Excellent post Tar Elenion. There are simply too many misconceptions about western medieval combat out there. An excellent author, in my opinion the best on the subject, is R. Ewart Oakeshott. His series on medieval combat is especially good:
A Knight and His Horse, Publishers' Group West; 2nd edition (November 1998)
A Knight and His Weapons, Editions; 2nd edition (January 1, 1997)
A Knight and His Armor, Dufour Editions; 2nd Revision edition (August 1999)
A Knight and His Castle, Dufour Editions; 2nd edition (January 1, 1997)
A Knight in Battle, Dufour Editions; 2nd edition (January 1, 1998)
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Modern soldiers often carry as much weight in the field and it is less well distributed.
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Those of us who have worn an LCE over a flak jacket, along with a rucksack full of SAW ammo, know what drudgery is. I really felt sorry for those mortar guys. Modern soldiers carry
more weight into combat than the medieval peasant or knight did.
As far as “fighting style” goes, its hard to piece together a “western” style. The German fight books of the 15th and 16th centuries belie an already pre-existing set of combat methods. However, archeology tells us there were a plethora of technical innovations throughout the period of history we call medieval, as well as an equally great number of culturally distinct peoples. To search for a distinctive style of combat that one can universally apply to medieval Europe would be impossible. For example, the fighting methods of the Anglo-Saxon warrior of AD 900 would be considerably different from those employed by a French knight on crusade in the 13th century. The basic skills involved by the Anglo-Saxon warrior would be those of a boxer; the basic skills of the French knight would be equestrian.
This brings up a related point about medieval combat, particularly post-Norman: the horse. No matter what weapon the knight held in his hand, the primary weapon employed by the post-Norman medieval knight was the horse, and his most important combat skill was horsemanship. Most post-Norman technical innovations and tactics focussed on neutralizing the mounted warrior or keeping the mounted warrior mounted (i.e. the evolving use of walled fortifications, crossbows, the English longbow, plate armor, etc…).
Swords that can slice through watermelons? The medieval knight could slice through iron maille with his sword.