Masters of Defence

The title was coined during the medieval period, and referred to men who were particularly skilled at the art of fighting.

[1][4] Prior to the year 1540, Henry VIII of England, established the Corporation of the Masters of Defence.

[6] Fencing Masters known to history were Captain Caizo (circa sometime a little prior to July 1547), teacher of Le Sieur de Jarnac (who famously fought Lord Chastaigneraie in a duel); the 16th century Italian masters Agrippa, (Rocco Bonetti c.1570), Capo ferro, Di Grassi, Fabris, Giganti, Marozzo, and Viggiani; Jean Baptiste le Perche du Coudray (c.1603, French); Wilhelm Kreussler father of the Kreussler dynasty, Wernesson de Liancour (c.1686); Sir William Hope (1660-1729); Henry Blackwell; James Figg (champion of the Corporation of Masters of Defence); Heinrich Wilhelm Kreussler a member of Germany's most important master fencing dynasties and teacher of Anthon Friedrich Kahn (18th century); Domenico Angelo; La Boiëssière père and Joseph Boulogne, joint inventors of the fencing mask (c.18th century); Sainct Didier, the supposed father of modern fencing; and General Franz Siegel, the master of the first fencing school in the USA at the New York turnverein (circa.1851).

[1] Jean Baptiste le Perche du Coudray (c.1603) was the first of France's modern masters to publish.

[16] Amongst others, Egerton Castle wrote a text entitled Schools and Masters of Fencing: From the Middle Ages to the Eighteenth Century.