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

Bücher

Angebote / Angebote:

The gripping true story of the "duel to end all duels" in medieval France that pits a knight against a squire accused of violating the knight's beautiful young wife, soon to be a major motion picture."Breathes astonishing vigor, realism, and a remarkable modernity into a celebrated trial. A taut page-turner with all the hallmarks of a good historical thriller."-Orlando SentinelIt is 1386 when Jean de Carrouges, a Norman knight, returns from combat in Scotland to find his wife, Marguerite, accusing Jacques LeGris of brutally raping her. A deadlocked court decrees a "trial by combat" that also leaves Marguerite's fate in the balance. For if her husband loses the duel, she will be put to death as a false accuser. Carrouges and LeGris, in full armor, meet on a walled field in Paris before a massive crowd that includes the king teenage King Charles VI and many nobles of the realm. What follows is a fierce fight during which both combatants suffer wounds-but only one fatal. The violent and tragic episode was notorious in its own time because of the nature of the alleged crime, and is just as relevant in our post-Me Too era.Based on extensive research in Normandy and Paris, The Last Duel is at once a story of three unforgettable characters caught in a fatal triangle of crime, scandal, and revenge, and an engrossing work of historical intrigue that reveals how the ancient institution of "trial by combat" came to be abolished.