Medieval trial by combat: the real history behind The Last Duel 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). It was evident that it was going to be an exploration of the dynamics of power, roots of misogyny and survival in medieval France., Paramount+s 'Fatal Attraction' Series Follows The Movies Alternate Ending, 11 Photos Of The 'Fatal Attraction' TV Cast Vs. Their 1987 Movie Counterparts, Molly Ringwald Turned Down 'Pretty Woman' Due To An Early Script's Ick Factor, Zendaya Explained An Awkward Part Of Her 'Dune' Romance With Timothe Chalamet, Get Even More From Bustle Sign Up For The Newsletter. In the film, it is revealed mid-trial that if de Carrouges loses at the hand of Le Gris, Marguerite will also be killed by being stripped naked, put in an iron collar and set on fire. While this had no material bearing on the plot, it's an interesting detail given that in the film the queen was often panned to as the sole person to sympathise, however quietly, with Marguerite. Your Privacy Rights All who loved him were in a great fright, adds the chronicler in what is the narrative equivalent of a cinematic reaction shot. Forced into an upstairs bedroom, she tried to escape by running through a door at the other end of the room but was blocked from doing so by Le Gris. Le Gris was killed in the fight and therefore found guilty; nevertheless, he was afterwards found innocent by the culprit of the crime, who declared Le Gris innocent as he laid dying. I will have justice!. Cases had to meet four requirements, including exhausting all other legal remedies and confirming that the crime had actually occurred. To prove her claim true, Matt Damon's Jean challenges Le Gris to trial by combat. I think the film makes the right choice [in portraying her story]., Comer agrees. The Last Duel: What Happened To Every Character In Real Life The True Story Behind the Last Duel | by Nick Howard | The History The film adaptation traces the trios relationship from its auspicious beginnings to its bloody end. The event marked the first meeting between Carrouges wifedescribed by a contemporary chronicler as beautiful, good, sensible and modestand Le Gris. She refuses his advances, after which he rapes her. The True Story Behind The Last Duel and History's Attempt to Erase It 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. Rather than this idea of somebody, through the lens of their own experience and acculturation, not understanding their behavior. 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. Popular historical fiction abetted the theory of mistaken identity, exploiting its shock effect. If you purchase an item through these links, we receive a commission. The new historical drama starring Jodie Comer, Matt Damon and Adam Driver tells the story of Marguerite de Carrouges. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our, Digital Some argued that shed falsely accused Le Gris, either mistaking him for someone else or acting on the orders of her vindictive husband. Prey star Amber Midthunder lands next movie role, The Super Mario Bros Movie hits huge milestone, Emily in Paris' Lucien Laviscount lands movie role. The earlier of the two is the Saint-Denis Chronicle, an official royal history by the monk Michel Pintoin probably written around 1400. Mittwoch, 18:30 - 21:00 Uhr und Sonntag, 18:15 - 21:15 Uhr. They pinned me down and stuffed a capucium [a hood] over my mouth to silence me. In real life, there was another complicating factor de Carrouges bought land and was forced to turn it over to Pierre, blaming Le Gris for it. Read more: The 23 Most Anticipated Movies of Fall 2021. Die Tanzsportkompetenz im Landkreis Passau 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. She claimed that one of her husband's former friends, Jacques le Gris, raped her when her husband was away. And thats ultimately why this version of the movie is more interesting to us than a movie where you prove Well, based on the evidence, he did it, and either youre a monstrous villain or youre wrongfully accused., Matt Damon as Sir Jean de Carrouges in 20th Century Studios The Last Duel., Matt Damon as Jean de Carrouges and Jodie Comer as Marguerite de Carrouges in The Last Duel., Adam Driver as Jacques Le Gris in The Last Duel., Adam Driver, left, as Jacques Le Gris, and Matt Damon, as Jean de Carrouges, face off in The Last Duel., Jodie Comer as Marguerite de Carrouges in The Last Duel., Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Halloween kills at the box office with a new horror record, as Last Duel gets slayed, Review: Ridley Scotts epic The Last Duel rebukes the patriarchy in every era, Looking for fun this Cinco de Mayo weekend? And for him to have to invoke that at the moment of his death and to protest his innocence [is interesting]. Skoda adds, Its all too tempting to talk about the Middle Ages as this horrible, misogynist, patriarchal, oppressive society, as a way of even implicitly just saying, Look how far weve come. Whereas to complicate what things looked like in the 14th century complicates what were doing now.. Say nothing, and I will keep quiet, too. In response, Marguerite said, I will keep quiet. Apart from the dubious, sketchy, and inconsistent reports in the two chronicles, no external evidence for this hazy legend has ever been offered in support of the oft-told tale of a last-minute confession by the true culprit. The Last Duel (Spoilers for Duel Outcome) To say that this event was a spectacle would be selling it short. A Note to our Readers She adds, If theres any gap between the act and making people aware [of it], that raises huge questions.. The face-off shown in Ridley Scotts The Last Duel may have been the final court-sanctioned judicial combat in France, but the conversation around the events that led to it is anything but finished. The original fortifications at Carrouges were besieged and destroyed by English forces during the Hundred Years War. Pointing out that womens voices are actually loud and clear, albeit filtered through the court system and notaries, in many medieval documents, the historian explains, Its a really nice way of sort of flipping our stereotypes of the Middle Ages. We earn a commission for products purchased through some links in this article. 