The True Principles of the Single SwordIn the second half of the seventeenth century, the rapier commonly became lighter and shorter, with a smaller hilt, and eventually developed into the smallsword, also known as the court sword. Often, this development is associated with France, and the court of its King, Louis XIV. It is to this King that La Touche boldly dedicated his treatise, "Les Vrays Principes de l'Espe seule", in 1670, and it is this treatise that could be seen as the first work