Rapier, swept-hilted (Period)

Rapier, cup-hilted (Accepted)

The “rapier” is a late-period thrusting and parrying sword with an elaborate hilt.  Frequently, the type of rapier hilt is specified in Society blazon.

The “swept-hilted rapier” is found in period armory, in the canting arms (Italian spada) of Spatafora [BSB Cod.Icon 273:243].  This form may always be used if the type of rapier is left unblazoned.

The Society also has examples of the “cup-hilted rapier”, a variant dating to the beginning of the 17^th Century [Stone 524].  This form of rapier should not be drawn as a modern fencing foil or epée:  i.e., it should have prominent quillons and a knuckle-guard.

The Order of Defense bears:  Three rapiers in pall inverted, tips crossed.

Amannita Villarosa bears:  Vert, two rapiers conjoined in chevron argent.

Johann Friedrich bears:  Per saltire sable and gules, in fess two rapiers Or.

Estoc (Period)

The “estoc”, or “tuck”, is a sword with a narrow square blade, with no cutting edge.  It was intended solely for thrusting, through gaps in the foe’s armor [Stone 223]; it was the precursor to the rapier of late period.  The estoc is found in the canting arms of Tuck, 1419 [DBA4 431].

Illuminada Eugenia de Guadalupe y Godoy bears as a badge:  An open book argent and overall an estoc inverted Or.

Sword, or broadsword (Period)

A sword is a hand weapon with a long pointed blade, which may be single or double-edged, set in a hilt.  It was the primary hand weapon of the Middle Ages; as an heraldic charge it dates from c.1275, in the canting arms of Marmion [ANA2 550].  The default orientation is palewise, point to chief; if the sword is single-edged, the edge is to dexter by default.  When blazoned “proper”, the sword has an argent blade and Or quillons and hilt.

There are a great many variant forms of sword, depending on the shape of the blade; many strange forms are blazoned simply as a “sword”.  No difference is therefore counted between the variants.  The most common form is the “broadsword” or “arming sword”:  straight-bladed, double-edged, straight-quilloned.  Any sword whose form is unspecified may be safely drawn in this form.

Sword curtana (Period)

Broken sword (Period); sword fracted (Period)

The sword’s blade may be altered in some manner.  The oldest such alteration is the “curtana”, or more fully, the “sword curtana”:  a sword with its point blunted.  The curtana, though not a charge on shields, was part of the English coronation ceremony, where it is also known as the Sword of Mercy.  It was certainly in use temp. Richard III, 1483 [OED], and is described by Archbishop Cranmer as used in Edward VI’s coronation, 1547 [Pemberton, The Coronation Service, 1901, p.23].

A more severe alteration is the “broken sword”, with the blade snapped away halfway down its length [Franklyn 321]; it’s found in the crest of Ryvet or Rivett, c.1528 [Woodcock & Robinson pl.13].  This should not be confused with the “sword fracted”, which is a complete sword separated into two fragments, as seen in the arms of Kemp of Thomastoun, 1582 [Dunvegan Armorial, fo.429].

Of swords peculiar to the Society, there are the “sword of Damocles”, a broadsword hanging, point down, from a thread tied to the hilt; and the “sword of Hoflichskeit”, an obsolete Society term for a mullet of four points elongated to base, gyronny Or and sable.

The Society’s other sword variants may be classed according to blade shape:  straight-bladed or curved-bladed.  The Society permits many variants which, while found as artifacts or weapons in period, were not period heraldic charges.

The straight-bladed swords found in period heraldry (in addition to the standard broadsword) include:

• The estoc
• The rapier

The curved-bladed swords found in period heraldry include:

• The cutlass
• The falchion
• The flamberge
• The scimitar
• The seax

The straight-bladed swords found as artifacts in period include:

• The claymore
• The gladius
• The great sword

The curved-bladed swords found as artifacts in period include:

• The dussack
• The katana (SFPP)
• The ken blade (probable SFPP)
• The shamshir (SFPP)

Swords which are disallowed in the Society include:

• The saber (modern cavalry saber)

For related charges, see knife, zulfikar.  See also scabbard.

The Marshallate bears:  Sable, two swords in saltire Or.

Peter of Stratford bears:  Or, chapé checky argent and sable, a sword sable.

Donnabhán O Rothláin bears:  Vert, three pairs of swords in saltire Or.

El of the Two Knives bears:  Sable, two swords Curtana inverted and conjoined at the quillons within a bordure Or.

Ivan Piotrovic Pevcov bears:  Per fess indented argent and gules, a broken sword bendwise proper.

Lothar of Rothenborg bears:  Or, a sword fracted sable hilted gules, between two flaunches azure.

Roger von Allenstein bears:  Gules, on a pile sable fimbriated argent the sword of Damocles pendant Or.