Trial by Combat: Difference between revisions

* This was used during the Medieval Era as a way to determine "God's Judgement", because (the thinking went) the winner would obviously have been chosen by God to win. Generally, it was easier than the one where you got thrown in the river to see if God wants you to survive.

* In ''The Last Duel'' by Eric Jager, the author describes the last legally sanctioned ([[Duel to the Death|Duels to the Death]] of course continued to the eighteenth century and beyond, but they were more an aristocratic version of a [[Bar Brawl]] done with lethal weapons, then a legal practice) judicial duel in France during the hundred years war. A French noblewoman who was pregnant out of wedlock claimed that it was rape by her husband's [[Feuding Families|enemy]] and her husband, believing her, stood in the lists as plaintiff. The accused stood as defendant. In something of a [[Zig Zag]] no one really believed it was an ideal means, the Church condemned it as [[Tempting Fate]] and there hadn't been a Trial by Combat in ages. It was only permitted by the French king because the law was still technically on the books because no one had bothered to take it off. And because there was no way to solve a rape case there being no DNA testing at the time. In other words it was permitted not because it was actually believed that God would automatically intervene for the right party but because no one could think of anything better to do and it ''was'' technically legal. In any case, as the title of the book [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|indicates]] it was the last Trial by Combat in France.

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