Trial by Combat

Trial by combat, means a trial that is decided by personal battle between the disputants, common in Europe and England during the middle ages; especially, a trial in which the person accused fought with the accuser, the idea being that God would given victory to the person in the right, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 1511....

Combat, Trial by single

Combat, Trial by single. See BATTEL....

Single combat, Trial by

Single combat, Trial by. See BATTEL....

Duel

Duel, in our ancient law, a legal combat between persons in a doubtful case for the trial of the truth, long since disused.In modern times a duel is a combat with weapons between two persons upon some quarrel precedent, wherein, if one of them is killed, the other and the seconds are guilty of murder whether the seconds fight or not, Hawk. Pl. 47.Notwithstanding that this was the undoubted law, duels were by no means unfrequent in England up to about the middle of the nineteenth century, e.g., the Duke of Wellington exchanged shots without effect with Lord Winchelsea in 1829; Lord Cardigan wounded Captain Tuckett, and was tried before, and acquitted by, the House of Lords in 1841; and Mr. Seton was killed by Lieutenant Hawkey in1845. For a full list of celebrated duels, see Haydn's Dictionary of Dates, tit. 'Duel.'It is a misdemeanour to challenge another to fight, or to provoke another to send a challenge, R. v. Phillips, (1805) 6 East 464; and fighting or promoting a duel renders an ...

Campfight

Campfight, the trial of a cause by combat of two champions in the field. If it were a crime deserving death, the campfight was for life or death; if the offence deserved only imprisonment, the campfight was accomplished when one combatant had subdued the other, so as either to make him yield or take him a prisoner. The accused might choose another to fight in his stead, but the accuser was obliged to fight in his own person. See BATTEL, WAGER OF. The combatants were armed with similar weapons, 3 Inst. 221....

Battel

A single combat as trial by battel See Wager of battel under Wager...

Recreant

Crying for mercy as a combatant in the trial by battle yielding cowardly mean spirited craven...

Defendere se per corpus suum

Defendere se per corpus suum, to offer duel or combat as a legal trial and appeal. Abolished by 59 Geo. 3, s. 46. See BATTEL....

Judicium Dei

Judicium Dei (judgment of God), a term applied by our ancestors to the now prohibited trials of undiscovered perpetrators of crimes; as those by arms and single combat; or by ordeals, as by fire or red-hot plough shares (see ORDEAL), which were founded on the belief that God would work a miracle rather than suffer innocence to perish....

Monomachy

Monomachy [fr. Gk., and a fight], a duel; a single combat.It was anciently allowed by law, for the trial or proof of crimes. It was even permitted in pecuniary causes, but it is now forbidden both by the civil and canon laws...

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