hand-cannon slowed the soldiers down to the point that he could be overwhelmed by a dozen peasants with sharpened sticks and simple farm implements, let alone a small group of highly trained mercenaries with polearms.

Even if this wasn't enough for our humble knight to hang up his sword and take up crochet, probably the most formidable weapon ever to face our fearless fighting friends was not the crossbow, not the advent of the gun (accuracy, it seems, was not invented until the mid-1800's. That, however is another story...), but the BOAT...