THE BORDER REIVERS.

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Peter Hudson

I have seen a few reasonable descriptions however it is difficult to believe that such a French sounding word caught on except that to own such an expensive sword the owner probably was educated and probably spoke French...and German.

I looked at Transitional Rapier/Smallsword with massive Hilt which was placed about 9 years ago on Forum and which seemed a good place to start...

A reasonable description is made in the French dictionary.viz,

Colichemarde.
The name of the colichemarde is the German name for the sword. Colichemarde does not designate a weapon as much as a style of blade. However, as the only historical colosseums were court swords, colichemarde designates by extension this type of court sword. Although apparently French in origin, the denomination seems to come from German by Graf von Königsmark. It spreads in Italy following the invasions of Francis I. It is a blade with a strong base that sharply refines after a certain distance and ends with a diamond point. These blades generally benefit from a quality treatment by the gunsmith who will have engraved and blue-brown the blade.

Regards, Peter.

Spot on! The term 'colichemarde' term is entirely with respect to the blade, as the hilt forms are the same as on the small swords of the period. The term is apocryphal but the alignment with the cognate Konigsmark seems reasonable enough. His reputation as a duelist was likely the choice to term the blade form.

[urbanspaceman]

Graf von Königsmark: a German family who fought for the Swedish.

Koningsberg is a town in Russia.

Did Sir William Hope get the name wrong?

[urbanspaceman]

Peter, this stuff is fantastic... thank-you.

[Peter Hudson]

Originally Posted by urbanspaceman

Graf von Königsmark: a German family who fought for the Swedish.

Koningsberg is a town in Russia.

Did Sir William Hope get the name wrong?

''
Keith,
I am not sure... It is a bit unclear ...see https://military-history.fandom.com/...#Brief_history...which is also unclear...Peter

[Peter Hudson]

The muddle is best seen at https://core.ac.uk/reader/161102560

while the full story is worth looking at...even if the mathematics are a puzzle...The familytree does however seem to be pointing at Karl Johan as the more likely root of this swords start point...

Peter Hudson.