Category: Hofdegen / smallsword

• Charles Besnard “The Free Master of Arms” Overview

  

  This is intended to be a “too long; didn’t read” summary of Charles Besnard’s 1653 fencing treatise Le maistre d’arme liberal based on my reading of the English translation by Anne Chauvat and Rob Runacres available here. This summary necessarily involves interpretation on my part, but I’ve tried to strike a good balance between brevity…

  blumedeskampfes

  March 20, 2026

  Charles Besnard, Einhändiges Schwert / single-handed sword, English, Geschichte / History, Hofdegen / smallsword, Informationsblatt / handout, Rapier, Strategie / Game Plan

• Snazzy Smallswords

  In this post, I simply want to share a selection of smallswords I like! For now, it only includes smallswords from the Metropolitan Museum of Art‘s collection. I might expand this post to include examples from other museums in the future. What is a smallsword? Smallswords, also known as court swords, are a category of…

  blumedeskampfes

  November 3, 2025

  Einhändiges Schwert / single-handed sword, English, Hofdegen / smallsword, Kultur / culture