Law Journal Article on Dueling

[James Brazas]

All,

My name is James Brazas and I am currently a law student. I have been approached about the possibility of writing an article on the subject of dueling. Specifically, the College of William & Mary law school is interested in an article about the relationship between the duel and the law in Anglo-American history from Saxon England to the present.

I was thinking of dividing it into four parts:

1. The Early Medieval Duel: Self-Help in the Absence of Law

2. The Late Medieval Duel: The Judicial Duel

3. The Early Modern Duel: The Proliferation and Eventual Prohibition of Dueling

4. The Modern Duel: Modern Attitudes Towards Ritual Combat


I have a strong preference for primary sources and I know that Hans Talhoffer is an excellent source for Judicial Duels in the Late Medieval era.

Does anybody know of any other good sources on the history or practice of dueling during any of these eras? It is a huge plus if they focus on the UK or the US.

[John Farthing]

You might want to check out the three part video series 'Deadly Duels' (2004).

[LafayetteCCurtis]

You could start with famous incidents like the Jarnac-Chataigneraye combat or the Carrouges-Le Gris affair (Eric Jager's The Last Duel goes into a great deal of detail about the latter). You'd probably also want to read up pretty much anything written by J. Cristoph Amberger--most of them aren't about duels, but pretty much all of his articles and papers have something that would help you understand the contextual background for these combats.

[Chris Moritz]

Written in 1852 by the Scotsman, Charles MacKay, LL.D. - London

The classic book

Memoirs of Extraordinary Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

The chapter is

Duels and Ordeals

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/24518/24518-h/dvii.html#duels

Go here to download the entire book in two parts:

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24518

[Allen Johnson]

I can recommend (deep breath), "The History of Dueling Including Narratives of the Most Remarkable Encounters that Have Taken Place from the Earliest Period to the Present Time" by J. G. Millingen. It's a 2 volume set, I have the first and it's got some good info and accounts in it.

http://www.amazon.com/Including-Narrati ... 803&sr=8-2

[James Brazas]

Thanks, all!

Those sound like good starting points for research and they should have lots of good information.

I'll still need to find court cases dealing with these, but I think I might be able to find some through a few British friends of mine.

[James Brazas]

Thread resurrection:

I'm actively working on this article.

So far, I'm working with the title:

"Duels of Honor and Gold: A Critical Analysis of Legalized Violence in European and American Jurisprudence"

I'm comparing and contrasting dueling (from the Viking Age to the mid 19th Century) with modern combat sports like the UFC.

My thesis is that the primary difference between the UFC and similar groups today and nonlethal duels of honor (such as to first blood) is that modern fights are for profit rather than for determining legal or moral rights. Therefore, we haven't changed much as a society.

Yet I'm having great difficulty tracking down any legal sources earlier than the 19th Century.

Would anyone know where I could find the following (preferably free online):

1. Legal procedures for the Viking-Age Holmgang duel

2. Legal procedures for the Medieval Judicial Duel

3. The various Code Duellos of the private duels of the Modern Era.

By legal procedures, I mean things like what offenses would justify a duel, what procedures were followed to ensure the fairness of the duel, what sorts of equipment would be used, how victory would be determined, what safety precautions were used, etc.

[LafayetteCCurtis]

The Viking Answer Lady has the best online collation I know about Viking duelling practices: http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/holmgang.shtml

If you're looking for legal details on medieval judicial combats, it's pretty hard to find more than extracts from law codes here and there on the Internet. Books on famous combats (such as The Last Duel, which I've mentioned before) probably have the most extensive coverage on the subject. That being said, you might have some luck looking in the Medieval Sourcebook. Depending on your desired balance between rigour and scope, you might also want to include duelling agreements between knights and/or champions in the more fantastic sort of medieval romances such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Later duelling codes are ridiculously easy to find with some simple and brief Googling. Even Wikipedia has a good set of links in the references to its "Code duello" page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_duello#References . I also recall that the first part of Vincentio Saviolo's treatise dealt at length with honour and duelling laws rather than swordsmanship as such, so you probably should go look for it.

[Stacy Clifford]

I also recall that the first part of Vincentio Saviolo's treatise dealt at length with honour and duelling laws rather than swordsmanship as such, so you probably should go look for it.

The first part of Saviolo is on "the use of the Rapier and Dagger" and the second part is on "Honor and honorable Quarrels".

[LafayetteCCurtis]

Right. Got it exactly upside-down. Not as if it has never happened before...

[James Brazas]

Lafayette Curtis and Stacy Clifford:

Thank you very much! I looked up the sources you suggested and they should be very helpful.

Combined with what I have already found, I nearly have enough for my article.

All I'm missing right now are some good sources for Medieval Judicial Duels. So far, all I have is Talhoffer. He gives some good information, but not much. I'm also covering the Jarnac duel. But that really isn't enough.

I might just have to order some of those books mentioned. It isn't as efficient as the internet and it'll take a while to get the books delivered, but it seems like there isn't much available online.

Does "The History of Dueling Including Narratives..." cover Medieval Judicial Duels well?

[LafayetteCCurtis]

All I'm missing right now are some good sources for Medieval Judicial Duels. So far, all I have is Talhoffer. He gives some good information, but not much. I'm also covering the Jarnac duel. But that really isn't enough.

The Internet Medieval Sourcebook (the Fordhan University link) has a page containing not one, not two, but four translated documents on judicial duels involving monks and/or monasteries in medieval Germany. Trust me, it exists. It's even one of the top search results in Google when you type "judicial duel."

[James Brazas]

Ah, I see! I can't believe I missed that.

That should be very helpful. Thanks!

[LafayetteCCurtis]

Just be more creative with your search terms -- apart from the three basic phrases (judicial combat, judicial duel, and trial by combat) that should already yield you a great deal of material to begin with, you could try other similar permutations. It's usually also a good idea to put some persistence into the mix by reading several pages into the search results (rather than just reading the first or second page). And, last but not least, don't be afraid to re-attempt searches that you've tried (with disappointing results) several months or weeks before, since you never know whether new material has come to light more recently or not.

[James Brazas]

Of course.