Pistol and Sword: Tactical Advantage and Disadvantage in 17th-Century Cavalry Combat

Since the invention of gunpowder and the handgun, mounted combat emphasized the pistol over the sword. Of course, to cop a phrase from current events, everything was “contextual”…

Sword News: Medieval sword found in Halmstad, Sweden

Excavations of Lilla Torg square in Halmstad, Sweden located a number of medieval graves beneath the Franciscan convent of Saint Anna, which operated from 1494 to 1531. Archaeologists from Kulturmiljö Holland uncovered 25 skeletons of 25 sanctified Swedes, among them the skeleton of a 6-foot-2 man with a longsword at his left side. The weapon measured over 4 feet in length.

“Swabian stroke” — Carving up the competition

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

As FencingClassics concludes our 15th year online (make that 20 if you count the old swordhistory.com), we wish all our readers that you score 15:14 or better in all efforts and ventures you undertake throughout 2024… and leave you with the immortal words of the Bard of Stratford-upon-Avon:

Ancient Modern Épée Skills

Setting up a distance trap for fun and profit.

Wayback Machine: Renaissance Sword Techniques in A.D. 150!

Has it been that long? I found an old website of mine on Archive.org’s Wayback Machine. It includes a number of chapters from my Secret History of the Sword (1999) which, as you may remember, incorporated a number of articles from my long-dead Hammerterz Forum (1994-2001, Friede seiner Asche). I have vague memories from the pre-Internet era, researching this piece in the old-fashioned halls of Baltimore’s Enoch Pratt Library… I make no representation that newer, better insights into this subject haven’t been made in the past 30 years.)

More Dumb Ways to Die: Further unfortunate events from the 17th and 18th centuries.

As our research expedition into 17th-century swordsmanship and contemporary events involving fights with edged weapon continues, more peripheral items have landed on the SHotS cutting-room floor that are interesting enough to be shared.

(We had provided a first installment HERE!)

Today’s installments are taken from Der mit seinem Kram erscheinende Eulenspiegelischer Mercurius, a charivari of entertaining bits and pieces authored by a pseudonymous “Dr. Nasen-Weiß von Fausenfels” (Dr. Smart-ass of Fausen(?)rock), published in Augsburg by Antonius Nepperschmied in 1710, and an interesting early 19th-ct. tome on “Dishonorable People” by Otto Beneke.

In their Own Words: “Ich, Wilhelm Kreussler”—The 1669 Kreussler Petition!

Transcribed and explained here for the first time!

by J. Christoph Amberger (First published December 4, 2023.)

Note: Oddly, the Petition is the only larger record left by the Kreusslers themselves. Yet in his 1912 Die Kreussler in Jena, Christian Seemann-Kahne provides a transcript of the governmental response only—not the Petition itself: Of the four pages that comprise this document, he transcribed only one… the address written on the front page!

Swords in the News: Bronze-Age Sword discovered in Denmark

With my own metal detecting successes limited to 1970’s pop tops and an apparently irreplaceable drill bit that my wife had dropped into a mud puddle in front of our shed (retrieved!), you can still dream, cant’ you?

Deadly duel: How Count Rudolph Christian put his eye out!

One aspect of historical swordsmanship neglected by modern martialist is that probably the majority of fights involved drunk young men and were over quickly. On occasion, like here, a blade would be permanently bent inside of an opponent’s skull… perhaps a timely reminder for HEMA practitioners to supplement their halter tops and yoga pants with a decent mask, even for practice and posing…