In the beginning....the use of swords dates to prehistoric times and swordplay to ancient civilizations. In Egypt, 1190 B.C., Ramsès' III, temple depicts a sporting competition organized by the Pharaoh to celebrate his victory over the Libyans. The weapons were sticks with bronze plates in the end. Hands were protected by a guard similar to that of sabre, and some of the fencers had their faces protected by a mask, whose chin rolling pad, covering both ears, was attached to the wig. Not many people know that fencing was also in the 1st Greek, Games of the Olympe, 776 B.C. And  that in 648 B.C. the Roman consul Rutilius, introduced the education of fencing, or armatura, into the Roman military camps, in order to improve courage within the army.

The oldest surviving manual on western fencing is the Royal Armouries, written by German masters c. 1300, followed by Italian and French masters c. 1400 who invented their own styles and rules and spread their teachings across Europe. The definition of terms and the teaching methods were progressively established by French masters, who left remarkable writings: Le Perche du Coudray (fencing master of Cyrano) in 1635 and 1676, Besnard in 1653 (master of Descartes), la Touche in 1670, Labat from Toulouse in 1690.

The sports popularity increased in the 17th and 18th century.  Italian, Domenico Angelo, taught aristocratic Britons the art of swordsmanship at his academy in Soho, London in the second half of the 18th century. Angelo's book 'L'Ecole des armes' ('The School of Fencing') laid down the fundamentals of posture and footwork which live on to this day. If fencing became a sport, it is partially thanks to epee. This weapon being by definition the weapon of duel, was taught in schools and little by little, the sport gets more organized and the competitions begin to appear.