The Last Duel
Now a major film starring Matt Damon, Adam Driver and Jodie Comer
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- 9,49 €
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- 9,49 €
Description de l’éditeur
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Now a major motion picture directed by Ridley Scott starring Matt Damon, Adam Driver and Jodie Comer.
In 1386, a few days after Christmas, a massive crowd gathered at a Paris monastery to watch two men fight a duel to the death. A trial by combat to prove which man's cause was right in God's sight.
The dramatic story of the knight, the squire and the lady unfolds during the tumultuous fourteenth century. A time of war, plague and anarchy, as well as of honour, chivalry, and courtly love.
The notorious quarrel appears in many histories of France, but no writer has recounted it in full, until now.
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'Succeeds brilliantly in combining page-turning intensity with eye-opening insights' Sunday Times
'Suspenseful and well written' Spectator
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In 1386, Jean de Carrouges accused his former friend, Jacques LeGris, of raping his wife, and the young king of France allowed their dispute to be resolved in what was to be the last legally ordered judicial combat in Paris. Jager deftly blends this story with the background necessary to understand it: the ideas behind trial by combat, the realities of 14th-century marriage, the complexity of the regional and central powers in France, and the personal rivalries at court. Jager describes a harsh and violent era, when public executions were a form of entertainment and both commoners and elites eagerly anticipated the increasingly rare duel to the death. But it was also a time of lawyers, chroniclers and ceremony. Jager doesn't condescend to the people of medieval France but explains the complicated logic by which they could believe that a duel would prove guilt or innocence, pregnancy could be considered proof that sex had been consensual, and a lady could be convicted and executed as a false accuser if her champion lost. A brief history of the duel demonstrates its origins in age-old military tradition rather than divine providence. Jager acknowledges where the definitive facts of his story are unknown while presenting a riveting account that will satisfy general readers and historians alike.
