Classic fencing: the classic period

Website design By BotEap.comThe Classical Academy of Weapons defines the classical period of fencing in terms of three main factors: (1) how the sword is used, (2) the social context of the sword in the sport, and (3) the characteristic weapons of the period. The Academy believes that when these factors are applied, the result is a consistent approach to swordsmanship, with a standard set of weapons, in a definable social context.

Website design By BotEap.comSwords have been used in at least 5 different ways: as a military weapon, as a civil personal defense weapon, in judicial trials by combat, as a method to resolve matters of honor and as a sport.

Website design By BotEap.comThe sword enters the period after the American Civil War (1861-65) and the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) greatly diminished as a weapon on the battlefield. These wars demonstrated that the repetition of firearms, the development of early machine guns, and longer-range artillery had made the main battlefield use of the sword, the massive cavalry charge, extraordinarily costly. Despite various attempts to restore the sword to its traditional stature and its continued inclusion in military training, by the early 20th century it was an anachronism.

Website design By BotEap.comSwords for everyday personal defense by civilians had already disappeared from use with the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The men of the city no longer carried a sword as a fashion accessory.

Website design By BotEap.comThe last recorded attempt to use the sword in a judicial trial by combat occurred in England in 1818. The result was a swift and somewhat embarrassing legislative reversal of trial by combat in 1819.

Website design By BotEap.comThe settlement of matters of honor by means of the sword had suffered a recession with the development of dueling pistols in the eighteenth century. However, in the years following the Franco-Prussian War, the use of swords in dueling became a nationalist cause, and in the 1880s this revival fueled a revival of interest in sword and saber dueling. . However, the carnage of World War I generally quenched society’s bloodlust, and by World War II dueling was a rare event.

Website design By BotEap.comThat leaves the use of the sword for sport. The revival of Victorian sports included fencing, leading to the organization of competitions, the development of governing organisations, the establishment of common rules, and the inclusion of fencing in the first Olympic games, all in the period 1880-1910. Civil sport and dueling technique clearly diverged from the military use of the sword. Fencing was a sport of the white social elite, with women’s roles strictly prohibited and staunchly fond of character. During the period between the 1880s and the early 1950s, three weapons evolved into their modern form (foil, épée, and saber), and two were eventually discarded (the bayonet and single stick).

Website design By BotEap.comThus, during the period from about 1880 to World War II, the combination of various trends clearly defines a period of change and revival in fencing. The period saw the end of military use of the sword for anything other than a ceremonial purpose and the slow demise of dueling, leaving the sword only as a weapon for sport. At the same time, fencing texts evolved to focus on civilian and then sporting use of fencing weapons. The birth of organized sports in general in the Victorian sporting revival included fencing, making its practice more international in scope. And as fencing moved into international competition, growing nationalism in Europe embraced fencing as an element of national power.

Website design By BotEap.comThis period clearly ends with the Second World War. Not only did international fencing stop during the period 1939-1945, but after the war fencing underwent significant changes. The introduction of electric scoring to foil and eventually saber completes the transition in scoring and technique that began with electric épée in the 1930s. The adoption of fencing and all international sports as an element of a strategy of broader national security by the Soviet bloc led to revolutionary changes. The use of the sports factory model and the pursuit of medals as a measure of international prestige fundamentally changed the way fencing was financed and managed at the national level. The development of sports science led to significant changes in the development of athletes. Societal changes cleared the way for women to participate fully at all levels of sport, changed the character of athletes from members of the wealthy elite to a much broader population that included all races, and led to the eventual abandonment of the amateur ideal. .

Website design By BotEap.comBased on these changes in how the sword was used, the context of fencing as a sport, and the distinctive weapons in use, the Academy believes that a reasonable definition of the classical period is a transitional period during the years between about 1880 and the beginning . of World War II in 1939.