The Last Duel is a riveting page-turner that will please any history and true crime buff. Under 300 pages long, this utterly fascinating and well researched story of the last legal, judicial duel in France is packed with diary entries, tapestries, maps, and more from chroniclers, artists, and lawyers of the time. I was fascinated with this violent time in history as I learned about the rich rituals of judicial duels, rape culture, crime punishment of the 1300s, and the lives and business of knights and the kin during the time of the Hundred Years' War between France and England.Publisher's description:
In the midst of the devastating Hundred Years' War between France and England, Jean de Carrouges, a Norman knight fresh from combat in Scotland, returns home to yet another deadly threat. His wife, Marguerite, has accused squire Jacques Le Gris of rape. A deadlocked court decrees a trial by combat between the two men that will also leave Marguerite's fate in the balance. For if her husband loses the duel, she will be put to death as a false accuser. While enemy troops pillage the land, and rebellion and plague threaten the lives of all, Carrouges and Le Gris meet in full armor on a walled field in Paris. What follows is the final duel ever authorized by the Parlement of Paris, a fierce fight with lance, sword, and dagger before a massive crowd that includes the teenage King Charles VI, during which both combatants are wounded--but only one fatally.
Based on extensive research in Normandy and Paris, The Last Duel brings to life a colorful, turbulent age and three unforgettable characters caught in a fatal triangle of crime, scandal, and revenge. The Last Duel is at once a moving human drama, a captivating true crime story, and an engrossing work of historical intrigue with themes that echo powerfully centuries later.