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The Penicuik Style.wmv

1,901 views · Published 11 April 2010 · 5:08 · Indexed 4 October 2026

Channel: gilbride100 · 2010 · Sports

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The tactical core of this method is derived from a combination of two sources: Thomas Pages sword and targe instructions and the Penicuik Sketches. The Penicuik Sketches are a small collection of drawings of Highland warriors made by an eyewitness to the final Jacobite rebellion in 1746. Many people have questioned why the stances shown in these sketches do not appear to resemble Pages sword and targe method. With the exception of a single figure, who appears to stand in a loose version of Pages outside guard for the sword and targe, the guard positions shown in the Penicuik Sketches seem much more medieval, with the left foot often kept forward and the swordsman in a deep crouch. 

Page says that, the Guards made by the Sword are often omitted, except the Outside. Note that he does not say that there are not additional guards that are unique to the sword and targe- he simply says that the standard guards of the single broadsword are often omitted, and he mentions only the guard with which broadsword fencers would already be familiar, the outside guard. (Later he also mentions the use of the hanging guard and the inside guard for specific tactics, both of which would also have been familiar to his readers.) Thanks to the Penicuik Sketches, we know that Page is correct to say that the Highlanders used a version of the outside guard with the sword and targe. We also know that they used several other guard positions as well, which would have been much less familiar to most broadsword fencers outside the Highlands, which may very well be why Page does not mention them. These additional guards were probably used only by the Highlanders, as they would have been seen as very archaic by most swordsmen of that era.

Beginning with the assumption that Page was describing only a small part of the Highland sword and targe method, we asked ourselves the purpose of these additional guard positions. We found that we could apply the principles of Pages method to the Open Guard while on a full run as in the Highland Charge. The other guards found in the Sketches work effectively as counters to the Charge, while still using the core tactics found in Page. These tactics are few in number and extremely simple, but that is exactly what we would expect to find in this sort of context.

Most systems of swordplay are primarily for single combat. To our knowledge, this is one of the only systems based on the logic of the battlefield, in which the entire combat lasts for no more than a second before either the attacker or the defender is dead or crippled while the survivor moves on immediately to the next opponent. As far as we know, it is also the only existing interpretation that uses the Penicuik Sketches as the departure point for an actual fighting system, albeit an extremely simple one.

Due to the inherent danger in practicing sword techniques with full weight weapons while on the Charge, you should not attempt to perform these lessons without extensive prior experience as a broadsword fencer, ideally in Pages sword and targe style. If you do not have a highly developed ability to control your weapon, a serious injury is very possible.

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