page15
Acta Periodica Duellatorum, Conference Proceedings
129
loss of e.g. an eye,
29
hence the common prohibition of thrusts and the requirement to
strike with the flat in the Franco-Belgian rule set, or broken fingers, which explains the
hands being off-limits in both the Franco-Belgian and Manciolino’s rule set.
30
IV.4.
Summary
Like historical fencing masters and event organisers, modern tournament organisers
seek to minimise injury. Mostly, this is done by requiring specified protection, especially
for the hands, head, torso and joints, and by giving umpires discretion on when to stop
a bout and/or injunctions against the use of excessive or gratuitous force. However,
some HEMA clubs have adopted and adapted elements of the historical rule sets as a
means to control injury risk and promote technique: the Hallebardiers of the Sint
Michielsgilde in Bruges, founded 1444, who also presented at the conference, use their
traditional rule set (and of course appropriate training) to replace the heavy protection
typical for HEMA tournaments.
31
The question of goals of tournaments as well as their rule sets is a much-discussed
one
32
. The rules will always shape the fencing, so it is in effect impossible to create a
neutral playing ground. Generally, the stated objectives of modern rule sets fall into two
categories: simulating a “real fight” within the context of the tradition, or to give a show
of beautiful historical techniques.
Emulating “real combat” is in the view of many, and also in the authors’ experience,
impossible in a safe manner,
33
as the abstraction of an amicable competition by
definition introduces artefacts that estrange it from a deadly encounter.
29
The Lucerne city archives hold a privy council deliberation on the consequences of a 1489
fencing training accident, which in the event was resolved extra-judicially: Die Rechtsquellen des
Kantons Luzern, Part I: Stadtrechte; Vol. 3: Stadt und Territorialstaat Luzern, Satzungen, Eidbuch,
Stadtrechtbuch und andere normative Quellen (1461-1489), Konrad Wanner (Ed.) (Basel: Schwabe,
2005), p. 369.
30
In many a Fechtschule, i.e. fencing tournaments in the context of a princely wedding or other
grand occasion, the winner was the fighter who could land the highest Blume, or bleeding wound –
Jaquet, Fightschools, p. 59. A laceration to the scalp bleeds in a gratifyingly spectacular fashion, but
is relatively harmless.
31
The Bruges rule set is one of the templates for the Franco-Belgian rule set discussed above in
Part
IV.2.1;
see
also
their
website
<http://www.hallebardiers.be/onze-wapens/langzwaard/
praktische-info/> [queried 30 May 2017] and Martens, Fence Naked.
32
See e.g. Martens, Fence Naked; James Roberts, Rethinking the HEMA tournament and the social
contract
(22
October
2015,
<http://armoury.co.za/rethinking-the-hema-tournament-and-the-
social-contract/> [queried 15 May 2017]; or Keith Farrell, Trying to simulate a real fight (24 April
2017, <http://www.keithfarrell.net/blog/2017/04/trying-simulate-real-fight/> [queried 15 May
2017]).
33
Tuaillon Demésy, Faire Revivre Les Duels, p. 127 underlines notably the necessity to control and
limit the violence, unlike in the historical practices.