KDF Leeds
The Royal Armouries, West Yorkshire

Seminar I.33: The heart of the art of combat


Seminar I.33 2019

The ‘Heart of the art of combat’ is a 3-day joint conference and seminar run in association with KDF International, the Society for Combat Archaeology and the Royal Armouries Museum.

The 2-day seminar takes place Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th May at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds. Workshops will be delivered by renowned instructors from around the world and will focus on the wide range of topics associated with the round shield tradition, use of the buckler and sword in one hand. Sessions will focus on the single-handed sword, sword & buckler, early medieval spear and shield combat, the use of Viking round shield with accompanying weapon and the use of the Messer, based on research from medieval fighting manuals.

Other activities will include handling sessions of museum artefacts and a viewing of the Royal Armouries I.33 manuscript (Tower Fechtbuch), hosted by the Royal Armouries Museum curators.

This event is open to the public and all levels of enthusiast from novice to expert are welcome.

Seminar tickets (which are sold separately to bookings of the conference) cost £60 and are available from here.

There will also be a celebration meal on the Saturday evening in Leeds city centre.


On the Friday 10th May the one-day conference celebrating the publication of a new facsimile of one of the museum’s treasures, Royal Armouries MS I.33, the world’s oldest known surviving ‘fight book’ will be held at the Royal Armouries.
The keynote speaker is Dr Jeffrey Forgeng, editor of 'The Medieval Art of Swordsmanship'.

Conference tickets (which are sold separately to bookings for the training seminar on the Saturday and Sunday) cost £20 and are available from here.

In addition a PDF with details of the events over the weekend is available here.