Did European medieval knights receive any martial arts training in case they were unarmed in battle or didn’t have a weapon on them? Or were they supposed to rely on their weapon solely?

by redwingsfan97
wotan_weevil

They trained in unarmed martial arts, not just in case they were unarmed or disarmed, but also because grappling can be important when fighting with weapons. It is especially important when fighting in armour.

For example, Liechtenauer's manuscript fightbook states:

Be a good grappler in wrestling; lance, spear, sword, and messer handle manfully, and foil them in your opponent's hands.

Talhoffer includes wrestling (and strength training) in his essentially knightly practices:

Strive after integrity апd take great pains in your knightly practices: throwing апd pushing stones, dancing апd jumping, fencing апd wrestling, running at the lance апd tournaments, апd courting beautiful women.

Fiore's fightbook is the oldest surviving Medieval fightbook with detailed instruction in grappling. Fiore begins with grappling as he considers it foundation for martial arts (including armed martial arts):

In summary, these Masters of Battle and their Students, identified by their various devices, although first presented as governing principles of my Art of Grappling, are actually the foundation of my entire Art of Armed Fighting, whether on foot or on horseback, and whether in or out of armor.

While Fiore gives the earliest detailed coverage, grappling does appear in earlier works, e.g., I.33:

Most of the grappling shown is standing grappling, but ground grappling is shown, e.g., at the end of Kal's fightbook:

and grappling on horseback, e.g., from Talhoffer:

The importance of grappling when fighting in armour is shown in the Gladiatoria fightbooks (both of them), which show armoured fighting with a sequence of weapon, finishing with ground grapping leading to a victory. The majority of the illustrations, including those while weapons are being used, include grappling:

One weapon where grappling is important both when armoured and unarmoured is the dagger; this example from Vadi shows one technique:

Many of the techniques are very similar to ones used in modern wrestling/grappling:

Very little striking (whether punching or kicking) is shown. This is at least partly due to the use of armour: punching an armoured opponent in the face when he is wearing a visored helmet can be worse for the puncher than the punchee. Fiore notes the value of striking when without armour:

If your opponent is not wearing armor, be sure to strike him in the most vulnerable and dangerous places, for example the eyes, the nose, the larynx, or the flanks.

One example of striking given by Fiore is when fighting with sword in two hands:

When I am crossed with someone and come to the narrow, I strike his testicles with my right foot.

One difference between what appear in the fightbooks and what can happen in battle is that the fightbooks deal with grappling with a single opponent. In battle, one can face multiple opponents:

Still, just as in modern martial arts training, the sensible approach is to first learn how to fight one opponent.

(All of their training for fighting can be called "martial arts", which basically just means "fighting skills". This includes the use of the sword, spear, etc., how to move efficiently in armour, riding a horse, jousting, archery, and all that, as well as grappling and unarmed striking.)

References:

I.33: https://wiktenauer.com/wiki/Walpurgis_Fechtbuch_(MS_I.33)

Fiore:

Gladiatoria: https://wiktenauer.com/wiki/Gladiatoria_(MS_KK5013) and https://wiktenauer.com/wiki/Gladiatoria_(MS_U860.F46_1450)

Kal: https://wiktenauer.com/wiki/Paulus_Kal#Grappling

Talhoffer:

Vadi: https://wiktenauer.com/wiki/De_Arte_Gladiatoria_Dimicandi_(MS_Vitt.Em.1324)