Books on Duelling

[Benjamin Smith]

Today I spent an hour in my University library and online looking for a good authoritative source on judicial combat, trial by combat, single combat, trial by battle, judicial duels, and every other synonym for a fight dictated by court, noble, king, or magistrate to establish guilt or innocence that I could think of and I found no good authoritative book on the subject. I couldn't even find unauthoritative or poorly written books treating the subject. What I did find was "The Last Duel" by Jager which is probably excellent but is about a specific judicial duel not judicial duelling in general. Is there any such book in existence for the Medieval or Rennaisance Time periods? If there is please post it or e-mail me at benjohsmi@yahoo.com . I am specifically looking for something that would address the subject before 1400 if at all possible.

Thanks for all your help

Ben Smith, ARMA - Provo

[Ben Strickling]

Ben, as it happens I was looking for some information about judicial combat as well, and you're right, it is really hard to find a good book that covers it all. I did find two books that had fairly informative chapters on the subject.

The first is a book called Violence in Medieval Society (2000), edited by Richard Kaeuper. The books contains one essay entitled "Artistocratic Violence: Trial by Battle in the Later Middle Ages." The beginning of it is a bit too theoretical for my tastes, but after a few pages he does reviews some of the history of Judicial Combat itself, making some interesting points.

The other bookis Trial by Fire and Water (1986), by Robert Bartlett. The book itself is about the medieval judicial ordeal in general, but it does have one chapter on judicial duels.

Hope that helps,

Ben Strickling
ARMA DC

[Benjamin Smith]

Thanks for the effort I'll look them up, my wife may have found some leads I'll post them if I find them

PS- It's nice to talk to someone named Ben