Historical European martial arts

Historical European martial arts are 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, most of the surviving dedicated technical treatises or martial arts manuals date to the late medieval period 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, Italian, and Spanish school flowering in the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, followed by French, English, and Scottish schools of fencing in the modern period.
Martial arts of the 19th century such as classical fencing, and even early hybrid 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 late 19th and early 20th centuries, including forms of folk wrestling and traditional stick-fighting methods.
The term Western martial arts 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 is used to refer to swordsmanship techniques specifically.

History of European martial arts

Ancient history

The earliest Western book about the fighting arts currently known, Epitoma rei militaris, was written into Latin by a Roman writer, Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus, who lived in Rome between the fourth and fifth centuries. There are no other known Western martial arts manuals predating the Late Middle Ages, although medieval literature record specific martial deeds and military knowledge; in addition, historical artwork depicts combat and weaponry. Some researchers have attempted to reconstruct older fighting methods such as Pankration, Eastern Roman hoplomachia, Viking swordsmanship and gladiatorial combat by reference to these sources and practical experimentation.
The Royal Armouries Ms. I.33, dated to, is the oldest surviving Fechtbuch, teaching sword and buckler combat.

Post-classical history

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 Nürnberger Handschrift GNM 3227a. From the 15th to the 17th century, numerous Fechtbücher were produced, of which some several hundred are extant; a great many of these describe methods descended from Liechtenauer's. Liechtenauer's Zettel remains one of the most famous — if cryptic — pieces of European martial arts scholarship to this day, with several translations and interpretations of the poem being put into practice by fencers and scholars around the world.
Normally, several modes of combat were taught alongside one another, typically unarmed grappling, dagger, long knife, or Dusack, half- or quarterstaff, polearms, longsword, and combat in plate armour, both on foot and on horseback. Some Fechtbücher have sections on dueling shields, special weapons used only in trial by combat.
Important 15th century German fencing masters include Sigmund Ringeck, Peter von Danzig, Hans Talhoffer and Paulus Kal, all of whom taught the teachings of Liechtenauer. From the late 15th century, there were "brotherhoods" of fencers, most notably the Brotherhood of St. Mark and the Federfechter.
An early Burgundian French treatise is Le jeu de la hache of ca. 1400.
The earliest master to write in the Italian language 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 and Pietro Monte.
Three early natively English swordplay texts exist, but are all very obscure and from uncertain dates; they are generally thought to belong to the latter half of the 15th century.

Early modern period

Renaissance

In the 16th century, compendia of older Fechtbücher techniques were produced, some of them printed, notably by Paulus Hector Mair and by Joachim Meyer. The extent of Mair's writing is unmatched by any other German master, and is considered invaluable by contemporary scholars.
In Germany, fencing had developed sportive tendencies during the 16th century. 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 is one of the last in the German tradition.
In Italy, the 16th century was a period of big change. It opened with the two treatises of Bolognese masters Antonio Manciolino and Achille Marozzo, who described 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, early 16th-century Italian fencing reflected the versatility that a martial artist of the time was supposed to have achieved.
Towards the mid-16th century, however, polearms and companion weapons besides the dagger and the cape gradually began to fade out of treatises. In 1553, Camillo Agrippa was the first to define the prima, seconda, terza, and quarta guards, 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.

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 to 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 ' 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 and Luis Pacheco de Narváez. Girard Thibault 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, Besnard, François Dancie and Philibert de la Touche.
In the 17th century, Italian swordsmanship was 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, Ridolfo Capo Ferro, Francesco Alfieri, Francesco Antonio Marcelli and Bondi' di Mazo.
The Elizabethan and Jacobean eras produce English fencing writers, such as the Gentleman George Silver and the professional fencing master Joseph Swetnam. The English verb to fence is first attested in Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor.
The French school of fencing originated in the 16th century, which is based on the Italian school, and developed into its classical form during the Baroque period.

Rococo style

In the 18th century, during the late Baroque and Rococo period, the French style of fencing with the small sword and later with the foil, originated as a training weapon for small sword fencing.
By 1715, the rapier had been largely replaced by the lighter and handier small sword throughout most of Europe, although treatments of the former continued to be included by authors such as Donald McBane, P. J. F. Girard and Domenico Angelo.
In this time, bare-knuckle boxing emerged as a popular sport in England and Ireland. The foremost pioneers of the sport of boxing were Englishmen James Figg and Jack Broughton.
Throughout 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'École 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.

Late modern period

Development into modern sports

In the 19th century, Western martial arts became divided into modern sports on one-handed fencing 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. The English longbow is another European weapon that is still used in the sport of archery.
Apart from the many styles of fencing, European combat sports of the 19th century include Boxing in England, Savate in France, and regional forms of wrestling such as Cumberland and Westmorland Wrestling, Lancashire Wrestling, and Cornish Wrestling.
Fencing in the 19th century transformed into a pure sport. While duels remained common among members of the aristocratic 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, instead of bladed weapons.