(Spoilers ahead.). An intensely personal rivalry, exacerbated by a series of failed legal cases brought by Carrouges, emerged between the onetime friends. Marguerite de Carrouges accused Le Gris of rape in 1386. At this point Le Gris himself suddenly entered the chteaus hall (aulam, probably referring to the main chamber or great hall where guests were typically received). For Affleck and Damon, The Last Duel was an opportunity to not only depict a compelling historical event but to reflect on how traces of that system of patriarchy linger today. They still spoke out, and they still fought against the grain.. Even a small mistake, such as misstating the day the attack happened, could result in the case being thrown out and the victim being punished for perjury. What does she have to gain from that? Some have suggested that her husband forced the story out of her to avenge himself on Le Gris, his former friend turned rival at court. And then I was judged and shammed by my country. Cases had to meet four requirements, including exhausting all other legal remedies and confirming that the crime had actually occurred. They leave, with the crowds cheering for de Carrouges. As noted in the 1850s by the Norman historian Alfred de Caix, one of the few to credit her story, Marguerites testimony is impressively circumstantial and detailed. Certain details in her account raise serious problems for the mistaken-identity theory. Women of that status, on these feudal estates, were in charge of a lot of things, especially when their husbands were away at war or on important business. 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. Barons like Afflecks character, Count Pierre dAlencon, owned land and often acted as feudal lords, providing property and protection to vassalsthe term for any man sworn to serve anotherin exchange for their service. If you've been affected by the issues raised in this story, you can access more information from Rape Crisis England and Wales, who work towards the elimination of all forms of sexual violence and sexual misconduct, on their website or by calling the National Rape Crisis Helpline on 0808 802 9999. If you purchase an item through these links, we receive a commission. 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. And some, invoking the most popular theory, acknowledge the rape but say that Marguerite mistakenly accused the wrong man, an honest but tragic error that robbed Le Gris of his life, fortune, and good name. They pinned me down and stuffed a capucium [a hood] over my mouth to silence me. Theres a certain arrogance rooted in that assumption. Le Gris final moments appear to have been grisly even by the standards of the day: The monk of Saint-Denis, who served as Charles VIs official historian, reported that Carrouges killed his enemy with great difficulty because he was encased in armor. In accordance with tradition, authorities dragged Le Gris body to the gallows and hung him as a final insult to his sullied reputation. 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. 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. 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". Marguerite is the most important and most heroic person in the story, make what happens to her after the duel . In 1384, Carrouges and Margueriteencountered Le Gris at a mutual friends party. On December 29, 1386, before a crowd presided over by French king Charles VI, Carrouges and Le Gris eyed each other warily. Wife of Sir Jean De Carrouges IV, Chevalier d'Honneur. The greatest departure from Jagers book comes during the rape itself. Of course, Jean de Carrouges was destined for the life of warfare - this was the common fate for many nobles and their sons in medieval France. According to Jager, Le Gris took an immediate liking to Marguerite when Carrouges introduced her to the court in 1384. Smithsonian magazine participates in affiliate link advertising programs. The duel took place on December 29, 1386, and was presided over by French king Charles VI. Knights were one step above squires, but men of both ranks often served as vassals to higher-ranking overlords. In Le Coqs words, his client attacked his adversary very cruelly and did it on foot, although he would have had the advantage if he had done it on horseback. By drawing blood, writes Elema for the Historical European Martial Arts and Sports Community, Le Gris prevented the king from halting the duel, as once the scales had tipped in one fighters favor, no one could stop the fight without the appearance of partiality.. When Marguerite told Le Gris that he must not speak to her in this way, he seized her by the hand, forced her to sit down beside him on a bench, and told her that he knew all about her husbands recent money troubles, offering to pay her well. When de Carrouges returns home he demands sex, but Marguerite refuses and tells him about the rape, fuelling de Carrouges' anger against his friend. Advertising Notice The book, exhaustively compiled from existing documents and records, recounts how Carrouges wife, Marguerite, accused Le Gris of rape, leading to the pair fighting to the death with Marguerites own life on the line if it was decided she had lied. Le Gris was the counts favorite and his administrative right hand. In reality, the duel would have been decided by two main factors: the weight of the fighters armor and how quickly these relatively old men grew tired. El ltimo duelo, la ltima pelcula de Ridley Scott, habla de muchas cosas, pero sobre todo de la vida de tres personas cuyo destino qued en manos del azar. 