Script for a Judicial Duel

Narrator:

In the first place, the quarrels and the bills of the appellant and of the defendant have been posted in the court before the constable and the marshal. 

And when they could not prove their cause by witnesses or by any other manner, but needed to determine their quarrel by strength, the one to prove his intent upon the other and the other in the same manner to defend himself, the constable had power to join the battle as vicar general under God and his lord. 

The battle conjoined by the constable, he assigned them a day and place, so that the day be not within forty days after the said battle so conjoined, unless it be by the consenting of said appellant and defendant. Then he awarded them points of arms otherwise called weapons. Either of them would have, that is to say, lance, long sword, and dagger. 

The appellant and the defendant were required to find sufficient surety and pledges that each of them would come at his said day. And that this may be done, there was given unto the appellant hour, term and so on, to make his prove and dare, and for him to be the first within the lists to quit his pledges. And of the same wise the defendant. . . . 

The lord found the field to fight in. And the lists were made and devised by the constable. It was considered that the lists should be forty paces of length and forty paces of breadth in good manner, and firm, stable, and hard, and evenly made without great stones, and that that it be flat. And that the lists would be strongly barred round about and a gate in the east and another in the west with good and strong barriers of seven foot of height or more. . . . 

The day of the battle the lord shall be in a raised chair or scaffold and a place shall be made for the constable and marshal at the stair foot of the scaffold. Then shall be asked the pledges of the appellant and defendant to come as prisoners into the lists before the lord and those present in the court until the appellant and the defendant have come in the lists and have made their oaths. 

The appellant came to the east gate of the lists in such manner as he would fight, with his arms and weapons assigned to him by the court, and there he shall abide till he be led in by the constable and the marshal. 

Herald:  What man are you who has come armed to the gate of the lists, and what name have you and for what cause have you come? 

Appellant:  I am Sir David Farrell, appellant, come this day to prove my quarrel by my body in the lists. 

Narrator: And then the constable shall open the visor of his basinet or have him discovered so that he may plainly see his visage and if it be the same man that is the appellant. Then shall he open the gates of the lists and make him enter with his said arms, points, victuals, and lawful necessaries upon him; he shall lead him before the lord.

(Does reverence to lord)

and then to his place, where he shall abide till the defendant be come. 

In the same manner shall be done for the defendant, but that he shall enter in at the west gate of the lists. Also the constable shall take heed that no other before or behind the appellant or the defendant bring more weapons or victuals than were assigned by the court. 

And if it be that the defendant come not on time to his day of battle and at the hour and term limited by the court, the constable shall command the herald to have him called at the four corners of the lists, which shall be done in manner as follows: 

Herald: Oyez, Oyez, Oyez. Giacomo Kulla, Squire, defendant, come to your day of battle which ye have undertaken at this day to acquit your pledges before the constable, and marshal in your defense against Sir David Farrel, appellant, and of that that he has put upon you." 

And if he come not betimes, he shall be called the second time:

Herald: Oyez, Oyez, Oyez. Giacomo Kulla, Squire, defendant, come to your day of battle which ye have undertaken at this day to acquit your pledges before the constable, and marshal in your defense against Sir David Farrell, appellant, and of that that he has put upon you. Come, the day passes fast!

…and if he come not at that time, he shall be called the third time, between the third and the ninth hour..

(Defendant appears)

Herald:  What man are you who has come armed to the gate of the lists, and what name have you and for what cause have you come?

Defendant: I am Giacomo Kulla, Squire, come to prove my quarrel as defendant against Sir David Farrel, appellant.

(Examined and brought before the lord, he does reverence and goes to his place)

The appellant and the defendant being entered into the lists . . . they shall be searched by the constable and marshal of their points and that they be true and without any manner of deceit on them, and if they be other than reason asks, they shall be taken away, because reason, good faith, and law of arms will suffer neither guile nor deceit in so great a deed. And it is, to wit, that the appellant and the defendant may be armed as surely upon their bodies as they will. 

Then the constable shall send first after the marshal and then for the appellant with his council to make his oath. The constable shall have his clerk ready in his presence that shall lay forth a mass book, open. 

(Herald reads Cartello of appellant).

Priest: Sir David Farrell, thou knowest well this bill and this warrant and pledge that thou gavest in the court of your lord. Thou shalt lay thy right hand here upon these saints and shalt swear in manner as follows. Thou, Sir David Farrell, this thy bill, is sooth in all points and articles from the beginning continuing therein to the end and that is thine intent to prove this day on the aforesaid Giacomo Kulla, Squire, so God thee help, and these saints.

Appellant: I so swear.

(Constable signals to appellant. Herald reads Cartello of defendant).

