Chevachee
Chevachee
was the medieval term for a mounted, armed raid through enemy territory. The aim being to cause as much destruction as possible, with the aggressors moving on quickly before the opposing army could catch up. The damage instilled fear and dried up the enemy’s tax revenues, thus preventing decent opposition. It was an early form of economic warfare, and it was very destructive and intentionally brutal. Houses and farms would be burnt, crops and livestock destroyed or stolen, and the people killed or tortured. Not surprisingly this led to retaliation on a brutal scale if the aggressors were ever caught. The English practised this form of war against the French throughout the Hundred Years War. Though as far as I know they seldom carried it into the storerooms of hat shops.
The word is derived from the Old French Chevauchie
, which also developed into the modern French word Chevaucher
. But I have settled on the English spelling to distinguish, since the terms are not exactly synonymous.
Old English Fighting
This was as Spike describes it in Chevachee. It was the traditional technique developed in Europe; and, for some reason, in the eighteenth century the English became the best in the world. Its origins can be traced back to ancient forms of Greek and Germanic unarmed combat, but it also covers weapons fighting. If you are interested in finding out more then I cannot recommend too highly English Martial Arts by Terry Brown, which explains all the techniques of bare fist, broadsword, staff and the rest far better than I ever could hope to. And from whom I plundered the technicalities of Spike’s fighting quite shamelessly. Spike’s quote about boasting in Chevachee is one of the sayings of P. Egan who wrote a manual of fighting in 1812.
For a less academic description of the old style of prize fights; before it got turned into modern boxing and everyone started to believe that leg sweeps, kicks, and ancient sayings were only invented in the East; I suggest Black Ajax by George MacDonald Fraser, a beautiful biography of the first black international sport’s star.