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. DIGITAL SPY, PART OF THE HEARST UK ENTERTAINMENT NETWORK. Its also significant that the Parlement of Paris found Marguerites story credible enough to vacate Count Pierres official exoneration of Le Gris and to authorize the rare judicial duel, whose official purpose, however doubtful the procedure may seem today, was to determine the truth in cases where witness testimony and other evidence was insufficient for reaching a verdict. 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.. Thats the research we did and the legend of the story he thought he was in love with her and did not rape her. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine In the film, however, Pierre is still dismissive of him and Le Gris is still the favourite, which only angered de Carrouges more after their so-called reconciliation. So in his deluded sense of pride, Le Gris could believe it was consensual. Carrouges III was an influential man in lower Normandy, being a vassal of the Count of Perche and a veteran soldier in his service. But not for as long as you need me to. Tossing a sack of coins at the young woman, Le Gris taunted her, claiming that his friends would give him an airtight alibi. The True Story Behind The Last Duel | Time And that this incredibly heroic character, Marguerite de Carrouges, had this story that deserved to be told, Affleck told The New York Times. Magazines, Digital The latter explanation is the very one that Le Gris put forward in his own defense, and it has been echoed by at least one modern historian as recently as 1992. de Carrouges, whose wife and son died of an unknown illness, eventually marries Marguerite, a wealthy but reputationally damaged young woman. In short, yes. That testimony takes up nearly a thousand words of Latin in the Parlements official summary of the case, preserved today at the Archives Nationales, on the Right Bank, in the Marais, a short walk from the old priory where the battle unfolded on that cold winter day. Scott and the films stunt coordinator used the outline of the actual combat to create something slightly more exciting for the screen. Jean de Carrouges believed the land - the estate of Aunou-le-Faucon - was rightfully his due to the fact that Marguerite's father, Robert de Thibouville, promised to include it as part of de Carrouges' dowry. The films shifting viewpoints underscore the thorny nature of truth in Marguerites case, which divided observers both at the time and in the centuries since. Given the absence of any witnesses in her own favor, Marguerites accusations against Louvel were a gratuitous and risky addition to her testimony if her story of the attack and rape was indeed a deliberate lie. Still, The Last Duel does stick closely to historical fact. But whats so amazing about Nicole and what Nicole has brought to the piece is this sense of imagination. Born in 1388, two years after the fatal duel, Juvnal, a bishop, wrote at an even greater remove in time and may have been influenced by Pintoins account. But this was not included in the film. He opted for the former, against the advice from his lawyer church trials rejected violence, and were deemed to have less dangerous outcomes. There is this paradox of the human experience where oftentimes different people come away from the same situation with different impressions of that. (Spoilers ahead.). . Despite the ladys many oaths, and those of the squire, he confided to his journal, No one really knew the truth of the matter.. (Writing for History News Network, Jager explains that the ferocious logic of the duel implied that proof was already latent in the bodies of the two combatants, and that the duels divinely assured outcome would reveal which man had sworn falsely and which had told the truth.) Marguerite, as chief witness in the case, will be executed if her husband loses the duel, thereby proving both of their guilt. Of course, as was likely true in real life as well, no one in the film seemed to care about Marguerite's fate; after all, a crime of rape against a wife was considered a crime against the husband, and a property crime at that since women were mere objects to be possessed. Behind the Enlightenments exoneration of Le Gris were its arguments against the use of torture in judicial proceedings. 