Quote Originally Posted by LordKiltClad View Post
Another Southpaw here. I was always curious because my wife was reading one of those "History of the Wedding" type books. In medieval times a knights wedding was memorable. The right handed soldier would wear his sword on the right side to keep the weapon away from his bride. It was worn to ward off anyone who thought of stealing the bride away. But how many right handers can draw a sword from their right side? That was the books commentary anyways.

I wore my sword on my right side for the wedding, but being left handed I would no problem drawing my weapon to ward off bride stealers.
Thats called a "Roman draw", and as the name implies it was the standard way the Roman Legionaire wore and drew his sword. You grasp the hilt with your right hand, thumb down, and draw straight up. This has the advantage of completing the draw in a mostly vertical plane, which is necessary when packed in closed ranks.
The cross body draw requires much more room, and would interfere with the person to your front and your left if in formation, as well as interfering with your shield work.
Of course, it works best with relatively short swords like the gladius, but even a European small sword would work just fine.