The Last Duel: A True Story Of Crime, Scandal, And Trial By Combat In Medieval France, by Eric Jager

One of the most interesting aspects of this book is that the man who won the last duel authorized as part of the trial by combat system by the Parlement of Paris and witnessed by the King of France and numerous other witnesses was himself later killed at or immediately after the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396 as part of the Last Crusade. There are all kinds of caveats about this book, but the author is remarkably honest in his account, avoids padding the book with irrelevant details, and takes a stray mention of a particular duel of honor that he read about in an account and bothered to do the work to get as much as possible about the account and the various stories involved written in a book. The result was made into a film adaptation (which I have not seen), but manages to avoid some of the traps and pitfalls that are easy to fall into for a work of this kind. Indeed, the author himself manages, towards the end of the book, to write about how this particular story is remembered in history and the result is a feeling of sadness at the way in which despite the outcome of the duel appearing (at least insofar as we can tell) to lead to a just result, a great many people have sought to undo the verdict by attacking the victim.

This book is about 200 pages long and it is divided into ten chapters and two parts. The book begins with an author’s note and a prologue that sets up the story well. The first part of the book then talks about the history of the Carrouges family and their reputation and base of power in Normandy in a difficult time of war (1). The author talks about the damaging feud that one Jean IV de Carrouges engaged in over a particular property that he wanted but was unable to obtain (2), as well as the battle and siege that he fought in seeking to increase his wealth and overcome his social isolation given his being at odds with his liege lord (3), but which ended up in a debacle in Scotland. This is followed by a discussion of the rape of de Carrougees’ wife by a rival noble, Jacques Le Gris, who had a coat of arms exactly the inverse of his own (4), as well as the challenge (5) and the inquiry (6) that led to a rare case of a trial by combat being accepted as a means of discovering the truth behind a particularly thorny case where there was no agreement between the two sides as to the facts of the case. The second part of the book then discusses the duel and the results of it. This includes chapters about the structure of the judgment of God that was part of the judicial duel during the Middle Ages (7), a look at the oaths and last words made by the two combatants (8), who were locked together in combat to the death, as well as a discussion of their mortal combat (9) in a trial where even coughing by members of the audience could lead to gruesome punishments over concerns that any sound from the audience could distract the combatants and lead to a miscarriage of justice. The book then ends with a discussion of the aftermath of the case in terms of its surviving participants and the writings of others later on about the case, writing that has often been full of inaccuracies and injustice, especially towards the lady involved (10), after which there is an epilogue, an appendix about the aftermath of the quarrel, acknowledgements, notes, a list of sources, and an index.

Of the most poignant aspects of this book for readers will be the complex set of feelings that they are likely to have when reading this book. On the one hand, while our own age is deeply concerned with the relationship between political connections and justice, and the way that unjust and wicked people who have a high degree of closeness with powerful elites are often able to escape justice, such concerns are by no means new. This own particular case hinges on the justice of what happens to a woman who is attacked in a vulnerable position, without anyone willing or able to stand up for her or protect her from harm in the moment, and what justice a prickly person who is quick to cause offense despite his pedigree and obvious martial ability can find in a world where personal connections are of the utmost importance. Sometimes, a rough justice can work out, even in an unjust world like our own. It also must be recognized that medieval Europe was a cursed place when it came to justice systems. Given that false rape accusations were met with the death penalty, though, that is certainly a standard I could live with as a way of strongly discouraging the sorts of #MeToo problems that our contemporary age has with false allegations as a way of assassinating the character of others. Still, any age where a plausible tale can be spun of a dog engaging in (and winning) a judicial duel with a man over a murder is an age where there are going to be an interesting one full of quirks, that is for sure, and the author’s skill at bringing out the historical context of an obscure story makes this a book well worth reading if stories of medieval justice are up your alley like they are mine.