Royal Armouries history of sword fighting film clip

A short film clip about the history of sword combat taken from the War gallery in the Royal Armouries museum in Leeds.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• sword
• medieval
• fighting
• combat
• history
• armouries

[RoyalArmouries]

The manuscript you refer to is available to study at the Royal Armouries Museum, in Leeds.

[MrSolitude14]

@SimKoning I never said the sword fight has to be long, a fight can ranges from 1 second to 5, still it got end of it right?. try to watch balde parries in south east asia maritime system. I recomend maul mornie blade mechanics for the start.

[EdwardPearse]

Any chance of the full video of this film being uploaded?

[Railriderchris]

@SimKoning Well of course, any swordsman would rather notch his blade as a last resort than lose his head. But it's not a feat to figure out that a parry with the flat will save you too without damaging your weapon. That's why i think that most fighters back then were fighting like this even if it's not mentioned in the ancient manuals. Like: Nobody today has to learn not to shoot a gun with an occluded gun barrel because everybody knows it would explode ;-)

[SimKoning]

@Railriderchris Japan also had a notable shortage of iron. Consequently, their swords were considered almost ridiculously important. In China and India where metal is much more readily available, you will see edge on edge blocks, flat parries, they even had rings, notches and hooks built in to some weapons. They were probably more concerned about keeping their intestines or head then they were about getting a notch in their weapon. Japanese fencing is an exception, not the rule.

[Railriderchris]

@SimKoning I think it's obvious why nobody in ancient times mentioned in their fight manuals not to block with the cutting edge: Because contrary to today where most people know swordfighting only from unrealistic movies, everybody knew back then how desastrous the result was: /watch?v=X8UeKcsE3Nw

With asian sword fighting where you mentioning Kenjutsu? I know only last resort techniques using edge on edge in Kenjutsu. The Katana is very vulnerable to cutting edge damage.

[SimKoning]

@MrSolitude14 Really, you think sword fights lasted that long? I really don't understand why this is such a common myth. Asian methods of sword fighting involve edge on edge parries, and these are sword fighting arts that have actually *survived* into the present day. The German fight books that have survived say nothing about using only the flat of the blade for defense.

[soleil1326]

Great, show an edge-to-edge parry in the first few seconds... lame

[Shazzashazbot]

I love the royal armories vids but they pleats end to quickly. It's like u expect them to elaborate on something, and your all interested. And the vid ends .WTF is with that?!

[MrSolitude14]

hahahhaa this is hillarious, blocking the sharp edge vs the sharp edge? by the end of the fight both of them has to use bare hand to kill each other