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

Review

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

On December 29, 1386, a knight and a squire faced each other on a field of battle outside a Paris monastery. They would fight to the death to prove which man's cause was in accordance with God's will. A crowd of eager spectators looked on, including King Charles VI and other royal courtiers. The accuser was Jean de Carrouges, a knight from a distinguished Norman family, whose volatile temperament had more than once found him involved in legal disputes. The accused was Jacques LeGris, a squire of lesser birth but with great political savvy, who was charged with raping Carrouges's wife, Marguerite.

In the Prologue, Eric Jager masterfully sets the scene on the battlefield to convey exactly how high the stakes were for the two noblemen --- and for Lady Marguerite de Carrouges, who would be burned at the stake as a false accuser if her husband were to lose. Jager then goes back in time to trace the sequence of events that found Carrouges and LeGris facing each other in combat. The crime against Lady Marguerite had taken place eleven months earlier, but the duel was the culmination of years of bitterness and rivalry between the two men, who had once been friends.

Jager, who first came across a reference to the Carrouges-LeGris duel a decade ago, draws on legal records, chronicles, and other historical documents to unfold the story. By putting the duel in the context of the time period, he also provides a fascinating account of life in fourteenth-century France. He describes a tumultuous era --- the volatile relationship between the French and the English, played out in numerous battles; crime and punishment, often delivered in harsh methods; religious beliefs and practices, and how they impacted medieval laws; the hierarchy of the regional and central powers in France, and the importance of land in securing one's standing; and customs, politics, and intrigues of the royal court.

The relationship between Jean and Marguerite de Carrouges also allows for a look at feudal matrimony and the rights, or lack thereof, of women during this time. Lady Marguerite, who emerges as one of the most interesting figures in the book, could not accuse LeGris directly of raping her. She had to seek her husband's championship on her behalf, as she was considered his property and so the crime was technically committed against him. Marguerite, who endured a public pregnancy in the months leading up to the duel, stood to lose her life if her husband failed on the battlefield. It would have been much easier for Marguerite to keep silent about the attack by LeGris, which occurred while her husband was on business in Paris, and Jager leaves no doubt that it took a tremendous amount of courage for her to speak out in favor of justice.

Jager also charts the surprisingly complex medieval legal system and the judicial process that ultimately resulted in the sanctioning of the duel by the French Parlement and King Charles VI. Through the different phases of the court proceedings and leading up to the duel, Jager draws out the suspense to the point where it's almost unbearable. The temptation to turn ahead will be overwhelming. Resist at all costs. Jager takes great care not to give away any details that would reveal the outcome of the duel, and to turn the pages too quickly will mean that you lose much of what this book has to offer.

Eric Jager is a professor of English at UCLA, where he specializes in medieval literature. If THE LAST DUEL is any indication of his skill in the classroom, he must be the best kind of instructor --- you learn something and have fun doing it.

Reviewed by Shannon McKenna on December 30, 2010

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

  • Publication Date: October 12, 2004
  • Genres: History, Nonfiction
  • Hardcover: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Broadway
  • ISBN-10: 0767914163
  • ISBN-13: 9780767914161