But if Marguerites husband and champion lost, thus proving her accusation to be false, she too would be put to death. Family and marriage. Soon after, de Carrouges went on a campaign to Scotland and though it was a military failure, he distinguished himself with his courage. In an entry on duels, the Grand dictionnaire universel (186677), overseen by respected editor Pierre Larousse, describes the 1386 affair as one of the most remarkable in history, claiming that the wide belief in its injustice helped to bring the custom of trial by combat to a speedy end. The accused was Jacques Le Gris, who was said to have raped Jean de Carrouges's wife, Marguerite . If there are reasons for believing in the possibility of Le Gris innocence, the doubtful story of a belated confession by another man certainly is not and never has been one of them. Diderots Encyclopdie and Voltaires Histoire du Parlement de Paris used the 1386 affair to denounce the supposed ignorance and cruelty of the Middle Ages. Historical scandals, much like the contemporary ones filling our tabloids, news sites, and now-ubiquitous Facebook feeds, are built on a widely shared sense of certainty about what really happeneda feeling that often belies the elusive truth. In particular, Carrouges loses his claims to a lucrative estate called Aunou-le-Faucon to Le Gris. However, Le Gris insisted on his right to testify before Parliament, leaving the door open for Carrouges to request a duel. (Spoilers ahead.). The REAL story behind 'The Last Duel': How warring knights fought By the time the criminal trial was underway in the summer of that year, Marguerite was noticeably pregnant. If your husband hears of it, he may kill you. We dont have transcripts or historical records that say that on a given day [Marguerite] was doing this or something of that nature, but thats completely consistent with what such women did, the author confirms. After The Last Duel's real-life story, Marguerite went on to have two more children and settled in Normandy and Paris, enjoying the celebrity status that she and her . Born into a noble Norman family around the 1330s, Carrouges met Le Gris, a lower-born man who rose through the ranks by virtue of his own political savvy, while both were serving as vassals of Count Pierre. A seasoned warrior with more fighting experience than Le Gris, Carrouges quickly rebounded from his injury, gaining the upper hand and pushing his opponent to the ground. By the union of Marguerite and Carrouges, de Thibouville hoped to restore his family's status[1] while Carrouges was hoping for an heir from the young Marguerite, whom contemporaries described as "young, noble, wealthy, and also very beautiful". 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. Enlightenment thinkers Diderot and Voltaire favored Le Gris cause, decrying his barbaric and unjust trial by combat as an example of the supposed ignorance and cruelty of the Middle Ages, writes Jager. 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. Warning: This post contains spoilers for The Last Duel. 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. Meilan Solly When Marguerite accuses Le Gris of rape, Jean de Carrouges challenges him to a trial by combat. When the lady learned this and realized that the error was her fault, she retreated to a convent after her husbands death, vowing perpetual chastity.. From an absolute philosophical point of view, nobody but Jacques Le Gris and Marguerite and those who were in the room know the truth, Jager says. She was the only daughter of Jeanne de Bois Hroult and the highly controversial Robert de Thibouville, a Norman lord who had twice sided against the French king in territorial conflicts. His scholarly work focuses on the intellectual history of virtue in Renaissance Naples. 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? Ultimately, that [would have been] a movie about a courtroom evidence drama, Affleck explains. Anything that . 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. Though Scotts film and its source text afford the fight the weighty title of the last duel, Le Gris trial by combat was far from the last duel to ever take place. Because rape was viewed less as an act of sexual violence than a property crime against the victims husband or guardian, rapists often avoided harsh penalties by paying a fine to the man in question. Carrouges was born in the late 1330s in the village of Sainte-Marguerite-de-Carrouges as the eldest son of the knight and minor noble, Sir Jean de Carrouges III, and his wife, Nicole de Buchard. (Jager offered feedback on the films script, suggesting historically accurate phrasing and other changes.) Did Le Gris stumble? From the mechanics of trial by combat to the prosecution of sexual violence in medieval society, heres