KDF Leeds
The Royal Armouries, West Yorkshire

Seminar 1.33: Sword & Buckler, Leeds


The Seminar Instructors and Presenters


Sword and Buckler 2018
David Rawlings

Dave Rawlings of the London Longsword Academy and Boar’s Tooth has over 15 years’ experience of teaching western swordsmanship and is a long time practitioner of I.33.

He’s been studying martial arts from the age of 5, and has over 15 years’ experience teaching Western Swordsmanship.

He is one of only a very few professional swordsmen and bases his tuition on his extensive research of medieval to Renaissance swordsmanship texts.

He is also the author of Obsesseo and two other DVD training guides based on I.33 and the use of the Sword & Buckler.
Sword and Buckler 2018
Sword and Buckler 2018
Cornelius Berthold

Cornelius started Olympic sabre fencing in 2004 and got into re-enactment fighting and HEMA soon afterwards.

He headed the sword & buckler, military sabre and Italian rapier training at the German HEMA group Blossfechter zu Chemnitz before moving to Hamburg where he now trains and instructs at Dimicator and Hammaborg.

He is also involved in developing the coach training within the German HEMA association (DDHF).

At the moment, Cornelius practises Olympic sabre, German longsword and his major discipline, sword & buckler according to RA MS. I.33.

His specialities in fencing include posture, geometry and timing.
Antti Ijäs

Antti Ijäs is currently working on his doctoral dissertation on the language of MS I.33 at the University of Helsinki.

Though he is currently focused on the Latin corpus of fencing manuals, his research interests encompass, among others, a seventeenth-century German rapier manuscript and the Greek language papyri on ancient martial arts.

A long time practitioner of martial arts, Antti is the chapter master of KDF Helsinki and teaches Wing Tsun and Weapons Combat Systems in Helsinki.

He is also an active member of the Society for Combat Archaeology.
Sword and Buckler 2018
Sword and Buckler 2018
Henry Yallop

Henry is Keeper of Armour & Edged Weapons at the Royal Armouries, UK.

Since joining the museum in 2012 he has curated exhibitions on the First World War, The Battle of Waterloo and the Anglo-Saxon Staffordshire Hoard.

Since 2015 he has also been Deputy Editor of the museum’s peer-reviewed journal Arms & Armour. He is particularly interested in 18th & 19th century military edged weapons.

15-20 years ago he practiced Foil, at regional and occasionally national competitions. Having not fought (or exercised!) since, Henry recently joined KDF/EHCG where he is grateful to learn from the very patient teachings of Dean Davidson and Stuart Ivinson.
Rolf Warming

Rolf Warming is the founding director of the Society for Combat Archaeology and the chief instructor of the martial arts organization Weapons Combat Systems.

Rolf regularly gives workshops and lectures across Europe, both as a martial artist and an academic.
He holds an MA degree in both Maritime Archaeology and Prehistoric Archaeology, and has undertaken a number of significant studies about combat and conflicts in the past.

Rolf is specialized in Viking Age weapons and warfare and is currently involved with two major research projects on shields of the Iron Age and Viking Age.

Photograph - Jacob Nyborg Andreassen
Sword and Buckler 2018
Sword and Buckler 2018
Herbert Schmidt

Herbert Schmidt founded the Austrian club Ars Gladii in 1999 and has been its trainer since.
He began to reconstruct the art of the longsword in the Liechtenauer tradition soon to be followed by work on the I.33.

His aim has always been a faithful reconstruction of the sources.

Having published two books on swordsmanship and one on the buckler he is giving talks and workshops all over Europe, especially regarding his work on the I.33.

Herbert Schmidt lives and teaches in Austria.
Lars Lind

Lars has trained and taught martial arts (WingTsun and Escrima) for more than 40 years.

European Historical Martial Arts for only 27 years. In 2007, Lars founded his own system, namely Weapons Combat Systems™ built on his years of experience in martial arts and interest in history, the system combines both the practical and historical side of armed combat.

Lars holds the rank of Grandmaster in Weapons Combat Systems and has schools or groups in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Mexico and Canada. He is as active as ever and instructs classes and seminars in armed combat and weaponry understanding all over Scandinavia and Europe every month.

Lars is also a KDF Chapter Master as well as a Member of the Society for Combat Archaeology.
Sword and Buckler 2018
Sword and Buckler 2018
Adam Roylance

Adam has been involved with sword fighting for over 30 years, as training officer in the Vikings through fencing epee for his county into historical based combat.

He started his Nottingham club in 2003 and co-founded KDF in 2006 immediately adopting the 'small frame' approach of Thomas Stoeppler.
Dean Davidson

Dean Davidson has over 20 years’ experience in martial arts and training in weapons combat, with a grounding in Tai Chi and historical fencing. He is the KDF International and EHCG Chapter Master at the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds.

He is also an active member of the Society for Combat Archaeology, an international organisation committed to the promulgation of systematic research and developed knowledge of the nature of combat in the past.

Dean has presented and run numerous workshops at conferences and seminars across the United Kingdom on European medieval martial arts and the traditions of Johannes Liechtenauer, most notably at the International Medieval Congress and the National Archives at Kew.
Sword and Buckler 2018
Sword and Buckler 2018
Scot Hurst

Scot Hurst is the Assistant Curator of Arms and Armour at the Royal Armouries in Leeds.

Prior to joining the curatorial team, Scot acted as a civilian instructor on the Combat Infantry Course, training recruits from Infantry Training Centre Catterick Garrison on aspects of military history and firearms development.

He also worked with the education team performing a range of historical combat demonstrations, along with talks and tours around the museum.

Having joined the curatorial team, his particular areas of interest are the medieval tournament and the continuing use of body armour amongst modern day soldiers.
Stuart Ivinson

Stuart has made extensive studies of various aspects of medieval warfare, and has written one book: “Anglo-Welsh Wars, 1050-1300.” He is an assistant teacher at the Leeds chapter of KDF and has been practicing historical martial arts for seventeen years.

He has given numerous demonstrations of historical combat techniques as a member of the Society for Combat Archaeology, and also the 3 Swords Historical Combat group. Clients for these demonstrations most notably include the Royal Armouries Museum Leeds, The National Archives at Kew, and the Leeds University International Medieval Congress.

Stuart works at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, where he is the Librarian.
His hobbies include hill walking, reading, and trying to make his numerous replica armours fit and work better.
Sword and Buckler 2018