During the Middle Ages, schools of swordsmanship comparable to those of feudal Japan arose throughout Europe. These were sophisticated and deadly battlefield arts, all designed to dispatch an adversary or adversaries as quickly as possible. Schools and masters of arms taught weapon and empty-handed arts suitable for use in any situation: mounted or on foot, in armor or unarmored, against one adversary or in a melee. One favored weapon was the German langshwert or Italian spada da una mano e mezza, known in English as the longsword or bastard sword. This was a light, straight, double-edged cutting-and-thrusting sword, meant to be used in two hands. The use of shorter swords, daggers, armor-piercing weapons such as poleaxes, and specialized weapons, such as spiked shields used for judicial duels, was also taught.

Notable medieval masters included Johannes Liechtenauer, who is credited with founding the widely influential and long-lived German school of swordsmanship, and Ott, a Jewish wrestling master who served the noble Hapsburg family of Austria. Ott's style of unarmed defense resembled the jujitsu of the Japanese bushi in many respects. The pragmatic art of close combat in the West favored neutralizing the opponent swiftly through joint locks and takedowns. Unlike modern karate or tae kwon do, there was little emphasis on kicks and punches in the medieval fighting arts, though these certainly did exist.

The story of fencing as it exists today, though, really begins in late fifteenth-century Spain, for that was where the custom of wearing swords with everyday civilian dress was most widespread, and where the first known schools of specialized instruction in a civilian style of swordsmanship existed. Beginning in the1530s, we also find treatises on civilian swordsmanship being published in Italy. The schools of use for these relatively light, single-handed weapons, the Spanish espada ropera (or "dress sword"), and the Italian spada di lato ("side-sword," in the sense of a "sidearm"), were not very much changed from the earlier, more military styles. However, in 1553, an Italian architect, philosopher, and amateur swordsman named Camillo Agrippa published a book that would prove widely influential. Agrippa's Trattato di Scientia d'Arme ("Treaty on the Science of Arms") advocated a rationalistic approach to swordsmanship. This book made many lasting technical contributions to the art of civilian swordsmanship.

For instance, prior to Agrippa, colorful mnemonic names for guards and stances, such as the porta di ferro ("iron door") and posta di donna ("lady's guard") were in common use throughout Europe to describe positions taken for attack, defense, or to invite an attack from the adversary. To some degree, these paralleled the stances or positions taken by Japanese swordsmen. Agrippa replaced these descriptive names by a simple system of four guards, numbered sequentially from the position the hand naturally takes when the sword is drawn from the scabbard: prima, seconda, terza, and quarta. This system, with additions, is still followed today.