Savate, "chausson", sailors and the sea in the development of French boxing, 1798-1875
By Jean-François Loudcher
Savate, as a duel of kicks and punches, originated in France at the beginning of the 19th century, most probably in the cafés des barrières in Paris. The earliest reference is in Vidocq’s Mémoires, published in 1828, in which he recalls his time as a convict in the Bicêtre prisons, where he is said to have learned the first rudiments of this fighting art around 1798 from Jean Goupil, the ‘Saint-George de la Savatte’1. But there is no corroborating evidence.
Subsequently, a number of more or less ritualised kicking and punching brawls, known as savate or savatte, were recorded in the early 1830s. At this stage, it does not appear that the sea or sailors had any connection whatsoever with savate, which was also known as chausson, after the shoe used in fencing halls. From the 1840s and especially the 1850s, several sources mention this relationship between the savate, o chaussonand the sea, particularly through the sailors, who were generally in the French Navy. Can we identify the contours of this relationship, especially as the myth of the Marseille chausson originating in Asia, thanks to sailors, is widely disseminated?
1 Loudcher, 2000.
The myth of the oriental origins of savate and "chausson" from Marseille
In reality, this interpretation was launched in the 1960s by some of the executives of Savate. Bernard Plasait, leader of the French boxing revival, wrote:
Around 1790, French sailors used a fighting method adapted to the precarious stability of ships’ pontoons. They kicked high, keeping their balance with one hand on the ground.”2
However, there is no source to support this assertion. The few illustrations that might suggest this influence appear much later. The reasons that led savate officials to develop this myth actually had to do with the popularity of martial arts of Asian origin that were developing at the time, such as judo and karate, and their hope of capturing a share of these practitioners3. Count Pierre Baruzy linked the origins of French boxing to Asia with the help of an engraving dating from 1857 showing sailors from Marseille practising kicking each other in a way they had seen on their travels.4
However, the Asian origin of savate is a myth that stems from another myth: the Marseille chausson itself. Indeed, the idea is fairly widespread that an original form of foot and fist fighting originated in the south of France that has been more or less nurtured by Asian influences. It is based, among other things, on writings peddled by Joseph Charlemont, the father of academic French boxing. But while it is true that the Marseille chausson existed, the sources only attest it from the second half of the nineteenth century onwards; its practice therefore came after savate: the chausson was first and foremost a Parisian invention.
In his Mémoires, Maurice Nadaud recalls the evenings when, in the early 1830s, workers would go “to the Salle Gadoux or the Salle Le Mule, which were considered to house the two most skilful chausson masters of those days”5. In 1842, the famous writer Théophile Gautier gave boxing its letters of nobility by writing a landmark article entitled “Le maître de Chausson”. He then coined the name French boxing.
2 Plasait, 1971, p. 34.
Brevet de chausson et de boxe, 1857. Fonte: Cabinet des Estampes, BNF.
For Provençal writer François Mazuy, there is no ambiguity: Chausson did not exist in Marseille as a practice imported from the sailors in the early nineteenth century. In fact, the practice developed on other bases during the 1820s and 1830s:
Sailors released from English prisons imported horse and ram fencing: savatte and boxing. Punching academies sprang up everywhere; competitions were held to elect masters and provosts.”6
However, it is possible that around 1850, Marseille’s wrestlers may have assimilated this exercise to develop a form of wrestling or game, such as bravado or olivettes, which originated in the south of France. In fact, in L’Époque (1865), Jules Vallès described some spectacular and rather harmless exercises that wrestlers in Marseille used to practise in confrontations.
6 Mazuy, 1854, p. 183.
Savate, "chausson" and sailors
Savate, chausson and French boxing have a real connection with the sea, and probably even more so with the Navy and the Army. In 1874, the Joinville gymnastics school put on one of the very first public performances to feature French boxing, lasting over three hours:
In front of the Redoute de la Faisanderie, the eight hundred or one thousand students from the school (…) took up arms in three lines.
