A LIVING HISTORY BLOG.

18TH CENTURY LIVING HISTORY IN AUSTRALIA.

Thursday 20 August 2020

Dueling in France. 17th Century.

Market vendors go about their business while two duelers fight, exhorted by their seconds, on the Pont Neuf in Paris. Detail from an anonymous 17th-century painting. Musée Carnavalet, Paris.

ON MAY 12, 1627, at about two o'clock in the afternoon, the Count of Bouteville and the Marquis of Beuvron met in a Paris square, for the express purpose of defending their honor. A skilled swordsman, the 27-year-old Bouteville was a veteran of many duels and had killed at least half of his opponents. One of his victims had been a relative of Beuvron, who spent months trying to arrange a duel with the count for vengeance.



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