The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat

In medieval France during the Hundred Years' War, Norman knight Jean de Carrouges returns home from combat in Scotland to face a crisis: his wife Marguerite has accused squire Jacques Le Gris of rape. The court orders a trial by combat between the two men to resolve the dispute. The stakes are severe—if Carrouges loses, Marguerite will be executed as a false accuser. As enemy troops ravage the land and plague spreads, Carrouges and Le Gris fight in full armor on a walled field in Paris before a crowd that includes teenage King Charles VI. The duel becomes the final one ever authorized by the Parlement of Paris, fought with lance, sword, and dagger. Both combatants are wounded, but only one fatally. Based on extensive research in Normandy and Paris, The Last Duel reconstructs a turbulent historical period and three central figures caught in a fatal triangle of crime, scandal, and revenge. The book combines elements of human drama, true crime narrative, and historical intrigue.