Activities
Classes
Classes in various weapons and styles will be held in Fort St. Angelo through the weekend. Longsword, rapier, sidesword, sword and buckler, sabre workshops will all be available!
All classes will be held twice, so you can make your own programme without missing any classes you would like to take! Please refer to the list of instructors for more information.
Apart from the scheduled classes, there will be plenty of opportunities for friendly sparring in various locations around the fort!
Lecture
As practitioners of historical European swordsmanship many of us have come into contact directly or indirectly with the corpus of writings upon which our practice is founded.
The nature of our interest leads many to study these sources in isolation, and a fewer number of us are perhaps aware of the socio-political culture, and military landscape which generated these works. This lecture thus seeks to place this collection of fencing and martial art treatises within the wider context of the military practices of early modern Europe.
It will offer a brief introduction to the Military Revolution Theory, of its proposed changes to military tactics and strategy, of how these changes affected early modern society, and investigate what part martial arts played on the early modern battlefield.
Raymond Howard - Biography
Raymond Howard holds the position of Assistant Curator at the Palace Armoury.
He graduated with a B.A. (Hons.) in History at the University of Malta in 2017; as part of his studies, he authored a dissertation exploring the military nature of Hospitaller Malta through the lens of the Military Revolution Theory. In 2019 he furthered his studies at the same university, reading for an M.A. (by research); he wrote a dissertation investigating the Order of St. John’s military complex. He has also authored research papers in academic journals, and provided consultation for documentaries.
His research interests include medieval and early modern military history, military-religious orders, arms and armour studies, Mediterranean history, historical martial arts, and museology.
Raymond has also been a member and student of the Malta Historical Fencing Association since 2018.
Gala dinner
More information about this year's gala dinner coming soon!