Ben Miller's Blog

Above: Illustration of Anthony Gordon’s bayonet method, drawn ca. 1804-1805, never published. The soldier in blue represents the old established exercise, while those in red, on the right, showcase Gordon’s new method. Courtesy of the British Museum, licensed under CC BY 2.0.

As far as is currently known, prior to the 1780s, the British military—like that of most of Europe—did not officially instruct its rank and file troops in a systematic method of self-defense for close-quarters combat wit...

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Two major surges of interest in the martial arts—both inspired and informed by a romantic interest in the past—can be observed during the last three centuries of Irish history.

The first occurred during the...

Drill Display, 1st prize winners: Irish Volunteers, A Company, 4th Battalion, Dublin Brigade, at a tournament held at St. Enda’s College’s Aeridheacht on Sept. 5, 1915. From the Irish Volunteer. Oct 9, 1915.

“Make him quick and precise in his movements…”

The following short treatise, written by F. P. Mullin, appeared in the Nationalist Revolutionary journal, the Irish Volunteer (also known by its Irish name, An tÓglách) on July 18, 1914. The method of attack and defense with the bayonet prese...

The Battle of Vinegar Hill, fought in County Wexford, in 1798, featured the use of the pike

On came the Saxons facing the farmer
But soon they reeled back from our pike Volunteers
Whose cry was loud and shrill, “Wexford and Vinegar hill
New Ross, Father Murphy and the bold Shelmaliers!”

– “Burke’s Dream,” a Ballad of 1867

Although it has received less attention than other aspects of martial arts history, the use on foot of various European staff weapons subsisted long into the nineteenth ce...

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Announcing the release of the book, Irish Swordsmanship: Fencing and Dueling in Eighteenth Century Ireland, available in October 2017.

The product of more than ten years of research, the first part of this book tells the story of eighteenth century Ireland’s most renowned duelists, gladiators, and fencing masters, as well as that of Ireland’s most celebrated fencing society, the Knights of Tara—whose lavish fencing exhibitions won fame and glory for Ireland, and whose member’s innovative wri...

Cote du Golfe School of Fencing

This article reflects only my own interpretations and opinions, and not necessarily those of Maestro Ramon Martinez, Maestro Jeannette-Acosta Martinez, or the Martinez Academy of Arms.

To be truly successful, attempts at reconstructing historical European systems of swordsmanship must be informed by classical fencing.

It’s an unfortunate trend today that the overwhelming majority of European swordsmanship enthusiasts, whether they classify themselves under the...

Luigi Barbasetti, the Italian fencing master who brought Northern Italian fencing to Paris and Vienna, and who trained champion fencers, gained renown in the fencing world for bringing the Northern Italian style to the international stage. As such, he stands as one of the most prominent students of Maestro Giuseppe Radaelli, who is typically given credit as the founder of the Northern Italian style of sabre fencing in the 1860’s. In t

Source: Misconceptions about Northern Italian Sabre

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In 1893, the city of San Francisco played host to the largest demonstration, in terms of both audience attendance and actual participation, of historical fencing reconstruction in the United States during the entire nineteenth century. Billed as a “Revival of Ancient Graeco-Roman Games,” the event comprised both entertainment and actual martial contests, and included exhibitions of swordsmanship, javelin-throwing, discus throwing, Pankration (a combina...

During the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries, America could be a dangerous place, and knowledge of self-defense was often necessary for use in both urban and rural environments. To those ends, fencing masters and instructors often modified and applied fencing techniques to the cane or walking stick, creating their own systems of self-defense. This article proposes to look at various methods of cane defense, taught by fencing masters and instructors, that were specifically...

The Floquet-Boulanger duel, L’Illustration, July 21,1888

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Almost everyone has heard the expression, at one time or another, that “the best defense is a good offense.” Today, this adage has made its way into the modern consciousness, and is often quoted in books on the martial arts and “practical” self-defense, of which the following is only one recent example:

“In realistic combat situations, the best defense is a good offense.” [1]

Although the origins of this expression are uncertain, since...