The Weekly Warfare   Musings martial from across the SCA

Royal Armouries MS I.33 (“One Thirty-Three”, “Tower Fechtbuch”)

-Earliest extant fechtbuch, late 13^th/early 14^th centuries

-German, written in poetic stanzas with prose commentary

-Unarmored sword-and-buckler combat between “Priest” and “Scholar” (later “Walpurgis”)

Equipment

Sword

-Oakeshott XII, XIII, and XVI

Buckler Shape

-Windrose 14” bossed buckler

Turnshoes or other smooth-soled shoes

Principles of the System

Wards and Counterwards

Attacking and Defending the Arm

Falling Under the Sword

Stab-Knock

Shield-Knock

Stance

First

-Both feet pointing forward

Second

-Feet at right angles

Weight kept on toes (no traction from turnshoes)

Distance

Long and Close

Shorter than rapier

Footwork

Front/Back

Half lunge

Slope Left/Right

Half/Full Incartata

Pass Left/Right

Sloping Pass

Hand Positions

Prime, Seconde, Tierce, and Quarte

Binds

Overbind (left and right)

Underbind (left and right)

Blows

Sheitelhau

Oberhau left/right

Mittelhau left/right

Unterhau left/right/center

Thrust in quarte

Wards

Underarm

Right shoulder

Left shoulder

Vom Tag

Nebenhut (Tail)

Pflug

Longpoint (high, middle, low, priest’s special longpoint)

Half shield

Walpurgis aka Priest’s Special Second (right shoulder) Ward

Counterwards

Crutch

Left Cover

Right Cover

Tail cover

References

http://www.oakeshott.org/Typo.html
http://www.myarmoury.com/features.html

http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/i33/i33.html

http://freywild.ch/i33/i33en.html

Medieval Sword and Shield, Wagner and Hand, 2003

The Medieval Art of Swordsmanship, ed./trans. Forgeng, 2003