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 1386, her husband Jean returned from an expedition to Scotland. Carrouges died roughly a decade after the duel, falling in combat against the Ottoman Turks. We read that the queen had pierced nipples and that the dress was almost low enough that you could maybe see them., Comer adds, There was one painting of her that, over time, was completely worn out, just because of time and everything else. Marguerite also testified that Adam Louvel was the first to arrive at the chteau, and that he began his visit by urging her to ask her husband to extend the term of an outstanding loan for one hundred gold francs. According to testimony later provided by Carrouges and Marguerite, she heard a knock on the door and opened it to find Louvel. According to medical knowledge at . . The duel took place on December 29, 1386, and was presided over by French king Charles VI. How power in America has turned the rule of law into a mere myth. The nonfiction work catalogs the events leading up to Frances last government-sanctioned trial by combat, held between Jean de Carrouges and his former friend, Jacques Le Gris. The battle was drawn-out, bloody and spectacular. After the fatal duel, the truth comes out: Sometime later, a criminal on the point of atoning for his other crimes confessed that he was guilty of the odious act of which Le Gris had been accused. Holofcener penned Marguerites section, and, given how little historical information there was from the Ladys side of the story, she drew from contemporary conversations about sexual assault and womens rights to imagine her perspective. 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. 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. Jacques le Gris - Wikipedia Anything that . The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Bequest of Catharine Lorillard Wolfe, 1887. Recognizing the courtier, who claimed to have come to ask a favor and warm himself by the fire, she allowed him to enter the house, at which point he turned the conversation to Le Gris, saying, The squire loves you passionately, he will do anything for you, and he greatly desires to speak to you. Alarmed by the sudden shift in tone, Marguerite attempted to rebuke Louvel, only to turn around and see Le Gris, whod snuck in through the unlocked door. Carrouges left for battle in Normandy, and eventually married his second wife, Marguerite de Thibouville. Over the next few years, Le Gris climbed further up the ranks, and was eventually initiated into King Charles VIs royal court. He had gone to King Charles VI, seeking an appeal to the decision handed down by Count . Carrouges had accused Le Gris of raping his wife, Marguerite de Carrouges, ne de Thibouville, some months before. At the heart of The Last Duel lies a historical mystery, still not definitively solved over 600 years later: was the noblewoman Marguerite de Carrouges raped by the squire Jacques Le Gris? Positioning itself in contrast to the purportedly superstitious Middle Ages (now reimagined as the Dark Ages), the Enlightenment prized rationality above all else. They were very religious. Many skepticsincluding chroniclers, historians, partisans, and even historical novelistshave cast doubt on the official verdict. If Carrouges lost, then Marguerite would be burnt at the stake for perjury. But the count, infuriated by the accusation against his favorite, declared at a legal hearing that Marguerite must have dreamed it and summarily dismissed the charges, ordering that no further questions ever be raised about it.. Unable to rise due to the weight of his body armor, Le Gris resisted Carrouges calls to confess, declaring, In the name of God, and on the peril and damnation of my soul, I am innocent of the crime. Enraged, Carrouges delivered the death blow, perhaps by stabbing Le Gris exposed neck or thighs. The movie follows the claim by Marguerite de Carrouges (Comer) that she is raped by her husband Jean's friend and squire Jacques Le Gris (Driver). No institution could long survive so open a confutation, and it was annulled by the Parlement.. The greatest departure from Jagers book comes during the rape itself. Let's break down what happened and how the movie left its audience. Greeting Marguerite, he declared that she was the lady of all the land, that he loved her the most and would do anything for her. One ground for skepticism about these two reportsapart from their priestly sources, notoriously suspicious of womenis that each tells a substantially different story. Yet Adam Louvel reportedly confessed to nothing, not even under torture. The Real-Life "Last Duel" The Assault of Marguerite de Carrouges 'The Last Duel' true story: What's fact and what's fiction? - Los I did research about what women were like then and what they had to put up with And I really tried to imagine just how awful it was for [Marguerite] and how she dealt with the awfulness, Holofcener told The New York Times. Her husband is abusive what would be the consequences of this? I gave her a friend, who ultimately betrays her. In the end the city expelled the contagion, and the body politic was cleansed. While the Enlightenment looks more familiar to modern eyes than the more distant Middle Ages, intellectual and cultural development is not a straight line. The last judicial duel in France hinged on whether a woman could be believed. Matt Damon, Adam Driver and Jodie Comer star in Ridley Scotts return to historical epic form, written by Damon, Ben Affleck and Nicole Holofcener. 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. On a freezing December day in 1386, at an old priory in Paris that today is a museum of science and technologya temple of human reasonan eager crowd of thousands gathered to watch two knights fight a duel to the death with lance and sword and dagger. 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. But other than that, I made up a lot. Voltaire likewise, in his Histoire du Parlement de Paris, critiqued the brutality of the duel, as well as the fact that these duels, regarded today as an unpardonable crime were always carried out with the sanction of the laws and the Church. Carrouges views himself as a chivalrous knight defending his wifes honor, while Le Gris casts himself as the Lancelot to Marguerites Guinevere, rescuing her from an unhappy marriage.