Frequently Asked Questions
What is "Bartholomew Bramble's Schoole of Defence"?
We are a troupe of Historical Interpreters based in southwest Missouri dedicated to researching and demonstrating the fighting skills of the 15th through 17th centuries. This includes pike drill, musketry, swordsmanship, and other forms of weapon practice. It also includes serious study of the history and popular culture of these periods.
Wow, you do sword fighting - that sounds fun! I'd love to be a templar knight or maybe an elf!
There are a number of groups and organizations in which participants take the 'personas' of historical or semi-historical (or even imaginary) characters for the sake of self-entertainment. Since we are engaged in the practice of real skills and the serious study of history where honesty is of great importance we do not take on pretend personas but instead demonstrate in the manner known as 'third person interpretation'.
What kinds of weapon skills do you practice?
We focus on a core competency of those weapons that were most likely found among the citizen soldiers of Elizabethan England - the sword, rapier, pike, longbow, and various pole arms and firearms.
Where do you find the information you need to learn these skills?
The core of our curriculum is based on the writings of George Silver, a gentleman and martial arts author and critic who wrote on the subject during the late 1500's and early 1600's. Our longbow practices are based on Roger Ascham's Toxophilus, published in 1545. Our pike and firearm drill is based on Jacob DeGheyn's Exercise of Arms, published in 1607. We also use a number of other period manuals and texts, both from England and the continent.