Fencers of Fame and Fiction - 2 Written and researched by Margaret Odrowaz-Sypniewski, B.F.A.
"as Armor passed out of use [in warfare], the carrying of swords passed out of use, the carrying of swords by men going about their business [then] became more common" (Read, 98).
"Fencing Taught in fashionable schools according to continental methods - became popular in England in Elizabethan times" (Arlott, 20).
"G" to "V":
Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) originally studied law, but his love was writing. He said of himself: "I am like a snake, I slough my skin and start afresh." He went from German early romanicism to the sevenity of classicism. He wrote about politics, science, philosophy, history, and art. His poetic drama was Faust, which he took sixty years to complete. Goethe was forever in love and even at the age of 82, he dallied with a teenager. His last words were said to be about a dark-haired girl. Many think of him as the Olympian of letters. He was a great intellect and many have used his sword to defend the honor of many a maid against his rivals?
Stewart Granger started in the movie Scaramouche (1952).
President Ulysses Simpson Grant (1822-1885) He changed his name from Hiram Ulysses Grant using his mother's maiden name of Simpson. President Grant (1869-1877) was a Democrat and the USA's 33rd president. He was born April 27, 1822 in Point Pleasant, Ohio. Grant fenced at West Point. He graduated in 1843. He died of throat cancer on July 23, 1885 at his Adirondack retreat of Mount McGregor (near Saratoga Springs, New York). As General Grant fought in the battle of Polo Alto (1846), Molino de Rey (near Mexico City), Chapultepec (1847), Shiloh (1862), Champion's Hill (Mississippi), Chattanooga (1863), Wilderness (1864) and the Siege of Petersburg (1864-1865).
Adolphe Grisier was was the subject in Alexandre Dumas' books The Fencing Master, and The Count of Monte Cristo
George Friederick Handel (1685-1759), musician and German-English composer.
President Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) was an American general and the seventh President of the United States. He was a Democrat. He was president from 1829 until 1837. He was born March 15, 1767 to Andrew and Elizabeth (Hutchinson) Jackson. His grandfather was a well-to-do merchant in Ireland. Andrew Jackson learned to fence at West Point.
Louis Jourdan played a fencing instructor in The Swan in 1956. He taught Grace Kelley's character in the movie.
Gene Kelly (b. 1929), the famous choreographer and dancer did a version of The Three Musketeers.
Grace Kelly, actress fenced in The Swan in 1956. Grace was born on November 12, 1929, she later married Prince Rainier III on April 19, 1956 and retired from acting. She was then known as the Princess of Monaco.
Captain William Kidd (1645-1701) fenced with his cutless. Since he was of noble birth he studied fencing at an early age. He was a British privateer and was hanged for piracy.
Johannes Lecküchner, a famous Nurenburg fencing master and Swashbuckler (Schwertzucher in German).
President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)was the 16th president of the United States of America, was a Republican. Abe was born February 12, 1809 near Hodgenville, Kentucky. He studied law and grammar.
St. Ignatious Loyola (1491-1556) was a Spanish soldier who, in 1534, founded the Jesuits Order (Society of Jesus). He was a priest and became a saint.
Ninus I, King of Assyria was said to have developed sword play as a sport. The Assyrians overthrew Damascus in 732 B.C. In 710, they destroyed the Kingdom of Chaldea, and in 609 their empire ended.
Karl Marx(1818-1883) was a German social, political, and econimic theorist. He was the inspiration of modern, international communism. He was brought up in Trier in a Jewish family whose father had converted to Protestantism to escape anti-Semitism. He studied at the University of Bonn (1835-1836), where he first learned fencing. He wrote Communist Manifesto in 1848, with Friedrich Engels, and Das Kapital, a 3-volume book. He lived, in exile, in London, England.
Donald McBane was a Highland soldier and a first-class swordsman, during the reign of Queen Anne. He fought until age 63.
Rob Roy MacGregor/Robert Campbell (1671-1734) was a Scottish freebooter who was skilled in the use of the Scottish sword.
Michelangelo di Lodovice Buonarroti (1475-1564) was born in Caprese, Tuscany, where his father was mayor. He was brought up in Florence. He worked with a stonemason and his wife, near where Michelangelo owned a farm and stone quarry. Here he learned about the nature of stoneworks. He was an Italian sculptor, painter, and poet. His sword was called "St. Nicholas."
John Milton (1608-1674) was an English poet. His father was a composer. John married (1) Mary Powell in 1642. She had three daughters and died in 1652. (2) Catherine Woodcock, his second wife died in 1654. Milton was blind from 1652 onwards. He married (3) Elizabeth Minshull in 1662, ten years after he became legally blind. Elizabeth was the only wife that outlived him. Milton is buried in St. Giles Churchyard in Cripplegate, England. Milton wore a sword well into his sixties.
Miyamoto Musashi was a famous Japanese swordsman who wrote the Book of the Five Rings.. 1600 was the Takugawa period in Japan.
Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) was an Italian dictator, and although he was not thought to be very adept at fencing, he thought he was. Mussolini was born on July 29, 1883. He was the son of a blacksmith, and worked as a provincial schoolteacher. Benito gave up teaching for socialist journalism. Then Mussolini enlisted in the Italian army, as a private, in 1915, serving until he was wounded in the buttocks by a trench mortar fragment, early in 1917.
Jim A. Naismith (1861-1939) - a famed fencing master and all-around American sportsman. Born November 6, 1861 in Almonte, Ontario, Canada. Naismith invented basketball at the YMCA College in Springfield, Massachusetts, 1891. He died November 28, 1939 in Lawrence, Kansas. He was an original member of and the Basketball Hall of Fame was named in his honor in 1959, in the United States of America.
General George Smith Patton(1885-1945) was born on November 11, 1885, in San Gabriel, California. He learned fencing at West Point and was also an excellent horseman. He graduated from the Mounted Service School at Fort Riley, Kansas, in 1913. From 1914-1916, he was an instructor at Fort Riley. In expert swordsman, he wrote the army's saber manual. He had a long military career.
On December 9, 1945, Patton broke his neck in an automobile accident near Mannheim, Germany. He was then paralyzed from the neck down and was hospitalized. Pulmonary edema and congestive heart failure developed, and he died on December 21, 1945.
Adrian Paul (b. 1959)was the star of The Highlander TV series. This series probably did the most for fencing of any venue. The Highlander series had a club that sold the series' swords, t-shirts, etc. "There can only be one."
Adrian was born on May 29, 1959, in
London, England, UK. "Highlander" (1992) His alter ego was Duncan MacLeod, the Highlander. The series was begun in France and the United States in 1992.
Aleksander Sergevich Pushkin (1799-1837) was a Russian duelist in a time when dueling was forbidden. Pushkin was a poet. He was born in Moscow and owned an estate near Pskov. He married Natalia Goncharova in 1832. His wife's beauty attracted Baron George D'Anthes, a French Royalist. Pushkin challenged him to a duel and was killed with a pistol (the Baron's weapon of choice).
Don Quixote - Cervantes' fictional character.
Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618) was a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I, and fought more duels than any of his contemporaries.
Basil Rathbone, actor
Duncan Regehr was a classically trained Shakespearean actor and he was familiar with stage fencing. He starred as Zorro in the New World Series on the Family Channel. Patrice Camhi (a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts) was Zorro's girl friend, Efram Zimbalist was first cast as Zorro's father, Don Alejandro, and was replaced by Henry Darrow. This series was aired in 1990.
The Scarlett Pimpernel was an aristocratic fencer in the Baroness Emmuska Orczy's novel of the same name.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was a playright and poet. He was also a skilled stage fencer and taught his actors to make things look as real as possible.
Sir Richard Steele (1672-1729) was a British essayist and an accomplished fencer.
Istvan Szabo was the director of Sunshine (2000) was a fencer himself. Sunshine was the story of the Sonnenschein, a Austro-Hungarian Jew family. Adam Sonnensheim was played by actor Ralph Fiennes. Adam change his name to Soro and was in the 1936 Olympics and won the gold. When World War II broke out, he was tortured and killed in front of his teenage son, while in a concentration camp.
Hans Talhoffer (1443)
President Harry S. Truman (1945-1953) was the USA's thirty-third. He ran as a Democrat. Truman was born May 8, 1884, in Lamar, Missouri. He fenced at West Point.
Diego de Silva Valezquez (1599-1660), Spanish artist was born in Seville, Spain. He studied painting under Francisco Herrara, the Elder.
Odysseus used a sword called Aor in The Iliad by Homer (10th c. B.C.) Homer was a Greek epic poet. He also wrote the Odyssey.
Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694-1778) was originally named Francois Marie Avouvet. He was a French philosopher and author was born in Paris, France.
George Washington (1732-1799) - For More Famous Fencers see PART 3
Arlott, John and Arthur Daley. Pageantry of Sport. New York: Hawthorne Books, Inc., 1968.P>
Axelrod, Alan and Charles Phillips. The Macmillan Dictionary of Military Biography. New York: Macmillian, 1998.
Cohen, Richard. By the Sword. New York: Random House, 2002.
Dupuy, Trevor N. The Harper Encyclopedia of Miliatary Biography. Edison, N.J.: Castle Books, 1995.
Emery, H.G. and K. G. Brewster. The New Century Dictionary of the English Language. Vol. 2 in "Biographical Names." New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1953.
Fliegal, Stephen N. Arms and Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated, 1998.
Franklin, Fay. History's Timeline. New York: Crescent Books, 1981.
Gottlieb, Agnes and Harry with Barbara and Brent Bowers. 1,000 Years, 1,000 People.
Hutton, Alfred. The Sword and the Centuries. Wren's Park, 2003.
Read, Williams. Weapons Through the Ages. London: Perrage Books, 1984.
Tarassuak, Leonid & Claude Blair. The Complete Encyclopedia of Arms and Weapons. New York: Bonanza Books, 1979.
Yenne, Bill. The Legend of Zorro. Greenwich, CT: Mallard Press, 1991.
