Welcome to the School of Arms and Armour
About Us
The School of Arms and Armour is a group located in Canberra dedicated to the study and teaching of the martial arts of medieval Europe. We use the surviving medieval fencing manuals to try to learn the ways of combat practiced by medieval knights, both in and out of armour.
“That is why Liechtenauer’s swordsmanship is a true art that the weaker wins more easily by use of his art than the stronger by using his strength. Otherwise what use would the art be?” –Ms.3227a
Medieval Europe developed a range of combat martial arts just as complex and sophisticated as what you would find in Asia. For a number of reasons, many o these arts fell out of use and were forgotten. Fortunately for us today, many of the medieval masters wrote down their teachings in books and manuscripts called fechtbucher. It is from these fechtbucher that we are once again able to learn the use of sword, spear and pollaxe.
Medieval combat can be broken down into three basic forms: Fighting in armour (Harnishfectern), fighting without any armour (Blossfectern), and also fighting on horseback (Rossfechten).
What we do:
Harnishfectern
(fighting in armour) We use full armour as would have been worn in the 14th and 15th century. As armour provides a high degree of protection against most hand weapons, knights adopted the pollaxe as their main weapon to defeat other knights. While the pollaxe is the main focus of our Harnischfectern, we also learn the use of spear, ½ sword as well as dagger and wrestling in armour.
Blossfectern
(fighting out of armour) Focuses primarily on the longsword. The long sword in two hands is a fast and elegant weapon and lends itself to an array of sophisticated and subtle techniques. Dagger and wrestling also round out our Blossfecten curriculum.
Rossfechten
(fighting on horseback). For practical reasons the School does not cover any Rossfechtern material. However, if you wish to learn skill at arms on horseback or jousting, contact our friends at Riding With Sticks.
