The people who are trying to research and revive the historical martial arts are usually under the title of HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts), but there are a few other organizations as well.
This guy:
https://www.youtube.com/user/warzechas/feed
and this guy:
https://www.youtube.com/user/scholagladiatoria
for example, have lots of interesting information on the subject.
ARMA is another one of the big ones.
This kind of weapons required skill to master which a common soldier did not have
Ok, you just about made me choke on my french fries reading that.
It has NOTHING TO DO WHATSOEVER WITH SKILL. Rapiers weren't used on the battlefield because THEY WERE NOT BATTLEFIELD WEAPONS. They are purely personal defense weapons intended for street brawls and duels. PERIOD. FINITO. They were useless on the battlefield because of this thing called ARMOR that by the late Middle Ages/Early Renaissance was in widespread use even by common infantrymen. The backsword that was the main sidearm of this period required NO LESS SKILL to wield properly than a rapier; the difference was in HOW it was used.
Soldiers of the late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance were PROFESSIONALS. They were well-equipped and well-trained, and a far cry from the peasant levies of the early periods (BIIIIIIIIIG note, here: This was primarily a phenomenon among the French. The English ALWAYS had a semi-professional army more like the modern concept of the National Guard, dating to the Saxon period. The Germans were similar in this regard).
