And even if the assailant, as Pintoin claims, had actually (and contra the actual testimony) made his visit late in the day, its wholly unlikely that Marguerite, who must have been very familiar with her husbands complaints against the squire, would have offered a meal and overnight lodging to her husbands rival (or to a man she mistook for the same), especially during her husbands absence. Their future was assured. Jean de Carrouges | Military Wiki | Fandom When Marguerite told Le Gris that he must not speak to her in this way, he seized her by the hand, forced her to sit down beside him on a bench, and told her that he knew all about her husbands recent money troubles, offering to pay her well. Then gently, he asked Marguerite to tell them what had happened. Matt Damon as Jean de Carrouges and Jodie Comer as Marguerite de Carrouges in "The Last Duel." . It was just the bare minimum description of who she was. Does he truly believe his innocence at the end? Affleck reflects of Le Gris. The mortal combat, set for December 29, promised to be the seasons highlight in the capital, as thousands of Parisians flocked to see it, and the young king and his court took their places in colorful viewing stands set up alongside the field at the monastery of Saint-Martin-des-Champs. With the duel concluded, Froissart continues, Jacques Le Gris body was delivered to the executioner of Paris, who dragged it to Montfaucon and hung it there. For months afterward, at the great stone gibbet on the infamous hilltop outside the citys northern gates, this grisly sight greeted any townsman or traveler passing by. Cookie Policy Jean de Carrouges and the last French duel Two aspiring knights stood side by side, one welcoming his first son and heir, the other acting as his godfathervirtually a family member, according to historian Eric Jager. Attacks on me will do no harm, and silent contempt is the best answer to them. Also, after the sudden deaths of his wife and only son and heir, Carrouges marries again to a younger woman, the heiress Marguerite de Thibouville. By unequivocally believing Marguerite, the screenwriters offer that same sense of empathy to all women who follow her. According to Jager, Le Gris took an immediate liking to Marguerite when Carrouges introduced her to the court in 1384. Based on the 2004 book of the same name by literary historian Eric Jager, The Last Duel sheds light on the bout between Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver) and Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon), which was waged over accusations that Le Gris raped Carrouges wife, Marguerite (Jodie Comer), and resulted in Le Gris demise. In the book, Le Gris does say he was in love with her, Holofcener says. Le Coq seems to have had some doubts about his clients truthfulness, while admitting that this was the thorniest of he said, she said cases. Jean was an influential man in lower Normandy, being a vassal of the Count of Perche and a veteran soldier in his service. There is a brief coda that reveals Marguerite outlived her husband and never remarried. They were very religious. A 1306 royal decree based on ancient precedent allowed the duel as a last resort for nobles involved in capital casese.g., murder, treason, and rapebut by now judicial duels were extremely rare. Family and marriage. Le Gris window arrived on January 18, when Marguerite happened to be left alone with just one maidservant. Marguerites story must have seemed at least plausible to the magistrates who ordered the duel, something the Parlement had not done for over thirty years in a rape case. The story is told three times, once from each character's point of view, so some events are repeated while others are only told once as the story is so close to the events of history as they were recorded, we'll only specify when those two things diverge (which they don't often do, except in the imaginings Scott and the actors create for the characters' internal lives). According to Jager, Le Gris took an immediate liking to Marguerite when Carrouges introduced her to the court in 1384. A new film from Ridley Scott dramatizes the 1386 trial by combat of a medieval man accused of a horrific crime. The combat was decreed on December 29, 1386 in Paris.[3]. I will have justice!. Soon after, de Carrouges went on a campaign to Scotland and though it was a military failure, he distinguished himself with his courage. The film does show that at the same time as Marguerite was pregnant, so was the queen. After months of futile investigation by the French courts, including Marguerites powerful testimony and a counter-witness by Le Gris, the courts had no other choice but to let the duel proceed, allowing God to decide the victor. Not understanding the effect they were having on someone else. Her story is detailed and persuasive, and she ran such a great risk to speak up at a time when women were supposed to keep silent about such things. There [wasnt] going to be a settlement without one of them losing their reputation., After hearing both parties testimony, the Parlement of Paris agreed to authorize a duelFrances first trial by combat for a rape case in more than 30 years. The knights victory saved both him and his wife, earning the formerly notorious couple wealth and prestige. They pinned me down and stuffed a capucium [a hood] over my mouth to silence me. de Carrouges also says that she must have sex with him, as Le Gris can't be the last person to have 'known' her Marguerite is, effectively, raped