Instructors
Schola Gladiatoria Instructors
Matt Easton
Matt is the head instructor and founder of Schola Gladiatoria. He is a professional martial arts teacher, YouTuber, historical and product consultant, and antique arms dealer. Originally from West London, he now lives on the Surrey-Hampshire border. He is probably best known for the 'scholagladiatoria' YouTube
channel. His personal website is here.
Matt has been involved with historical European martial arts (HEMA) since 1997 and has been teaching internationally since 2000, establishing Schola Gladiatoria in 2001.
With Lucy Easton, Matt runs FightCamp, one of the biggest annual European HEMA events and by far the biggest in the UK. He is a founding member of the Historical European Martial Arts Coalition (HEMAC), has been qualified under the British Federation for Historical Swordplay (BFHS) and is recognised and insured by the British Combat Association (BCA).
Matt's historical fencing career started in 1997 (after a few years of modern fencing and Asian martial arts) as a student of The Company of Maisters, later joining The Exiles Company of Medieval Martial Artists, of which he became co-director. During this time he began his study of Fiore dei Liberi's treatises, assisting his Italian friend, Eleonora Litta Modignani Picozzi, to produce the first English translation of the Getty version of Fiore's treatise 'Il Fior di Battaglia'.
Matt’s formal educational background is a BA(hons) in Medieval Archaeology and History from University College London (UCL) in 2000, writing his final dissertation on the development of 13th and 14th century armour. He subsequently worked for a short time as a field archaeologist and later as Head of Arms & Armour at a London antique auction house.
Since 2000, Matt has taught martial arts at events in the UK, Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Sweden and USA. Matt formally added British military sabre to his repertoire in 2008 and that has since become his personal focus, though he maintains a keen interest in medieval/renaissance Italian longsword fencing and still teaches that also, as well as some other styles. Matt has conducted a lot of original research on the subject of British military swords and swordsmanship, which is gradually being published, and this is the focus of his work going forwards.
Matt has released various pieces of research, both online and traditional publications, including writing the contextual introduction for D A Kinsley’s Swordsmen of the British Empire and publishing Elliott's Art of Attack and Defence. He is working on a number of other upcoming publications.
Matt has lectured at the Wallace Collection on various occasions, the Tower of London, the Royal Armouries in Leeds, to the Armour Research Society, the British Arms and Armour Society and at two International Arms and Armour Conferences in Florence and Vienna. Matt has also given lectures at various HEMA events, as well as giving presentations on historical combat to varied public audiences, including for the computer game company Ubisoft at the EGX games show in Earls Court. Matt has consulted on several TV and film projects, including training fighters and consulting for the BBC. He also consults for museums occasionally. He has appeared on various 'expert reacts' videos for IGN and Insider.
Matt has played an active role in developing new equipment for HEMA, and has been involved in the development process of various pieces, including the 'Easton Mark III' practice sabre with Kvetun Armoury. He works with the Royal Armouries and Windlass Steelcrafts on a range of accurate historical replicas. Matt also helped LK Chen bring their first medieval European sword replica (the Ribaldo) to the market. Matt's product development work continues and is scaling up.
Matt has ranked highly in HEMA swordsmanship competitions in former years, winning the Longpoint Sabre Invitational, the Glorianna Cup, the BFHS longsword competition, the BFHS Spring Exchange Backsword Tournament, the FightCamp Sabre Tournament and the FightCamp Assault at Arms. He has also ranked highly in events in Dijon, Florence, Vienna and elsewhere. He has always been a strong exponent of instructors demonstrating their skill under the pressure of a competitive environment. Matt has been heavily involved with running HEMA tournaments for many years, and has created rules and run tournaments around the UK and in France.
Matt is an avid collector of antique weapons and is also a dealer and company director of Easton Antique Arms Ltd.
Matt also has a background in archery, both modern and traditional longbow and recurve, and also regularly shoots historical firearms as a member of the MLAGB and NRA.
Pedro San Miguel
Pedro has been with Schola Gladiatoria for over a decade and started his HEMA journey with us. He has developed a renowned tournament record, having competed in over 450 rated matches across sabre, longsword, and rapier & dagger, and has won many national and international tournaments, as well as 6 Wessex League championships across 3 weapons. Pedro is currently (September 2024) ranked first in the world at sabre.
His sources of study include the works of Waite, Hutton, Rondelle, Chapman, Prevost, and Parise, while also working with various Spanish and French sabre sources. Pedro also teaches at Ausardia and trains with other clubs, including the Renaissance Sword Club.
Jack Butcher
Jack has been with Schola Gladiatoria for around a decade, and is currently an instructor. He often runs both beginner and advanced sessions at both London and Woking classes. His personal focus is Fiore dei Liberi's system, including dagger, bastoncello and more obscure parts of the treatise.
He has competed and taught at various events and his main weapons are sabre, longsword, dagger and spear.
Lucy Easton
Lucy was formerly the lead instructor at the Woking class. She still instructs, but not regularly.
Lucy has been training in HEMA for well over a decade, for many years with the English Martial Arts Academy concentrating on George Silver's system, and later with Schola Gladiatoria.
Her main area of focus was formerly George Silver's sword and buckler, which she still teaches occasionally in Woking, and her main focus now is British military sabre according to Captain Alfred Hutton's various manuals, principally The Swordsman.
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