Given the chivalric self-image of the Hungarian nobility, swordsmanship and its symbolism occupied an important position in the national iconography and formed a central part of what Hungarians considered the behaviour and poise proper to a gentleman (úriember). That symbolism permeates the Romantic century, from the bestowal of a “sabre of honour” to Franz Liszt following his first concert in Budapest in 1840 to the coronation ritual of Franz Joseph, when that Habsburg emperor was crowned king of Hungary in 1867.

As everywhere in Europe, fencing was originally a skill and sport for the aristocracy (who since feudal times had enjoyed a monopoly on bearing arms). Among the French and Italian fencing masters who taught the Hungarian nobility were Gaetano Biasini, who opened a salle d’armes in Kolozsvár/Cluj in 1818, and Louis Chappon, author of an important 1802 manual, who opened a salle in Pest in 1822. Chappon would later teach Mór Jókai, Sándor Petőfi and Archduke Joseph of Austria, the brother of Emperor Francis and Palatine (regent) of Hungary.

The first Hungarian fencing school was established in 1825 on the initiative of István Széchenyi and Miklós Wesselényi, who had made an inspiring encounter with the sport while in France. The fencing master at this institute was Franz Friedrich (1819-1895), who, assisted by Chappon, taught Wesselényi and Lajos Kossuth and was the first to use Hungarian as the language of instruction. This “National Fencing Institute” (Nemzeti Vívóintézet) closed its doors in the aftermath of the failed 1848 insurrections; other private schools sprang up, however, and fencing was also included in the exercises of gymnastics clubs.

The sport gained fresh prominence after the Ausgleich of 1867: Friedrich was appointed fencing master to the University of Budapest and later even gave a demonstration lesson to the Magyarophile Queen-Empress Elisabeth (Sissi). Chappon, a veteran of the insurrection, opened a fencing institute in Kolozsvár in 1873, and another fencing master, József Keresztessy, also an 1848 veteran, consolidated a nationally Hungarian interest in fencing and was an influential co-founder of Hungary’s first sports association, Magyar Atlétikai Club, in 1875. Italian fencing masters remained active, and national competitions according to standardized international rules and weapons began to be held. A formative influence on the flourishing of fencing and its status as a Hungarian sport par excellence (especially with the sabre) was Béla Nagy (1876–1924), who oversaw the national self-presentation of Hungary in the international arena of the Olympic Games.