@Heph et al.:
By rapier I suppose I meant 'dueling sword of some sort'. Looking at the earlier edition I see what is clearly a rather large blade being used similarly. Of course, I have a print of a combat manual which depicts techniques for such a weapon as used in dueling.
Ultimately, I suppose my point is that warfare was not the only instance of personal combat in the time period. And study of technique would be far more useful in less... crowded... arenas than it would on the field of battle. The evidence of unarmored combat does not necessarily suggest many or even most people went to war that way.
Your still being vague... but Ill assume you mean the Light Armor Chain Shirt and not the Heavy Armor version
Wait, huh? Would you like to cite a scholarly source for that distinction?
I mean, yes, I know roleplaying games make a lot of armor distinctions, but those are often based on fabrication or misinformation. For example, D+D continues to use 'platemail' for full or field plate and 'half plate' for plate. It also multiplies what was originally just maille into multiple armor types, such as Chainmail shirt, Chainmail, Scale Mail, Banded Mail. One must assume that 'Chainmail' means a chain shirt plus chain leggings and a helmet of some sort. One must also assume that they can't be bothered to learn that scale and banded mail are fabrications of historical buffs from misinterpretation of artistic works - something that has been well known for at least 20 years.
I have never even heard of a distinction between 'light' and 'heavy' maille.