MEDIEVAL MARTIAL ARTS &
RENAISSANCE MARTIAL ARTS

Like the martial arts of Eastern societies, ritualized combat in the West was linked to contemporary social and scientific concerns.^[1] However, the techniques of personal violence were not only studied by the royalty, aristocrats, and the military but also by the commoners. It was normal that everyone in the social hierarchy carried and used lethal weapons.^[2] Public duels or contests were also common. These were grand public spectacles, with elaborate preparations for the combatants involving prayer, ritual bathing, and so on.<sup>[3]


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Medieval Knights, or Men-at-Arms, were expected to know unarmed combat and dagger fighting in addition to the sword and spear skills. Surviving combat manuals, contain sections on unarmed striking and grappling, unarmed defense against the dagger, dagger fighting, unarmed techniques against the  sword, dagger against sword, joint locks, breaks, throws, disarms, counters, ground grappling, strikes, clinches, holds and more.<sup>[7]


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The Medieval warrior also learnt to use their armor as a weapon.  Fighting with real armor was quite different to fighting without. Plate and chain armor could render slicing and stabbing blows useless, enabling the wearer to close in and fight with their longsword in a shortened “bayonet” grip or “half-sword” techniques. This allowed maximum power thrusts at the gaps in the opponent’s armor.  The armor would also be used to grind into the opponent while on the ground, and the pointed knees and elbows could deliver horrible pressure to an unarmored foe. Often a knight’s shoes came to points designed for kicking. These were called sabatons by the French, and would be used when on horseback to kick people when they were close.^[9]
 
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Fighting from horseback was another important skill.  The long spear, or lance, was used from horseback, along with the mace and sword.  Fiore dei Liberi, among others, also shows many ways to apply grappling techniques to unseat another rider when in close, side by side. 

At around 2000 pounds, and traveling at up to 35 miles an hour in a charge, the mounted knight must have inspired true terror in anyone facing them on foot.^[13]

From the late 13^th to the mid-19^th centuries (1200AD – 1800AD), artists worked with masters of arms to record the techniques of personal combat. The masters hoped to bring their skills to a wider audience, relying on systems of movement notation and illustration.^[14]

Identical techniques are often repeated with all the different weapons, demonstrating the integrated nature of the medieval system.  The Medieval knight truly understood how to “make the connection” between the essential techniques in combat, regardless of weapon.^[15]

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As wars raged across Europe during the Middle Ages, European warriors developed a powerful style of combat used for the battlefield, suppressing riots, and personal defense. 

Many warriors fought personal and judicial duels to the death, as well as taking part in organized “melees”, or tournaments. 

The swordsmen of each country perfected the art which they would pass on to the next generation.^[18]

Starting in the late 1200’s, books that taught fighting techniques were made in small numbers by hand.^[19]

The oldest known European fighting text is an anonymous German sword and buckler manual produced around 1295AD. Its watercolor pages features a series of images of a monk and his partner performing various attacks and counter attacks and has recently come to be more appreciated as a source for study of historical European martial arts.^[20]

In the 1380’s, Johannes Liechtenauer produced his revolutionary book on sword fighting.^[22] Liechtenauer’s book divided a person in four quarters, with lines that equally divided the left and right side, and the upper and lower body. Each quarter was seen as an opening which required particular techniques to infiltrate. This system remained the foundation for German swordsmanship until the long sword finally lost its favour in the early 17^th century.^[23]

With the development of printmaking in Europe during the 1400s, there came a revival of science and classical humanism. Books and manuscripts on personal combat skills flourished^[24] and this became the golden era of the “Fechtbuch” or “fight-book.”.^[25] Authors wrote multiple books in their lifetime, particularly in Italy, France, Germany, England, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands.

Of this era, the most famous book was written in 1410 by the Bolognese master Fiore dei Liberi. His work, the Flos Duellatorium (“Flower of Battle”), represented the major Italian contribution to 15th century martial arts literature. Three different editions of Fiore’s work survive today.^[27] Dei Liberi showed over 100 individual techniques of wrestling, dagger fighting, unarmed defense, multiple counters to all of his moves,^[28]

However, during this era, martial arts was still considered the realm of Knights and Men-at-Arms only. Fiore would never show his techniques in public, except as he used them in battle, and he taught all his students behind closed doors, swearing them to secrecy about what they learned.^[29] Fiore wrote in his works “For the experts in swordsmanship who help the men at arms during wars, riots, and duels” and should never become known to the common people “who are created by God without a wit like cows that are born only to carry heavy loads”.^[30]

Other important texts include:

During the Renaissance the focus of European swordplay shifted from military combat to civilian defence and dueling. Physical exercise was central to the education of gentleman,^[42] and the invention of the printing press gave rise to mass-produced training manuals that were translated and sold abroad.  This opened up the previously guarded secrets of professional warriors, as Renaissance teachers sought to attract wealthy civilian students.^[43] The heavy long sword lost its place as civilians favoured the lighter rapier while the military increasingly favoured firearms and polearms.^[44]

However, there were many critics of this trend, including George Silver of England. In his 1599 ‘Paradoxes of Defense’, Silver favoured the short sword, buckler, dagger, staff and dagger, as these weapons had dual use for war and civil use whereas the rapier was limited to civil use only.^[46] Silver’s views were rebutted by fellow Englishman George Hale in 1614, in his book ‘The Private Schoole of Defence.<sup>[47]


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The most prominent martial artist of this era was the Italian Achille Marozzo. In 1536, his manual Opera Nova (“The New Work”) was the first book on swordplay produced via the mechanical printing press.^[50] More importantly, his manual was the first to emphasize the use of thrusting techniques with slender single-handed blades such as the rapier.^[51] Marozzo also taught many teachers, and became the first great Western masters to “bridge the gap between the military, the police, the martial artists, and the informed citizenry”.^[52]

Many older Medieval tactics however, survived during the Renaissance. These included cutting an opponent’s knife hand, low fakes to open up high attacks (and vice-versa), fakes to one side before launching the real attack on the other side, and faking knife-throws. The preferred method of knife-throwing was an underhand swing, releasing the knife as it came in line with the enemy. This allowed the knife to fly straight into the target point first, without spinning.
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Important manuals of this era were:^[56]

By the end of the Renaissance, swordplay styles changed as smaller and lighter thrusting-only swords (such as the foil) came into fashion and the dagger dropped from use. These ‘small-swords’ became the mark of a gentleman, and were used for duels of honor. Sword techniques became more refined and removed from the realities of the Medieval battlefield, hundreds of years before. 

The basis for these techniques were provided by the Italian Ridolfo Capo Ferro in his ‘Gran simulacro’ of 1610.^[58] They were quick, light, athletic movements that could be delivered in a rapid manner. This gentleman’s dueling style was also favored with military officers, and became what we now see as “Classical Fencing” as an Olympic sport.^[59]