what you need to know about the true history behind The Last Duel ahead of the films October 15 debut. Damon and Affleck took the dialogue directly from Jagers book. According to Jager, Le Gris took an immediate liking to Marguerite when Carrouges introduced her to the court in 1384. According to testimony later provided by Carrouges and Marguerite, she heard a knock . Drivers final line, where, as Le Gris, he declares his innocence, is in the historic record. The article offers a garbled, error-strewn version where, in 1385, Le Gris was accused of attacking the lady by night, with his face masked, as she awaited her husbands return from the Holy Land. We knew who this woman was generally by the way she spoke out in the time in which she was living in.. You know whether my cause is just and true. She replied, My Lord, it is so, and you can fight with confidence, for the cause is just. And so Le Gris trial by combat began. Popular historical fiction abetted the theory of mistaken identity, exploiting its shock effect. The Last Duel Summary and Study Guide | SuperSummary Although Jean won the duel and succeeded in defending Marguerites honor, the event would take on a controversial life of its own in the following centuries. He wrote that Le Gris responded that before God, and on the peril of damnation of his soul, that he had never committed the crime of which he was accused. The lawsuit reflected very poorly on Carrouges at the court in Argentan and resulted in his further estrangement from Count Pierre's circle. Like, I couldnt have gotten there. Her father had sided against the king twice, and . 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. lavish Arnou-le-Faucon estate, which had once been owned by Marguerites father. Ben Affleck co-wrote the script with Damon and Nicole Holofcener and appears as a feudal lord and compatriot of both leading men. What was in the film was the pair's reconciliation, which took place in 1384 in which Le Gris and de Carrouges agreed to put the past behind them, and de Carrouges introduced Le Gris to his wife Marguerite. One of the chroniclers talks about an opening joust, but I had to elaborate a little bit on how a joust like that would unfold with lances broken. They were right Le Gris decried Marguerites accusations as false and inflammatory, and Count Pierre took his side, clearing him of the charges. The Last Duel: What Happened To Every Character In Real Life Jean de Carrouges and the last French duel At the time of the attack, Jean de Carrouges was away on a trip to Paris from which he would return a few days later. Carrouges, without whom his wife could not even bring a case, resolutely rode off to Paris to appeal for justice to the king. The actor continues, Its an anti-chivalry movie in some sense because the great illusion of chivalry is that it was about [protecting] the innocent female. [10] King Charles VI, who was on campaign with his court in Flanders, ordered the duel to be postponed until 29 December as he did not want to miss what was rapidly becoming the event of the season. 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. The Last Duel: What Happened To Every Character In Real Life A new film from Ridley Scott dramatizes the 1386 trial by combat of a medieval man accused of a horrific crime. What sets this version apart, besides its unusual length, is how quickly the judicial error on the battlefield is revealed by the sudden arrival of the truth. Rather than a belated discovery taking many yearsas in the chroniclesits just a matter of minutes from Le Gris death to the proof of his innocence. This tangled and still-controversial case leaves many tantalizing questions, not least of all why Jacques Le Gris did it, if indeed he did. Le Gris quickly turned violent, forcing her upstairs and enlisting Louvel to help restrain her as she desperately fought back. Do you swear on your life that what you say is true? This question, posed to Marguerite de Carrouges (Jodie Comer), encapsulates the true history behind The Last Duel, director Ridley Scotts new film opening in theaters Oct. 15. . the latter was accused by Carrouges wife of having made an attempt on her honor. 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. Furthermore, neither report has ever been independently corroborated, although the existence of two such reports, despite their differing details, may have allowed each to vouch for the other in the minds of those eager to believe them. Jager chronicled how the former friends relationship devolvedand the woman and rape allegation at the center of the conflictin the 2004 nonfiction book The Last Duel. They truly believed God would make happen whatever was the fair thing to happen, so it would .
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