Superstition and Force: Essays on the Wager of Law, the Wager of Battle, the Ordeal, TortureLea, Henry Charles
History
Superstition and Force: Essays on the Wager of Law, the Wager of Battle, the Ordeal, Torture
Lea, Henry Charles
Ordeal; Torture; Wager of battle; Wager of law
Two decisions, in 1309, show that the Ordonnance of 1306 was in force,
for while they admit that the duel was legally possible, the cases
are settled by inquest as capable of proof by investigation. One of
these was an incident in the old quarrel between the Counts of Foix
and Armagnac, and its decision shows how great a stride had been made
since their duel of 1293. Raymond de Cardone, a kinsman of Foix, gaged
his battle in the king’s court against Armagnac; Armagnac did the same
against Foix and claimed that his challenge had priority over that
of Raymond, while Bernard de Comminges also demanded battle of Foix.
All these challenges arose out of predatory border incursions between
these nobles, and in its verdict the Parlement refuses to grant the
combat in any of them, orders all the parties to swear peace and give
bail to keep it, and moreover condemns Foix in heavy damages to his
adversaries and to the king, whose territories he had invaded in one
of his forays. The Count of Foix made some objection to submitting to
the sentence, but a short imprisonment brought him to his senses.[750]
A more thorough vindication of the royal jurisdiction over powerful
feudatories could scarcely be imagined, and the work of the civil
lawyers seemed to be perfectly accomplished. It was the same with all
the variety of cases involving the duel which were brought to the
cognizance of the Parlement. Some ingenious excuse was always found for
refusing it, whether by denying the jurisdiction of the court which had
granted it, or by alleging other reasons more or less frivolous, the
evident intention of all the _arrêts_ being to restrict the custom,
as allowed under the ordonnance, within limits so narrow as to render
it practically a nullity. The astute lawyers who composed the royal
court knew too well the work committed to them to hesitate as to their
conclusions, while Philippe’s distaste for the duel probably received
a stimulus when, at the Council of Vienne in 1312 he endeavored to
obtain the condemnation of the memory of Boniface VIII., and two
Catalan knights offered to prove by the single combat that the late
pope had been legitimately elected and had not been a heretic.[751]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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