Old School fencing footage.

Source: The-history-of-fighting.tumblr.com
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This sword is believed by some to be built from the original sword used by the late eighth/early ninth century king of the Francs, Charlemagne. Known as Joyeuse (meaning joyful), it was used in the Coronation processionals for French kings from 1270 (Philip III) - 1824 (Charles X).

Joyeuse was housed in the Saint Denis Basilica since at least 1505, before being moved to its current home, the Louvre in 1793. While it is generally agreed that the blade is medieval, its actual date is debated b...
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Title:  Madame Collie of Rome fencing at Angelo’s academy

Date:  1816

Artist:  Thomas Rowlandson

Infomation:  Henry Angelo was the most famous fencer and teacher of swordsmanship in England during the 18th century. This picture depicts his fencing school, situated in Bond St in London, when it was visited by Madame Collie of Rome.

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In this video legendary swordsman Haga Junichi is demonstrating kendo from the early Showa period of Japanese history, a period that started in 1926 and ended with the death of the Showa Emperor, Hirohito in 1989. (Note the unarmed wrestling at the end of the film).

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Title:  Masamune

Date:  Unknown

Artist:  Unknown

Infomation:  This old image is of Gorō Nyūdō Masamune (c.1264 – 1343 CE), widely considered to
be the best sword smith that ever lived. He lived during the Kamakura Period and is said to
have made swords that had the perfect balance between strength and flexibility.

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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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Picture: Bokuden's No sword school
Date:  Unknown
Artist:  Unknown
Info:  The painting depicts a tale about the legendary samurai warrior Tsukahara Bokuden,
and how he defeated a young warrior with guile alone. He agreed to fight on an island then
abandoned the warrior there, telling him; “Here is my No Sword School!”

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