MARTIAL ARTS OF EUROPE
Despite the fact there is a more than 2,400-year-old military tradition within Western civilization of close-combat proficiency, few subjects have received as unfortunate neglect by historians and academics than the martial arts of Western Europe. But a growing amount of modern research has centered on the historical methods of using various types of Medieval and Renaissance swords and weaponry in historically accurate and martially sound manners. This emerging study of historical European martial arts involves a fascinating combination of military history, fencing history, literature, art, language, and archaeology. Much effort has been given by modern scholars and writers in trying to define what is or isn't a true “martial art” (the focus of much of which has revolved around the modern practice of traditional Asian fighting arts). The historical function of martial arts within the context of the Medieval and Renaissance eras however was as combatives—systematic skills or disciplined methods of close-combat for single-combat and battlefield survival. This craft always proceeded pragmatically, reflecting the demands of the martial environment it faced, with its manner of warfare, habits of social violence, and arms and armor technology. Empirical and concrete, it had no display or performance art dimension (such was left to the tap-fighting carnival-masters). Given cultural, social, and athletic components tying these closely to the warrior class, the art and science of self-defense often had associated recreational, ritualistic, and sporting components along side its practical application. With the changes in military and social conditions of later centuries, their martial necessity decreased over time and these secondary elements came eventually to overshadow (and even replace) the craft's original function. The history of European arms and armor is itself one of established continuity marked by sudden developments of necessitated innovation. As new tools were devised, so too were new methods for using them. These methods in turn influenced still newer designs. By studying the historical systems for employing such arms and armor, we come to the best possible understanding for how and why they were designed as they were. This further leads to a greater appreciation for the little known martial arts of the age. While the term “martial arts” today is typically synonymous with “Asian fighting art”, for centuries highly sophisticated European martial systems existed. It is from the Latin that we actually derive the English term, “martial arts” – from “arts of Mars”, the Roman god of war. The term “martial art” was used in regard to fighting skills as early as the 1550s and in an English fencing manual of 1639 referred specifically to the science and art of swordplay. In reference to Medieval and Renaissance combat systems the terms "fencing" and "martial arts" should thus be viewed as synonymous. Fencing was in essence the “exercise of armes” –and arms meant more than just using a sword. Prior to the advent in the mid 1500s of specific civilian weapons for urban dueling, the use of personal fighting skills in Western Europe were primarily for military purposes rather than private self-defense, and fencing was therefore by definition a martial (i.e., military) art. The study of arms in the Middle Ages and Renaissance was for the large part not exclusively fixed upon either judicial combat or the duel of honor or even on the knightly chivalric tournament. Yet neither was it intended for battlefield use alone.
A Medieval Heritage -
From about the 12th century, professional instructors of fencing existed across Europe. Many of these “Masters of Defence”, or instructors in arms, became highly regarded international experts. Over time they uniquely produced hundreds of detailed, often well-illustrated, technical manuals on their fighting methods which reveal their craft to be one of sophisticated and systematic skill. When studied from within their own cultural context these little known surviving manuals present a portrait of highly developed and innovative European martial arts. Today, dozens of these obscure manuscripts and printed books provide an unequaled resource for modern students and practitioners. The popular myth of untutored knights clumsily swinging crude swords while lumbering around in heavy armor is shredded by the actual evidence. The unequivocal picture presented by historical sources is one of trained warriors expertly employing skillfully-designed weapons with brutal efficiency. Soft, slow, superfluous movement was antithetical to the necessarily powerful strikes and fluid, energetic defense necessary for survival in vicious personal combat. But these masters were no mere “fencers”. Theirs were complete fighting systems as suited to armored as to unarmored combat. They taught integrated martial arts of both armed and unarmed components. Grappling and wrestling techniques were vital elements. The weapons of dagger, staff, and axe were studied as vigorously as pole-weapons, shields, and especially all manner of swords. Their methods were specialized for foot or mounted, single combat or group. By the early 1500s, the transformation of warfare by firearms and the breakdown of the old feudal order limited the avenues for both redress of personal grievance and exhibition of martial skill. Social and technological changes in the Renaissance accelerated experimentation in fighting arts and civilian schools of fence proliferated. The result was an explosion in the popularity of dueling, first as an augment of common street fighting and vendetta brawling, and later for private affairs of reputation and honor. Into this environment the systematic study of fencing grew into a new “Science of Defence” emphasizing urban self-defense. The modern obsession with the formal duel as depicted in period literature as well as in modern re-creation popular media, and sport fencing has tended to obscure the larger context of urban combat and the general armed violence inherent in the age. The romanticized view of gentlemen defending their reputations and character is dwarfed by accounts of sudden assaults, vicious ambushes and general street-fighting among all classes. Renaissance fencing masters were commonly soldiers and scholars as well as accomplished men of learning. Among their patrons were nobles, princes, and kings as well as commoners, knights, and soldiers. Geometry, mathematics, anatomy, and philosophy played major roles in their teachings. The early Spanish master Pietro Monte was a theologian, mathematician, scholar and even taught darts to Leonard Da Vinci. He was a prodigious writer on martial arts, military theory, theology, and eventually produced volumes on wrestling, health, gymnastics, ballistics, and swordsmanship. The fencing author Camillo Agrippa was an engineer, mathematician, and fencing instructor to the artist Michelangelo. The Frenchmen Girard Thibault was a painter, architect and even a physician. Like much of progress in Renaissance learning and science, advances in self-defense were based on what had already been commonly established for centuries. They were not able to achieve their progress in a vacuum. There is an obvious direct and discernible link between the brutal, practical fighting methods of the Middle Ages and the more sophisticated, elegant Renaissance fencing systems. No tradition of fighting or methodology of combat exists by itself. It comes into being due to environmental pressure as only a processing or refinement of what existed previously. So it was with the fencing arts of the Renaissance. They followed a more than 2,000-year-old military tradition within Western civilization of close-combat proficiency. The techniques developed and taught by the Masters of Defence were not “tricks” nor merely based only on brute strength. They were moves they knew worked in combat, that they had discerned, had named, and had taught to others. But, to fencers in much later centuries, (bounded by rules of deportment and the etiquette of convention) these earlier fighting styles (designed to face a range of arms and armors) would naturally seem less “scientific”. With the disconnection that occurred between older traditions and the precise sporting swordplay of later gentlemen duelists, it is reasonable that the earlier, more dynamic, flexible, and inclusive methods would incorrectly seem to only be a mix of chaotic gimmicks unconnected by any larger “theory”. Eventually, due to changing historical and social forces, the traditional martial skills and teachings of European Masters of Defense fell out of common use. Little to nothing of their methods actually survive in modern fencing sports today which, based on conceptions of 18th century small-sword combat, are far removed from their martial origins in the Renaissance. Later centuries in Europe saw only limited and narrow application of swords and traditional arms, only some of which survived for a time to become martial sports.
