Dueling in early modern England Essay Example

Dueling in early modern England Essay Example Dueling in early modern England Essay Dueling in early modern England Essay Dueling in Early Modern England History of Early Modern England If I could summarize the time period between 1485 to 1714 1 would choose the word turmoil. During this time period the concepts of honor and the duel would enter into the English culture. The first and most obvious question is; what is a duel and how is it different than a fight. Well I believe Barbara Holland does a pretty good Job of explaining the concept in modern terms in her book, Gentlemens Blood: a history of dueling from swords at dawn to pistols at dusk; If, in a bar, someone offends you, and you wheel and knock him off his barstool, and e snatches up a chair and comes after you, this is simply a fight, or a brawl, and the bouncer will break it up and throw you both out. But if, as is still the custom in punctilious places, you invite the villain out to the parking lot (l had to ask him outside, your report later, ruefully but pridefully), and some of your friends and some of his come along to hold your coats and see fair play, and you fght there, this is a duel. l The second question that must be asked is, what was it about England that made these concepts take such a strong hold there. I believe the answer to that question is hat honor and dueling arose as a response to the many changes to English society during this time period. These changes included capitalism, the protestant reformation, and the creation ofa new class of people, the gentry. In order to fully unaerstana tnese cnanges ana wny tne Ouel was so quickly accepted Dy tne Engllsn citizens we must look at their history prior to the duels introduction in the 1570s. It is roughly estimated that the middle ages ended around 1500 A. D. So England was just emerging from a period of time in which they had been essentially dormant as a society for about one thousand years. During this time period things remained fairly consistent. Warfare may have changed political boundaries occasionally, but even that the people had gotten used to. Catholicism ruled all over Europe during this time. Government and the economy was essentially the same no matter who was in charge, they were both based on a feudal system. Under feudalism a land owner rented their land to peasants who agreed to give the owner the majority of their crops. This landowner had pledged his allegiance to the King. As far as the economy was concerned it was relatively stagnant, the feudal lords set the prices and kept the ealth earned from their land. There was little room for advancement under this system for peasants, but this was all about to change. Under the rule of the next two dynasties, the Tudors and the Stewarts, England would see major changes as they emerged from a feudal system into a more modern capitalistic society. It was these changes that would contribute to the growing practice of honor and dueling. Before we discuss the changes and how they allowed the concepts of honor and dueling to enter into English society, let us first discuss the history and major concepts of the duel. The Justification for the duel most likely dates back to the biblical story of David and Goliath. 2 As the story goes the David, who was the huge underdog, was able to beat the far superior Goliath because he was on the side of good and he had god on his side. It was based on this idea that god would protect good in the face of evil despite any obvious advantages, that spurned the original duels around 1100. 3 These original duels were held to solve legal matters. It was believed that if a person felt he was wronged and the accused refused to admit guilt the two could settle the ispute with a duel and God would see that the side that was right would be victorious. This custom would be referred to as a Judicial duel or trial by duel. 4 This was Just the basis however, the duel as we have come to expect would require help from the Italian Renaissance to evolve. It was the Italian Renaissance that would introduce the concepts of courtesy and civility, these concepts when combined with the ideas already accepted in the Judicial duel that would formulate the images of the duel that we think of today. The Italian Renaissance placed a great deal of mphasis on sophisticated manors, particularly among people of nobility. 5 The Italians believed that there were strict codes and ethics that must be upheld when conducting ones self in a public forum. They called this courtesy, referring to the royal court as an example. The Italians then combined these regulations with the judicial duel to form duels of courtesy or honor. According to Italian custom, if a person felt that they had not been given proper courtesy then their honor had been injured. This was because that people showed honor by giving courtesies. 6 They in urn believed that the only proper way to defend this honor was a duel with the one who had caused this injury. Through this method God would protect the most honorable and Just side. As in many societies, as the nobles continued to practice these customs of courtesy and duels of honor soon to did the common folk, as they tried to impersonate the more elite members of society. Soon the idea would spread all over Europe as well. Along tne way tne rules ana reasons would De more clearly defined. By the time the duel reached England almost every situation of insult had a proper response and standard to be followed. The process of setting up a duel and the duel itself was very ritualistic. In order for a duel to take place a man had to receive a blow to his honor. The most sever of these insults which could include anything from not showing a man proper courtesy, the insult of a woman which was under the protection of a man, a slap or blow, or a private or public slur or defamation, was a lie. The lie was by far the greatest insult one gentleman could give to another. 