37 pages • 1 hour read
Eric JagerThe Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat in Medieval France
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2004A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2, Chapters 7-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2, Chapter 7 Summary and Analysis: “The Judgment of God”
The duel was to be fought at Saint-Martin-des-Champes, a monastery in Paris with a special field for combat. Ironically, the monastery was named for a saint who, according to legend, was a Roman soldier (129). Next, Jager explains that the judicial duel had origins that could be traced back to Homer’s Iliad. The custom was brought to Normandy by the Vikings. According to legend, there was even a judicial duel before the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris between a man and a dog seeking to avenge its murdered master (137).
After the planned invasion of England was spoiled by bad weather, King Charles VI decided to watch the duel and had the date changed to allow him to return to Paris and do so. Waiting for the king in Paris was his queen, Isabeau of Bavaria. Coincidentally, Isabeau gave birth to a dauphin at about the same time Marguerite gave birth to her son Robert. While the dauphin would die in infancy, Robert would live into adulthood.
Here, Jager highlights how much the ritual of the judicial duel was intertwined with religion. Even the bizarre and likely baseless legend of a dog proving that its master was murdered by killing its master’s murderer in a duel only proved “the popular belief that a bloody combat between ‘equals’ could yield a just judgment” (137). Rather than just a display of combat, it was evidence of God’s benevolence and miraculous interventions in the world.
Part 2, Chapter 8 Summary and Analysis: “Oaths and Last Words”
The judicial duel between Carrouges and Le Gris finally took place on the morning of December 29. With this chapter, Jager returns to the scene he set up in the prologue. Le Gris and Carrouges faced each other on the field of battle armed with a lance, two swords, one ax, and one dagger. Also, they were in armor, carrying shields bearing their family emblems, and riding warhorses. As the spectators entered, there was an elaborate procession involving the king and the royal court.
In attendance were King Charles VI, his uncles, and courtiers. However, Charles VI was not only present as a spectator but also as a judge. Also in the audience was Marguerite. As noted in the prologue, she was dressed in black, as if in mourning, and kept under guard alone on a scaffold, which was also draped in black. This reflected the fact that, if Carrouges lost the battle, she could have been executed.
The beginning of the duel was marked by an elaborate ceremony where a marshal asked both participants who they were and why they were on the field. Afterward, the marshal called upon each participant to do their “duty” (155). The weapons were then examined as the heralds warned the audience not to carry weapons or try to intervene and proclaimed the rules of the duel. “The elaborate rules and rituals were meant to ensure a fair fight” (157). Each combatant had to swear three separate oaths, and priests brought an altar and holy relics to the field to “sanctify the combat as a divine judgment, or judicium Dei” (159).
From a modern point of view, one might assume the judicial duel is a primitive and simple act. Instead, Jager describes the judicial duel as one circumscribed by a complex set of rules, rituals, and oaths. Further, the judicial duel was in many ways a religious event, invoking God’s judgment and binding both fighters to vows with holy significance. However, it also reflected the growing political and legal power of the king, who presided over the duel as a judge and whose laws laid down the parameters of the judicial duel.
