tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178262688226237317.post5212464409664008824..comments2023-06-15T04:28:05.100-07:00Comments on The School of Battle: Did Medieval Commoners Practice with Fighting Masters?Hugh Knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16542885684779106386noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178262688226237317.post-66124855143671515712011-12-05T07:47:54.708-08:002011-12-05T07:47:54.708-08:00You are quite correct. Terry Brown talks even mor...You are quite correct. Terry Brown talks even more about this in his book on English martial arts. It's funny how often the only way we know medieval people did something was by reading ordinances forbidding them from doing it.<br /><br />Still, the evidence seems to suggest (admittedly, by its absence) that this was an aberration limited mostly to London, or at least English cities. I haven't seen anything to suggest this kind of thing anywhere else, and it's certainly true that England was unusual in encouraging its commoners to study the arts of war (e.g., the long bow).<br /><br />Moreover, it can't have happened too many other places besides major cities: As I wrote, early medieval commoners simply didn't have *time* to pursue hobbies the way they did later in the period (e.g., the Marxbruder, etc.). These had to have been, and the texts support this, ne'er-do-wells in a big city.<br /><br />Finally, while we know from the ordinances passed against it that it did occur, they also suggest it was fairly small, *because* of the ordinances.Hugh Knighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16542885684779106386noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178262688226237317.post-18748639236933250542011-12-05T07:25:03.391-08:002011-12-05T07:25:03.391-08:00While I believe you are correct in saying that the...While I believe you are correct in saying that there were no fencing guilds composed entirely of commoners prior to the 16thC, there is evidence that there were organised groups of commoners receiving training from fencing masters in London at least. In 1285, a statute of London was passed which had the following clause:<br /><br />"As fools who delight in their folly do learn to fence with buckler, and thereby are encouraged in their follies, it is provided that none shall keep school for, nor teach the art of fence within the City of London under pain of imprisonment for forty days."<br /><br />I've pulled that from the first few pages of Aylward, "The English Master of Arms". I don't know what the situation is like on the continent, but commoners from at least the 13thC in England seemed to have no difficulty receiving weapons training.The Erratic Writerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06716976889410888521noreply@blogger.com