the weapon combination served for several centuries as a primary training method for fencing among all classes, especially knights. Many study guides on its use were produced over the centuries. It was considered a military style, even though civilians did frequently train in it. By the late 16th century it fell out of general favor as a common tool for war as well as street defense and private duel. See: 15. Fencing reached a "golden age" in Europe during the 19th century. th century became far more specialized and narrowly focused on formal duels of gentlemanly single-combat with secondary considerations for light cavalry. Even among the limited military use of sabers, broadswords, and cutlasses, gone now were any concerns for fighting under varied circumstances against multiple opponents, dissimilartraditional arms and armor as well as heavy cutting blades for self-defense, duel, or battlefield close combat were already all but obsolete and no style based upon earlier Medieval and Renaissance cutting swordplay survived. The foyning fence of the civilian smallsword, descended from the 17th century rapier, provided the foundation for nearly all fencing instruction thereafter. Fencers in this period, disconnected from and ignorant of martial arts from previous centuries, came therefore to incorrectly believe that their own method of fencing for gentlemanly single duels with light slender thrusting swords or light dueling sabres was a superior "evolutionary" advance over the vicious and brutal ways of the distant past. Concern for aesthetics and form came to dominate how certain men chose to defend themselves. The modern myth then