HACA's Research Trip to England
Visiting England's leaders in historical swordsmanship

Article by Adrian Ko. Photographs courtesy of the HACA.

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Recently, John Clements and members of HACA (The Historical Armed Combat Association) were extended a special invitation by the esteemed Mr. Ewart Oakeshott to visit him and his colleagues in England. Oakeshott, 84, is a world renown authority on European swords and author of eight books on European arms. During the visit, Clements and his team were able to meet with practioner-scholars in England in a unique effort between our two nations to exchange ideas and concepts of Medieval and Renaissance swordsmanship.

With almost 20 years of hands-on weapon study and practice behind him, Clements has dedicated himself to establishing the serious study of actual Medieval and Renaissance fighting methods as true fighting arts. In that regard, HACA's process involves extensive training in handling a weapon and considerable fighting practice in light of reconstructing the age-old techniques from centuries-old manuscripts of instruction.

In this day, authentically recreating the fighting forms that had existed centuries ago amid the many popular modern myths and misconceptions surrounding true period swordsmanship has been an extremely difficult task. Clements states the importance of the study of the available manuscripts and manuals from actual period European masters to reconstruct the true martial art systems practiced in their day.

Some detractors who stem from fantasy societies and traditional fencers feel that modern sport fencing - being derived mostly from the 18th century civilian Small Sword - is the final stage of evolution of the European Sword and therefore the epiphamy of historical swordplay. Clements and HACA concentrate their attention to texts written prior to the development of the civilian Small Sword, including masters such as Hans Liechtenauer, a German master of 1389, Sigmund Ringeck from the 1440s, Hans Talhoffer of Germany - also from that period, Fiore Dei Liberi of 1410, Solothurner Fechtbuch of 1423, and Filippo Vadi of 1487 and others, which base their systems on the knightly sword, the long sword, sword-and-buckler fighting, rapier fighting, etc.

Thus, Mr. Ewart Oakeshott's recognition of his efforts and invitation to visit him and his collegues at the Royal Armouries in Leeds as well as other researchers was an unprecedented opportunity to compare notes in their independent endeavors.

HACA's Research Trip to England

Clements and six of his students set out to England, not as "HACA" but as individuals representing in a sense all of American sword enthusiasts and historical fencing practitioners. There, they presented their skills and displayed their knowledge to a host of colleagues and peers with the intention of sharing and of bringing back information for the entire American community of sword students. Through their connections with fellow practitioners and enthusiasts in Britain, the HACA group also arranged an impressive "tour" of several important authorities and arms collections (both public and private). The entire way their approach was not that of historians or collectors or visiting students, but as martial artists.

Other than Mr. Oakeshott, they were able to meet with:

• John Waller - respected head of fight interpretation for the Royal Armouries

• Keith Ducklin - senior fight interpreter at the Royal Armories

• David Edge - curator of weapons at the famed Wallace Collection and author of "Arms & Armor of the Medieval Knight".

• Prof. Sydney Anglo - leading researcher and translator of historical fencing manuscripts and author of the forthcoming book "Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe"

• Terry Brown - head of the new "Company of Maisters" fighting guild and author of the book "English Martial Arts"

• Milo Thurston - head of the Oxford based Linacre School of Defense, a new small historical fencing society focusing mainly on 17th -19th century styles.

• Paul MacDonald - Scottish sword maker and head of the Dawn Duelist Society, a historical fencing group conducting mainly Medieval to Renaissance forms.

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