La Dame d’Acier 2026: A Celebration of Duel Combat in France
- Aleksandra Lebdowicz
- Jul 31
- 5 min read
As they say, “Buhurt is love” — was this expression on the minds of SAEA Paris when they scheduled their tournament for Valentine’s Day weekend ? How many fighters managed to convince their significant other to spend the weekend in a gymnasium in Saint-Michel-sur-Orge under the guise of a romantic getaway ? Darling, the scent of roses is overrated, come and enjoy the smell of WD40, sweat and blood (and gambeson too…) !
Thus, on February 14th and 15th, the town of Saint-Michel-sur-Orge, just a few kilometers from Paris in France, hosted the fifth edition of the buhurt tournament “La Dame d’Acier” (“The Iron Lady”).
Organized by La Salle d’Armes – École Ancienne (SAEA Paris), La Dame d’Acier has now established itself as one of the major buhurt events in France.
Every year the tournament attracts more fighters, and this year around 30 competitors from France, Germany, England and Italy came to test themselves against each other, confirming the event’s growing international reputation.
Results:
Men’s Longsword:
1st : Bohumil Masnicak – White Company (England)
2nd : Max Frei – Bayard Germany (Germany)
3rd : Nils Collinet – Clan Ligefer (France)
Women’s Longsword:
1st : Julie Aimar – Clan Ligefer (France)
2nd : Virginie Lechevallier – SAEA Aveyron (France)
3rd : Gaia Davi – Taurus (Italy)
Men’s Sword & Buckler:
1st : Bohumil Masnicak – White Company (England)
2nd : Antoine Bernal – SAEA Paris (France)
3rd : Max Frei – Bayard Germany (Germany)
Women’s Sword & Buckler:
1st : Virginie Lechevallier – SAEA Aveyron (France)
2nd : Julie Aimar – Clan Ligefer (France)
3rd : Corinna Schaal – Bayard Germany (Germany)
Men’s Sword & Shield:
1st : Bohumil Masnicak – White Company (England)
2nd : Antoine Bernal – SAEA Paris (France)
3rd : Max Frei – Bayard Germany (Germany)
Women’s Sword & Shield:
1st : Virginie Lechevallier – SAEA Aveyron (France)
2nd : Corinna Schaal – Bayard Germany (Germany)
Men’s Polearm:
1st : Bohumil Masnicak – White Company (England)
2nd : Gaetan Devillard – Chaumont Béhourd (France)
3rd : Guillaume Defaux – Exactor Mortis (France)
Congratulations to Bohumil Masnicak, taking first place in all four categories.
Hello Mister Provost, could you introduce yourself to our readers ?
Hello everyone, my name is Thomas Chariot, though people call me “Le Prévost.”(1) I’ve been a buhurt coach since 2016, a certified sports instructor with a BPJEPS diploma(1) since 2013, and I’ve been making a living from buhurt since 2019. I started practicing medieval combat at the age of 15, so that was 22 years ago now… I’m getting old.
(1) : is the French word for Provost
(2) : is a sport diploma in France
Year after year, La Dame d’Acier keeps growing, and this year you surprised us by introducing MMA cages instead of the traditional wooden lists. I think this is the first time we’ve seen that in France for duels. Can you tell us more about it ? What motivated this choice ?
This choice was motivated purely by logistical ease of assembly and disassembly, but also by the more modern overall appearance, which aligns with buhurt’s development as a sport beyond the folkloric aspect. It was also done for safety reasons — both for the scorekeepers and for the audience in the event of broken or lost weapons. The next step will be to cover the cages with netting, but one thing at a time.
In France, an entire duel circuit has emerged with La Dame d’Acier, Le Lion d’Acier, Les Lices de Fer, and the Fasselrider Turnier.
Quite a few very metallic names — except for the last one. Has a secret league been formed without me getting the memo?
Laughs
No, nothing secret. The original idea came from SAEA Paris, pioneers in organizing buhurt duel competitions in France. Since we also organize HEMA events, we had the idea of using “iron” for HEMA events — such as La Voûte de Fer (“The Iron Vault”) — and “steel” for buhurt events, like La Dame d’Acier (“The Iron Lady”). As for Les Lices de Fer(3), since it’s organized by Clan Ligefer, having “iron” in the name makes perfect sense. In the end, it’s more coincidence than a metallurgists’ conspiracy.
(3) : “fer” means iron in english
Over the last few years, dueling has really grown in France, and the number of practitioners seems much larger to me. It’s genuinely great to see !
How do you perceive this evolution ? Has your club played a role in it ?
Duel has become an integral and significant part of buhurt in France, with a strong and sustainable circuit of four annual events, plus profight events. I don’t necessarily feel that the number of participants is dramatically higher, but participation is better distributed throughout the season. Most importantly, thanks to the quality of French events, the circuit is attracting more and more foreign fighters, and that’s really gratifying.
SAEA Paris was behind the split of the French Cup into two separate events — duel/profight and melee — back in 2018, if I remember correctly. The club played a leading role in building the French circuit, supported by all the SAEA chapters and more and more clubs. I’d like to add that this is above all a collective adventure, where every participant plays an integral role in a large machine that enables the existence and growth of buhurt, particularly dueling.
Recently, I read an anonymous Facebook post asking whether dueling was really buhurt. The reactions were numerous, and the subject sparked heated debate. What’s your opinion on the matter ?
My opinion is fairly simple. The origins of modern buhurt come from historical reenactment, which has always mixed melee and duels. Historically, although the concept of “sport” is entirely anachronistic, friendly armed competitions existed both in melee and in duels — and increasingly in duels toward the end of the Middle Ages, if memory serves — in order to reduce accidents and fatal injuries.
What underlies this pseudo-debate is unfortunately heavily tainted by toxic masculinity : “dueling is for weaklings ; only melee is for real men.” It’s an utterly stupid argument. Supporters of this viewpoint hide behind the international use of the term “buhurt” for melee and “duel” for duels. The construction of buhurt as a discipline has been largely chaotic and in no way follows the structure of traditional sports organizations, which naturally results in inconsistent terminology among practitioners.
From my perspective, the sport is called Béhourd or Buhurt, just like “escrime”(4) and “fencing.” It encompasses two forms of armored combat — heavy armor and light armor — themselves divided into disciplines : melee, duel, and profight. Some of these are then further divided into categories : 5v5, 10v10, sword/shield, longsword, profight middleweight, heavyweight, lightweight, and so on.
This isn’t a debate — it’s the opinion of frustrated people who would do better to shut up and train instead of talking and remaining bad at their sport. There are those who do, and those who talk. Choose your side.
(4) : it means fencing. In France some people use the French word and other the English one, same with Béhourd and Buhurt
Would you like to add something to conclude our discussion ?
I hope that French buhurt institutions will undergo a deep shift in awareness so that the voices of truly competent people — officially recognized by the state for their expertise — are finally heard before a regrettable accident that could have been avoided occurs.
It is sad to observe that people seeking positions of power are often incapable of listening to or taking into account the experience and knowledge of competent individuals. Long live the sport.
Thank you Thomas, and yeah, long live the sport !
Text: Orphée Hagenstein
Photo credit : Antonin Labat