The second part of the session was taken up with gymnastics, boxing and baton exercises. Three hundred and twenty-seven boxing and baton twirling students, including fifty-two sailors, first performed general movements, and then twenty-four of them, in pairs, engaged in special games, which were always interesting and often amusing.”7.The performance was innovative in terms of the number of soldiers present and the form of the exercise, which does not seem to have existed on such a large scale before. What’s more, a sizeable contingent of sailors took part in the demonstration. Wasn’t savate introduced at the Joinville gymnastics school thanks to the Navy? In 1875, the Navy published a teaching programme for French boxing, the baton and the cane.8 But it was the practice of four-sided French boxing that was most widely disseminated in the army, in schools and all over the world, whether in the Czech gymnastics’ movement Sokol or in modern Japanese karate.
But even if the French Navy enabled savate to spread into the army, it nevertheless underwent a radical transformation in its teaching there after the 1870 war with Prussia. What happened before that?
We know that chausson, boxing and cane were practised at the Joinville gymnastics school in 1867, as these practices are recorded on the back of an Instructor’s Certificate.9 Could this have been influenced by the Navy? Indeed, several accounts mention this teaching in the Navy, which at the time was not very unified in terms of the teaching of combat practices.10 Nevertheless, in 1867, an ‘official bulletin’ attested to the teaching of French “boxe”:
Art. 15
Gymnastics instructors (petty officers and quartermasters) should, for the most part, be able to give singing lessons using the Chevé method and to teach boxing and the baton.“11
7 Revue Maritime et Coloniale, 1874, p. 781-785.
“Joinville-le-Pont Gymnastics School. Exercício de Boxe”. Cartão postal.
As usual, I called on the ship’s masters and provost marshals to explain to them the method I wanted to see adopted (….). The handling of the sabre was succeeded by that of the cane in moments of leisure; then the savate joined in, so that by the end of the campaign, this crew, made up for the most part of fairly heavy sailors from lower Brittany, had acquired a casualness and agility which struck everyone: I do not add that they had such a high opinion of their skills as swordsmen that the elite boarding squad, made up of eighty masters, provost marshals or first-rate marksmen, would not have doubted, with the most amusing fatuity, but commendable at heart, that they could board an enemy frigate in less than a quarter of an hour.”12
While his teaching may seem fairly standard, the fact remains that it depended on the officer’s good will. So what were they teaching? It’s hard to say. However, an engraving dating from 1857 allows us to extrapolate a little. It depicts a group of sailors on the deck of a sailing boat, two of whom stand out in the foreground: one is kicking the other’s chest with one hand, which the latter parries with both hands. This exercise was practised by the acrobats of the time, such as the famous Rambaud and Vigneron, at the many fairs held in Paris and the rest of France13. And aren’t sailors first and foremost travellers?
In Nantes, near the rue du Château, one day I saw a sign at the door of a cabaret that blew my mind with its two pugilists boxing in dirty colours. Standing in the doorway was a small man with the look of a common, greying hunter on foot, who resembled one of the heroes of the sign. I spoke to him. He had been provost marshal – and dancer! – in the regiment, now a carpenter… He gave savate lessons in the evening, after finishing his day”14.
Was this provost marshal enrolled in a regiment on board a ship as a marine fusilier? In any case, a book written by C. J. Arnaud, dated 1849, was published in Brest and bears witness to this proximity to the sea. The town was a very active naval port at the time. An engraving shows a punching and parrying exercise very similar to those used in Leboucher’s 1843 book.
Commentary on the image "Bleu à la savate":
This image, whose origin is not known, was taken from the Wikimedia Commons.
It is dated 1847 and includes a comment in English: ‘A savate illustration from the 19th century, showing French sailors doing a kick similar to a rabo de arraia in capoeira’. The site links to another Brazilian website, which also does not specify the origins of the image.
