Bio Page

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Brian McIlmoyle


Brian McIlmoyle is the Vice President and co-Founder of the Academy of European Medieval Martial Arts (AEMMA) .

Brian has been studying and practicing Medieval swordsmanship in various forms for 18 years. He is AEMMA's Principle Instructor and Curriculum Developer, and as such has been deeply involved in the development of the AEMMA training program. Although he prefers to remain in Toronto teaching AEMMA's students at the Toronto salle d'Armes, Brian has traveled both within Canada, the United States and in Europe providing instruction in fencing according to the AEMMA interpretation of Fiore Dei Liberi's Flos Duellatorum and Fior di Bataglia. His 10 years of Canadian Armed forces experience is leveraged in the disciplined training of students.

Current projects include the formalization of advanced scholler level training curriculums and the rewriting of AEMMA's "basic training" manual: The Art of Longsword Combat (BOOK 1).

Brian's goal is to assist in the creation of a viable Western Martial Arts tradition that can co-exist on equal terms with the existing Eastern Martial Arts tradition.

Brian had received his designation of free scholler in Oct, 2000. Brian also received his appointment of "Acknowledged Instructor" (AI) designation for Armoured Longsword Instruction in October 14, 2001 by the International Masters at Arms Federation (IMAF).

Brian is deeply devoted to bringing Europe's "lost" fighting arts back into the public consciousness. To this end, he has designed and delivered several educational programs at the Royal Ontario Museum on topics such as Medieval arms and armour, Medieval justice and most recently Medieval Swordsmanship.