Modern Research & Practice -
In a sense, our European martial culture is itself something still very much with us today. But it now bares little resemblance to its Renaissance heritage. The technological revolution in Western military science which swept the 18th century left behind the old ideas of an individual, armored warrior trained in personal hand-to-hand combat. It was replaced with the new “Western Way of war” utilizing ballistics and associated organizational concepts. This very approach itself, emphasizing more and more a technical, mechanical, and industrial method of armed combat, is the Western martial “tradition” now. Indeed, it is this very martial way that is now the model for all modern armed forces the world over. In a sense, to see a modern aircraft carrier, fighter squadron, or armored battalion is very much the embodiment of a continuing and ever evolving European martial tradition. From the time of the ancient Greeks onward Western Civilization has always been a source of uniquely resourceful ideas and specialized innovation. For better or worse, the same technical ingenuity that was applied to classical arts and sciences was directed equally towards the weapons of war and skills of battle. In short, the Western world's contributions to martial arts are far-ranging and far-reaching. Modern boxing, wrestling, and sport fencing are the very blunt and shallow tip of a deep history which, when explored and developed properly, provides a link to traditions which are as rich and complex as any to emerge from Asia. Today, as more and more students of the martial arts of Renaissance Europe("MARE") earnestly study the subject they are recovering this heritage and reclaiming it from myth, misconception, and fantasy. This is not about costumed role-play or theatrical stunt shows, but scholarly research combined with genuine martial arts training. As a result a more realistic appreciation of our Western martial culture is now emerging full force.
Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) refers to martial arts of European origin, particularly using arts formerly practised, but having since died out or evolved into very different forms. While there is limited surviving documentation of the martial arts of Classical Antiquity (such as Ancient Greek wrestling or Gladiatorialcombat), surviving dedicated technical treatises or combat manuals date to the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. For this reason, the focus of HEMA is de facto on the period of the half-millennium of ca. 1300 to 1800, with a German and an Italian school flowering in the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance (14th to 16th centuries), followed by Spanish, French, English and Scottishschools of fencing in the modern period (17th and 18th centuries). Arts of the 19th century such as classical fencing, and even earlyhybrid styles such as Bartitsu may also be included in the term HEMA in a wider sense, as may traditional or folkloristic styles attested in the 19th and early 20th centuries, including forms of folk wrestling and traditional stick fighting methods. The term Western martial arts (WMA) is sometimes used in the United States and in a wider sense including modern and traditional disciplines. During the Late Middle Ages, the longsword had a position of honour among these disciplines, and sometimes historical European swordsmanship (HES) is used to refer to swordsmanship techniques specifically. Modern reconstructions of some of these arts arose from the 1890s and have been practised systematically since the 1990s.
Early History -
There are no known manuals predating the Late Middle Ages (except for fragmentary instructions on Greek wrestling, see P.Oxy. III 466), although Ancient and Medieval literature (e.g., Icelandic sagas and Middle High German epics) record specific martial deeds and military knowledge; in addition, historical artwork depicts combat and weaponry (e.g., the Bayeux tapestry, the Morgan Bible). Some researchers have attempted to reconstruct older fighting methods such as Pankration and gladiatorial combat by reference to these sources and practical experimentation, though such recreations necessarily remain more speculative than those based on actual instructions. The so-called MS I.33 (also known as the Walpurgis or Tower Fechtbuch), dated to ca. 1300, is the oldest surviving fechtbuch, teaching sword and buckler combat.
Middle Ages -
The central figure of late medieval martial arts, at least in Germany, is Johannes Liechtenauer. Though no manuscript written by him is known to have survived, his teachings were first recorded in the late 14th century MS 3227a. From the 15th century into the 17th, numerousFechtbücher (German "fencing-books") were produced, of which some several hundred are extant; a great many of these describe methods descended from Liechtenauer's. Normally, several modes of combat were taught alongside one another, typically unarmedgrappling (Kampfringen or abrazare), dagger (Degen or daga, often of the rondel variety), long knife (Messer) or Dussack, half- or quarterstaff, pole arms, longsword (langes Schwert, spada longa, spadone), and combat in plate armour (Harnischfechten orarmazare), both on foot and on horseback. Some Fechtbücher have sections on dueling shields (Stechschild), special weapons used only in judicial duels. Important 15th-century German fencing masters include Sigmund Ringeck, Peter von Danzig, Hans Talhoffer and Paulus Kal, all of whom taught the teachings of Liechtenhauer. From the late 15th century, there were "brotherhoods" of fencers (Fechtbruderschaften), most notably the Marx brothers (attested 1474) and the Federfechter. An early Burgundian French treatise is Le jeu de la hache ("The Play of the Axe") of ca. 1400. The earliest master to write in the Italian was Fiore dei Liberi, commissioned by the Marquis di Ferrara. Between 1407 and 1410, he documented comprehensive fighting techniques in a treatise entitled Flos Duellatorum covering grappling, dagger, arming sword, longsword, pole-weapons, armoured combat and mounted combat. The Italian school is continued by Filippo Vadi (1482–1487) andPietro Monte (1492, Latin with Italian and Spanish terms) Three early (before Silver) natively English swordplay texts exist, all very obscure and of uncertain date; they are generally thought to belong to the latter half of the 15th century.
Renaissance -
In the 16th century, compendia of older Fechtbücher techniques were produced, some of them printed, notably by Paulus Hector Mair (in the 1540s) and by Joachim Meyer (in the 1570s). In the 16th century, German fencing had developed sportive tendencies. The treatises of Paulus Hector Mair and Joachim Meyer derived from the teachings of the earlier centuries within the Liechtenauer tradition, but with new and distinctive characteristics. The printed fechtbuch of Jacob Sutor (1612) is one of the last in the German tradition. In Italy, the 16th century is a period of big change. It opens with the two treatises of Bolognese masters Antonio Manciolino and Achille Marozzo, who describe a variation of the eclectic knightly arts of the previous century. From sword and buckler to sword and dagger, sword alone to two-handed sword, from polearms to wrestling (though absent in Manciolino), early 16th-century Italian fencing reflects the versatility that a martial artist of the time was supposed to achieve. Towards the mid-century, however, polearms and companion weapons beside the dagger and the cape gradually begin to fade out of treatises. In 1553, Camillo Agrippa is the first to define the prima, seconda, terza and quarta guards (or hand-positions), which would remain the mainstay of Italian fencing into the next century and beyond. From the late 16th century, Italian rapier fencing attained considerable popularity all over Europe, notably with the treatise by Salvator Fabris (1606).
