Yes, Destreza is all about binding, controlling and diverting the opponent's blade in order to force an opening for the thrust (or the cut, they can be nastier than they look), so lunges are not really needed. That's why it's recommended to use the grip with two fingers over the guard to give you extra leverage and control. The fingers are sore the first couple of days but you get used to it.
The thing about two fingers over the guard is not what Pacheco recommended in any of his books, or Carranza as far as i can recall. Iguess its from other later authors.
rapier comes from Spanish word "ropera" which comes from ropa (clothing). so a rapier/ropera is a sword that matches your outfit hence a civilian sword (a sword that is or rather was used in urban life) a decorated sword to accentuate the knight or person who wore it.
A little bird whispered that the holder of the other original wanted a lot of money for the illustrations but the Swedish Royal Library did it free of charge. Goooooo Sweden!
I've been obsessed with rapiers & sideswords lately since adding a kindjal to my collection of sabres & backswords. Never used a rapier, but have done foil fencing in the past and have always been interested, but just gravitated towards backswords for some reason.
Oooo, I've been very interested in Destreza for a while now. If only there were teachers for it near me. I'd love to go to Spain one day if only to see some of the head teachers around there.
I recently finished a series of seminars about the teachings of Spanish military sabre by Merelo and Vendrell. Even though it uses similar footwork and some of the vocabulary, and the master constantly used many analogies between disciplines, students who study Destreza often made many mistakes, like the extension and movement of the arm.
Diestro also means right-handed in Spanish, which is ironic because Destreza treatises do insist in encouraging ambidextrous fencing. I'm left-handed, but I regularly train right-handed aswell.
not only that but spain taught two types of destreza : destreza vulgar which was meant as a way of street/war fighting, you could pay a tercio soldier a few coins and he would teach you some tricks, verdadera destreza was the more noble/duel oriented and is the one that heavily relies on circular motions and geometry
One thing I've always been a little confused about is SG once said rapiers are not a battlefield weapon. But in the Maltese Palace armoury there is depictions of knights with rapiers who fought in the great siege. They are mid 16th century and dressed in full plate with a rapier and pretty much every manaquin soldier is depicted like this.
I don't think I have ever said that rapiers were not battlefield weapons. They were definitely carried in a lot of countries as sidearms during military campaigns.
Ryukey the term 'rapier' is misleading. Saviolo has a very heavy sword that some call a 'war rapier'. Meyer's is akin to a sidesword.. Most sources tend to use the term 'sword'; rapier perhaps has very modern interpretation applied to it
the translation for destreza in english is ability or skill. The word “rapier” come from the spanish word “espada ropera” (literaly a sword you can wear with the clothes, ropa = clothes or dress), a sword for dress.
I would like to see some commentary on the Zorro TV show from the late 1950's. The swords like like foils, which asks how Zorro made his famou "z". Also what were the soldiers using? The original stories were set in Spanish Alta California/Mexico in what is now Los Angeles. The show can be found in the Action/Adventure section of Unlce Earl's TV; part of the "solis" website
Most New Spanish and early Mexican military soldiers and officers used rapiers, and sables novohispanos, think of it as a mix of French styled Spanish rapiers... ish... Now depending if the sword was used for civilian or military purposes the blades would be switched. Thinner for civilian and heavy and thicker for military combat.
Mike Benko Im not sure on how it was started, but makes sense. In those times Euclidean Geometry was passed along the nobility aswell as other information. Im sure it was quite fashionable to say the least.
About rapier, have you watched the french film "Cyrano de Bergerac" ? It has some pretty good (In my opinion) fight scenes, and even a full out battle, from the 30 years war period !
That dagger throw back is probably, to me, a away to gain measure while the dagger is forward, then gaining that extra inch or in measure quickly. Rolling that back shoulder to the rear and twisting gains surprising reach..
Great video!!! You make happy a spanish rapierist!!! Cup hilt rules, and pierces!!! I can't hear the name of the spanish blacksmith that Rob talk about. Can you write me the name please.
Since the side sword was kind of a transitional weapon between the arming sword and the rapier, how did people fight with it? Did it share techniques with both swords? Was it used like a shorter rapier?
Fat Tiger it's very dangerous to talk about transitional in sword terms as it can prove a teleology. Cutting swords are used throughout the 'rapier' period. In fact, 'sidesword' is a modern term. Most treatises refer to the weapons simply as 'sword'; in contrast the rapier of Meyer is akin to the 'sidesword' of Dall'Aggochie. These terms have more to do with the victorian obsession with typology than with weapons used.
Is it the instrument, the tune or the playing style that makes an Irish flute different from a classical flute? Not everything you play with an "Irish flute" will be Irish music, and you can play Irish music with a "non-Irish" flute. I think of swords in a similar way: there are cutting and thrusting instruments, and there are styles of using them.
The form of the lunge makes me think of the 'cat's tale' position of the hands when using the traditional form of kicking in Savate, so maybe a balance thing in context?
