Oxford’s International Rapier Seminar adds medals across four weapons

Oxford’s International Rapier Seminar folded medals into a July 18-19 weekend at The Swan School, and the competitive side stretched well beyond rapier alone. Organizers said the event would award medals in longsword, sword and buckler, sabre and rapier, while a longsword team tournament was already live and two tournaments were set for Sunday, July 19.

The core seminar was listed at The Swan School in Oxford, United Kingdom, with one events listing running from Friday, July 17 through Sunday, July 19, and Sigi Forge pegging the main schedule at July 18 from 8:00 a.m. to July 19 at 5:00 p.m. A separate post added a historical sword-handling session at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford for Friday, July 17, with limited spaces. Organizers also said early-bird tickets went on sale March 1 at 12:00 GMT and that ticket sales later closed June 30.

The structure gave the weekend more competitive weight than a standard seminar announcement. The added team longsword piece mattered because team fencing forces clubs to manage lineup choices, pacing and coaching between bouts, rather than leaning on one standout performer. It also made the tournament results more portable: organizers said the bouts had been sent to HEMA Ratings, putting Oxford directly into the sport’s broader results ledger.

That connection to HEMA Ratings is part of what made the format feel more serious than a one-off showcase. The ratings system tracks active divisions including longsword, rapier and dagger, single rapier, sabre, sword and buckler, single sidesword and singlestick, so Oxford’s weapon mix fit squarely inside the competitive ecosystem that many clubs already follow. With medals spread across four weapons and a team bracket in play, the seminar offered points of comparison across styles instead of a single narrow test.

The 2026 edition was hosted by The School of the Sword in Oxford, and an attendee post by Emilia Cecylia Skirmuntt described meeting Marco Danelli, Reynier Van Noort, Fabrice Cognot, Gregorio João, Edu Pérez and Chris Chatfield’s student Mark. That international mix matched the event’s design: historical rapier study on one side, measurable tournament output on the other, with Oxford serving as the weekend’s competitive center.