Henri de St. Didier was a fencing legend who came from France and was very influencial in the 16th century. In 1573 he became the first master of his country to write a treaties on fencing and acknowledged that the Italian style was the best. The main lessons he gave to the fencing world was how to counter-attack effectively and instruction on disarming an opponent.

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Giacomo di Grassi was an Italian master from the 16th century who had a great influence on the development of fencing right up to the modern day. He is often credited with inventing the modern parry and through his best known work, ‘His True Arte of Defence’, taught fighters from his day to think more about defence than had previously been the norm.

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George Silver was a late 16th, early 17th century English teacher of defence who wrote two major works, "Paradoxes of Defence" and "Brief Instructions on my Paradoxes of Defence", in which he promoted the use of small-swords and staves in favour of the rapier, a weapon which he strongly criticised. He believed that the rapier was dangerous, and was concerned with the number of duels that were happening in his time and worried that too many arguments were being settle that way. According to Si...
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A diagram from Agrippa's Treatise - See more

Camillo Agrippa is a legend of fencing who is widely considered to be one of the greatest fencing theorists of all time. He invented the four positions of fencing, (prime, seconde, tierce, and quarte) and suggested that the sword should be held in front of the body rather than behind. Through the use of common sense and geometric theory, Agrippa’s work, Treatise on the Science of Arms with Philosophical Dialogue (1553), changed the art of fencing ...
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