#Crazy to think that in 1967 those two senators just went and did a sword fight

[another-clive-blog]

You know any French swords? For a… research project. yeah

And at this very moment, I felt an unspeakable regret for not picking history as a major lol

I’ll be honest I don’t know much about this subject and I’m pretty sure you’ve found more knowledge with your research than I’ve had or looked up kdnjbnjgb- But I still have some thoughts on the subject so I’m going to share them anyway :

Swords are an important part of the French gentleman aesthetic ! We’re mostly talking 17th century here, but it kept going until at least the 18th/start of the 19th. At this time, a gentleman had to know how to use a sword, how to ride a horse and how to dance (Layton you dork). They usually did fencing with swords like the fleuret. (Not a French sword tho)

Adding to that last point, most of the swords actually used by the French were not created by them : I’m thinking about the fleuret, the rapière, the lansquenet... I think there may be one sword that is MAYBE French (big emphasis on the maybe), and that would be the canne-épée ? It is a weapon that got very popular in France after the French Revolution (19th century onward, so closer to the period we’re interested about !!). Basically the new government forbad people from casually wearing swords, so instead people would use this regular cane with a sword hidden inside. Like all other swords, the canne-épée was used either by aristocrats/rich people or by respectable people (gentlemen, I think some important artists did too because there WAS that one instance of famous French poet Rimbaud swearing at a guy before attacking him with his sword lkdfgnjldfn)

Swords were used for wars, for fencing and for duels. I’m developing the duel part because I know media loves to share a thousands and one version of them : someone offends you/your honor, you ask for a duel (+ you specify which type : to death or not), they get to choose the weapons (either sword or gun), and once you’ve agreed that everyone is physically abled to fight you do it in front of your witness.

Related to that last point, duels (and swords) were usually an aristocrat thing until the French Revolution : after that, it became more of a thing in political and journalistic spheres (wink wink). Of course there are many people who disapproved of duels and saw them as barbaric (the Church especially hated them), but still they remained for a long time. The last duel in France was in the late 1960s !