The trial by battle, therefore, at a very early day, proceeded according to fixed, settled rules of law and was a recognized mode of legal procedure, just as much as was the trial by judicial proceedings. In this it differed from duelling, in that the latter was the fighting of two persons, at an appointed time and place, in the absence of law and order. In other words, the trial by battle was a mode of legal procedure, while duelling was a crime, in that the duel was not conducted according to legal rules and precedents, but the participants took the law into their own hands.[15] Trial by battle was introduced into England, among other Norman customs, by William the Conqueror. The right could only be claimed in three classes of cases, i. e., military, or in the court martial, or court of chivalry or honor;[16] criminal, or in appeals of felony,[17] and civil, or upon issue joined in a writ of right, the last and most solemn decision of real property.[18] The reason why battle was allowed in “writs of right,” was said to be on account of the inability of establishing one’s title by action at law, in case of the death of witnesses or the absence of other evidence. In the criminal practice the one exercising the right to wager of battle was called the “Appellee,” from the French word “Appeller,” meaning “to call,” the term being used because of the practice of calling the parties before the court.[19] The points of difference between a trial by combat, under the writ of right and one for treason, are noted by Neilson, in his “Trial by Combat” and principal among them are, that the trial at law could be fought before any judge, while the trial for treason had to be before the King, Constable or Marshal, or a special deputy; the forms of oath were different; the duel at law was fought on foot, while for treason, it was fought on horse-back; the weapon of the trial at law, was the baton, while that for treason, was the sword and spear; the position of the combatants, in a writ of right, was north and south, while in a trial for treason, it was east and west, and in the battle under a writ of right, since the trial itself was the judgment, there was no right to stop the trial, but in a trial for treason, the king, or his representatives could stop the trial, if he so desired.[20]