To end our third week of longsword training at Academie Duello, we spent a class working with sidesword and buckler. The sidesword was a successor to the medieval arming sword, which was a relatively short one-handed weapon worn by knights when out of armour, and marked the introduction of a more elaborate knuckle guard than the simple crossbar of the arming sword, following the Germanic habit of hooking one finger over the crossguard for additional control. The knuckle guard provides protection for the exposed finger, and presages the development of the more elaborate guards that characterize the rapier.
The sidesword was also more of an everyday weapon than longsword or poleaxe. Its shorter length allowed it to be a literal side weapon that could be worn during everyday activities. Similarly, the buckler is a shield that's small enough to be hooked onto your scabbard beside the sword, rather than the full sized shield that would be used in actual warfare. (The term "swashbuckler"comes from bravos rattling their bucklers against their swords in order to announce themselves as they swaggered through the streets.) Held at arm's length, the buckler is both a defensive and offensive weapon, used to block attacks as well as deliver blows when corps-à-corps.
My expectation for sword and buckler was that the buckler would be held in front as a defensive lead, with the sword extended beside it to allow for the two to be used together or independently, much as shown in the illustration below - although from perhaps a bit further away than these two gentlemen. To my astonishment, we are instructed to hold the sword straight up over our heads as our starting position. It seems a ridiculous stance for fighting, especially with a weapon that can thrust as well as cut, but Miguel reassures us that this is the approved technique as taken from historical documents.
Regardless, I'm sceptical. Miguel pointed out in one of the earlier sessions that one of the challenges in reviving the art of swordplay is that there's no continuity of practise - swordplay becomes less and less common over time, finally falling entirely out of use as gunpowder takes over the battlefield. Because of this historical break, modern scholars are forced to rely on a relatively small library of instructional texts in order to rediscover the techniques.*
Most of what we've been taught for longsword is taken from the Flos Duellatorum (Flower of Battle) a 14th century text by Fiore die Liberi, an Italian fencing master. Other salles d'armes follow equivalent German texts, and there's enough similarity - and variation - to indicate a continuum of technique, albeit with a slightly different vocabulary and bias.
To my mind, the things that we've learned for longsword make sense. There are standard defensive stances that involve short and long guards (posta breve and posta longa) in which the sword is extended directly in front of the body with the point aimed at your opponent's face, as opposed to the posta di donna or di fenestra, which positions the sword behind either shoulder for cutting or thrusting attacks - these positions are not unlike the way you'd stand if you were at bat in baseball, which seems a logical starting position for a longsword cut.
The hand-over-head sidesword starting guard seems to be a long way - literally - from a good place to attack or defend, and I was a little tempted to take a completely different stance during practice, although that would seem to defeat the purpose of taking instruction. Based on my own experience with instructional material and training, a small part of me wonders if the person who wrote the description that we're following just didn't have had a lot of experience actually fighting people - the old "those who can, do" problem.
- Sid
* If you've seen The Princess Bride, you're familiar with some of the authorities of classic swordplay. During the duel between Inigo Montoya and the Dread Pirate Roberts, they discuss the various techniques for fighting under those conditions as per Bonetti, Capo Ferro, Agrippa, and Thibault - actual fencing masters from the Renaissance.
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