About the ARMA
Real World Skills From Real History

ARMA - the Association for Renaissance Martial Arts, is an educational non-profit organization dedicated to the study and practice of historical fencing and the exploration and promotion of our Western martial heritage.

The ARMA focuses on the interpretation and legitimate reconstruction of Medieval and Renaissance combat systems as a modern discipline. The ARMA endeavors to approximate historical fighting skills through a curriculum of reconstructed techniques, principles, and methods for using a variety of swords, spears, shields, staff weapons, daggers, and unarmed grappling and wrestling skills as taught in numerous surviving books and manuscripts.

The ARMA’s efforts are directed toward resurrecting and recreating a legitimate craft of European fighting skills in a manner that is historically valid and martially sound.  We rely for our source material upon the dozens of rare surviving manuals of Medieval and Renaissance Masters of Defence.

The ARMA was established to promote the study of European fighting arts and arms & armor of the 15th – 17th centuries.  We are first and foremost a martial arts association. 

The earnest approach we advocate differs substantially from much of the fluff and fantasy-oriented escapism that in the past has occupied this subject.  The ARMA does not conduct costumed role-playing nor hold tournaments and sporting competitions.  We also do not perform choreographed fighting stunts.  Accurate investigation and interpretation of historical European fighting skills is our primary objective. Our emphasis is also on Spathology –the study of swords.

The ARMA is a leading voice in the resurrection and revival of lost European fighting arts from the late Medieval period through the mid-17th century. Founded in 1992, and online since 1996, (originally under the name “HACA”) we have been at the forefront of the Medieval and Renaissance fencing studies revival.  The ARMA website is the leading online resource for the subject. The ARMA’s influence and popularity has been an inspiration to many.  In a sea of misinformation, misconception, and sheer fiction, ours is one of few islands of reliable experience and information.  We continually revise and amend our training aids, study materials, and curricula.

The modern study of Renaissance martial arts
- History, Heritage, Exercise, Camaraderie, and Self-Defense.

The word “tradition” is from the Latin, tradere, and in the Medieval era its meaning was to transmit, as in the legacy of knowledge and wisdom each generation may pass on to the next. There is no question that in Western civilization transmission of arts and sciences has long taken the form of written technical words as well as illustrations of movement. By no means was it limited only a “living” practice spoken person to person. What the ARMA attempts to do is revitalize a martial tradition whose methods and techniques - as an intangible cultural heritage - have been preserved almost exclusively in written records, illustrations, iconography, and surviving artifacts. Our study today takes the form of cultural revitalization to revive and perpetuate elements forgotten traditions of a lost and endangered culture. In doing this, ours is a collective educational effort to revive, reconstruct, redevelop, and reclaim a lost heritage. For this challenge, the ARMA provides a means of practice and supply a curriculum of training. We offer resources and advice. We offer training tips and information. We offer experience and expertise. And we present a community and fellowship. But in return, we expect commitment, sincerity, integrity, and martial spirit, along with support for our credo and our standards. Members are more than just subscribers. We are partners working together to one again explore a fighting discipline.

Our Purpose:

• Study European arms and armor from the point of view of their historical function and use.
• Study historical source literature as instructional fighting guides.
• Examine historical European martial culture within a broader historiographic context.
• Study, Interpret, Practice, Promote, and Teach the martial arts of Renaissance Europe.

Our Objectives:

• The ARMA offers classes, workshops, and seminars through our continually revised system of established drills and exercises (Armatura).  Our curriculum also includes a Certification & Ranking structure for students and instructors.
• The ARMA provides a Training Program allowing students to learn and practice within a common structure that is historically valid and martially sound.
• The ARMA seeks to advance the quality of skills demonstrated with Medieval and Renaissance weaponry.
• The ARMA offers Associate Members a variety of benefits, advantages, and opportunities in pursuit of their studies.
• The ARMA attempts to improve the relationship between practitioners and academics in order to stimulate the exchange of knowledge and encourage understanding of historical European combat skills.
• The ARMA makes it a primary aim to raise the level of scholarship within the historical fencing community with its emerging interest in source texts.

Our efforts to combine academic and athletic rigor in this subject is a conscious following of the idea of the Renaissance man with his combining of liberal and martial arts.

Read more here:
Introduction to Historical
European Martial Arts

A large part of the ARMA’s energy is directed at interpretation and integration of translated source material into practical hands-on curriculum.  Interpretation and reconstruction of Medieval and Renaissance fighting arts are still only in their infancy. Bringing to public study the numerous manuals of the Masters of Defence is an important part of our efforts. The ARMA encourages and supports efforts at translating these invaluable texts.

