Matt Easton

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Copy from his website:

Matt Easton is a martial arts teacher and arms and armor researcher who was born in 1976 in London, England.

He has been involved with historical European martial arts (HEMA) since 1997 and has been teaching since 2000, establishing Schola Gladiatoria in 2001. Since then, Schola Gladiatoria has grown to become a nationwide organization, has taught at events across Europe and won several major competitions. Matt is also the organizer of FightCamp, one of the biggest annual HEMA events.

Previous to HEMA, Matt studied modern fencing and kung fu, and he has been involved with longbow archery since the age of 16.

Matt's HEMA career started as a student of The Company of Maisters, later joining The Exiles Company of Medieval Martial Artists, of which he became Co-Director. During this time he began his study of Fiore de'i Liberi's treatises, assisting his Italian friend, Eleonora Durban, to produce the first English translation of the Getty version of Fiore's treatise 'Il Fior di Battaglia'. Matt started to receive invitations to teach at international events, and having already established a training group based in Ealing, West London, in 2001 Schola Gladiatoria was officially named and founded.

Since 2000, Matt has taught his interpretation of Fiore's fighting system at many events in the UK, France, Italy, Austria, Germany, Poland and Sweden. He has presented to other historical European martial artists, members of the public and press, arms and armor collectors and restorers, and also to academics and museum staff. As well as Fiore de'i Liberi's system, Matt also teaches from British 19th century manuals on the use of singlestick, sword, cutlass and bayonet. Matt has ranked highly in several major HEMA competitions, and has won the Glorianna Cup, the BFHS longsword competition and the FightCamp Assault at Arms.

Matt was a founding member of HEMAC, the Historical European Martial Arts Coalition.

Matt attained a BA(hons) in Medieval Archaeology from the Institute of Archaeology (UCL) in 2000, writing his dissertation on the development of 13th and 14th century armor.

As well as teaching historical European martial arts, Matt also studies arms and armor of the late middle ages and has lectured on this at the Wallace Collection in London, the Tower of London, the Royal Armouries in Leeds, to the Armour Research Society, the British Arms and Armour Society and at two International Arms and Armour Conferences in Florence and Vienna.

Contact: schola-gladiatoria@hotmail.co.uk

Published Works

• Easton, Matthew. "Fior di Battaglia: The Martial Treatise of Fiore dei Liberi (c.1409)". The International Arms & Armour Conference 2003 Journal. Panda Press, 2003. ISBN 0-9541633-1-1