History Learning to fight
Squires spent years training. They practiced with wooden swords and blunt blades, wrestled, ran and climbed, and learned to ride and fight in heavy armor. Masters of defense taught sword fighting, and some wrote books about it. The oldest surviving European fighting manual, now in the Royal Armouries in Leeds, England, was made around 1300 and shows a priest teaching a student with sword and small shield.
History The quintain
To practice with a lance, riders charged at a quintain: a target on an arm that turned on a post. If the rider hit the target badly, the arm swung around and could knock him off his horse, so he had to strike cleanly and ride on fast. A rare quintain still stands on the village green at Offham in Kent, England.
Art In this artwork
The practice posts, climbing frame and rack of wooden swords and shields are the artist's design.
Look closer
- Find the rack of wooden swords.
- What could you practice on the climbing frame?
Think about it
- Why practice with wooden swords?
- How does a quintain teach a rider to be accurate?
- Where do people practice skills safely today?
Key words
- Quintain
- A target on a turning arm, used for lance practice.
- Page
- A boy serving in a noble household, the first step to knighthood.
- Manual
- A book that teaches a skill.
Sources
The history on this page is a short summary based on these sources:
- Royal Armouries, Leeds, collections of medieval armor and the fencing manual MS I.33 (about 1300)
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Knight" and "Chivalry"
