Month: June 2012

Review of Longpoint 2012

This week we present a review of Longpoint 2012, written by Benjamin Hawkins.

Longpoint 2012 Write Up

On a long June weekend I got to experience the Longpoint 2012 in Columbia, Maryland. This was an event organized and run by Jake Norwood, Maryland Kunst des Fechtens, and with help from a wide variety of HEMA practitioners from America and beyond. Over the three days, I took part in two tournaments, seven classes and a reward dinner. I also got to meet US HEMA community members ranging from Vermont to South Carolina and Louisiana to Arizona. In total I think it was very much worth it.

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Rushing forward, and besieging

In my last post (http://encasedinsteel.co.uk/2012/05/18/principles-and-the-book-of-martial-power/), I talked about the Book of Martial Power, and principles involved in fighting. In particular, I talked about the principles involved in attacking safely. Today, I’m going to be revisiting this topic.

As I argued last time, it is all too easy to look at the comments in some of the KDF texts, and conclude that they mean we must always attack. However, such an attitude can lead us to attack very unsafely, and can lead to double kills. One of the unfortunate things about HEMA, is that it’s rare for one manual, or even an even tradition of manuals, to give all the information that we need. For example, we’re told in KDF to gain the Vorschlag, but as I pointed out in one of my very earliest posts (http://encasedinsteel.co.uk/2011/03/11/43/), we are also often told to wait. As I said in Over Applying Liechtenauer’s Principles, this could be because different people fought differently. Perhaps one master was more inclined to fighting defensively than another master. Of course, another of looking at it, is that sometimes we are told to attack, at other times we are told to wait, but we are very rarely given context or tactical advice to say why we should do either of these things.

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Elizabeth I’s Marriage Game

Was there a purpose to Elizabeth I’s Marriage Game?

Frequently in history, Elizabeth I is referred to as the Virgin Queen, a fact which is unlikely to be true despite the fact she never married. When Princess Elizabeth succeeded to the throne and became Queen Elizabeth in 1558 it was assumed that marriage would be one of her first priorities. Unlike her sister Mary, Elizabeth was still relatively young and in her child-baring years and many hoped to see a royal family again in order to give England some much needed stability and continuity after, what later historians would call, the Mid-Tudor Crisis.[1] However, the need to marry was not as simple as this might make it seem.

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Loch Lomond 2012

Hey,

So this week I am writing a review of the AHA Camp Loch Lomond 2012. As the organiser this  isn’t a review like I would or would not recommend the camp it is more a discussion of the event from my point of view. I expect the participant reviews will be appearing on various forums and the like in the near future.

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Regnum defende

To celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, this week we are putting up an article by Colin Farrell, on the defence of the monarchy. We realise this is an important political issue to many, however if you wish to discuss this article, we would ask you all to remain open-minded, and also to remember that the views in this article do not necessarily represent the views of other Academy members, or the views of the Academy as whole.

In today’s society, many argue the relevance of the monarchy. They say that since we are a democracy we don’t need a Queen. They say that the time has come for our Head of State to be elected as well as our Head of Government. They say that it is an institution from another time. The anti-monarchy group Republic refers to the Monarchy as a “‘broke’ institution”, and argues that it is “unaccountable and expensive” and “unrepresentative”. However, I say that these arguments are fundamentally flawed.

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