The Meyer Freifechter Guild (MFFG) was founded in 2009, tracing its roots back to Mike Cartier’s South Florida Historical Fencing Club (est. 1999). In 2010, Living Meyer joined the Guild, bringing our expertise to the forefront of historical fencing education.

The Guild’s founding members sought to preserve the authentic techniques and spirit of Renaissance martial arts by emphasizing scholarly research and practical application. Since joining, Living Meyer has been instrumental in developing training methodologies and conducting workshops that honor Joachim Meÿer’s vision of interconnected weapon systems.

Established in 2010, the Living Meyer Historical Fencing Schools were and remain flagship study groups of the Meyer Freifechter Guild (MFFG; est.2009). Since joining the late, great Mike Cartier’s martial arts quest to reconstruct and recreate the considerable skills demonstrated in the words and by the images in Joachim Meyer’s writings, we have been very active.

We founded and continued to host the annual Meyer Symposium (est.2013); the Madtown Fechtschul (est.2016); and the Sacramento Fechtschul Experiment (est.2023) hosted by the Sacramento Historical Fencing Alliance (SHFA). The York (est.2025), Darlington (est.2025), New Orleans (est.2025), and Florida Renaissance Fechtschule (est.2025) are all annual events with a focus on historical: ruled encounters, instructive workshops, and camaraderie.