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. The historical record tends to favor men, so not much is known about the real Marguerite beyond her familys legacy and her role leading up to the duel. A Judicial Duel, byLieven van Lathem, 1464. We knew who this woman was generally by the way she spoke out in the time in which she was living in.. Eric Jager is a professor of English at UCLA and the author of four books, including The Last Duel and Blood Royal. Instead, Elema explains, authorities overseeing trials typically imposed a settlement after the fighters had exchanged a few blows. While the films version, which only involves Le Gris, is brutal to watch, the reality was far rougher, leaving Marguerite with tangible marks of the crime. Le Gris attorney, the highly respected Jean Le Coq, kept notes in Latin that still survive, allowing us a glimpse into attorney-client discussions. The moral was plain: Le Gris rose in the world and then suddenly fell, he dominated but finally was vanquished, he committed a crime in secret and was publicly exposed. French law stipulated that noblemen appealing their cause to the king could challenge the accused to a judicial duel, or trial by combat. In Jagers book, the detailed description of the duel between Le Gris and Carrouges, held on Dec. 29, 1386, was drawn from several sources. A large and powerful man, Le Gris was well educated and very wealthy, though from an only recently ennobled family. 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. According to Pintoin, Marguerite and her assailant dined together before the attack, and it was while showing him to his room for the night that he assaulted her. Rape Crisis Scotlands helpline number is 08088 01 03 02. Warning, The Last Duel spoilers follow. But if Marguerites story is true and Le Gris was guilty as charged, why did the squire increase his risk of being found out by bringing an accomplice in the first place? In 1380 Carrouges married Marguerite de Thibouville (Jodie Comer), daughter of the controversial known traitor Robert de Thibouville who had sided against multiple French Kings in. Some have echoed Count Pierres dismissive decree, saying that Marguerite made it all up, perhaps to cover up an affair with another man. The movie does follow the true story rather closely, and with a runtime of two and a half hours, we'd hope so. The J. PaulGettyMuseum, Los Angeles. 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. She probably had strangle marks. [3] In his own defense, Le Gris claimed that Nicole had found nothing amiss upon her return and didnt believe her daughter-in-laws later allegations. And if the Parlement of Paris could not establish even the basic facts, theres little chance of our discovering hidden motives all of these centuries later. Froissart says simply that Carrouges felled his opponent and, thrusting his sword into his body, killed him on the spot.. The view that Marguerite was lyinga conjecture unsupported by any evidence, apart from Le Gris dubious alibiholds either that she concocted the rape story herself, perhaps to cover an adultery, or that it was extorted from her by her opportunistic husband in order to avenge himself on his rival. Meilan Solly is Smithsonian magazine's associate digital editor, history. (At this point, the two men were in their late 50s, which places Damon at close to the right age for his role but Driver a good generation off the mark. Word of the scandalous affair spread far and wide via merchants, soldiers, itinerant clergy, and others who carried the latest tidings along the rutted roads to far-flung towns and villages. Marguerite claimed that Nicole took with her nearly all of the household servants, including a maidservant whom Jean had specifically instructed never to leave Marguerites side, thus leaving Marguerite virtually alone.. Marguerite de Thibouville (a very different character from Comer's Villanelle in Killing Eve) was the only daughter of Robert de Thibouville, a wealthy Norman lord viewed as a traitor for siding against the French king in territorial disputes with England. Popular historical fiction abetted the theory of mistaken identity, exploiting its shock effect. 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. On the morning of 18 January 1386, Dame Nicole de Carrouges departed her chateau at Capomesnil for the neighbouring town of Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives where she had legal business to attend to. The movie ends with Marguerite playing with her son, seemingly at peace with her life. Eventually, you have the two men on the ground, fighting with hand weapons rather than lances.. It was a patriarchal and deeply misogynist [time]. Schools educate you, and religious services deliver sermons, and movies at their best can generate empathy and generate compassion, says Affleck. Comer brought that sense of history into her performance as well, recognizing what was and wasnt acceptable for women of the time. And two suspects are harder to convict than one, unless they can be turned against each other. The mistaken-identity theory was also embraced abroad, as by American historian Henry Charles Lea, who in his influential 1866 study of medieval law, Superstition and Force, stated as a matter of fact that Le Gris was subsequently proved innocent by the deathbed confession of the real offender. Lea even faulted Froissart for having omitted any mention of the confession. The fly in this ointment is another aspect of Marguerites testimony that has not been given due attentionnamely, the inclusion of Adam Louvel in the criminal charges. Marguerite, who had accused Le Gris of raping her, watched from the sidelines; clad entirely in black, she was keenly aware that her husbands defeat would be viewed as proof of perjury, vindicating her attacker and ensuring her execution by burning at the stake for the crime of bearing false witness. The majority of medieval rape victims lacked the means to seek justice. So in his deluded sense of pride, Le Gris could believe it was consensual. Learn how and when to remove this template message, The Last Duel: A True Story of Trial by Combat in Medieval France, "L'affaire