Without further indication, we can nevertheless identify the period during which this image was produced. It depicts an individual kicking his opponent in the chest with his left leg, resting on his hands on the ground and presenting his back. The blow was effective, judging by the expression on the opponent’s face: he opens both arms, is unbalanced backwards and his head is pointing skywards, expressing great pain. The scene takes place in a French port, as evidenced by the many national flags hanging from the top of the boat masts. It is indeed a bare-knuckle duel that we are witnessing and not just a simple brawl, as shown by the many spectators, all sailors, in the background who are certainly cheering the performance, as they are all looking in the direction of the two sailors and some are raising their arms to the sky, no doubt in victory.
The date on which this image was taken can be determined. The sailing ships in the picture are certainly warships stationed in a military port, as the fort in the background attests. However, the wartime sailing navy came to an end after the Crimean War (1853-1856) and was replaced by iron ships. In addition, although sailors’ caps with pompons were introduced in the 1840s, they were not made official until 1856. So the period 1840-1853, and the proposed date of 1847, is entirely plausible.
Finally, there is the question of the poster’s purpose. ‘Le Bleu à la savate’ may refer to the work clothes that workers sometimes wore. The addition of the expression ‘Extra Quality’ suggests that it was a clothing advertisement. By doing a spectacular kick, the garment resists and does not crack. But why is this garment linked to ‘savate’? Wouldn’t a gymnastic exercise have had the same effect? No doubt because the garment is not necessarily of French origin, and it is therefore necessary to ensure that a French production can also be solid, since the quality of the garment is validated by a physical activity of French origin. For example, the acronym ‘B & P’ at the bottom of the poster may refer to the German company ‘Bierbaum-Proenen’ or BP, which specialised in workwear since the end of the eighteenth century.
Savate, French boxing and Brazil (1855-1908); the sea at the centre of its dissemination?
There is no doubt that there were connections between savate, chausson and French boxing on the one hand, and capoeira on the other, with sailors being the main vector for its spread. In fact, during the second half of the nineteenth century, “assaults” (with sabre, épée, foil, and bangala) were regularly organised in the Brazilian capital by French officers on mission in the country. European soldiers (Portuguese, Spanish and English) also took part in these social gatherings. Alongside these fencing jousts, bare-knuckle duels in savate, chausson and socco inglez15 were also organised. However, for Olivier Malo, these were not fights as such, but “assaults”, suggesting the polite nature of the jousts between the amateurs involved.
15 Malo, 2020.
“Assault with Weapons”, mentions “French capoeira”. Correio Mercantil, Rio de Janeiro, 11 mars 1855; cf. Malo, p. 194.
Organised ‘Assaults’ in 1867, during which, after the sword and savate games, capoeira was played. This proves that capoeiragem spread in enlightened circles during the imperial period, undoubtedly through Brazilian soldiers who were familiar with the practice.
Indeed, during these weapons assaults, alongside savate or chausson, “capoeira game” duels were scheduled. This was surprising at first sight, because at the time, in imperial Brazil, the practice was disparaged as being associated with the world of crime. However, the existence of the “capoeira game” in military circles revealed another aspect of the Brazilian art of combat, that of a polite duel respectful of the physical integrity of the protagonists, contrary to the vision of brigands traditionally peddled. In short, during the second half of the nineteenth century, capoeiragem became part of the spaces dedicated to the expression of combat techniques, a process almost equivalent to the savate duels of the 1830s.
Alongside these encounters between soldiers, in the second half of the 19th century socco inglez (English boxing) and Roman wrestling gradually entered the popular theatres of the capital. These were not yet sporting matches between two trained athletes, but rather fairground shows in which wrestlers and boxers boasted of their strength. The challenge launched by Cyriaco in 1909 was to be an important point in the development of capoeira as a combat practice, but also as a method of national physical education. In any case, these “places of exercise were mainly reserved for officers and members of the Army and Navy, in which games of savate, chausson and capoeiragem were sometimes programmed”16.
