The Last Duel

The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat in Medieval France is a 2004 narrative history book by American author Eric Jager. The book examines one of the last officially sanctioned judicial duels in the history of France, fought in 1386 between the Norman knight Jean de Carrouges and the squire Jacques le Gris. The combat was ordered by the Parlement of Paris after Carrouges accused le Gris of raping his wife, Marguerite de Carrouges, in a case that drew widespread public attention and highlighted tensions surrounding honour, legal procedure, and the status of women in late medieval society. Jager situates the duel within the broader political, legal, and cultural landscape of fourteenth-century France, exploring the decline of trial by combat as a judicial practice while reconstructing the lives of the individuals involved. Drawing upon court records, chronicles, and other historical sources, the book presents the case as both a dramatic personal conflict and a reflection of shifting attitudes toward evidence, justice, and authority on the eve of the early modern period.