Early Modern Period -
Baroque style -
During the Baroque period, wrestling fell from favour among the upper classes, being now seen as unrefined and rustic. The fencing styles practice also needed to conform with the new ideals of elegance and harmony. This ideology was taken to great lengths in Spain in particular, where La Verdadera Destreza "the true art (of swordsmanship)" was now based on Renaissance humanism and scientific principles, contrasting with the traditional "vulgar" approach to fencing inherited from the medieval period. Significant masters of Destreza included Jerónimo Sánchez de Carranza ("the father of Destreza", d. 1600) and Luis Pacheco de Narváez (1600, 1632). Girard Thibault (1630) was a Dutch master influenced by these ideals. The French school of fencing also moves away from its Italian roots, developing its own terminology, rules and systems of teaching. French masters of the Baroque period include Le Perche du Coudray (1635, 1676, teacher of Cyrano de Bergerac), Besnard (1653, teacher of Descartes), François Dancie (1623) and Philibert de la Touche (1670). In Italy, 17th century swordsmanship is dominated by Salvator Fabris, whose De lo schermo overo scienza d’arme of 1606 exerted great influence not only in Italy but also in Germany, where it all but extinguished the native German traditions of fencing. Fabris was followed by Italian masters such as Nicoletto Giganti (1606),Ridolfo Capo Ferro (1610), Francesco Alfieri (1640), Francesco Antonio Marcelli (1686) and Bondi' di Mazo (1696). The Elizabethan and Jacobean eras produce English fencing masters, such asGeorge Silver (1599) and Joseph Swetnam (1617). The English verb to fence is first attested in Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor (1597). The French school of fencing originates in the 16th century, based on the Italian school, and develops into its classic form in the Baroque period.
Rococo style -
In the 18th century Late Baroque / Rococo period, the French style of fencing with the smallsword and later with the foil (fleuret), in origin a training weapon for smallsword fencing. By the year 1715, the rapier had been largely replaced by the lighter small sword throughout most of Europe, although treatments of the former continued to be included by authors such as Donald McBane (1728), P. J. F. Girard (1736) and Domenico Angelo (1763). In the course of the 18th century, the French school became the western European standard to the extent that Angelo, an Italian-born master teaching in England, published his L'Ecole des Armes in French in 1763. It was extremely successful and became a standard fencing manual over the following 50 years, throughout the Napoleonic period. Angelo's text was so influential that it was chosen to be included under the heading of "Éscrime" in the Encyclopédie of Diderot.
Development Into Modern Sports -
In the course of the long 19th century, Western martial arts became divided into modern sports on one hand and applications that retain military significance on the other. In the latter category are the methods of close-quarter combat with the bayonet besides use of the sabre and the lance by cavalrists and of the cutlass by naval forces. Apart from fencing with bladed weapons, European combat sports of the 19th century include boxing, savate in France, numerous regional forms of folk wrestling, and numerous styles of stick fighting. Wrestling, javelin, fencing, archery, and boxing continue some of the martial arts of Europe in modified sport form. Fencing in the 19th century transformed into a pure sport. While duels remained common among members of the aristocratic and officer classes, they became increasingly frowned upon in society during the course of the century, and such duels as were fought to the death were increasingly fought with pistols, not bladed weapons.
Stick Fighting -
Styles of stick fighting include walking-stick fighting (including Irish bata or shillelagh, French la canne and English singlestick or cane) and Bartitsu (an early hybrid of Eastern and Western schools popularized at the turn of the 20th century). Some existing forms of European stick fighting can be traced to direct teacher-student lineages from the 19th century. Notable examples include the methods of la canne and Bâton français, Portuguese Jogo do Pau, Italian Paranza or Bastone Siciliano and some styles of Canarian Juego del Palo. In the 19th century and early 20th century, the greatstick (pau/bâton/bastone) was employed by some Portuguese, French and Italian military academies as a method of exercise, recreation and as preparation for bayonet training.
A third category might be traditional "folk styles", mostly folk wrestling. Greco-Roman wrestling was a discipline at the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. Inclusion of Freestyle wrestling followed in 1904.
