Joseph Charlemont
French savateur (1839–1914), codifier of savate and canne de combat, author of books from 1899 and father of the boxer Charles Charlemont.
Quick Facts
FranceBiography
Joseph Pierre Charlemont was born in 1839 in Lesdain in the Nord department and is known as the codifier of savate and canne de combat. We have not found the exact date of birth in the sources checked.
According to the website boxepiedspoings.fr he took up boxing in 1860. The English Wikipedia names Louis Vigneron as his teacher, although he is often given as a pupil of Charles Lecour, and we have not resolved the dispute. He built his style on the modern savate promoted by Charles Lecour, and after a match with Hubert Lecour he ranked among the best French boxers of his time.
In Paris he ran the Académie de boxe, which also published his books, and according to Wikipedia he founded the Société des Boxeurs Français. The system built on four fighting distances, in which he combined strikes and holds, became, according to Wikipedia, the technical basis of sport savate.
According to boxepiedspoings.fr he published the first technical book on boxe française in 1877. In 1899 his books L'Art de la boxe française et de la canne and La Boxe française historique et biographique appeared. He passed on the method to his son Charles Charlemont (1862–1942), who on 10 October 1899 defeated the Englishman Driscoll in a match nicknamed the duel of the century. Joseph was, according to the press of the time cited by the Bartitsu Society, one of the referees. The catalogue of the New York Public Library gives 1914 as the year of his death.
Teachers, students and family
Associated Martial Arts
French sport with a light chestnut cane, codified by Maurice Sarry in the seventies of the 20th century. Six codified strikes and no thrust.
SavateCodifier→A French striking sport in which one kicks with the foot in a shoe and boxes with the hands. Its modern form was given by Charles Lecour and Joseph Charlemont in the 19th century.
Organisations
- Société des Boxeurs FrançaisFounder