Marguerite de Carrouges, un procs qui a agit toute la France", "Un jour, une histoire. "Do you swear on your life that what you say is true?". But that was from research as well. Marguerite remained silent of her ordeal for several days, until her husband's return on the 21 or 22 January. Louvel then,. It's long and gory and ends with de Carrouges stabbing Le Gris through the mouth (in real life, it was the throat), proving Marguerite to have been telling the truth. Digital Spy participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. Far from echoing these Enlightenment-era assessments of Marguerites misguided intentions, the film adaptation of The Last Duel presents the noblewoman as its protagonist, the truth teller [whose account is] so much more resonant, strong and evident than her male counterparts, as Affleck tells GMA News. Not understanding the effect they were having on someone else. 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.. I would call that historically accurate, even though we dont have direct testimony that Marguerite did this or that at the time.. Fatality. Marguerite said no. Holofcener adhered to historical fact in terms of how Marguerite spoke, what she did and how she behaved, but the rest is a dramatization. And not just any death. Gross! Marguerite, who found herself pregnant soon after the attack, largely left this fact out of her account, either due to uncertainty over the childs paternityhe may have been conceived before Carrouges left for Parisor an awareness that making this claim would weaken her testimony in the eyes of the court. More. Or did he trip? According to Jager, the court may have feared taking sides and arousing even more controversy, deciding instead to grant the knights request, authorize a duel and leave the whole perplexing matter in the hands of God., Five contemporary or near-contemporary chronicles offer accounts of what happened when Le Gris and Carrouges met on December 29, 1386. The forty-page story Le jugement de Dieu begins with throngs of excited, gossiping Parisians arriving at Saint-Martins field to watch the long-awaited duel. [Jager] does a pretty meticulous description of it, but its a decidedly uncinematic duel, Damon notes. We gave this great filmmaker the opportunity to dramatize the essence of it and make it compelling to an audience, rather than do literally what happened.. Image via 20th Century Studios. With the understanding that your truth may not be somebody elses truth. 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). de Carrouges also says that she must have sex with him, as Le Gris can't be the last person to have 'known' her Marguerite is, effectively, raped again. Barred from bringing a case against Le Gris herself, Marguerite had to rely entirely on her husband to mount legal action. Eric Jagers 2004 book, The Last Duel: A True Story of Trial by Combat in Medieval France, is a case of truth being stranger than fiction. 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, The Scream 6 publicity stunts hit closer to home, prompting 911 calls in Sonoma, Review: Andrea Riseborough and campy Please Baby Please deconstruct gender and the 1950s, Bruce Willis steps out with friends after announcement of dementia diagnosis, Gayle King surprises Angela Bassett with her Whats Love Got to Do With It dress, Desperate mountain residents trapped by snow beg for help; We are coming, sheriff says, Hidden, illegal casinos are booming in L.A., with organized crime reaping big profits, Look up: The 32 most spectacular ceilings in Los Angeles, 19 cafes that make L.A. a world-class coffee destination, Newsom, IRS give Californians until October to file tax returns, Review: Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre is classic Guy Ritchie and not in a good way, Review: The teen drama Palm Trees and Power Lines tells a searing story of abuse, Review: The documentary Ithaka attempts a difficult defense of Julian Assange, Jonathan Majors dubs Michael B. Jordan Michael B. Handsome at Walk of Fame ceremony, Review: Natural beauty and a touching ecological tale center the female-forward Blueback. Readers in the US are encouraged to contactRAINN, or the National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800-656-4673. No one really knew the truth of the matter. Le Gris quickly turned violent, forcing her upstairs and enlisting Louvel to help restrain her as she desperately fought back. Affleck, Damon, Holofcener, Comer and Jager talked us through what is and isnt accurate in The Last Duel and why the filmmakers made the narrative changes they did. Marguerite herselfnow pregnant, perhaps as a result of the rapecame to Paris and testified in great detail about the alleged attack by Le Gris and his accomplice. Your Privacy Rights El libro es una crnica milimtrica de los hechos construida como un gran reportaje, muy ricamente contextualizada desde la eterna guerra entre Francia e Inglaterra en aquella poca hasta el. ), Whether Carrouges and Le Gris actually ended their quarrel at this point is debatable. Marguerite de Thibouville, only daughter of the highly controversial Robert de Thibouville, married Jean de Carrouges in 1380. But other than that, I made up a lot. Directed by Ridley Scott, the movie stars Matt Damon as Carrouges, Adam Driver as Le Gris and Jodie Comer as Carrouges' second wife, Marguerite. He doesnt even recognize it. The final chapter of the film, told from Marguerites perspective, refers to itself as the truth. But while that section of the story by necessity contains the most dramatization, Jager says he does support the filmmakers conclusion. Meanwhile, Le Gris continued to rise in Pierre's esteem. 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. Of course, the movie is about much more than just the duel, as is the true story so here's what went down. 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.