Historically the sword and buckler would be the kind of techniques a knight or noble boy was first taught, often as a teenager of around thirteen, using a cudgel as a training weapon for the sword.

There are accounts of sword and buckler practice having been a pastime enjoyed as a form of martial sport by commoners in both England and Northern Italy from the 13th to 15th century. It was also evidently a popular pastime in Germany.  We also know sword and buckler fighting remained a popular spectator sport well into the 14^th century. 

The Bolognese master Achille Marozzo, in his 1536 fencing treatise Opera Nova mentions the Spada e Brochiero (sword and buckler) as a foundational weapon that is suited to both war and common self-defense.  He also depicted a unique square buckler (Spada e Targe) with convex curved sides to aid in deflecting. 

Thomas Fuller in his 1662 book The History of the Worthies of England described “swashblucker” as coming from the action of “swashing and making a noise on the buckler.” Apparently they would strike on their own bucklers with their swords during fighting.

The oldest known source manuscript on the utilization of the sword and buckler comes from a few pages in Royal Armouries Ms. I.33. drawn and written by an anonymous author.

I.33 is also known as the Walpurgis manuscript, after a figure named Walpurgis shown in the last sequence of the manuscript, and “the Tower manuscript” because it was kept in the Tower of London during 1950-1996; also referred to as British Museum No. 14 E iii, No. 20, D. vi.

I.33 was created around 1300 in Franconia and is first mentioned by Henricus a Gunterrodt in his De veriis principiis artis dimicatoriae of 1579. It portrays use of the arming sword with buckler.

The “Gladiatoria” Fechtbüch (Manuscript 5878 Biblioteka Jagiellonska, Krakow) also depicts a clear illustration of spiked bucklers used with swords.