News - Medieval Sword School (HEMA)

Canterbury Medieval Combat

Posted on December 15, 2018 Written by fechtschule

We are expanding into Canterbury. With two medieval universities in Canterbury and lots of requests to run something more local, we have taken the plunge and we will be starting fortnightly (2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month) practice to start at St Dunstan’s Hall Canterbury (7.30pm to 9pm).

We will be starting with Longsword. We practice early German Leichtenauer tradition – so based on the 3227a Dobringer manuscript.

Keep in touch with the Facebook page especially for this group:

https://www.facebook.com/canterburymedcom/

Sessions will be £5 each and we ask for an annual fee payable in January of £20 to cover insurance (This covers you for both Canterbury and Broadstairs training).

If you are looking to treat yourselves this Christmas for practice equipment you can’t go far wrong with the Knightshop HEMA starter set of Mask, Gloves and Longsword.

https://www.theknightshop.com/hema-starter-kit-1

Clan Fabius – Defenders of Rome

Posted on December 7, 2018 Written by fechtschule

A history of the Republic’s most notorious family.

In the early days of the Roman Republic there was a clan whose men sacrificed themselves for the good of the republic. The book starts around 485BC and paints the Fabii as standing next to Romulus when the city was founded.

So you don’t really get earlier than that. The Fabii Maximi were part of military and political elite until the end of the republic, which ended with civil wars, political assassinations and political street brawls.

This family seems to be the first is a long line of famous Italian families that shape roman history. The Fabii almost has this mythical status and the author has done well to piece together sources to give us this history in a really easy to follow book.

Early and late Roman history is growing on me and this book goes a long way to fill in some gaps in the bigger history. My Roman history covers a bit of Roman Britain, but this book has created a thirst for more. The book covers the role of Fabii during the period of Hannibal’s invasion. While the author doesn’t come out and say the Fabii were the reason Hannibal was defeated at Cannae. The chapter on the Fabian way covers their response to the invasion and how they arrested the Roman army pitch battle defeats.

The book provides a huge number of resources in the appendix on Republic sources of information. This goes on to share online translation of republic historical sources. Again I am amazed at howe much of this stuff survives. You see the ruins of Rome but I don’t think about all the documents that are still knocking around.

If anyone is interested in this period then this book is a useful addition to your bookshelf. It is a very interesting and slightly different look at Hannibal’s invasion and other wars such as the Spanish and Gallic wars.

You can buy this book direct from Pen and Sword Books

Please note I was not paid to write this review but was sent a review copy of the book. All comments are my own, and the publishers have not amended the review in any way.

The Franks – Conquerors of the Roman Empire Series

Posted on December 6, 2018 Written by fechtschule

One of the series of books looking at the groups that defeated and replaced Rome. In the case of the Franks, this Germanic tribe took over Gaul, and gave its name Francia / France.

The book looks at the fighters, weapons and tactics the franks used against the Romans which ultimately led to their victory against the late Roman Army at Casilinum (just north of modern day Capua) in 554AD.

While lots of us think that the fall of the Roman Empire was more about the breakdown of the Roman war machine, the book shows us that the Franks were sophisticated soldiers that were able to fight in pitch battles and defeat armies.

But it didn’t start there, the book takes us through a period of around 250 years from the first Frankish incursions into Gaul.

My favourite chapter is chapter 9, which discusses the Frankish way of war. It is also interesting that most of the commentary and knowledge about this comes from Roman authors.

A few things I learned from the book. The Angon or barbed spear, sounds like a huge barbed arrow was a favoured weapon. Also while lots of the Germanic tribes fought on horseback, the Franks did fight both as cavalry but mainly on foot as infantry, at least this is what our Roman authors would have us believe.

The book also provides some insights to the roman cavalry tactics of the time.

For anyone is interested in the late Roman, early medieval period, this book is a great read, I found it is easy but very informative read. The maps and chronologies where fantastic and I can see myself referring to them again and again.

Also the lists of the Roman army in Gaul staggers me as I never realised this stuff was still in existence. I can see this being a great book for military historians, wargammers and period reenactors. I would highly recommend this book.