Revival -
Egerton Castle, Alfred Hutton and Mouatt Biggs giving a demonstration of "Old English sword-and-buckler play" before the Prince of Wales at the Lyceum Theatre in 1891. Attempts at reconstructing the discontinued traditions of European systems of combat began in the late 19th century, with a revival of interest in the Middle Ages. The movement was led in England by the soldier, writer, antiquarian and swordsman, Alfred Hutton. Hutton learned fencing at the school founded by Domenico Angelo. In 1862, he organized in his regiment stationed in India the Cameron Fencing Club, for which he prepared his first work, a 12-page booklet entitled Swordsmanship. After returning from India in 1865, Hutton focused on the study and revival of older fencing systems and schools. He began tutoring groups of students in the art of 'ancient swordplay' at a club attached to the London Rifle Brigade School of Arms in the 1880s. In 1889, Hutton published his most influential work Cold Steel: A Practical Treatise on the Sabre, which presented the historical method of military sabre use on foot, combining the 18th century English backsword with modern Italian duelling sabre. Hutton's pioneering advocacy and practice of historical fencing included reconstructions of the fencing systems of several historical masters including George Silver and Achille Marozzo. He delivered numerous practical demonstrations with his colleague Egerton Castle of these systems during the 1890s, both in order to benefit various military charities and to encourage patronage of the contemporary methods of competitive fencing. Exhibitions were held at the Bath Club and a fund-raising event was arranged at Guy’s Hospital. Newspaper report on a "Ladies' night at the Bath Club" which included demonstrations in "swordsmanship, swimming and bartitsu" (London Daily Mail, 13 June 1899). Among his many acolytes were Egerton Castle, Captain Carl Thimm, Colonel Cyril Matthey, Captain Percy Rolt, Captain Ernest George Stenson Cooke, Captain Frank Herbert Whittow, Esme Beringer, Sir Frederick and Walter Herries Pollock. Despite this revival and the interest that it received in late Victorian England, the practice died out soon after the death of Hutton in 1910. Interest in the physical application of historical fencing techniques remained largely dormant during the first half of the 20th century due to a number of factors. Similar work, although more academic than practical in nature, occurred in other European countries. In Germany, Karl Wassmannsdorf conducted research on the German school and Gustav Hergsell reprinted three of Hans Talhoffer's manuals. In France there was the work of the Academie D'Armes circa 1880-1914. Italy's Jacopo Gelli and Francesco Novati published a facsimile of the "Flos Duellatorum" of Fiore dei Liberi, and Giuseppe Cerri's book on the Bastone drew inspiration from the two-handed sword of Achille Marozzo. Baron Leguina's bibliography of Spanish swordsmanship is still a standard reference today. Throughout the 20th century a small number of researchers, principally academics with access to some of the sources, continued exploring the field of historical European martial arts from a largely academic perspective. In 1972, James Jackson published a book called Three Elizabethan Manuals of Fence. This work reprinted the works of George Silver, Giacomo di Grassi, and Vincentio Saviolo. In 1965, Martin Wierschin published a bibliography of German fencing manuals, along with a transcription of Codex Ringeck and a glossary of terms. In turn, this led to the publication of Hans-Peter Hils' seminal work on Johannes Liechtenauer in 1985. In the 1980s and 1990s, Patri J. Pugliese began making photocopies of historical treatises available to interested parties, greatly spurring on research. 1994 saw the rise of the Hammerterz Forum, a publication devoted entirely to the history of swordsmanship. During the late 1990s, translations and interpretations of historical sources began appearing in print as well as online.
The Modern HEMA Community -
Since 1991, there have emerged flourishing Historical European Martial Arts communities in Europe, North America, Australia and the wider Anglosphere. These groups are engaged in attempting to reconstruct Historical European Martial Arts using various training methods. Although the focus generally is on the martial arts of Medieval and Renaissance masters, nineteenth and early twentieth century martial arts teachers are also studied and their systems are reconstructed, including Edward William Barton-Wright, the founder of Bartitsu; combat savate and stick fighting master Pierre Vigny; London-based boxer and fencer Rowland George Allanson-Winn; French journalist and self-defence enthusiast Jean Joseph-Renaud; and British quarterstaff expert Thomas McCarthy.
Publications -
In the United States, scholarship and reconstruction of the techniques of the Italian fencing masters was initiated by the founders of various HEMA schools and academies, such as Brian R. Price of the Schola Saint George and Bob Charron of St. Martin's Academy (both studying Fiore dei Liberi), and Gregory Mele of the Chicago Swordplay Guild (studying Vadi). Similar study has been carried out by Matt Easton, founder of London's Schola Gladiatoria Harald Winter, Oliver Walter and Martin Enzi of Dreynschlag; Herbert Schmidt, Founder of Ars Gladii; Dierk Hagedorn of Hammaborg; Ingulf Kohlweiss of Indes; Peter Zillinger of Klingenspiel; Wolfgang Ritter of Zornhau; Mark Hillyard of Academie Glorianna; Ton Puey of Asociación Galega de Esgrima Antiga and Guy Windsor, of Finland's School of European Swordsmanship. Research in to Italian sword forms and their influence on the French styles of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries has been undertaken by Rob Runacres of England's Renaissance Sword Club. Italian traditions are mainly investigated in Italy by Sala d'Arme Achille Marozzo, where you can find studies dedicated to the Bolognese tradition, to the Italian medieval tradition by Luca Cesari and Marco Rubboli, and to the Florentine tradition by Alessandro Battistini. The martial traditions of the Netherlands are researched by Reinier van Noort, who additionally focuses on German and French martial sources of the 17th century. Practical and theoretical studies on both the Verdadeira Destreza and its precursor «Esgrima Comúm», from the Iberian Peninsula, are being undertaken by several researchers worldwide, most notably: Alberto Bomprezzi, of the Asociación Española de Esgrima Antigua; Mary and Puck Curtis, of the Sacramento Sword School; and Ton Puey of thegalician HEMA federation Asociación Galega de Esgrima Antiga (AGEA). Critical editions and translations of both Destreza and common fencing treatises are published by a team led by Manuel Valle Ortiz under the firm AGEA Editora. The ongoing study of the germanic Langes Messer is most notably represented by the work of Jens Peter Kleinau and Martin Enzi. Leading researchers on Manuscript I.33's style of fence include Roland Warzecha, at the head of the Dimicator fencing school as well as Herbert Schmidt of Ars Gladii. Other fencing traditions are represented in the scholarship of Paul Wagner and Stephen Hand of Australia’s Stoccata School of Defence,[year needed] focusing on the works of George Silver and the techniques depicted in the Royal Armouries’ Manuscript I.33, and of Henry Christian Tobler on the German school of swordsmanship.
Events -
Since 2006 a Swedish annual event called Swordfish has been taking place every year in Gothenburg, hosted by the Gothenburg Historical Fencing School (GHFS). It is currently the biggest HEMA tournament in the world and is generally considered to be the "world cup of HEMA. Since 1999 a number of these groups have held the Western Martial arts Workshop (WMAW) in the United States. In 2000, The Association for Renaissance Martial Arts (ARMA), then known as the "Historical Armed Combat Association" (HACA), held the Inaugural Swordplay Symposium International conference and since 2003 has held the ARMA International Gathering every two to three years. The Fiore-oriented Schola Saint George has hosted a Medieval Swordsmanship Symposium annually in the United States since 2001. An annual Australian Historical Swordplay Convention has been hosted and attended by diverse Australian groups since 1999. FightCamp has been running since 2004 and it is organized by the London based School of the Gadiator. Since 1998, Sala d'Arme Achille Marozzo organizes every year a great championship in Italy. Due to the excessive number of participants, in 2011 this competitive event was split in two separate events: military weapons (in autumn) and civil weapons (in spring), extending the organization in a larger coalition of Italian HEMA club. Civilian weapons include single sword, sword and cape, sword and dagger, and sword and Brocchiero (Buckler). The military weapons are the two-handed sword, spear, shield and spear, sword and targe, and sword and wheel. The civil weapons championship is currently the largest HEMA tournament in the world. Since 2010, The annual Pacific Northwest HEMA Gathering has been hosted by multiple schools and clubs in the Pacific Northwest. The tournament includes longsword, singlestick, glima, and one rotating weapon which is changed every year. The location of the event changes every year, and has been located at Fort Casey and Pacific Lutheran University.
