A is for Angelo’s

I’ve decided to start a new regular feature on Jenna’s Journal. I got the idea from an author on one of my loops who spoke of an alphabet challenge in April where you post something daily going alphabetically throughout the month.  Well, I’m not going to post daily, but once a week I think will work for me.  Then I can get through the alphabet twice each year.  And my postings will most likely have an historical bent to them–as does my first post.

“I shall conquer this” Watercolor of Henry Angelo’s Fencing Academy, by Rowlandson, 1787.

Angelo’s was the premiere fencing academy in London by 1758.  Established by Italian born Dominico Angelo Malevolti Tremamondo in 1755, Angelo’s school, located in Soho, rose quickly in reputation based on its proprietor’s skill in both fencing and riding. 

The Duel

Angelo (as he was called) won several celebrated fencing matches, most notably against famed Irish duelist Keyes.  This match drew the attention not only of the English nobility but the royal family as well.  In 1758 Angelo was appointed fencing master to the Prince of Wales and the reputation of his academy solidified.

In 1763 Angelo published a book, L’Ecole des Armes (The School of Fencing),

The Fencing School by Fencing Master Angelo

that presented the essential rules of fencing posture and footwork that are still in use in modern fencing today.   He did not allow his students to wear fencing masks in order to train them for real combat.  Swordsmanship was essential to every gentleman of the English aristocracy of the time.  Until the late 18th century, duels of honor were usually fought with swords and unless a man was reasonably skilled he stood to lose his life in defense of his honor.

Angelo and his sons founded a dynasty of fencing instruction that lasted from 1755 until the late 19th century.  Their academy became the haunt of most of the sons of the nobility, where they were instructed not only in fencing, but in deportment as well.  One contemporary reported “I have seen old Angelo at Oxford bring his foil to the salute, and bowing profoundly to some undergraduate wild from the woods, pronounce with magisterial emphasis, ‘This, sir, is an academy of politeness as well as of arms!’”

In my House of Pleasure series, Angelo’s academy has already figured in Only Scandal Will Do and is mentioned in the second book as well.  As it was such a fixture of the Georgian period, I suspect the name Angelo will make an appearance in each of the series’ works.