I always appreciate your interviews with other pros, it gives me new leads to explore. Consider a copy of this book sold! I want to be proficient with every major type of sword and this looks like a great place to start with rapiers. I think having the dagger back helps hide it from sight a bit to. In your foil and epee video a few posts ago you wondered why they used X shaped blade on the practice weapon that is different from Y shaped blade on the related real weapon. Here where Rob talks about his rapier design that's less like the real weapon but a better practice one, I think is where the answer to your other video's question lies. Thanks as always for what you do.
I imagine they must have had beefier rapiers for that. That is, thicker, more estoc-like, since the use of swords on horseback is a bit more stressful on the material.
I remember hearing about some dual rapier fighting in verdadera destreza. And looking for it Rob Runacres book of lessons has that on the cover, no idea if it actually covers dual rapiers as a style of fighting though
I mean the fact that destreza is interesting to me comes from the fact that no one talks about it in HEMA and it was supposed to be one of the most efficient rapier styles in history.
I would argue it's one of the most well documented and complete. There were furious arguments in Spain about the actual efficiency of noble destreza. It depends on what is defined as efficient: given the attempts to represent various forms of euclidian mathematics, then use, is is geometrically efficient, but there were counter arguments that it was too refined. I should add that non destreza forms were not necessarily less efficient, but that the related treatises themselves could be argued to be themselves less detailed or codified in explanation. So a reflection of pedagogy rather than actual taught mechanics
KTo288 you know, I've been wondering about this. The pictures are expensive and, within their style, expensive. The pics with cloaks are also inaccurate, as they have daggers too... I wonder if they really are art for art's sake, or if they are depicting lessons missing from the text
That book looks nice. I've long dreamed of having something like that done with Mair's book, translated into English and printed as a large Coffee Table Book. It'd be useful as a HEMA reference and I think would also be popular simply as a book of art.
Hi, Im new to historic fencing, and I would love to have this book! Unfortunately, I am in Canada, and the American link has run out of print. Anyone know how to get one here?
I could not quite catch what he was saying when describing his rapier. What kind of blade was he using that was "sporty" and who was the armory that produced the swords. Thank you
Because Spanish soldiers battled all around europe and portuguess no. And they are not cousins but brothers. Remember that under Phillip II (Felipe II)p portugal was part of the Spanish Empire (not Spain) and that is the pick of the spanish Destreza School. The ones that were cousins were the "italians" and there was a a school of "Italian" Destreza... That many people ignores but one of the best books about Destreza is from the italian peninsula (Italy didn't exist at the time). Those schools were in the regions under control of the Spanish Empire.
Very nice and informative video Mr Easton. My appreciatitons to the author of the book ,Mr Runacres. It sure looks like an informative book about Latin style sword defence. By the way Mr Runacres look alot like Actor Charles Dance (Game of thrones Tywin Lannister).
Off topic, but a question: Matt, can you speak to the issue of edge damage to sword blades? How much damage can one expect to see on a blade that has seen hard combat?
@Scholagladiatoria Recently in a conversation (regarding a video game fantasy world, but basing armor and weapons off historical RL functions) There was somebody who was basically painting the Rapier as being "The best weapon" one could use. And that a broadsword/longsword/bastard sword wouldn't do anything to plate armor, but a Rapier would be able to. So in regards to armor, from Chain-mail to full plate armor, was the rapier effective at piercing such defenses, or useful in situations where one is facing an armored opponent?
You can use a rapier against an opponent in armour, by targeting areas where there is no armour, or where there are gaps. But it is not at all well equipped to deal with armoured opponents. The best weapons against armour are generally polearms and missles weapons (which are the best weapons in general anyway). But among sidearms, the longsword or arming sword is better equipped to deal with an armoured opponent.
Not really. Don't confuse rapiers with other swords. A Spanish rapier is a "espada ropera" that was basically any sword that you could wear as complement for your clothes. Sailors used to wear their own kind of "roperas" but not rapiers (rapier is a derivation of the word ropera than in other parts of europe was asociated to what is Spain we call "estoque"). They were more like "alfanjes" (cutlass) or "machetes". Either way poor people usually didn't carry a sword (expensive), nobles, swashbucklers and duelist did. And they nobles used the same sword wherever they were... just for decoration.
So as others said, the double swords picture is just the author(s), showing something cool? I guess it's not worse than Giganti's communication tactic: "-Yeah but Nick, you haven't described the use of the single dagger even though you said it was an important thing to know for the art and personal defense... -Oooh but you see I just wrote a second book about that and more!"
Obviously, he wasn't the only one, double swords technique were popular at least in Spain (shame this cursed fool Jehan L'Hermite forgot them...), Italy and France too apparently.
Hi Matt, Could you do a video about where you can get some good training swords? I know the big names like DarkWood an theKnightshop but I really like to know where I can get the rapiers you are holding in this video.
Rik Remmerswaal one was from Ferrum Armoury, the other is a composite, but the hilt was by Yllart Martinez. I've been considering doing an Alte Herren on training weapons, but if Matt's on this, I'll defer.
TheLoneRideR not quite. It's a sport 7 blade, which has a shape akin to an épée blade. The reason many use them is that it's flexible, but has a good bind. Diamond shaped blades look the part, but are often too floppy. However, I prefer the use my Ferrum Armoury sword which DOES have a diamond profile.