Umbrella Groups -
In 2001, the Historical European Martial Arts Coalition (HEMAC) was created to act as an umbrella organization for groups in Europe, with 4 sets of goals: martial (reconstruct historical martial arts from primary sources; refine interpretations into viable, effective martial arts; test martial skills in a variety of competitive environments), research (locate, transcribe, translate primary sources; have a better understanding of the socio-historical context of the arts), outreach (promote and publicise HEMA; dispel misconceptions & stereotypes; educate the general public) and community (establish a network of individuals and groups devoted to HEMA; foster close friendships and a sense of community among members; organise at least one annual HEMAC event). Since 2002, HEMAC has organized the annual International Historical European Martial arts Gathering in Dijon,France. In 2003, the Australian Historical Swordplay Federation became the umbrella organization for groups in Australia.
In 2010, several dozen HEMA schools and clubs from around the world united under the umbrella of the HEMA Alliance, a US-based martial arts federation dedicated to developing and sharing the Historical European Martial Arts and assisting HEMA schools and instructors with such things as instructor certification, insurance, and equipment development.
A Medieval Heritage -
From about the 12th century, professional instructors of fencing existed across Europe. Many of these “Masters of Defence”, or instructors in arms, became highly regarded international experts. Over time they uniquely produced hundreds of detailed, often well-illustrated, technical manuals on their fighting methods which reveal their craft to be one of sophisticated and systematic skill. When studied from within their own cultural context these little known surviving manuals present a portrait of highly developed and innovative European martial arts. Today, dozens of these obscure manuscripts and printed books provide an unequaled resource for modern students and practitioners. The popular myth of untutored knights clumsily swinging crude swords while lumbering around in heavy armor is shredded by the actual evidence. The unequivocal picture presented by historical sources is one of trained warriors expertly employing skillfully-designed weapons with brutal efficiency. Soft, slow, superfluous movement was antithetical to the necessarily powerful strikes and fluid, energetic defense necessary for survival in vicious personal combat. But these masters were no mere “fencers”. Theirs were complete fighting systems as suited to armored as to unarmored combat. They taught integrated martial arts of both armed and unarmed components. Grappling and wrestling techniques were vital elements. The weapons of dagger, staff, and axe were studied as vigorously as pole-weapons, shields, and especially all manner of swords. Their methods were specialized for foot or mounted, single combat or group. By the early 1500s, the transformation of warfare by firearms and the breakdown of the old feudal order limited the avenues for both redress of personal grievance and exhibition of martial skill. Social and technological changes in the Renaissance accelerated experimentation in fighting arts and civilian schools of fence proliferated. The result was an explosion in the popularity of dueling, first as an augment of common street fighting and vendetta brawling, and later for private affairs of reputation and honor. Into this environment the systematic study of fencing grew into a new “Science of Defence” emphasizing urban self-defense. The modern obsession with the formal duel as depicted in period literature as well as in modern re-creation popular media, and sport fencing has tended to obscure the larger context of urban combat and the general armed violence inherent in the age. The romanticized view of gentlemen defending their reputations and character is dwarfed by accounts of sudden assaults, vicious ambushes and general street-fighting among all classes. Renaissance fencing masters were commonly soldiers and scholars as well as accomplished men of learning. Among their patrons were nobles, princes, and kings as well as commoners, knights, and soldiers. Geometry, mathematics, anatomy, and philosophy played major roles in their teachings. The early Spanish master Pietro Monte was a theologian, mathematician, scholar and even taught darts to Leonard Da Vinci. He was a prodigious writer on martial arts, military theory, theology, and eventually produced volumes on wrestling, health, gymnastics, ballistics, and swordsmanship. The fencing author Camillo Agrippa was an engineer, mathematician, and fencing instructor to the artist Michelangelo. The Frenchmen Girard Thibault was a painter, architect and even a physician. Like much of progress in Renaissance learning and science, advances in self-defense were based on what had already been commonly established for centuries. They were not able to achieve their progress in a vacuum. There is an obvious direct and discernible link between the brutal, practical fighting methods of the Middle Ages and the more sophisticated, elegant Renaissance fencing systems. No tradition of fighting or methodology of combat exists by itself. It comes into being due to environmental pressure as only a processing or refinement of what existed previously. So it was with the fencing arts of the Renaissance. They followed a more than 2,000-year-old military tradition within Western civilization of close-combat proficiency. The techniques developed and taught by the Masters of Defence were not “tricks” nor merely based only on brute strength. They were moves they knew worked in combat, that they had discerned, had named, and had taught to others. But, to fencers in much later centuries, (bounded by rules of deportment and the etiquette of convention) these earlier fighting styles (designed to face a range of arms and armors) would naturally seem less “scientific”. With the disconnection that occurred between older traditions and the precise sporting swordplay of later gentlemen duelists, it is reasonable that the earlier, more dynamic, flexible, and inclusive methods would incorrectly seem to only be a mix of chaotic gimmicks unconnected by any larger “theory”. Eventually, due to changing historical and social forces, the traditional martial skills and teachings of European Masters of Defense fell out of common use. Little to nothing of their methods actually survive in modern fencing sports today which, based on conceptions of 18th century small-sword combat, are far removed from their martial origins in the Renaissance. Later centuries in Europe saw only limited and narrow application of swords and traditional arms, only some of which survived for a time to become martial sports.
Modern Research & Practice -
In a sense, our European martial culture is itself something still very much with us today. But it now bares little resemblance to its Renaissance heritage. The technological revolution in Western military science which swept the 18th century left behind the old ideas of an individual, armored warrior trained in personal hand-to-hand combat. It was replaced with the new “Western Way of war” utilizing ballistics and associated organizational concepts. This very approach itself, emphasizing more and more a technical, mechanical, and industrial method of armed combat, is the Western martial “tradition” now. Indeed, it is this very martial way that is now the model for all modern armed forces the world over. In a sense, to see a modern aircraft carrier, fighter squadron, or armored battalion is very much the embodiment of a continuing and ever evolving European martial tradition. From the time of the ancient Greeks onward Western Civilization has always been a source of uniquely resourceful ideas and specialized innovation. For better or worse, the same technical ingenuity that was applied to classical arts and sciences was directed equally towards the weapons of war and skills of battle. In short, the Western world's contributions to martial arts are far-ranging and far-reaching. Modern boxing, wrestling, and sport fencing are the very blunt and shallow tip of a deep history which, when explored and developed properly, provides a link to traditions which are as rich and complex as any to emerge from Asia. Today, as more and more students of the martial arts of Renaissance Europe("MARE") earnestly study the subject they are recovering this heritage and reclaiming it from myth, misconception, and fantasy. This is not about costumed role-play or theatrical stunt shows, but scholarly research combined with genuine martial arts training. As a result a more realistic appreciation of our Western martial culture is now emerging full force.
Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) refers to martial arts of European origin, particularly using arts formerly practised, but having since died out or evolved into very different forms. While there is limited surviving documentation of the martial arts of Classical Antiquity (such as Ancient Greek wrestling or Gladiatorialcombat), surviving dedicated technical treatises or combat manuals date to the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. For this reason, the focus of HEMA is de facto on the period of the half-millennium of ca. 1300 to 1800, with a German and an Italian school flowering in the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance (14th to 16th centuries), followed by Spanish, French, English and Scottishschools of fencing in the modern period (17th and 18th centuries). Arts of the 19th century such as classical fencing, and even earlyhybrid styles such as Bartitsu may also be included in the term HEMA in a wider sense, as may traditional or folkloristic styles attested in the 19th and early 20th centuries, including forms of folk wrestling and traditional stick fighting methods. The term Western martial arts (WMA) is sometimes used in the United States and in a wider sense including modern and traditional disciplines. During the Late Middle Ages, the longsword had a position of honour among these disciplines, and sometimes historical European swordsmanship (HES) is used to refer to swordsmanship techniques specifically. Modern reconstructions of some of these arts arose from the 1890s and have been practised systematically since the 1990s.
Early History -
There are no known manuals predating the Late Middle Ages (except for fragmentary instructions on Greek wrestling, see P.Oxy. III 466), although Ancient and Medieval literature (e.g., Icelandic sagas and Middle High German epics) record specific martial deeds and military knowledge; in addition, historical artwork depicts combat and weaponry (e.g., the Bayeux tapestry, the Morgan Bible). Some researchers have attempted to reconstruct older fighting methods such as Pankration and gladiatorial combat by reference to these sources and practical experimentation, though such recreations necessarily remain more speculative than those based on actual instructions. The so-called MS I.33 (also known as the Walpurgis or Tower Fechtbuch), dated to ca. 1300, is the oldest surviving fechtbuch, teaching sword and buckler combat.
Middle Ages -
The central figure of late medieval martial arts, at least in Germany, is Johannes Liechtenauer. Though no manuscript written by him is known to have survived, his teachings were first recorded in the late 14th century MS 3227a. From the 15th century into the 17th, numerousFechtbücher (German "fencing-books") were produced, of which some several hundred are extant; a great many of these describe methods descended from Liechtenauer's. Normally, several modes of combat were taught alongside one another, typically unarmedgrappling (Kampfringen or abrazare), dagger (Degen or daga, often of the rondel variety), long knife (Messer) or Dussack, half- or quarterstaff, pole arms, longsword (langes Schwert, spada longa, spadone), and combat in plate armour (Harnischfechten orarmazare), both on foot and on horseback. Some Fechtbücher have sections on dueling shields (Stechschild), special weapons used only in judicial duels. Important 15th-century German fencing masters include Sigmund Ringeck, Peter von Danzig, Hans Talhoffer and Paulus Kal, all of whom taught the teachings of Liechtenhauer. From the late 15th century, there were "brotherhoods" of fencers (Fechtbruderschaften), most notably the Marx brothers (attested 1474) and the Federfechter. An early Burgundian French treatise is Le jeu de la hache ("The Play of the Axe") of ca. 1400. The earliest master to write in the Italian was Fiore dei Liberi, commissioned by the Marquis di Ferrara. Between 1407 and 1410, he documented comprehensive fighting techniques in a treatise entitled Flos Duellatorum covering grappling, dagger, arming sword, longsword, pole-weapons, armoured combat and mounted combat. The Italian school is continued by Filippo Vadi (1482–1487) andPietro Monte (1492, Latin with Italian and Spanish terms) Three early (before Silver) natively English swordplay texts exist, all very obscure and of uncertain date; they are generally thought to belong to the latter half of the 15th century.
Renaissance -
In the 16th century, compendia of older Fechtbücher techniques were produced, some of them printed, notably by Paulus Hector Mair (in the 1540s) and by Joachim Meyer (in the 1570s). In the 16th century, German fencing had developed sportive tendencies. The treatises of Paulus Hector Mair and Joachim Meyer derived from the teachings of the earlier centuries within the Liechtenauer tradition, but with new and distinctive characteristics. The printed fechtbuch of Jacob Sutor (1612) is one of the last in the German tradition. In Italy, the 16th century is a period of big change. It opens with the two treatises of Bolognese masters Antonio Manciolino and Achille Marozzo, who describe a variation of the eclectic knightly arts of the previous century. From sword and buckler to sword and dagger, sword alone to two-handed sword, from polearms to wrestling (though absent in Manciolino), early 16th-century Italian fencing reflects the versatility that a martial artist of the time was supposed to achieve. Towards the mid-century, however, polearms and companion weapons beside the dagger and the cape gradually begin to fade out of treatises. In 1553, Camillo Agrippa is the first to define the prima, seconda, terza and quarta guards (or hand-positions), which would remain the mainstay of Italian fencing into the next century and beyond. From the late 16th century, Italian rapier fencing attained considerable popularity all over Europe, notably with the treatise by Salvator Fabris (1606).
