The Tournament—Its Periods and Phases

by R. Coltman Clephan

A good example of a judicial duel, fought in the year 1455, is given in Histoire des Ducs De Bourgogne.[273] It took place at Valenciennes, a town then belonging to the county of Hainault, which, with so many other rich manufacturing territories had fallen under the dominion of the dukes of Burgundy, by marriage or conquest. The privilege of sanctuary had been conferred on the town by its ancient counts, and the old rights and charters had been confirmed by the dukes their successors. A person named Mahiot Coquel, a tailor of Tournay, had murdered a man in that town, and he took refuge from justice in Valenciennes, claiming the right of sanctuary. Soon after his arrival a near relative of the murdered man named Jacotin Plouvier, met him in a street of the town and threatened vengeance against him for the murder of his kinsman; upon which Coquel applied to the magistracy, demanding their aid and counsel. The syndic then sent for Plouvier and reproached him with having the intention of violating the franchise of his town; but he denied this and claimed the right of lawful combat as against Coquel, at the same time throwing down a gage of battle. This, after some hesitation, Coquel lifted up; and a combat was allowed as being the law of the land, without being any infringement of the principle of sanctuary, which only applied to protection from the officers of justice. The parties were lodged in prison in separate cells, and seconds were appointed to arrange the preliminaries for the fight; when the Comte de Charolais, afterwards Charles the Bold, on being informed of the case, acting in the capacity of lieutenant-general for his father Duke Philippe le Bon, of Burgundy, ordered the matter to be referred to his council for judgment. The town authorities then applied to the Duke their sovereign lord for the maintenance of their ancient rights, when all opposition to the combat was withdrawn; the Duke announcing his intention of being present, with his son the Comte de Charolais, to view the fight. Lists were erected, not in the form usual for the tourney, but round and with only a single entrance. The judges of the fight were the provosts of the town of Valenciennes and of the county of Hainault, the Duke and his son being merely spectators. Two seats draped with black cloth were placed facing each other in the middle of the lists, and the combatants were conducted to them and sworn on the Evangelists. The two champions were clad in leathern garments, close-fitting and laced down the middles, the arms and legs bare. These corselets were well greased so that neither of the parties could easily grip the other. Their hands were rubbed with ashes for the better grasping of their weapons, and each held a piece of sugar in his mouth as a preventive against their throats becoming parched with the heat. Their weapons were knotted clubs, equal in weight and length and obtusely pointed at the narrower ends, and triangular shields, painted red. When the signal for combat had been given Mahiot Coquel, who was the shorter and weaker man of the two, grasped a handful of sand with which the lists were strewn, and threw it into the eyes of his opponent. This nearly blinded Jacotin for the moment, and he received a heavy blow in the face from the club of his adversary, but on recovering somewhat he set upon Mahiot and seizing him by the arm threw him violently to the ground, then placing his knees on his stomach, to the horror of the spectators, he kept steadily prodding Mahiot between the eyes with the pointed end of his club until he was dead. The body was then dragged by the hangman from the lists to the gallows.

Lacroix in Military an Religious Life in the Middle Ages, ＆c., gives a picture of a judicial duel of the knightly kind, fought on foot. It is copied from a miniature in the Conquêtes de Charlemagne, a MS., in the National Library at Paris. The combatants are armed at all points; their weapons are swords; and the lists, of open railings, are octagonal in form.

The general course of procedure in these matters continued much the same up to and including the reign of Henry VIII. A manuscript of that reign, sometime belonging to Sir Edward Wyndham, Kt., Marshal to the Camp, gives particulars,[274] The form and size of the lists and counter-lists are as before; also the kind of weapons to be employed. The defendant, if he appear not, is called by proclamation, made by the marshal of the king of “Heraults of that province wherein the Battail is to be deraigned.” The bill of challenge of the appellant and the answer of the defendant is read to them and they take their oaths:—

1. That their appeal and defence is true.

2. That neither hath advantage of the other in weapons.

3. That each will do his best to vanquish his enemy.

The combatants being ready, the constable and marshal, sitting at the king’s feet, order the onset to be sounded, pronouncing the words in high voice, “Lesses les aller et fair leur devoir.”

“In the fight if either of the parties do give sign of yielding or if the king, being present, do cry ‘Hoe,’ the constable and marshall do part them and observe precisely who hathe advantage or disadvantage either of the other at that instant, for if they should be awarded to fight again, they are to be put in the same position as they were before.”

“If the king take up the matter they are brought honourably out of the lists, neither having precedency over the other.”

If the “Battail” be performed and one party be vanquished then “in case of Treason the rayles of the lists are broken down, and the party vanquished is drawn at a Horse-tayl and carried presently to execution.”