Two men fight over a feathered hat.

Are you sure this isn't a Monty python sketch?

So they decided to make a law to try and stop these type of duels.

However, the problems posed by the noblesse had to receive Henri’s personal attention. The turbulent, not to say murderous, temper of ‘our warlike nobility’ was savagely expressed in duels which were not the smallsword minuets of eighteenth-century affairs of honour but brutish combats to the death whose ferocity was bloodily demonstrated by the classic ‘duel of the hat’ between Messieurs Bazanez and Lagarde Vallon. The former having sent the latter a fine hat and dared him to wear it, Lagarde Vallon donned it immediately, rushed out and, after finding Bazanez and giving him the lie, slashed his skull open with a broadsword before running him through and through, shouting each time ‘for the tassel!’ ‘for the plumes!’ Though weakened from loss of blood Bazanez suddenly rallied to cut his opponent down and then stab him fourteen times with a poignard as he lay on the ground while Lagarde Vallon managed to crack his skull with his sword pommel and bite off half his chin. At last they fainted but, amazingly, both survived, Lagarde Vallon continuing to challenge enemies with such insults as, ‘I have made ashes of your house, raped your wife, and hanged your children, and am at your service.’ Often these combats were miniature pitched battles, like those of The Three Musketeers, for the seconds usually joined in as well. What might be described as ‘the officer class’ was seriously depleted; during 1607 not less than four thousand noblemen perished in duals of this sort.16 This might well be considered a blessing, but tradition and contemporary social thought still insisted on regarding the noblesse de épée as the most valuable members of society. Hence in 1602, badgered by Sully, the King issued the Edict of Blois whereby duellists were declared guilty of ‘lèse majesté’, incurring the death penalty. Even so Henri’s sentiment that he was the first nobleman of France as well as its King, caused him to issue no less than seven thousand pardons for this peccadillo, an attitude reminiscent of Kaiser William II’s ruling that any officer who fought a duel would be court martialled while any officer who refused to fight one would be cashiered. However, Henri had at least shown that he knew how to control such perennial bloodletting.

https://erenow.net/biographies/the-first-bourbon-henry-iv-of-france-navarre/7.php

So they decided to make a law to try and stop these type of duels. >However, the problems posed by the noblesse had to receive Henri’s personal attention. The turbulent, not to say murderous, temper of ‘our warlike nobility’ was savagely expressed in duels which were not the smallsword minuets of eighteenth-century affairs of honour but brutish combats to the death whose ferocity was bloodily demonstrated by the classic ‘duel of the hat’ between Messieurs Bazanez and Lagarde Vallon. The former having sent the latter a fine hat and dared him to wear it, Lagarde Vallon donned it immediately, rushed out and, after finding Bazanez and giving him the lie, slashed his skull open with a broadsword before running him through and through, shouting each time ‘for the tassel!’ ‘for the plumes!’ Though weakened from loss of blood Bazanez suddenly rallied to cut his opponent down and then stab him fourteen times with a poignard as he lay on the ground while Lagarde Vallon managed to crack his skull with his sword pommel and bite off half his chin. At last they fainted but, amazingly, both survived, Lagarde Vallon continuing to challenge enemies with such insults as, ‘I have made ashes of your house, raped your wife, and hanged your children, and am at your service.’ Often these combats were miniature pitched battles, like those of The Three Musketeers, for the seconds usually joined in as well. What might be described as ‘the officer class’ was seriously depleted; during 1607 not less than four thousand noblemen perished in duals of this sort.16 This might well be considered a blessing, but tradition and contemporary social thought still insisted on regarding the noblesse de épée as the most valuable members of society. Hence in 1602, badgered by Sully, the King issued the Edict of Blois whereby duellists were declared guilty of ‘lèse majesté’, incurring the death penalty. Even so Henri’s sentiment that he was the first nobleman of France as well as its King, caused him to issue no less than seven thousand pardons for this peccadillo, an attitude reminiscent of Kaiser William II’s ruling that any officer who fought a duel would be court martialled while any officer who refused to fight one would be cashiered. However, Henri had at least shown that he knew how to control such perennial bloodletting. https://erenow.net/biographies/the-first-bourbon-henry-iv-of-france-navarre/7.php

Two men fight over a feathered hat.

2 comments

/s/HistoryAnecdotes