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One fact that is generally overlooked in the study of Highland Broadsword is that the Highland culture is Gaelic-speaking. Scots Gaelic was rarely used in printed texts during the period of the Highland Broadsword, and then generally for religious works or books of poetry. We have no ancient manuals in Scots Gaelic for the bagpipe or fiddle, nor should we expect to find one for the use of the broadsword. Such information was passed down in the oral tradition, and those broadsword masters who wished to preserve their method in written form would have done so in English. Donald McBane, Archibald MacGregor and the Highland Officer would in all likelihood have been Gaelic speakers, but they published their fencing manuals in the English language.
The later methods of the Highland Regiments are very well-documented, but the earlier methods used by the Highland clansmen before 1745 are very difficult to establish with certainty. During the final Jacobite rebellion in 1746, an English volunteer in a local Artillery Company published a work called The Use of the Broad Sword; In which is shown, The True Method of Fighting with that Weapon as it is now in Use among the Highlanders. The author’s name was Thomas Page, and what connection he had to the Highlanders (if any) is obscure.
Thomas Page was a member of the Norwich Artillery Company.
This wasn’t a regular army regiment, but more of a home defense unit, formed only that year (1746) by Lord Hobart (to whom Page dedicates the book) to defend Norwich against a potential attack by invading Highland Jacobites. So the audience for the book are local “soldiers” who might have to fight against Highlanders, despite which, Page says nothing against Highlanders and even praises their skill and their merciful way of fighting single combats.
A Jacobite attack on Norwich was unlikely at this point, because the Jacobite Army had already invaded England in 1745, getting as far as Derby before turning back. They were defeated in April 1746 at Culloden, possibly before the book was even printed. Page even refers to the Company as being “ornamental,” so perhaps it was more a case of “playing soldier” than seriously expecting that they would face an attack by Highlanders. The Company only had four officers, one of whom (Timothy Balderston, a captain) was mayor of Norwich in 1736 and 1751, which implies that prominent local gentlemen were probably the officers.
Overall, it does not seem that this company was taken terribly seriously by anyone involved. Page mentions that he wears a sword in the company, which may imply that he was one of the four officers. In any case, he is clearly educated and well-read, and has an in-depth understanding of broadsword play, all of which argues that he was a man of some status in the community and not all that young. The Thomas Page who is mentioned as a deserter from the army in 1761 probably wasn’t him, because that person is listed as being 38 in 1761, which would have made him 22 in 1746. It seems very unlikely that a 22 year old would have been in a semi-ornamental home defense unit for local gentlemen in 1746, already an expert swordsman with a good education, only to wind up a private soldier in the regular army fifteen years later.
So, where could he have learned Highland broadsword play? The Norfolk Regiment (9th Regiment of Foot) was commanded from 1715-1717 by a celebrated Highland warrior and clan chieftain, Sir James Campbell of Lawers. He was a Lt. General at the time. According to the info in “Great Historic Families of Scotland” at Electric Scotland: “Sir James Campbell of Lawers, was a distinguished military officer, who served under the Duke of Marlborough, and contributed greatly to the victory of the allied forces at Malplaquet, 11th September, 1709. He distinguished himself also at the battle of Dettingen, 10th June, 1743, and was mortally wounded at Fontenoy, where he commanded the British cavalry.”
No Highland chieftain at the time would have traveled without a retinue of some kind, so we can probably assume he was accompanied by at least a handful of experienced Highland warriors of the Campbell clan while he commanded the Norfolk Regiment. If Thomas Page was an old soldier who joined the Norwich Artillery Company later in life, he might have served under Campbell of Lawers in his youth. Or if he was simply a local broadsword master who later joined the Artillery Company, he could have exchanged ideas and trained with either Campbell of Lawers or one of his retinue back in 1715-1717, or his own master could have done so and then passed that training on to Page.
Whatever the facts of the situation may be, Page’s manual describes a system that is clearly more archaic than the system described in the Regimental Highland broadsword manuals some fifty years later. Aspects of his system bear a strong resemblance to both the backsword method of Highlander Donald McBane from 1728, and Lonnergan’s method from 1771. (Lonnergan was most likely an Irish fencing master resident in England.) McBane’s backsword material is an excellent source, but there is too little of it to make for a complete system in its own right. In the absence of a Gaelic-language broadsword manual (which will in all likelihood never be found), Page’s manual is our best available source for the sword method of the Jacobite-era Highland clansman.
Here is the video curriculum for the Old-Style Highland Broadsword:
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