again. In Le Coqs words, his client attacked his adversary very cruelly and did it on foot, although he would have had the advantage if he had done it on horseback. By drawing blood, writes Elema for the Historical European Martial Arts and Sports Community, Le Gris prevented the king from halting the duel, as once the scales had tipped in one fighters favor, no one could stop the fight without the appearance of partiality.. [43] Jean and Marguerite de Carrouges then, with the crowd following in a great procession, rode from the abbey to the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris, to give thanks for the victory. If Carrouges lost, then Marguerite would be burnt at the stake for perjury. Now, the story of the 1386 trial by combat is the subject of a blockbuster film of the same name. The Last Duel (Spoilers for Duel Outcome) To say that this event was a spectacle would be selling it short. The earlier, more detailed account of the supposed confession, in Pintoins chronicle, not only differs from the other but also diverges sharply from Marguerites official testimony before the Parlement in ways that make its scenario clearly impossible. I gave her the opportunity to go get a low-cut dress in the style of the queen, which she was later shamed for wearing. Enlightenment thinkers in the 18th century adopted this revision of Le Gris character to advance their own intellectual agendas. Was Marguerite De Carrouges A Real Person? - Mastery Wiki It was the equivalent of a kind of forensics case., Damon adds, It was the case about one very evil man doing something everybody recognized was evil. To prove her claim true, Matt Damon's Jean challenges Le Gris to trial by combat. So there was just no doubt for me that this woman was telling the truth. Instead, Elema explains, authorities overseeing trials typically imposed a settlement after the fighters had exchanged a few blows. In his alibi, Le Gris himself cited the narrow window of time available for his alleged visit, strictly during daylight hours. The film is told in three chapters, from the perspectives of Carrouges (Damon), Le Gris (Adam Driver) and Marguerite (Jodie Comer). According to Enlightenment scholar and University of Florida assistant professor of history Anton Matytsin, the Enlightenment sought the end to judicial torture, the abolition of the death penalty, and the institution of proportional and humane punishments that would deter people from committing crimes this is the main context in which they would have seen a duel: a barbaric way to settle a legal matter. Cesare Beccaria, a leading Enlightenment thinker, outlined how judicial torture primarily benefitted not those who were innocent and had nothing to confess but those whose physical constitutions would allow them to withstand pain., The Enlightenments celebration of Marguerite de Carrouges accused rapist challenges our notions of how history develops. Real History That Inspired "The Last Duel" Feels Very Timely And if the Parlement of Paris could not establish even the basic facts, theres little chance of our discovering hidden motives all of these centuries later. More, To make a more perfect union, dont look to the Founding Fathers. The squire then threw her onto a bed but could not hold her down without help from Louvel, who rushed back into the room on Le Gris orders to help his friend subdue and finally rape Marguerite. Holofcener adhered to historical fact in terms of how Marguerite spoke, what she did and how she behaved, but the rest is a dramatization. Diderots Encyclopdie and Voltaires Histoire du Parlement de Paris used the 1386 affair to denounce the supposed ignorance and cruelty of the Middle Ages. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Carrouges married her in hopes of an heir and attempted to use his newfound claim to his father-in-law's property to win back a piece of land from his rival . But whats so amazing about Nicole and what Nicole has brought to the piece is this sense of imagination. By the time the criminal trial was underway in the summer of that year, Marguerite was noticeably pregnant. All who loved him were in a great fright, adds the chronicler in what is the narrative equivalent of a cinematic reaction shot. But when he returned a few days later and heard his wifes story, he angrily brought charges against Le Gris in the court of Count Pierre of Alenon, overlord to both men. Jean Juvnal des Ursins, who was not present at the event, wrote that right before Carrouges delivered his deathly blow, he demanded to hear the truth from Le Gris. Though its unanimously agreed that Carrouges was victorious over Le Gris in the duel, there are various accounts to what took place on Dec. 29, 1386. An intensely personal rivalry, exacerbated by a series of failed legal cases brought by Carrouges, emerged between the onetime friends. A feature film based on The Last Duel is scheduled to be released in 2021. The Last Duel, starring Matt Damon and Adam Driver, tells the story of the fatal duel between knight Jean de Carrouges and squire Jacques Le Gris in 1386. Magazines, The 23 Most Anticipated Movies of Fall 2021, No one really knew the truth of the matter., Or create a free account to access more articles. Louvels naming of Le Gris just prior to the squires own arrival would seem to put Le Gris indisputably thereunless Marguerites story was a deliberate fabrication. Damon and Affleck took the dialogue directly from Jagers book. And yet there can only be one