The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat in Medieval France

The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat (also published with the sub-title A True Story of Trial by Combat) is a work of historical non-fiction, which was first published in 2004. It was written by Eric Jager, a professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles, who specializes in medieval literature. In 2008, it was adapted as a documentary by the BBC. Also, a film adaptation, likewise titled The Last Duel, was released in 2021.

The book is an example of microhistory. Unlike histories that examine important events or broad trends (like the fall of the Roman Empire or the Meiji Restoration), microhistories focus on individuals who are not well-known political or cultural figures and/or events that would not usually be considered historically significant. However, microhistories also use the lives and experiences of these figures to make wider conclusions about the times and places in which they lived. This guide references the 2004 Broadway Books edition of the text.

Summary

The Last Duel begins with a description of a duel being fought in 1386 on a field in Paris before an audience that includes King Charles VI of France. Also watching the duel is a woman in black, whose life literally depends on the outcome of the duel. The explanation for what the duel is over begins with Jean de Carrouges IV, a 14-century nobleman and squire living in the duchy of Normandy in northern France. He is a “born warrior” (13) who fought in the Hundred Years War between France and England.

However, Carrouges is less successful at the court of his feudal overlord, Count Pierre of Alençon, a cousin of the king of France. He finds himself losing his lord’s favor to another nobleman and squire, Jacques Le Gris. In particular, Carrouges loses his claims to a lucrative estate called Aunou-le-Faucon to Le Gris. As a result, while Le Gris and Carrouges were once friends, they become rivals. Also, after the sudden deaths of his wife and only son and heir, Carrouges marries again to a younger woman, the heiress Marguerite de Thibouville.

Although they seem to reconcile at a wedding, the rivalry flared up again when Carrouges and Le Gris encountered each other at Count Pierre’s court. “With just a few angry or careless words flung at the squire in front of the other courtiers, Jean de Carrouges could easily have reopened old wounds and brought the dormant feud raging back to life” (60). With the help of one of his companions, Adam Louvel, Le Gris raped Marguerite while she was alone.

Knowing that his lord Count Pierre would protect Le Gris, Carrouges went to the king and Parlement of Paris to demand a trial by combat. It was an antiquated idea increasingly discouraged by the government of France. However, it was still an option, and the Parlement of Paris approved Carrouges’s request. Carrouges and Le Gris fought in a field at a monastery in Paris, Saint-Martin-des-Champes, before the royal court. The battle was close with Carrouges “wounded and bleeding in the field” (176). However, Carrouges turned the tide. After demanding Le Gris confess (which Le Gris refused to do), Carrouges killed him. By the rules of trial by combat, this vindicated Marguerite and proved Le Gris’s guilt in the rape.

Carrouges’ victory was celebrated, and he received several financial benefits from the king. However, he would attempt another lawsuit to claim Aunou-le-Faucon that would fail. Carrouges would go on to join a campaign against the Ottoman Empire and may have died at the Battle of Nicopolis, which took place in modern-day Bulgaria, or he was taken prisoner by the Ottomans and later killed. Few records remain showing what happened to Marguerite after her husband’s death. Her son Robert, although he may have been Le Gris’s biological son, did inherit the Carrouges estate. Later chronicles and modern historians believe that Marguerite later realized that her accusation against Le Gris was mistaken, but Eric Jager argues there is no proof of this. The Le Gris and Carrouges duel would go down in history as “the last judicial duel sanctioned by the Parlement of Paris” (198), although the custom persisted in several areas of France and Europe.