8 In fact even by telling a story that was grand a person could often find themselves in a situation where they would be forced to defend their story. A lie, t was felt, broke down the very fabric of what honor represented to the people by insinuating that the person being lied to was not worth the truth. After an individuals honor had been insulted the individual was placed in a situation of decision. Either the y chose to fight to defend their honor or chose not to fight and lose it completely. A person choosing not to fght often received persecution similar to that of individuals who had been excommunicated from the church. This idea lead, Markku Peltonen a dueling historian, to write, When one gentleman had shown signs or words of discourtesy to another gentleman e had in effect insulted him and thus questioned his status as a gentleman. A challenge was the only possible way out of this situation for the insulted gentleman, because that would be the only way to demonstrate his courage and valor, to display his genteel character and thus to restore his tarnished reputation as a gentleman. Another man referred to as Guazzo wrote, [l]t was a greater offense to take away ones good name, which refresh the soul, than to defraud one of food, which sustains the body. 10 Clearly the choice was easy, so the next step was to submit a written challenge to the insulter. l These challenges early in dueling history were published to avoid ignorance of them. 12 The challenge once again l eft little option for the challenged. They too faced serious social repercussions if they didnt accept. 13 After acceptance the men went about the task of deciding on weapons and armor, place, time, and procedure. 4 They also named their seconds, the seconds were men chosen by the primary participants to see that all the rules were upheld. The weapons were probably the most important aspect of the decision process. The chosen weapon had to be deadly in order to fully protect ones honor. 5 Initially the sword was the weapon of choice, but it soon gave way to the rapier and the art of fencing. The rapier was a much lighter than the cumbersome sword and was able to used defensively while attempting to attack. 6 Now this is only a brief summary of some of the rules and practices and I have neglected to include the actual rules that were to be upheld during the fght. Many people today would probably feel that by the time all this pre-duel nonsense was done they wouldnt even be mad at the other person anymore. This might very well have been the point, during this time period a ight was looked down upon society as an uncontrollable outburst of emotion, a duel on the other hand was a polite response to an insult. 17 In theory, only the insults truly worth fighting for would ever actually reach the dueling ground. Now that the nlstory, rules, ana customs nave Deen summarlzea, we must 100K at tne cnanges which led to the duel becoming so popular in England despite a strong opposition from the church, the King, and even many of the people. As the feudal system broke down in England there were many changes to the English society, the first was the introduction ofa free market or capitalism. As I had discussed earlier England as well as the rest of Europe were all beginning to emerge from a period where they experienced relatively no change to the economy. But as the feudal system broke down and capitalism broke down many characteristics of a capitalistic society that we are all so used to today began to emerge to the surprise and bewilderment of the English people. Enclosure among the English countryside caused two situations that led to the acceptance and rise of honor and the duel. Enclosure was the practice of wealthy landowners buying up land that had been previously used by peasants and icking them off of it to make room for grazing or farming. This did two things; first of all it pushed the peasants which had previously been living in a rural setting into the cities. In the cities, they would be forced to work in factories and live in a very close proximity to one another. Factory work was very stressful, and there were no employee rights to protect them. This combined with the fact that these individuals were coming from a situations where they knew a relatively little amount of people, combined to form situations where very stressed out people were coming in contact ith many people with many different views and ideas. It is important to realize that these individual had little formal education and probably hadnt been introduced to differences of opinion. So when placed in a situation where someone would tell them something that they might not have ever experienced or been taught, it would only be natural for them to assume that the person was lying. The forced migration of these farmers into cities increased the population of many towns, and although the proportions of duels might not have increased the sheer number certainly would increase as the numbers of citizens in a particular city increased. Just as the movement of people to the cities fostered and perpetuated the duel in cities, their vacancy actually may have caused dueling in the rural areas as well. As the peasants left the lands and lords continued to expand upon their land, the relative distance between each landowners farm increased, this may have aided the duels acceptance and growth in popularity. This expanding of the population l ed to very little action in the rural areas. A duel in effect was a break in this norm, as word would spread it would give people something to talk about and assuming the duelists had decided to andle the dispute in public it even gave the country folk something to go see, reminiscent of the ancient Romans and the battles that they would hold at the coliseum. Although watching one man kill another because one may have exaggerated on how much money he had, might not seem like a very wholesome form of entertainment in seventeenth century rural England this may be a once a year event that you must not miss. Enclosure wasnt the only capitalistic feature that might have cause the rise of and growth of honor and the duel, inflation was also a completely new concept to the English people. Inflation is the idea that prices of products will inevitably fluctuate over time as the economy changes. During the feudal system however prices had been set, but as the economy switched to capitalism the people began to notice that prices of everything were rising uncontrollaDly. In America we try to regulate tnls pnenomenon tnrougn tne regulation on currency in circulation and setting interest rates at a standard. While inflation may not have been a direct cause for the rise of honor and dueling it definitely lead to added amounts of stress among the people as they tried to make sense of what was going on. It also would stand to reason that if the people didnt understand this concept that as merchants began to charge them different prices they would begin to be upset, in fact they may have actually called some of the merchants liars or cheats. These claims would have undoubtedly led to duels because individuals honor would have been hurt. Capitalism wasnt the only change that caused people to behave differently among themselves. There were also religious problems that