Egremont Medieval Festival 2002 - Fighting

Intro        Trading         Playing         Hunting

marching to battle

This group of re-enactors took part in many demonstrations and started the show on the field with a display  of infantry manoeuvres.

Defensive lines

Here they can be seen forming a double line to make a wall of pikes and halberds that would have proven a formidable resistance to sword wielding attackers or even knights on horseback.

Sword fighting tournament

The next event was a tournament of hand to hand combat using the sword. Although the aim wasn't to actually kill the opponent the heavy metal swords were certainly capable of causing injury if a misplaced blow had connected.

Kids battle

The greatest fun of the afternoon was the kid's battle. Fifty children took on about ten re-enactors armed with foam-rubber swords. Despite being drilled to military precision when it came to the conflict the children's tactic was to charge at full steam into the enemy, knocking them to the floor and beating them relentlesly to a pulp. It was obviously a good plan because they won all three battles much to the pain and misery of the re-enactors and enjoyment of the crowd.

Medieval warfare

The afternoon ended with a mass battle when all the armed participants split into two armies and  tried to capture the flag.