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History of Fencing Development of the Epee The Academy thanks Macolm Fare for contributing the above articles. Malcolm's website may be found at www.fencingmuseum.com: |
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Although fencing masters must have taught epee fencing as a preparation for duelling since the introduction of the rapier in the 16th century, it was the foil that came to dominate the fencing salles of Europe. By the end of the 18th century, fencing had become a formal academic exercise involving an increasingly intricate series of movements. Paradoxically, it was the adoption of the mask that led to modern epee fencing. The new dynamic form of fencing allowed by wearing masks led some fencers to think that foil technique was a suitable preparation for duelling. But many competent foilists were killed or wounded in duels and by the mid-19th century some French fencers began to rebel against conventional foil teaching. The Baron de Bazancourt in his entertaining book Secrets of the Sword, written in 1862, put forward the revolutionary argument that fencing should represent real fighting as closely as possible. In the last quarter of the 19th century, Jules Jacob, a Parisian fencing master, found himself increasingly called upon to prepare men for a duel and soon attracted a following of discontented foilists keen to practise a more realistic form of swordplay with a buttoned version of the triangular-bladed duelling sword. The epee now became a weapon of sport as well as of combat. In July 1896 the first international open epee tournaments, one for professors and the other for amateurs, were held in Paris as part of a Semaine du Grand Prix de l'Escrime. Bouts were for one hit and among the amateurs there were nine poules of eight from which only one was promoted to a final poule of nine. The single pointe d'arret proved rather dangerous and in 1906 the triple point was introduced, a design that was to be used for over 50 years. Also in 1906 a French doctor patented the first orthopaedic grip, an aluminium handle moulded to the shape of the hand. A further half dozen shapes became available in the decades before the Second World War. When the electrical apparatus appeared in 1932, the best-of-five hits system was introduced. In order to reproduce as closely as possible the conditions of a duel, most epee tournaments before the Second World War were fenced in the open air on gravel paths. As soon as scoring moved away from the single hit, competitions were decided on a count of victories and the duellist mentality began to fade. The leading French epeeist René Monal was one of the first to take electric epee to its logical conclusion, changing forever the weapon's golden rule from 'hit without being hit' to 'hit 1/25th of a second before your opponent hits you'. His speciality was the fleche to body and in the 1937 World University Games in Paris he ran on to his opponent's blade which snapped, the broken stump penetrating his heart. Monal dropped dead after the electrical apparatus had recorded his winning hit. It was not until another accident in 1951 that the four-pronged electric tip, which tended to destroy clothing, was changed to that of a pineapple shape; this was not adopted in Britain until 1954 and then in 1968 the familiar bevelled-edge flat tip used today was introduced. The 5-hit bout was adopted at the 1953 world championships. Malcolm Fare
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