Early Modern Period -
Baroque style -
During the Baroque period, wrestling fell from favour among the upper classes, being now seen as unrefined and rustic. The fencing styles practice also needed to conform with the new ideals of elegance and harmony. This ideology was taken to great lengths in Spain in particular, where La Verdadera Destreza "the true art (of swordsmanship)" was now based on Renaissance humanism and scientific principles, contrasting with the traditional "vulgar" approach to fencing inherited from the medieval period. Significant masters of Destreza included Jerónimo Sánchez de Carranza ("the father of Destreza", d. 1600) and Luis Pacheco de Narváez (1600, 1632). Girard Thibault (1630) was a Dutch master influenced by these ideals. The French school of fencing also moves away from its Italian roots, developing its own terminology, rules and systems of teaching. French masters of the Baroque period include Le Perche du Coudray (1635, 1676, teacher of Cyrano de Bergerac), Besnard (1653, teacher of Descartes), François Dancie (1623) and Philibert de la Touche (1670). In Italy, 17th century swordsmanship is dominated by Salvator Fabris, whose De lo schermo overo scienza d’arme of 1606 exerted great influence not only in Italy but also in Germany, where it all but extinguished the native German traditions of fencing. Fabris was followed by Italian masters such as Nicoletto Giganti (1606),Ridolfo Capo Ferro (1610), Francesco Alfieri (1640), Francesco Antonio Marcelli (1686) and Bondi' di Mazo (1696). The Elizabethan and Jacobean eras produce English fencing masters, such asGeorge Silver (1599) and Joseph Swetnam (1617). The English verb to fence is first attested in Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor (1597). The French school of fencing originates in the 16th century, based on the Italian school, and develops into its classic form in the Baroque period.
Rococo style -
In the 18th century Late Baroque / Rococo period, the French style of fencing with the smallsword and later with the foil (fleuret), in origin a training weapon for smallsword fencing. By the year 1715, the rapier had been largely replaced by the lighter small sword throughout most of Europe, although treatments of the former continued to be included by authors such as Donald McBane (1728), P. J. F. Girard (1736) and Domenico Angelo (1763). In the course of the 18th century, the French school became the western European standard to the extent that Angelo, an Italian-born master teaching in England, published his L'Ecole des Armes in French in 1763. It was extremely successful and became a standard fencing manual over the following 50 years, throughout the Napoleonic period. Angelo's text was so influential that it was chosen to be included under the heading of "Éscrime" in the Encyclopédie of Diderot.
Development Into Modern Sports -
In the course of the long 19th century, Western martial arts became divided into modern sports on one hand and applications that retain military significance on the other. In the latter category are the methods of close-quarter combat with the bayonet besides use of the sabre and the lance by cavalrists and of the cutlass by naval forces. Apart from fencing with bladed weapons, European combat sports of the 19th century include boxing, savate in France, numerous regional forms of folk wrestling, and numerous styles of stick fighting. Wrestling, javelin, fencing, archery, and boxing continue some of the martial arts of Europe in modified sport form. Fencing in the 19th century transformed into a pure sport. While duels remained common among members of the aristocratic and officer classes, they became increasingly frowned upon in society during the course of the century, and such duels as were fought to the death were increasingly fought with pistols, not bladed weapons.
Stick Fighting -
Styles of stick fighting include walking-stick fighting (including Irish bata or shillelagh, French la canne and English singlestick or cane) and Bartitsu (an early hybrid of Eastern and Western schools popularized at the turn of the 20th century). Some existing forms of European stick fighting can be traced to direct teacher-student lineages from the 19th century. Notable examples include the methods of la canne and Bâton français, Portuguese Jogo do Pau, Italian Paranza or Bastone Siciliano and some styles of Canarian Juego del Palo. In the 19th century and early 20th century, the greatstick (pau/bâton/bastone) was employed by some Portuguese, French and Italian military academies as a method of exercise, recreation and as preparation for bayonet training.
A third category might be traditional "folk styles", mostly folk wrestling. Greco-Roman wrestling was a discipline at the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. Inclusion of Freestyle wrestling followed in 1904.
Revival -
Egerton Castle, Alfred Hutton and Mouatt Biggs giving a demonstration of "Old English sword-and-buckler play" before the Prince of Wales at the Lyceum Theatre in 1891. Attempts at reconstructing the discontinued traditions of European systems of combat began in the late 19th century, with a revival of interest in the Middle Ages. The movement was led in England by the soldier, writer, antiquarian and swordsman, Alfred Hutton. Hutton learned fencing at the school founded by Domenico Angelo. In 1862, he organized in his regiment stationed in India the Cameron Fencing Club, for which he prepared his first work, a 12-page booklet entitled Swordsmanship. After returning from India in 1865, Hutton focused on the study and revival of older fencing systems and schools. He began tutoring groups of students in the art of 'ancient swordplay' at a club attached to the London Rifle Brigade School of Arms in the 1880s. In 1889, Hutton published his most influential work Cold Steel: A Practical Treatise on the Sabre, which presented the historical method of military sabre use on foot, combining the 18th century English backsword with modern Italian duelling sabre. Hutton's pioneering advocacy and practice of historical fencing included reconstructions of the fencing systems of several historical masters including George Silver and Achille Marozzo. He delivered numerous practical demonstrations with his colleague Egerton Castle of these systems during the 1890s, both in order to benefit various military charities and to encourage patronage of the contemporary methods of competitive fencing. Exhibitions were held at the Bath Club and a fund-raising event was arranged at Guy’s Hospital. Newspaper report on a "Ladies' night at the Bath Club" which included demonstrations in "swordsmanship, swimming and bartitsu" (London Daily Mail, 13 June 1899). Among his many acolytes were Egerton Castle, Captain Carl Thimm, Colonel Cyril Matthey, Captain Percy Rolt, Captain Ernest George Stenson Cooke, Captain Frank Herbert Whittow, Esme Beringer, Sir Frederick and Walter Herries Pollock. Despite this revival and the interest that it received in late Victorian England, the practice died out soon after the death of Hutton in 1910. Interest in the physical application of historical fencing techniques remained largely dormant during the first half of the 20th century due to a number of factors. Similar work, although more academic than practical in nature, occurred in other European countries. In Germany, Karl Wassmannsdorf conducted research on the German school and Gustav Hergsell reprinted three of Hans Talhoffer's manuals. In France there was the work of the Academie D'Armes circa 1880-1914. Italy's Jacopo Gelli and Francesco Novati published a facsimile of the "Flos Duellatorum" of Fiore dei Liberi, and Giuseppe Cerri's book on the Bastone drew inspiration from the two-handed sword of Achille Marozzo. Baron Leguina's bibliography of Spanish swordsmanship is still a standard reference today. Throughout the 20th century a small number of researchers, principally academics with access to some of the sources, continued exploring the field of historical European martial arts from a largely academic perspective. In 1972, James Jackson published a book called Three Elizabethan Manuals of Fence. This work reprinted the works of George Silver, Giacomo di Grassi, and Vincentio Saviolo. In 1965, Martin Wierschin published a bibliography of German fencing manuals, along with a transcription of Codex Ringeck and a glossary of terms. In turn, this led to the publication of Hans-Peter Hils' seminal work on Johannes Liechtenauer in 1985. In the 1980s and 1990s, Patri J. Pugliese began making photocopies of historical treatises available to interested parties, greatly spurring on research. 1994 saw the rise of the Hammerterz Forum, a publication devoted entirely to the history of swordsmanship. During the late 1990s, translations and interpretations of historical sources began appearing in print as well as online.
