MS B 26 is the Kriegsbuch (“war-book”) of Ludwig von Eyb the Younger (1455–1521), a Franconian nobleman who served as Hofmeister (court steward) to successive Counts Palatine and set down a number of cultural-historical works, including a Turnierbuch. He compiled the manuscript in or around 1500, dedicating it to Philip “the Upright” (1448–1508), Elector Palatine […]
Exercitiorum Atque Artis Militaris Collectanea (“Collected Martial Arts and Exercises”) is a Spanish fencing manual by Pedro Monte printed in Milan in 1509.[1] It was an attempt to capture the entire art of war, including all styles of armed and unarmed combat of which Monte was aware. Full information is available on Wiktenauer. “In greater […]
Roof bosses in the ceiling of St Lawrence Church, Shelley’s Close, Lechlade-on-Thames, Gloucestershire. UK. Available via Alamy. We do not have permission to reproduce this artefact in our archives.
Commissioned by Abbot Robert Elyot between 1515 and 1526, this set of 28 original carved oak seats is renowned for its fascinating and sometimes humorous, unconventional medieval subject matter. [N14] Two nude men wrestling, grasping each other by a neck-band; a third, also wearing a loose neck band, stands with his head on the shoulder […]
Today, the 13th, it blows a terrible gale, and as the Kings were unable to joust, they went to the lists to see some Bretons and Englishmen wrestle. ‘Venice: June 1520, 11-20’, in Calendar of State Papers Relating To English Affairs in the Archives of Venice, Volume 3, 1520-1526, ed. Rawdon Brown (London, 1869), pp. […]
The Meeting of Kings Henry VIII and King Francis I (Tapestry), c. 1520. Private Collection. Artist : West European Applied Art. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images). Shown here under the terms of common use (Common uses include: Newspapers, magazines and books (except for covers), editorial broadcasts, documentaries, non-commercial websites, blogs and social media […]
Sir Thomas Elyot is believed to have been born in Wiltshire. XVII. Exercises wherby shulde growe both recreation and profite. WRASTLYNGE, is a very good exercise in the begynnynge of youthe, so that it be with one that is equall in strengthe, or some what under, and that the place be softe, that in fallinge […]
4th October 1532: “To Parker, yeoman of the Robes, for doublets for the guard to wrestle in before the King and French king at Calais, 44s.” Henry VIII: Privy Purse Expences’, in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 5, 1531-1532, ed. James Gairdner (London, 1880), pp. 747-762. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol5/pp747-762 [accessed […]
29th July 1534: “On Sunday next the peace between England and Scotland will be proclaimed at Guildford, with such a wrestling as has never before been seen; for which purpose some have come out of Cornwall and Devonshire to show their cunning. Sent two caps and a purse.” ‘Henry VIII: July 1534, 26-31’, in Letters […]
At Chasteubriant the French King shewed my Lord Marquess great plesure and disport, sometime in plaing at tenice, sometime in shooting, sometime in hunting the bore, somtime at the palla malla, and somtime with his great boisterlie Britons wrastling with my lorde’s yemen of Cornwall, who had much a do to gete the upper hand […]
A printed Letters Patent bearing the coat of arms of Mary I, renewing the royal commission originally granted by Henry VIII in 1540 to the Corporation of Masters of the Science of Defence. The single-sheet document contains both Latin chancery formulae and English text granting fencing masters authority to arrest, prosecute, and imprison unauthorised martial […]
THE FOURTH CHAPTER. WHEN Brute had entred this land, immediatlie after his arriuall (as writers doo record) he searched the countrie from side to side, and from end to end, finding it in most places verie fertile and plentious of wood and grasse, and full of pleasant springs and faire riuers. As he thus […]
The Devonshire Wrestling Society archive has been assembled over more than twelve years of systematic research into the history of Westcountry martial arts. When this work began, the documentary record was sparse and dispersed: sources were few, descriptions were thin, and access required navigating institutional barriers that most researchers would not have the time or resources to overcome. The archive now comprises 421 records — 322 newspaper articles (1778–1947), 35 manuscripts, 11 posters, 48 books, one letters patent, two cemetery inscriptions, and two memorials — spanning approximately one thousand years of history across five defined periods and three core disciplines: wrestling, cudgelling, and pugilism.
The material has been drawn from archives, museums, and libraries at both local and national level, as well as from diaspora communities. Access varied considerably: some holdings were straightforwardly available through public or gated online repositories; others required direct institutional inquiry, formal licensing, or payment. Licence fees for individual items have, in some cases, reached several hundred pounds. Items acquired under licence are retained for private research purposes only and are not published. A small number of items from private collections likewise remain unpublished, pending permission. All records for which publication rights have been secured are made freely and openly available.
The cost of the archive — in time and in money — has been substantial. It is offered without charge because the traditions it documents belong to the communities that produced them, and because those who come after should not be required to repeat the effort already expended.
Every record in the archive was acquired through a consistent five-stage process:
Identification. Awareness of potential sources was established through systematic searches of public and private institutional indexes worldwide, and through direct correspondence with subject specialists already engaged with relevant holdings.
Access. Depending on the institution, access was obtained through online repositories, direct application, or formal licensing. Correspondence was initiated with several hundred institutions over the course of the project. Where institutions confirmed the absence of relevant holdings, this was recorded. Where access was granted, the means of access was documented.
Storage. All acquired material is held in a single centralised repository, ensuring that research access is permanent and that no duplication of acquisition effort is necessary.
Preparation. Every record has been transcribed to render it fully searchable and taggable. Images have been assigned metadata recording provenance, licensing terms, and resolution specifications for publication purposes.
Publication. The publicly available inventory represents all records for which the requisite permissions have been obtained.
In order to ensure consistency and intellectual coherence across the archive, all prospective additions are evaluated against the following criteria, which are applied collectively and in sequence. A record should satisfy the majority of these criteria before inclusion is considered.
Relevance. The record must have a demonstrable and direct connection to the Six Shires (Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, Dorset, Gloucestershire, and Wiltshire) as the location of practice, the origin of practitioners, or the primary institutional context. Records concerning Westcountry practitioners competing elsewhere (in London, the United States, or South Africa, for example) are eligible where the practitioner’s regional identity is explicitly identified in the source. Records documenting the export of Westcountry martial arts beyond Britain are admissible and desirable, consistent with existing holdings relating to California, Japan, New Zealand, and South Africa. The record must concern one or more of the three disciplines in scope: Westcountry wrestling (Devonshire or Cornish style), cudgelling or single-stick as practised in the region, or pugilism and boxing with a demonstrable Westcountry connection. Records documenting the co-occurrence of two or more disciplines are particularly valuable and should be prioritised.
Integrity. The source must be primary or a reliable early secondary record. For newspaper sources, this means a contemporaneous report; for books, a first or early edition, or a verified transcription thereof. Secondary scholarship is admissible where it contains primary-source quotations not otherwise independently accessible, provided these are clearly identified as such.
Balanced representation. The curatorial target is approximate parity — not of record count, which will inevitably reflect the uneven survival of evidence — but of intellectual representation across the three core disciplines. Where any discipline is underrepresented relative to this target, acquisitions in that discipline should be prioritised accordingly.
Material culture. Physical objects — trophies, belts, equipment, and architectural features — are admissible where they carry inscriptions or documentary provenance that independently attest to the practice of a discipline in the region.
Verifiability. The source must be identifiable with sufficient bibliographic precision to be cited in APA format and, where possible, to be independently verified by a reader consulting the original. Oral tradition, undocumented folklore, and secondary paraphrases without citation do not meet this standard. Where a source is available online, a direct URL must be provided.
