Rob,I would have to agree with dmitry on his thoughts about sword carry.But here is another avenue to look at,from my research on edged weaponry of the time period,a vast majority of the common folk carried no sword,perse,they carried knives,"longknives","butcherknives",or anything they could get their hands on.A lot of blacksmith made knives were made for these people as they were going off to war,and not all of these were "long or actually swords",and not all were made well according to today`s standards.A lot of these would not be considered fighting knives by today`s standards,but alas,they were,and a goodly number of these survived to this day.