The preliminaries and regulations are similar to those which prevailed in France and England, with, however, the difference that in each of the pavilions pitched in the lists for the accommodation of the combatants, a bier, a coffin, four candles and a shroud for the dead were placed; and both the appellant and defendant were confessed by a priest. If not slain the party vanquished remained infamous for the rest of his life; he was never allowed participation in aught knightly, and his beard was to be kept close-shaven.[262]
Trials by combat in Germany were more complex and far-reaching than was the case in France and England, and the weapons employed in conducting them more varied and specialized in character.
A paper was read on February 20th, 1840, before the Society of Antiquaries, London, by Mr. R. L. Pearsall,[263] entitled, “Some Observations on Judicial Duels, as practised in Germany”; a short résumé of which follows here. The paper is largely based upon a curious manuscript of the year 1400, in the Royal Library at Munich, containing some text and a number of wood-cuts on vellum, representing various forms of duel in Germany. The work is by Paulus Kall “Master of Defence”[264] to the then Duke of Bavaria; and the illustrations refer to judicial and perhaps other duels as practised in the Fatherland about the end of the fourteenth century, as well as to some others of a still earlier period. This MS., together with others at Munich and Gotha, references to which Mr. Pearsall has omitted to give, form the ground-work of his paper.
Strange though it may seem, the legal duel was resorted to as a court of appeal in extreme cases of quarrels and accusations between man and wife; and Fig. 2 in Paulus Kall’s book affords an illustration of the manner in which such combats were conducted. It depicts a man, bare-headed, buried in a pit up to his loins, holding a short staff in his right hand, the left arm bound to his side. The woman is clad in her chemise only, which is bound together below the middle by a lace passing between the legs; the right sleeve of the garment extends beyond the hand “ein dunne Elle” in a bag which contains a stone, and this constitutes her weapon of attack. At first sight the combat would appear to be an unequal one. It might be thought for a moment that the wood-cut had been conceived in a humorous sense, but there is no doubt whatever that such duels did really take place in Germany, though cases of the kind were probably comparatively rare after the twelfth century; and, indeed, Mr. Pearsall had not been able to find any record of an actual combat of the kind later than the year 1200, when a man and his wife are stated to have fought under the sanction of the civic authorities at Bâle. We may take it, however, from other evidence that the practice continued up to the close of the fourteenth century and perhaps even later. Reference is made in the paper to a book of drawings, also at Munich, executed as late as the end of the fifteenth century, among which is a representation of such a duel, though possibly traditional in character. The man here is depicted as buried up to the waist in a tub; he wears a skull-cap, and is armed in the same manner as shown in the other drawing, with a short staff, the left arm tied to his side. The woman is fully dressed and in the act of swinging a weapon which looks like a sling, in which is a stone. Mr. Pearsall further refers to “an ancient codex of defence” in the library at Gotha, one of the drawings depicting a duel between a man and his wife, the former fighting from a tub; and the man is shown to have vanquished the woman and drawn her into the tub headforemost, in which she appears with her legs kicking in the air. This incident explains why the chemise, as shown on Fig. 2 of Kall’s work, was tied with a lace between the legs; and that wood-cut also illustrates the mode of action on the part of the duelists in attack and defence. The woman’s weapon is thus seen not to be a sling at all, but one similar in principle to the extended sleeve with a bag at the end in which is a stone; the object being to inflict a swinging blow on her opponent, who parries with his staff. Another cut, the source of which Mr. Pearsall does not mention, represents a more deadly form of duel between a man and a woman, who fight bare-headed and naked to the girdle, with small falchions, like knives; and wounds are shown on both their persons.
A singular form of duel, pictured in Paulus Kall’s book, is that with “shilts,” used as weapons both of attack and defence, sometimes alone, and at others in conjunction with daggers held in the disengaged hand. To judge from the wood-cuts this great oblong shield is about 4½ feet long by about 18 inches broad; and though the examples depicted differ somewhat, they are all garnished at the head, foot, and sides with a greater or less number of projecting spears or spurs, for the purposes of attack. The combatants are wearing greyish-brown tight-fitting dresses and hoods; the faces, hands and legs are left bare. The preliminaries completed, the duelists are conducted into the lists by an official; each combatant brings a bier and is accompanied by his relations and a confessor. The principals are then sworn, their weapons handed to them, and the onset sounded. It would appear from the surrounding details and the character of the officials concerned, that this form of duel appertained to members of the privileged class.
A fourth kind of duel was fought with spiked clubs (or more usually with swords) and “der Hutt,” a shield formed like a hat; and Kall’s wood-cut pictures the duelists as being clad in garments of cloth. The shields vary in size from very small to very large, the latter kind being employed in conjunction with spiked clubs, the former with swords. Another form of duel is with the “streit-axt” (bec de faucon), the variety of battle-axe with a hammer on one side of the head and a spike, like that of a pick, on the other. Here the champions fight in complete armour; and besides axes they carry swords and daggers. In the Gotha codex is a drawing entitled, “Dass ist wie sich ainer versorgen sol der zu gewapenter Hand fechten sol,” meaning that this is the equipment for a duel with gauntlets. The duelist is shown as being anointed with oil by his armourer preparatory to combat; and the items of his body-armour stand ready to be put on in their turn. Some of the wood-cuts in Paulus Kall’s work afford representations of such duels; and the text furnishes directions as to how they were to be conducted. It was from this kind of legal duel, more especially, that combats on foot in the lists at a pas d’armes had their origin.
The last form of duel referred to in Mr. Pearsall’s paper is one with two-handed swords; and a wood-cut of Paulus Kall’s illustrates a combat of the kind, in which the duelists are clad in jerkins and long hose. The swords appear to measure about five feet in length. These clumsy and unwieldy weapons were for striking and parrying, but could not be employed effectively at close quarters.
An original manuscript in the possession of Mr. Richard Bull, f.s.a., at the commencement of the nineteenth century, contains the orders, rules and regulations issued by Thomas Duke of Gloucester, the Constable of England, in the reign of King Richard II, 1377-99, for observance in cases of trial by combat.[265] They differ little from those of an earlier period, but the particulars given of the lists may be noted with advantage. They run:—
“The Kinge shall finde the feeld to fight in and the listes shalbe made and deuised by the Constable and it is to be considered that the listes must be 60 pace longe and equally made without greate stones the grounde flat and 40 paces brode in good order and that the grounde be harde stable and firme and that the lists be strongly barred abowt with one dore in the este an other in the weste with good and stronge barres seven foote highe or more than a horse can leape over them.”
The weapons were to be “glayues,”[266] long sword, short sword and dagger.