truth. Le Gris was the counts favorite and his administrative right hand. She was a noblewoman originally from an . But if Marguerites story is true and Le Gris was guilty as charged, why did the squire increase his risk of being found out by bringing an accomplice in the first place? ), Whether Carrouges and Le Gris actually ended their quarrel at this point is debatable. Scott rightly ends The Last Duel on a triumphant note. But conceptions of rape varied widely, with some commentators arguing that women enjoyed being taken by force and others accusing survivors of falsely accusing men in order to trick them into marriage. I do not know, he adds in a poignant aside, for I never spoke with her, whether she had not often regretted having gone so far with the matter that she and her husband were in such grave dangerand then finally there was nothing for it but to await the outcome.. Meilan Solly is Smithsonian magazine's associate digital editor, history. Which we talked about, but it just became so absurd., Affleck adds, It hinged on the weight on the armor and the fact that once you fell, you couldnt get up and you were like a trapped lobster. A similar report with a significant difference of detail appears in Jean Juvnal des Ursins Histoire de Charles VI, written no earlier than the 1420s and perhaps closer to 1430. . However, Le Gris insisted on his right to testify before Parliament, leaving the door open for Carrouges to request a duel. As Jager explains, With a motive, revenge against the knight, and a means, the seduction of his wife, all [Le Gris] needed now was an opportunity.. Marguerite had no one who could confirm her story: her husband Jean de Carrogues (played by Matt Damon) had set out on a journey to Paris to collect some desperately needed funds and the servants were out for the day with Marguerites mother-in-law. I would have had to have taken this many horses, and I didnt have time to get back. It would have become about whether or not it could have been him, or it must have been somebody else. Eric Jagers 2004 book, The Last Duel: A True Story of Trial by Combat in Medieval France, is a case of truth being stranger than fiction. Jean de Carrouges' wife was a controversial figure as the daughter of Robert de Thibouville, a Norman lord who had notably sided against multiple French kings in territorial disputes. This happened, she said, in the morning hours at the modest chteau of her widowed mother-in-law, Nicole de Carrouges, on a remote Normandy estate known as Capomesnil, about twelve miles southwest of Lisieux. Mittwoch, 18:30 - 21:00 Uhr und Sonntag, 18:15 - 21:15 Uhr. Marguerite tells her story, and she knows that she needs to be extremely consistent, despite this absolutely horrific trauma that shes just gone through, says Skoda. These details are wholly at odds with Marguerites court testimony about her assailants daytime visit, whose timing (if not its specific allegations) was corroborated by her mother-in-laws departure that morning and her return a few hours later that same day. One of the Enlightenments most scathing critiques of the Middle Ages was of its violence, particularly in capital punishment. Long hair in women, between the time when Paul wrote and the time of The Last Duel, was a critical marker of difference. In Jagers book, the detailed description of the duel between Le Gris and Carrouges, held on Dec. 29, 1386, was drawn from several sources. The final chapter of the film, told from Marguerites perspective, refers to itself as the truth. But while that section of the story by necessity contains the most dramatization, Jager says he does support the filmmakers conclusion. | de Carrouges knows that even the King is biased against him, and decides to ask for a trial by duel, in which God decides the outcome by letting the liar die. Ultimately, Carrouges victory was a result of Le Gris being literally unable to get up. Meilan Solly A Judicial Duel, byLieven van Lathem, 1464. Though the real duel was between Le Gris and Jean, the film portrays the true conflict as Marguerite de Carrouges versus the political mores of her day, as she struggles to convince those around her, from the Church to her family to the French king to the common peasant, that what she says is true. Fight Club explained: Whats the big twist? The Last Duel tracks the real life events that led up to France's final legal duel between Sir Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon) and Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver) after the latter is accused of raping Marguerite de Carrouges (Comer), Jean's wife. The Disgrace of Wolsey, by Henry Monro, 1814. According to testimony later provided by Carrouges and Marguerite, she heard a knock on the door and opened it to find Louvel. Read more: 15 Unsung Moments From American History That Historians Say You Should Know About. Carrouges was born in the late 1330s in the village of Saint-Marguerite-de-Carrouges as the eldest son of knight and minor noble Sir Jean de Carrouges III and his wife Nicole de Buchard. The film, set amid the brutality of the Hundred Years' War, is divided into three chapters the "truth" according to Carrouges (played by Damon), Le Gris (Adam Driver) and finally, Marguerite (Jodie Comer). In reality, the duel would have been decided by two main factors: the weight of the fighters armor and how quickly these relatively old men grew tired. They met in the household of Count Robert dAlenon, where the two served as squires to the count.
