This following extract from the Leon Paul Treatise at
https://www.leonpaul.com/blog/the-de...-part-1/spells out one of the main reasons why the Small Sword was developed... Fashion! ....
Or as he explains Quote "During the reign of Louis XIII (1610-1643), there emerged a fashion for wearing short coats, which could not be worn elegantly with the long and cumbersome rapier. A shorter lighter court sword was required and blades were gradually reduced in length until by the 1640s a completely new weapon had evolved:
the small sword. "Unquote,
Regards, Peter Hudson.