HEMA sword and buckler rankings surge with 227 recorded fights

Michael Roth climbed from fourth to second in the June 2026 Mixed and Men's Steel Sword and Buckler table as HEMA Ratings logged 227 fights from two tournaments at one event. Patrick Rance stayed in first, Ondřej Malina held third, Konrad Kramarz sat fourth and Derek Wise rounded out the top five.

That kind of volume is rare enough to move the category in more than one direction at once. The month’s sword-and-buckler page listed 31 new fighters, five comebacks and 1,574 fighters on the main island, while the active view showed 146 fighters across seven islands and 87 who have stayed on islands as long as they have been active. In the period details, HEMA Ratings also recorded 22 newcomers and two fighters returning after long absences, a sign that the field was not just deep but still feeding new names into the rankings.

The biggest individual swings came from the same crowded middle band. James Eldredge debuted as the highest-rated newcomer on the main island at 1,523.9, Sam Beardsley made the largest climb, rising from 1,255.6 to 1,620.7, and Krzysztof Janus produced the biggest upset with an estimated 6.46% win chance. Patrick Rance’s hold on the top spot looks steadier by comparison, but his record also shows why the category keeps producing meaningful movement: he has fenced in 11 divisions across 35 events since debuting on HEMA Ratings in November 2019, against 248 opponents from 21 nationalities in six countries.

The month’s numbers fit a weapon class with deep roots and a live competitive circuit. The Royal Armouries identifies MS I.33 as the oldest known fencing manual in Europe, made around 1330 in Germany and showing sword-and-buckler combat. Other HEMA references place the style in the hands of commoners in England and northern Italy from the 13th through the 15th century, and Achille Marozzo’s 1536 Opera Nova still treated the spada e brochiero as a core weapon for war and self-defense.

The June calendar also added more than rankings points. Pridefecht, the Love and Goodwill Buckler Tournament, ran on June 14 with 135 fights among 18 fighters in Mixed Steel Arming Sword and Buckler and 20 fights among five fighters in an Underrepresented Genders division. Black Cat Historical Fencing described it as a Pride Month charity event for a local organization supporting queer youth, fought in a Swiss pool format, another reminder that sword and buckler is generating both results and repeatable event structures ahead of the next round of ratings.