#Sword duels definition trial#
The date of legal establishment of the trial by combat traditionally is stated as the year 501.
#Sword duels definition code#
The earliest known law which governed the judicial duel is found in the Burgundian Code, an early East Germanic barbarian code promulgated in the late fifth and early sixth centuries under King Gundobad (reigned 474-516). The judicial duel was a ceremonial affair presided over by royalty who proclaimed the victor. There were exemptions: women, the infirm, very young, and very old men were not required to enter combat, but could engage champions on their behalf. Although many combats were arranged to decide criminal matters, combat also could serve as a means for resolving civil disagreements, such as disputes over real or personal property. If the burns caused by such exposure failed to heal, the accused “obviously” was guilty of the charge against him. The judicial duel had evolved from the earlier “ordeal” where the accused was subjected to exercises such as holding burning objects. The “judicial duel,” or “trial by combat,” was based upon religious belief: that God would protect the party in the right by allowing him to win. Duelling originally was a legal means of deciding disputes between two people. The duel evolved from its origins as a legal method of resolving disputes into an extrajudicial means of settling private matters which could not be regulated by law: matters of honor and insult. It is this social ingredient which defines the duel as an institution, and has fixed its status as a legal conundrum. But the notion of duelling as an atavistic reaction alone falls short of the mark, since it looks past the reality that duels were fought chiefly by one segment of society: its aristocrats. The fascination of duelling may have its roots in the curious dichotomy of a prevalent and culturally-accepted yet illegal pursuit, governed by a “code.” Its persistence as a fixture in so many cultures speaks of its universal appeal as the expression of a visceral human response which managed to survive in assorted manifestations for many centuries. Coincident with the formulation of codes which provided procedural guidance in conducting a duel were attempts by church and state to curtail the practice. The customary duelling weapon was the sword, superseded in the nineteenth century by the pistol.
Thus the duel is distinguished from a brawl (which is not prearranged or fought according to rules), a war (a prolonged affair with many combatants), and from a tournament (which although it usually operated by the same rules, and could be deadly, was a game or test of skill which decided no private dispute). This article offers a “modern” suggestion for a peaceful alternative to duelling, with the hopeful thought that “tribunals of honour” would replace the practice altogether. America’s first literary journal published a constellation of articles on the issues of the day, including several which addressed duelling. The American Museum (Philadelphia, 1787-1792). A useful working definition of “duel” is “a prearranged combat between two persons, fought with deadly weapons according to an accepted code of procedure…to settle a private quarrel.” Accounts differ as to whether duelling existed in ancient Greece and Rome, but certainly it was a fixture in the barbarian Germanic tribes, later spreading throughout Europe and America. The word “duel” appeared in the late fifteenth century, springing from the Latin duellum, the archaic and literary form of bellum (war), which in medieval Latin referred to judicial single combat. Ī useful working definition of “duel” is “a prearranged combat between two persons, fought with deadly weapons according to an accepted code of procedure…to settle a private quarrel.” Yet the duel lives today in sport and pageantry, reminding us of days when combat mano a mano resolved individual disputes. A deep-rooted practice in European and American culture for hundreds of years, late in the nineteenth century duelling as an institution found itself weakened by social and cultural changes. Duelling operated under a complex set of rules and customs, legal and social, which determined why, how, and between whom duels were to be fought.
Romantic and uncomplicated to the contemporary eye, the reality of duelling was neither so romantic nor so simple. Or perhaps a rendez-vous at first light, pistols at the ready. The word conjures vivid images of elegant swordsmen in contest, or armor-clad knights astride destriers defending a lady’s honor. The Fall 2019 Special Collections Exhibition: The Duel in History: Laws, “Codes,” and Censure.ĭuel.
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