can be attributed to fueling honor and dueling. As we all know it was Henry VIII, one of the first Tudor Kings, who started the protestant evolution in England. This wasnt an easy transition however throughout the next few rulers the Kingdom would sway to Protestant, to Catholic, and back again. This waffling back and forth upset many people during each rule. Their frustration with the government certainly would not help a society of already angry people. Also religion has always been one of those things that people were willing to die for. So it would only stand to reason that as people came into contact with those who held different views about religion, honors would most certainly be questioned. Even to this day when people start discussing religion often the arguments will turn personal, so in a time where it would have been culturally acceptable to duel, you can see how easily it would have been for two proud men to get caught in a situation where they would not only be defending their honor but also their religion. Both sides would assume that they were right and that God would be defending them in the dispute. Now while both religion and the new capitatistic economy certainly raised tensions and created situations where men would be forced to defend their onor in a duel, but probably the biggest new social change that led to the rise of honor and the duel in English society was the emergence of a new class of people who would be reffered to as gentry. As capitalism grew a new social class that hadnt previously exsisted began to emerge, they would be called the gentry. 9 The gentry were essentially the equivalent toa middle class in modern terms. This new class was a title-less class, meaning although they had quite a substaintial amount of money they lacked the classification of nobility. Prior to the age of capitalism there ere essentially only two classes, nobility and peasants, but now capitalism had allowed a class of merchant who previously would have been forced to work in a feudal syste m to have money. These people were very socially conscious of their situation and place in society. 20 They envied those with titles and the security with which it came. The gentry had essential made themselves out of nothing and yet in a social sense were not receiving the public or political recognition they felt they deserved. They quickly turned to the idea of honor and the practice of the duel as a eans to combat their feelings of social inferiority and in some case even a way to cure them. The practice of courtesy was perceived as a link to the more important figures in society, something that any man of importance was deserving of. The gentry being the proud class that they were, believed that these ideas should be extended to one another, as though they were nobility. In a sense the practicing of courtesy, tne concept 0T nonor, tne aeclslon to Ouel to aeTena It, gave tne gentry a sort of pseudo-sophistication. They believed that if they acted like the nobility acted than they in turn were nobility in their minds. 1 This could be connected to the idea of Puritanism in that where as the Puritans believed that they might not be of the chosen they still had an obligation to act like it; the gentry believed that even though they werent nobility they should act like it anyway. This is true today, go to many middle class neighborhoods today and you will see many people living above their means in an effort to associate themselves with a higher class then the one they are actually in. Well the ideas of courtesy, honor, and the duel, were the seventeenth century equivalent to a Lexus and a home you couldnt afford. A successful dueler was looked upon very favorable in most cases by his peers. He would be perceived as an individual high in honor and moral standards. He would be raised above the common member of the gentry class, in effect giving him the status which he so desperately wanted. 22 Another issue which occurred due to the formation of the new class was boredom. 23 The gentry class had earned what money they had but their children often had very little work to do. This was similar to the nobilitys situation, you see the people who were poor often didnt have time to be concerned ith such trival issues as honor and courtesy, but the more well off members of society particularly those who were very social conscious had little else to do. To the gentry an insult was a question of not only their manhood but also whether or not they deserved their position in society, and with little else to concern themselves with this could soon balloon in too a large issue. It is important to note that while the majority of the public accepted the notions of courtesy, honor, and dueling, it was not accepted by everybody. The list of those who didnt approve was actually pretty long and very powerful. It included all the English kings of this era as well as many high ranking officials in government. The Catholic Church as well as the Puritan Church were also against dueling in particular. John Eliot spoke on this fact in the opening words of the proclamation against the duel, Because among other bitter fruits that these unlawful and bewitching [d]uels have produced; there is none more dangerous for the sequel, more contemptuous against Our Authority, and more Godless against the Divine Majesty, then is the publication , as it were before the Sun and Moon, of mens arrogant conceits of their own valor. Never the less dueling, honor, and courtesy not only were accepted but flourished among certain groups of the population despite the objections from such powerful institutions. It was said that mens honor was more important than his king, his God, or even his own life. 25 Bibliography Baldick, Robert. The Duel. London: Spring Books, 1965. Cochran, Hamilton. Noted American Duels and Hostile Encounters. Philadelphia: Chilton Books, 1963. Ho an , Baroara. Gentlemans Blood: a nlstory 0T Ouellng Trom swords at dawn to pistols at dusk. New York: Bloomsbury, 2003. Kiernan, V. G. The Duel in European History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988. Olsen Kirstin. Daily Live in 18th Century England, Daily Life Through History Online. 2002, I Love a Mob: behavior- ritualized violence, dueling. Peltonen, Markku. Francis Bacon, the Earl Northampton, and the Jacobean Anti- dueling Campaign, The historical Journal, 44 (2001): 1-28. Peltonen, Markku. The Duel in Early Modern England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Shoemaker, Robert, B. The Taming of the Duel; Masculinity, Honour and ritual, violence in London, 1660-1800, The Historical journal 45 (2002): 525-545.