Company of Exiles

Period covered: 1390-1415

Who are we:

We aim to visually portray a condottieri company comprised of members from multiple countries in Europe. The groups kit is mainly English and Italian, and we have a wide variety of weaponry to display. However, our main focus is combat displays in the style of Italian fencing master Fiore dei Liberi.

What do we do in our displays?

Our displays usually consist of a pre-arranged sequence of fighting manoeuvres that are covered in Fiore’s manuscript. This includes wrestling (Abrazare), dagger, sword in one hand (Una Mano), sword in two hands (Dua Mano), Spear, Poleaxe, and armoured fighting.

We demonstrate how a fight in the medieval period may have gone not stage combat or reenactment fighting. This is backed up by over 35 years of study and practice from Fiore’s manuscripts.

We as a group do not just do this as a Historical display, we train this martial art every week in modern kit. We have over 200 members in the UK doing this and our goal is to spread knowledge of Fiore’s art as far as we can and to as many people as possible.