Medieval Armoured Combat & Re-enactment UK
While we are primarily a HEMA club, we also have a medieval living history and re-enactment group, we give public displays and attend events like Tewkesbury Medieval Festival. We also explore HEMA in armour, in other words, armoured combat, based on the detailed techniques found in medieval and Renaissance treatises.
If you are a re-enactor and would like to join us, a HEMA practitioner of another group who wants to join us for re-enactment events, or simply want to get involved in living history for the first time, then feel free to contact us.
We have members spread around the South-East of England, including London, Surrey, Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and Buckinghamshire. We also get involved with movie and TV projects.
Wars of the Roses
Our members reconstruct and use accurate replicas of various types of medieval soldiers' equipment, so that we can better understand how these weapons and armour work in period. We work closely with top researchers, archaeologists and historians.
While we explore equipment from a diverse range of periods, from Roman, though Early and High Medieval, we mostly focus on the Wars of the Roses, which is a very developed and popular period for reenactment in the UK. It also happens to be a period with a lot of combat treatises to study.
Armoured Combat
As a HEMA club we study medieval combat treatises, and many of these contain large sections on armoured combat, sometimes known by the German name "harnischfechten".
While armoured combat is not common in HEMA, it is gradually starting to grow as more and more people have access to good quality and historically accurate reproduction medieval and Renaissance armour.
At Schola Gladiatoria we train and teach armoured fighting techniques in armour in our classes and at events like the 'Armoured Fighter' event organised by Historic Equitation, as well as taking part in public displays and reenactments, where we get the chance to look at battlefield tactics and the use of massed infantry weapons and equipment.
Many roles
Maybe you're more interested in armoured combat, or want to get involved in events as part of the lighter infantry retinue first, such as a billman or squire. Or maybe you would like to explore the civilian and support aspects of medieval military life. These are all things you can get involved with and explore with us.
Interested in joining?
We are keen to grow our retinue!
We
Whether you want to join for armoured HEMA combat training and have full equipment already, or have no gear and want to start helping out in a squire capacity while you get armoured up, or whether you are more interested in light infantry and archery, or the civilian living history aspect, we can help you get involved.
Just email schola-gladiatoria@hotmail.co.uk