The Last Duel Quotes

“once the actual combat began, chivalry was dead.”
― Eric Jager, The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat

“As ordeals and duels gave way to confession as a proof of guilt, judicial torture was actually increasing in France.”
― Eric Jager, The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat

“...compensation that was often paid not the victim herself but to her father or husband, since rape counted less as sexual violence against a woman than as a property crime against her male guardian.”
― Eric Jager, The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat in Medieval France

“the duel’s outcome would decide “the damnation of the one who is in the wrong, in both soul and body, as a result of the great oaths they have sworn, whence they will be judged by the sentence of God.” After”
― Eric Jager, The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat

“fire applied to the soles of the feet,” prolonged sleep deprivation, immersion in cold water, and water forced down the throat to the point of suffocation.”
― Eric Jager, The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat

“...compensation that was often paid not to the victim herself but to her father or husband, since rape counted less as sexual violence against a woman than as a property crime against her male guardian.”
― Eric Jager, The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat in Medieval France

“Furthermore, by the command of our lord the king, it is strictly prohibited for any person of whatsoever degree, to speak, gesture, cough, spit, cry out, or do any such thing whatever it may be during the battle, under pain of losing his life and his property.”
― Eric Jager, The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat