The centerpiece of Saturday’s martial program is a pas d’armes featuring both heavy armored combat and rapier combat, running simultaneously. The tournament is rooted in fifteenth-century tradition: René d’Anjou’s Livre des Tournois, the pas d’armes at Chauvency, and the tournaments of Burgundian courts in the Rhine valley.

Friday Evening: Procession and Display of Helms

On Friday evening, fighters process their helms to a place of honor where they will be displayed overnight. This is a period-appropriate ceremonial opening to the tournament, drawing from the practices documented at Chauvency and in Froissart. All intending fighters (heavy and rapier) are invited to participate.

Saturday: The Fighting

Saturday’s fighting runs at midday on the flat grass list field. Heavy and rapier lists run simultaneously at separate eric-marked areas. Fighters are asked to appear in period kit (pre-1603) consistent with the Swiss/German theme where possible, though this is not required for participation.

Official tournament rules for Heavy and Rapier are forthcoming and will be posted here as soon as they are finalized by the Heavy and Rapier Marshals. The historical reference below describes the broader Fechtschule tradition the tournament is drawing from and gives fighters a sense of what to expect in form and spirit.

A Fechtschule Reborn

When the procession ends and the prize is set, the fighting begins. What follows is not a bracket, not a points race, and not a contest of endurance. It is a Fechtschule, the public prize fencing of the late medieval and Renaissance German cities, brought back to life for our court. The following is a broad overview of what we are looking to recreate for this tournament.

What This Was Called Historically

The closest historical analogue to a “tournament” in unarmored German longsword fencing was the Fechtschule, literally “fencing school” or “fencing exhibition.” Fechtschulen were public, rule bound, competitive, prize oriented, and judged by fencing masters or civic authorities. They are documented from the late 1400s through the 1500s, especially in German cities such as Frankfurt, Nürnberg, Augsburg, and Strasbourg.

Important: They were not elimination brackets or point based bouts. They were king of the ring, or challenge, formats designed to reward clean, martial fencing and penalize doubles.

Tournament Format

Participants and Order. Fighters entered one at a time. A challenger would step forward to face the current fighter, der Besteher. Order was often voluntary or determined by seniority and guild status.

Bout Structure. Each exchange was brief and discrete, not continuous fencing rounds. A typical bout consisted of an agreed number of strikes, most often three to five gang (passes or exchanges), or fencing continued until a clear result was observed. There was no fixed time limit.

Victory Conditions

Victory was qualitative, not quantitative. A fencer won an exchange by landing a clean, well formed cut or thrust without receiving a hit in the same tempo. Double hits were either ignored, penalized, or used as grounds to stop the match for poor fencing.

Target Priorities

While no numeric scoring existed, target preference is consistent across the sources.

Permitted Techniques

Judging and Authority

Officials included senior fencing masters, guild representatives (Marxbrüder or Federfechter), and sometimes city officials. Judges were empowered to call halts, determine clean hits, and expel dangerous fencers.

Ranking and Advancement

There was no single champion bracket. Success was measured by how many challengers you defeated, whether you remained undefeated, and public recognition through prizes such as wreaths, gloves, and swords. A fencer who defeated several challengers consecutively was recognized as best fencer that day.

A Reconstructed 16th Century Fechtschule

This structure is fully compatible with documented 15th and 16th century practice.

Primary Documentation (Pre 1600)

List Format

List format (bear pit, round robin, tree) to be confirmed with Heavy and Rapier Marshals.

Fighter Sign-Up

Sign-up process to be posted as it is finalized.

Contact