Lesser known English fencing treatises

AMong fencing treatises, everyone knows about Silver, Swetnam, and the masters of the 18th and 19th centuries. Heck, everyone knows about treatises written by foreigners in English at the time or shortly after such as DiGrassi, Saviolo, and later Masiello. This is a list featuring fencing treatises that aren't very popular by HEMAists. These treatises are either originating in England or written in English by foreigners as period translations or upfront.

The 3 longsword treatises

These are actually gaining popularity as of now. They are grouped together as they are all focused on a similar(ish) weapon and none contain pictures.

MS Harley is the oldest English-made text. It is often dated to 1450, however linguistics and script date it to the 1380s-1390s. Because of this date issue, people think it is about the greatsword; however, it is more likely either an Oakeshott type XIIIa or, on the other end, an Oakehott type XVIIIb. It also alludes to the use of armour.

"Fall upon his harness if he will abide... Bere up his harness and get thou the grith."

Cotton Titus, dated 1450, is the shortest text. It contains 2 paragraphs on the longsword and 1 on the quarterstaff. It shares similar jargon to Harley.

Ledall Roll is a longsword dated roughly to 1535. It is attributed to John Ledall and is tied to the guild system. the ideal sword for it is an Oakeshott type XVa.

The Exercise of Armes by Adam van Breen

This is an infantry drill manual focused on sword and shield and pike and shield. It was written in Dutch, French, and German, with the English version written in 1625.

Pallas Armata

This text, English version dated to 1630, is of Danish origin. It follows the system of Salvator Fabris covering rapier/sword alone and with the dagger.

Napoleonic treatises

These texts are tied by time period.

Of Irish origin, Anthony Gordon wrote the first bayonet fencing treatise in 1805. The text also covers smallsword and spadroon. For more information see Ben Miller's work.

This next manuscript, dated 1812, is by Lt. Pringle Green. It covers naval cutlass with a pistol as a parrying device. It is currently being transcribed by Nick Thomas and the folks at the Academy of Historical Fencing and will be released on their website (not on there as of this post's publication date).