16 Malo, Ibid.
Conclusion
Savate may not have its origins in the sea and its sailors, but it is nonetheless closely linked to them. On the other hand, it is true that the practice subsequently spread around the world under the name of chausson and/or French boxing, thanks to a diffusion for which sailors, particularly those in the French Navy, were responsible. At the time, French fist-fighting was a relatively unformal combat practice that gained a degree of recognition thanks to periods of duelling and confrontation.
Once this was achieved, whether in the army, in schools or in associations, after the 1870s, the institution limited these fights by transforming them into academic boxing. Joseph Charlemont’s sparring match against English boxer Jerry Driscoll in 1899 is well known, and the French victory ensured him a certain notoriety. But it was a highly regulated confrontation. From then on, it was the sporting confrontation that counted, and as French boxing had not yet developed spectacular sporting rules that worked, it was English boxing that prevailed in France.
In Brazil, perhaps in a slightly different way, we find an identical process. Once capoeira was established in codified sporting confrontations, the influence of savate no longer existed and it were practices such as English boxing, wrestling and jiu-jitsu that took hold. Be that as it may, the sea and sailors certainly brought together worlds that seemed so different in the 19th century, such as France and Brazil.
Jean-François Loudcher is professor of historical and social sciences at the University of Bordeaux. His work deals with the history of physical education and sport in France and abroad. He has been dedicated to analyzing public and territorial policies for some time.
He was president of the French Society for the History of Sport (SFHS), as well as the European Committee for the History of Sport. He is currently co-editor of the magazine Social Sciences and Sports and co-director of Master Sports Management, in Bordeaux.
References
Arnaud, C. J. Teoria dos três jogos reunidos: ‘chausson’, savate e boxe. Organizada em vinte e quatro lições. Brest, June 1, 1849. Handwritten text of 136 pp. and 24 leaflets.
Bouët-Willaumez, Louis Edouard. Campagne aux Côtes Occidentales d’Afrique, par M. Louis Edouard Bouët-Willaumez Capitaine de Vaisseau. Paris, Imp. P. Dupont, 1850, p. 15.
Brevet de chausson et de boxe, 1857. Source: Cabinet des Estampes, BNF.
Brevet d’Instructeur de Gymnastique, Archives Nationales, CC3-1196.
Bulletin Officiel de la Marine, n°40, 2nd semester 1867, p. 72-91.
Loudcher, Jean-François. Histoire de la savate, du chausson et de la boxe française ; d’une pratique populaire à un sport de compétition. Paris, L’harmattan, 2000.
Loudcher, Jean-François e Christian Faurillon. 2021. ‘The influence of French Gymnastics and Military French Boxing on the Creation of Modern Karate (1867-1914)’. Martial Arts Studies 11, 80-100. doi: 10.18573/mas.135.
Olivier, Malo. La capoeira et les arts de combat noirs: histoire effacée, techniques invisibles (1905-1984). Université des Antilles, 2020.
Manuel pour l’enseignement de la gymnastique et de l’escrime, published by ordre de M. le Ministre de la Marine et des Colonies. Paris, Librairie militaire de J. Dumaine, 1875, Service Historique Militaire, [3T19.
Mazuy, François. Moeurs et coutumes des marseillais au XIXème siècle. Marseille, 1854, p. 183.
Nadaud, Maurice. Mémoires de Léonard, ancien garçon maçon (1895). Paris, Voix ouvrières, 1948, p. 97.
Plasait, Bernard. Défense et illustration de la boxe française. Boulogne, Sedirep, 1971, p. 34.
Baruzy, Pierre. Bulletin de liaison de la boxe française. Assemblée générale constitutive du Comité National de Boxe-française, 8 janvier 1965, p. 2.
“L’Ecole Normale de Gymnastique de Joinville-le -Pont”, Revue Maritime et Coloniale, t. 42, juillet-septembre, 1874, p. 781-785, S.H.M.
Vallès, Jules. Souvenirs d’un étudiant pauvre (mémoires vraies). 3 éd., Paris, N.R.F., 1930.
Fantastic article.
Thank you, Richard!