In the Service of Mars

A compilation of the most popular and detailed lectures and class notes from Western Martial Arts Workshop. From longsword to sword and buckler fencing; deadly knife-fighting to mounted combat, the martial traditions of England, Germany, Italy and Spain are all amply represented and combined with detailed, practical instruction.

Martial Arts are literally “The Arts of Mars,” the Roman god of war. For over two and a half millennia, the combat arts of Europe served the hoplite, gladiator, legionnaire, knight, duelist, boxer and wrestler on the battlefield, in the duel, as street defense and in the ring. Interest in these traditions has grown dramatically over the last twenty years, bringing together a unique combination of fighters and scholars in the quest to resurrect and preserve this proud heritage of fighting lore. The Western Martial Arts Workshop (WMAW) was founded in 1999 as a way for the students of these martial arts to meet, train, exchange research, and lay the foundation for an enduring Western martial arts community. In the Service of Mars, Volume Two is both a compilation of some of the most popular and detailed lectures and class notes from WMAW’s first decade, and a record of the growth of the Western martial arts community in depth and breadth over the same time. From longsword to sword and buckler fencing; deadly knife-fighting to mounted combat, the martial traditions of England, Germany, Italy and Spain are all amply represented and combined with detailed, practical instruction. Not only a “best-of” anthology, most of the inclusions here are substantially different from the form in which they first appeared in the WMAW event guides. The contributions in this book have been substantially revised, expanded, and photo-illustrated, coming as close to recreating an actual class in the subject as the written word can ever replicate a physical discipline.

Foreword Part One: Martial Arts of the Middle Ages, ca. 1300-1550 English Longsword: a Tactical Approach - Paul Wagner The Spear-Play of Fiore dei Liberi - Gregory Mele A Conceptual Look at the 24 Winden in Johannes Liechtenauer's Art - Jorg Bellinghausen Fighting from the Nebenhut: Longsword Plays from the Ringeck Fechtbuch - Christian Henry Tobler Mounted Combat: A Continuation of the System - Theresa Wendland Part Two: Martial Arts of the Renaissance and Enlightenment, ca. 1500-1850 From the Page to the Practice: Fundamentals of Spanish Swordplay - Puck Curtis and Mary Dill Curtis The Iberian Montante: Sources, Techniques, and Tactics - Steve Hick and Eric Myers Understanding the Partisan: Forgotten Weapon of the Italian Renaissance - Tom Leoni Bolognese Swordsmanship: An Introduction to Renaissance Sword and Buckler - Steven Reich Keeping it Simple: Italian Rapier Tactics for Dummies - Tom Leoni Part Three: Western Martial Arts in Their Historical Context Frog DNA, Concentric Rings, and Old-Fashioned Necromancy: Reconstructing Historical European Swordsmanship - Gregory Mele The Medieval Sword Blade: Form and Intended Function - Craig Johnson Part Four: Pedagogy-Teaching and the Western Martial Artist Flow Drills as a Teaching Tool for Medieval and Renaissance Dagger Training - Jorg Bellinghausen Decision-Making for Instructors - Guy Windsor Developing and Training with Solo Forms: An Overview - Guy Windsor About the Contributors

Gregory Mele has been involved in the reconstruction of medieval European martial arts since the early 1990s, focusing on the Italian martial traditions from the 14th to mid-16th centuries. He has a number of publications as an author, co-author, and contributor including Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi: the 15th Century Swordsmanship of Master Filippo Vadi (co-authored with Luca Porzio), contributions to SPADA: An Anthology of Swordsmanship and the 2010 edition of the Martial Arts of the World: An Encyclopedia of History and Innovation. He is a regular contributor to Western Martial Arts Illustrated, on whose editorial board he serves. Gregory is best known within the Western martial arts community for co-founding the Chicago Swordplay Guild in 1999 to create a formal venue to study historical European swordsmanship and its adjunct arts. In October of that year, he also organized and hosted the first Western Martial Arts Workshop to promote these arts amongst practitioners throughout North America.

• Edited by Gregory D. Mele