[Ansteorra] White Scarves and a big ole kettle of fish
Chris Zakes
dontivar at gmail.com
Tue May 8 19:25:43 PDT 2007
At 02:22 PM 5/8/2007, you wrote:
>I guess this is a 'eek! Scary!' question, but since I haven't been active in
>the society long enough to know the ancient history on the topic, I honestly
>don't know the answer to this one:
>
>Why *isn't* there a peerage for rapier combat?
There's a couple of reasons. Although some "rapier combat" (actually
modern-rules fencing) was seen in the First Tournament, rapier only
existed on the fringes of the SCA for the first ten years or so. It
took another ten or fifteen years before it was widely accepted
across the SCA, and rapier still isn't allowed in Calontir. On the
other hand (as Robin said) armored combat and knighthood were an
integral part of the SCA from the very beginning. Thus our traditions
say that knighthood equals armored combat; rapier is a johnny-come-lately.
Also, there's almost no historical basis for someone being given a
knighthood *just* because he was a good rapier fighter. By the time
rapiers were developed (late 1400s) knighthoods were usually given
for military leadership or "service to the state" not for individual
fighting ability.
None of the London Masters of Defence were knights, nor were the
German Luxbruder or Marxbruder--they were more like modern-day
martial arts instructors: middle-class folks trying to make a living.
(The only exception I know of was Salvator Fabris, who was made the
Supreme Knight of the Order of the Seven Hearts by King Christian IV
of Denmark in the early 1600s. This *may* have been a "service to the
state" knighthood as well, since Fabris was the royal swordsmanship
instructor at the time.)
-Tivar Moondragon
Ansteorra
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