The wealth of fighting manuals currently being studied by many in the historical fencing community is only the tip of a very large iceberg. We have only just begun to scratch the surface in examining the profusion of material now coming to light. Avoiding misinterpretation and error in our study is a continual challenge. While the Internet is frequently awash with inaccurate information on our subject, the growing community of serious enthusiasts and amateur researchers of Medieval and Renaissance fighting arts has long been in need of reputable sources of guidance. 

In the effort to bring a higher degree of integrity, dignity, and authority to these efforts, the ARMA has gathered a list of knowledgeable specialists in several major fields on which we can call on as reference sources. As ARMA Expert Consultants we have historians, anthropologists, linguists, forensic pathologists, curators, armorers, swordsmiths, metallurgists, researchers, scholars, fencers, martial artists, and reenactors. Our panel includes such noted individuals as Dr. Sydney Anglo, David Edge of the Wallace Collection, John Waller of the Royal Armories, and a variety of historians, professors, scientists, bladesmiths, and craftsmen.

We are passionate about our subject and it is our sincere wish to see historical European martial arts acquire the respect and attention they deserve.  Our intent is directed toward raising the credibility, legitimacy, and standards of practice within this field while redeveloping genuine martial skills and teaching ability. To this end, we have established a long-term research effort as well as a proven Training Program.

“That there are persons of mistaken ideas in almost every Art or Science, is what few will deny. Yet I am inclined to believe there are more erroneous opinions entertained with regard to the Art of using the Sword than on most other subjects.”

- Joseph Roland, Amateur of Fencing, 1809

We do not study historical fencing so that it will be incomprehensible to all but a narrow group of specialists, merely fuel escapist role-playing, or be devoid of any practical application. Rather, we explore it because we love history and enjoy the improvement it provides our understanding and practice of the craft as its own end. Inherent in this is the idea within Renaissance culture of the pursuit of excellence—the joy of individual distinction and accomplishment—as exemplified in chivalric romance and articulated by Humanists scholars and pursued by courtier gentlemen.

In the ARMA we are not content to merely speculate upon the manner in which a technique or action might theoretically be done at speed. We are not satisfied until we confidently understand their performance in a martial and repeatable manner.

The ARMA was the first comprehensive attempt at an organization established specifically to advance scholarship into, and practice of, Medieval and Renaissance fighting arts, and offer a modern historically based curricula.   ARMA's intention is not the "play and display" way. We place concern exclusively on acquiring technical knowledge and physical skills, rather than theoretical or academic understanding focused only on form –as these were not what the craft historically was all about.

The ARMA web site is structured for two primary functions. The first is to introduce ARMA's purpose and methods to interested parties, and the second is to educate the community while supporting individual Members and Study Groups.

The ARMA idea is to allow people to freely and seriously practice this subject without the concerns of staged fighting and sporting play, or the distractions of role-playing and fantasy.

For this, we have supplied general material on our training methods and sparring systems, noteworthy articles and essays, historical manuals and scholarly works, research material and suggested reading, relevant or worthwhile links, a listing of ARMA Members & Study Groups as well as other interested persons, discussion Forums, plus a range of other items from our international network of members and fellow enthusiasts within the historical European martial arts community.

The ARMA website offers a "homebase" for sharing and exchanging information in the study of historical fighting skills and the function and use of historical arms and armor. Above all, promoting the accurate reconstruction and replication of our Western martial-heritage is the site's mission.

Our Website features:

        Online Historical Manuals
        Articles & Essays
        Study Materials
        Training Tips
        Research Forum
        Reading List / Bibliography
        Book Reviews & Interviews
        Photo & Video Gallery
        National Training Program
        Member’s Area Resources
        Youth Page
        Private Member’s Area

We have known for some time that there is a good deal of misconception and misinformation on historical European martial arts, and many are sincerely working at changing this. But there is also a large section of the interested public who are entirely at a loss as to how to get involved, how to start training, what to practice, and how they can enjoy studying this subject on their own.  In effect, this is what a large portion of the ARMA site is already about.  Our recent effort to follow “old swordplay” is not the first.  Such an effort actually was underway over 100 years ago.  Several Victorian-era military men were fencers interested in the history of swordplay.  Their legacy is with us in the current resurgent interest in historical fencing.  Rather than an academic game of the fencing salle or a skill of the fading duel of honor, these soldier-scholar antiquarians viewed swordsmanship as practical knowledge that was still a necessity for military men. Instead of using then current systems of classical fencing, they pursued as their guide the old forgotten styles found in the historical manuals. In many ways, today's enthusiasts of Historical European martial arts attempting to construct a modern curricula are the inheritors of the efforts by these “private gentleman devoted to the noble science.”