Priest:  Giacomo Kulla, Squire, thou knowest well this bill and this warrant and pledge that thou gavest in the court of your lord. Thou shalt lay thy right hand here upon these saints and shalt swear in manner as follows. Thou, Giacomo Kulla, this thy bill, is sooth in all points and articles from the beginning continuing therein to the end and that is thine intent to prove this day on the aforesaid Sir David Farrell, so God thee help, and these saints.

Defendant: I so swear.

(He is led to his place. Constable signals to appellant, to again lay his hand on the missal)

Priest: Sir David Farrell, thou swearest that thou neither hast nor shalt have more points or any points on thee or on thy body within these lists, but they that be assigned by the court; that is to say, a lance, long sword and dagger, nor any other knife little or big, nor any other instrument or engine of point or otherwise, nor stone of virtue, nor herb of virtue, nor charm, nor drug, nor sign nor any other enchantment by thee or for thee by which thou trustest the better to overcome Giacomo Kulla, thine adversary. . . . Nor that thou trustest in any other thing, but only in God and thy body and on thy rightful quarrel, help thee God and these saints.

Appellant: I so swear.

(Defendant is brought forward)

Priest:  Giacomo Kulla, thou swearest that thou neither hast nor shalt have more points or any points on thee or on thy body within these lists, but they that be assigned by the court; that is to say, a lance, long sword and dagger, nor any other knife little or big, nor any other instrument or engine of point or otherwise, nor stone of virtue, nor herb of virtue, nor charm, nor drug, nor sign, nor any other enchantment by thee or for thee by which thou trustest the better to overcome Sir David Farrell, thine adversary. . . . Nor that thou trustest in any other thing, but only in God and thy body and on thy rightful quarrel, help thee God and these saints.

(swears)

Constable: Thou, Sir David Farrell, appellor, shall take Giacomo Kulla., defender, by the right hand and he thee. And we forbid you and each of you in your lord's name and upon the peril that belongeth thereto and the peril of losing your quarrel, whichever one is found in default, that neither of you be so hardy as to do to the other, ill or grievance or other harm by the hand, upon the peril aforesaid." 

(Constable has them place their right hands together and their left hands upon the missal)

Priest: Sir David Farrell, appellor, thou swearest by the faith that thou givest in the hand of thine adversary, Giacomo Kulla, defender, and by all the saints that thou touchest with thy left hand, that thou this day shall do all thy true power and intent by all the ways that thou best mayst or canst to prove thine intent on Giacomo Kulla, thine adversary and defender, to make him yield himself up to thine hand hand vanquished, to cry, or speak, or else to make him die by thine hand before thou wend out of these lists by the time and the sun that thee is assigned by this court, by thy faith, and so help thee God and these saints. Giacomo Kulla, defender, thou swearest by thy faith that thou givest in the hand of thine adversary, Sir David Farrell, appellor, and by all the saints that thou touchest with thy left hand, that today thou shalt do all thy true power and intent by all the ways that thou best mayst or canst to defend thine intent of all that that is put on thee by Sir David Farrell, thine adversary, by thy faith, and so help thee God and all these saints.

(They swear)

Herald: Oyez, Oyez, Oyez. We charge and command by the lord's constable and marshal that none of great value and of little estate, of what condition or nation that he be, be so hardy henceforward to come nigh the lists by four feet or to speak or to cry or to make countenance or token or semblance or noise whereby either of these two parties Sir David Farrell, appellor, and Giacomo Kulla, defender, may take advantage the one upon the other, upon peril of losing life and limb and their goods at the king's will.

(All leave the lists but the champions and marshals) 

Herald at signal of constable: Lessiez les aler (pause) Lessiez les aler (pause) Lessiez les aler and do their duty in Gods name. 

They fight, and after a time the lord throws down his baton, and the herald cries "Ho! Ho! Ho!" and the guardians of the list part them.

Narrator: And if it happen that the lord would take the quarrel in his hands and make them agree without more fighting, then the constable, taking the one party, and the marshal, the other, shall lead them before the king, and he showing them his will, the constable and marshal shall lead them to the one side of the lists with all their weapons and armor as they are found and have on when the king took the quarrel in his hands. And so they shall be led out of the gate of the lists equally, so that the one go not before the other in any way nor in any thing; for since the lord has taken the quarrel in his hands, it should be dishonest that either of the parties should have more dishonor than the other. . . .

Notes: This is closely based on the Thomas, Duke of Gloucester's text on judicial duels written in the reign of Richard II. I have shifted the authority  governing the duel from the king to a mercenary captain and changed the weapons from sword, short sword and dagger to lance, sword and dagger, another combination used in judicial duels such as that between Anneslie and Katrington in 1380. I have also translated Middle English terms that are either obscure or that had a different connotation in the Middle Ages than today.

Based on: Dillon, "On a MS Collection of Ordinances of Chivalry of the Fifteenth Century, Belonging to Lord Hastings," Archaeologia, LVII (1902), 62-66.