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George Silver was a gentleman in England during the late 16th and early 17th century. Although he does not seem to have been a martial arts instructor himself, he was familiar with the fencing schools of the time, and the systems of defence that they taught. Silver is characterised as being extremely nationalistic, objecting on ethical and technical grounds, to what he characterized as a pernicious influence of the fashionable continental rapier systems being taught at the time.
His major objections to the rapier itself and to its pedagogy were expressed in his 1599 work, "My Paradoxes of Defence".
He then wrote a followup "Brief Instructions on my Paradoxes of Defence" in which he laid out his preferred weapons (he recommends the shorter, more versatile backsword) and martial system. This however remained an unpublished manuscript until its rediscovery and publishing in 1898 by fencing historian Captain Cyril G. R. Matthey. As its title suggests, "Brief Instructions" contains specific information on the use of various weapons.
Silver recommends a highly defensive system which he deemed suitable for duelling, street defence and the battlefield, rather than the purely duel orientation of the rapier.
Silver broke down his ideas about the technical aspects of fighting into the following components:
- The Grounds
- The Governors
- The Four True Times
- The Four False Times
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