Our History

Where We Started

The Twilight Knights Renaissance Guild, Inc. was originally founded in 1997 in Moraga, CA, as the Twilight Knights Fencing Club. Starting with only five members from the same high school, the club sought to enhance the Renaissance reenactment experience by studying the art of the sword. HEMA was not officially recognized at the time. Soon our group grew to be 15 members strong.

When St. David’s Guild invited our group to represent the Danish Royal Guard at a fair in 1998, we changed our name to the Twilight Knights Renaissance Guild. To this day, we still represent the Danish court at events and fairs. We act as a separate royal camp and maintain many of the traditions from our St. David’s days.

In October of 2014, the Guild became incorporated in the state of California. This officially established the Twilight Knights Renaissance Guild, Inc. we are today. We are an active working performance guild. Our mission is the recreation, reenactment, study and practice of 16th Century European fighting arts. We aim to teach these arts so that we may pass on our skills and knowledge to future generations.

What We Study

While the Guild primarily focuses on 16th century martial arts, we consider ourselves a practical HEMA guild. In contrast to traditional HEMA clubs, we do not base our teachings from one manuscript. The Twilight Knights study fighting techniques, weapon styles and philosophy from several manuscripts in and out of Europe; integrating Eastern philosophy, practices and techniques to our training. 

In recent years we have added an archery squad to study, educate, and pass on the principles and techniques of traditional archery. Given the guild’s collective love of Star Wars, we have also established a small lightsaber dueling squad (now recognized by the Fencing Federation of France). At some point, we plan to compete in local tournaments.

While our mixed techniques and practices are not for everyone, we invite anyone to come to one of our weekly practices. You may find you wish to join in!