The Modern HEMA Community -
Since 1991, there have emerged flourishing Historical European Martial Arts communities in Europe, North America, Australia and the wider Anglosphere. These groups are engaged in attempting to reconstruct Historical European Martial Arts using various training methods. Although the focus generally is on the martial arts of Medieval and Renaissance masters, nineteenth and early twentieth century martial arts teachers are also studied and their systems are reconstructed, including Edward William Barton-Wright, the founder of Bartitsu; combat savate and stick fighting master Pierre Vigny; London-based boxer and fencer Rowland George Allanson-Winn; French journalist and self-defence enthusiast Jean Joseph-Renaud; and British quarterstaff expert Thomas McCarthy.
Publications -
In the United States, scholarship and reconstruction of the techniques of the Italian fencing masters was initiated by the founders of various HEMA schools and academies, such as Brian R. Price of the Schola Saint George and Bob Charron of St. Martin's Academy (both studying Fiore dei Liberi), and Gregory Mele of the Chicago Swordplay Guild (studying Vadi). Similar study has been carried out by Matt Easton, founder of London's Schola Gladiatoria Harald Winter, Oliver Walter and Martin Enzi of Dreynschlag; Herbert Schmidt, Founder of Ars Gladii; Dierk Hagedorn of Hammaborg; Ingulf Kohlweiss of Indes; Peter Zillinger of Klingenspiel; Wolfgang Ritter of Zornhau; Mark Hillyard of Academie Glorianna; Ton Puey of Asociación Galega de Esgrima Antiga and Guy Windsor, of Finland's School of European Swordsmanship. Research in to Italian sword forms and their influence on the French styles of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries has been undertaken by Rob Runacres of England's Renaissance Sword Club. Italian traditions are mainly investigated in Italy by Sala d'Arme Achille Marozzo, where you can find studies dedicated to the Bolognese tradition, to the Italian medieval tradition by Luca Cesari and Marco Rubboli, and to the Florentine tradition by Alessandro Battistini. The martial traditions of the Netherlands are researched by Reinier van Noort, who additionally focuses on German and French martial sources of the 17th century. Practical and theoretical studies on both the Verdadeira Destreza and its precursor «Esgrima Comúm», from the Iberian Peninsula, are being undertaken by several researchers worldwide, most notably: Alberto Bomprezzi, of the Asociación Española de Esgrima Antigua; Mary and Puck Curtis, of the Sacramento Sword School; and Ton Puey of thegalician HEMA federation Asociación Galega de Esgrima Antiga (AGEA). Critical editions and translations of both Destreza and common fencing treatises are published by a team led by Manuel Valle Ortiz under the firm AGEA Editora. The ongoing study of the germanic Langes Messer is most notably represented by the work of Jens Peter Kleinau and Martin Enzi. Leading researchers on Manuscript I.33's style of fence include Roland Warzecha, at the head of the Dimicator fencing school as well as Herbert Schmidt of Ars Gladii. Other fencing traditions are represented in the scholarship of Paul Wagner and Stephen Hand of Australia’s Stoccata School of Defence,[year needed] focusing on the works of George Silver and the techniques depicted in the Royal Armouries’ Manuscript I.33, and of Henry Christian Tobler on the German school of swordsmanship.
Events -
Since 2006 a Swedish annual event called Swordfish has been taking place every year in Gothenburg, hosted by the Gothenburg Historical Fencing School (GHFS). It is currently the biggest HEMA tournament in the world and is generally considered to be the "world cup of HEMA. Since 1999 a number of these groups have held the Western Martial arts Workshop (WMAW) in the United States. In 2000, The Association for Renaissance Martial Arts (ARMA), then known as the "Historical Armed Combat Association" (HACA), held the Inaugural Swordplay Symposium International conference and since 2003 has held the ARMA International Gathering every two to three years. The Fiore-oriented Schola Saint George has hosted a Medieval Swordsmanship Symposium annually in the United States since 2001. An annual Australian Historical Swordplay Convention has been hosted and attended by diverse Australian groups since 1999. FightCamp has been running since 2004 and it is organized by the London based School of the Gadiator. Since 1998, Sala d'Arme Achille Marozzo organizes every year a great championship in Italy. Due to the excessive number of participants, in 2011 this competitive event was split in two separate events: military weapons (in autumn) and civil weapons (in spring), extending the organization in a larger coalition of Italian HEMA club. Civilian weapons include single sword, sword and cape, sword and dagger, and sword and Brocchiero (Buckler). The military weapons are the two-handed sword, spear, shield and spear, sword and targe, and sword and wheel. The civil weapons championship is currently the largest HEMA tournament in the world. Since 2010, The annual Pacific Northwest HEMA Gathering has been hosted by multiple schools and clubs in the Pacific Northwest. The tournament includes longsword, singlestick, glima, and one rotating weapon which is changed every year. The location of the event changes every year, and has been located at Fort Casey and Pacific Lutheran University.
Umbrella Groups -
In 2001, the Historical European Martial Arts Coalition (HEMAC) was created to act as an umbrella organization for groups in Europe, with 4 sets of goals: martial (reconstruct historical martial arts from primary sources; refine interpretations into viable, effective martial arts; test martial skills in a variety of competitive environments), research (locate, transcribe, translate primary sources; have a better understanding of the socio-historical context of the arts), outreach (promote and publicise HEMA; dispel misconceptions & stereotypes; educate the general public) and community (establish a network of individuals and groups devoted to HEMA; foster close friendships and a sense of community among members; organise at least one annual HEMAC event). Since 2002, HEMAC has organized the annual International Historical European Martial arts Gathering in Dijon,France. In 2003, the Australian Historical Swordplay Federation became the umbrella organization for groups in Australia.
In 2010, several dozen HEMA schools and clubs from around the world united under the umbrella of the HEMA Alliance, a US-based martial arts federation dedicated to developing and sharing the Historical European Martial Arts and assisting HEMA schools and instructors with such things as instructor certification, insurance, and equipment development.
