A Historically Accurate Medieval Duel

Thanks to Hollywood, we all probably think we know what medieval duels looked like, with two combatants parrying and thrusting whilst dancing about (and, of course, exchanging some witty repartee). The truth — as seen in this video by YouTuber Dequitem, who specializes in filming non-choreographed duels that use historically accurate combat techniques — was almost certainly a good deal messier and uglier.

I don’t recall, for example, ever seeing any Hollywood knight hold their sword the way that Dequitem’s combatants do, nor have I ever seen a move like the one at the 1:08 mark, where one of the combatants uses their sword more like a club or a hammer. To the Hollywood-trained eye, that looks kind of silly, and not at all very knightly. But as it turns out, that was an actual technique called mordschlag that was taught by the German school of fencing.