The prevailing view has been the Middle Ages were an era of “feudal heteronomy”, radically distinct from the early modern international system that superseded it sometime between the mid-sixteenth and mid-seventeenth centuries. According to this view, the late medieval order was not an international system, properly understood, for the simple reason that it did not…
The earliest widespread use of horse armour appears to have been in Inner Asia, perhaps more specifically in Khwarazm. Thereafter horse armour became notably characteristic of Central and Inner Asia, not only amongst nomadic tribes but also amongst settled peoples such as the Turkish Uighurs of what is now called the Chinese autonomous region of…
This article was inspired by the discussion surrounding the edge alignment of a strike recorded on video on a tournament somewhere. Now, I am not singling out anyone in particular, I don’t even know who this is. The fencers, tournament location, etc are unimportant. (For simplicity I will simply refer to Fencer Left and Fencer…
