Death First!: Trials by Combat

In today’s society, when one individual is a victim of a crime, he or she can file a report with the local law enforcement agency. After the investigation is completed, charges may or may not be filed with the county district attorney’s office depending upon if enough evidence is found to proceed with a trial. During the medieval period, it didn’t always work that way. Authorities could ignore crimes if the involved persons were high enough in the pecking order, or a bribe was offered. Sometimes the Church would step in and claim a higher power was involved.  When a sentence of death or life in prison was given, the common people were stuck but the nobility had a second option: trial by combat.

 

Trial by combat was also referred to as a judicial duel.  Duels to the death could be fought for many reasons. In the thirteenth century, Sir John Welch was accused of treason. He dueled to regain his honor, his fight witnessed by King Richard I (the lion-hearted). Initially the Church objected to the idea of a trial in which the Divine ‘decided’ the winner. In the eyes of the witnesses, whoever won (i.e. survived) was deemed worthy by God, and therefore the innocent party in the legal matter at hand. Sir William Marshall’s grandfather Gilbert, and his son, John, were reported to defend their right to the hereditary title of “Marshall” during the reign of King Henry I.

 

Once the request for a judicial trail was made and accepted, a date, time, and place would be set by the court. Unlike a tournament, the weapons were live steel. On occasion, the fight would be until one party yielded or until first blood was drawn but usually these were death matches. The involved parties were allowed to have champions take their places. In some locations one could hire out a champion although those matches were most likely to first blood or yields...who would want to be paid to possibly die?

 

Pope Innocent III hated the idea of tournaments and duels. After the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, the Pontiff placed a ban on the trials by combat. He also banned any trial by ordeal but that didn’t stop the Spanish Inquisition. Guess those guys didn’t see the memo. The last ‘official duel’ on record was between a Norman knight, Sir Jean de Carrouges and is former friend, Jacques Le Gris a couple days before Christmas in 1386 in Paris.  The battle was witnesses by King Charles VI and his Court. Carrouges’ wife, Marguerite had accused Jacques of a brutal assault and rape but there were deeper issues. Had Jacques and Marguerite had an affair while Jean was away fighting in Scotland? There were disputed deals between the two men. Both men were ambitious. Soon the City was divided and it came to a trial by combat. If Jean won, the baby would be declared ‘his’ and Marguerite innocent of having an affair. If Jean lost to Jacques, Marguerite would die as an adulterer. After a long battle Jean managed to slay Le Gris.

 

Trials by combat and duels by have depicted in literature and film. The most famous example is Lancelot fighting for the honor of Guinevere. Sir Walter Scott’s novel, Ivanhoe ends in a spectacular fashion with Ivanhoe fighting Templar Knight Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert to the death.  George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire, or as HBO calls the series, Game of Thrones, had a brutal trial of combat between The Mountain and a Dornish Prince. In the movie, Tristan +Isolde, the main hero Tristan goes through a series of fights in order to win the hand of the Irish King’s daughter for his King only to learn the woman is Isolde, the woman he had fallen in love with.

 

The sixteenth century seemed to have been the last time anyone can document any actual official judicial duels having taken place. Queen Elizabeth I allowed one to take place between Irish rivals but the outcome wasn’t recorded. As recently as 2002, a British subject attempted to invoke the right to trial by combat but the courts denied him; Parliament had actually abolished the right in 1818. The Colonists disallowed judicial combat after a citizen tried to invoke it saying it was nothing short of murder.

 

 

To learn more, see:

 

Knights in History and Legend

Edited by Constance Brittain Bouchard

2009 Global Book Publishing

ISBN #978-1-74048-028-4

 

The Knight in History

By Frances Gies

1984 HarperPerennial

ISBN #0-06-091413-0

 

The Middle Ages

By Morris Bishop

1996 First Mariner Books

ISBN #0-618-05703-X

 

The Last Duel

By Eric Jager

2004 Broadway Books

ISBN #0-7679-1416-3

Until next time....

Stay safe out there!