The Clarenceux King-of Arms in 1622 was William Camden, but as he became paralyzed in 1622 and died in 1623 it is doubtful whether he visited Silver either.
[4] Silver championed the native English martial arts while objecting on ethical and technical grounds to the fashionable continental rapier systems being taught at the time.
Silver also bemoans other weapons that do not offer sufficient protection to the user (such as daggers); the rapier, however, bears the brunt of his attention, as it was seemingly quite common in the day.
The manuscript is undated but refers to the "nation of Great Britain" and so must have been written after James I's introduction of that term in late 1604.
Bref Instructions, however, remained an unpublished manuscript until its publication in 1898 by fencing historian Captain Cyril G. R. Matthey as a training manual to aid soldiers fighting in the Boer War.