A Duel in The Crown

September 16 2009, 6:03pm

Figure 1: 19th century French dueling target. Carlton Hobbs LLC. This very rare full-length dueling target, probably French from around 1830, harks back to the golden age of formalized dueling in Europe and America which came to an end in the middle of the 19th Century (figure 1). Most historians date the origins of the duel to 501 A.D., when Gundelbald, King of Burgundy, legally established the ‘trial by combat’ or ‘judicial duel,’ where it was reasoned that God would favor the cause of the just. This evolved into duels of chivalry and then of honor, which were practiced until they fell out of fashion in the 19th century. Duels were primarily fought with swords, however, from the second half of the 16th century, dueling pistols began to be used alongside the steel blades, with the insulted party traditionally having the choice of weapons. Just as fencing targets were used by swordsmen for practice, targets such as the present example equally allowed duelists to train. Given the notorious inaccuracy of ‘black powder’ firearms it would have been wise to practice before facing your opponent. The bullet marks in our target show that it must have got quite a lot of use. (What is difficult to see in the picture is that the target has a pronounced curve, in order to protect the would-be dueler form ricocheting bullets.) Duels were fought strictly between the upper classes; a gentleman would regard fighting anyone of a lower social status to be deeply demeaning.  As  a result, dueling became as  formal and convention-bound as any other form of social interaction at this time.  If an insult was offered, a gentleman had to fight or else risk being marked a coward and lose his place in society. Dueling rules varied from country to country, with the best known probably being Ireland’s ‘code duello’ from 1777 which was also widely adopted in America. Gentlemen were required to keep a copy in their pistol cases to settle any disputes that might arise about the rules.  Although technically illegal in most countries, a blind eye was usually turned to dueling as it was the accepted manner of settling disputes between gentlemen. Figure 2: Duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. A popular dueling ground in the US was below the cliffs at Weehawken as it fell between the jurisdictions of New York and New Jersey.  It was here that Vice President Aaron Burr fatally wounded Alexander Hamilton in a famous duel on July 11 1804 (figure 2).  Andrew Jackson, 7th president, fought 3 duels, once suffering a severe chest wound. 4 British Prime Ministers, including the Duke of Wellington dueled with political opponents, showing how widespread and accepted the practice was. Dueling mostly died out towards the middle of the 19th century as legal codes were tightened.  However two French parliamentarians dueled with swords in 1967, lightly wounding each other.

This dueling target will be offered for sale on September 30th by Scottish auctioneers, Lyon & Turnbull. You can view this, and other interesting items, in their online catalogue.