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

Marguerite was born the heiress to a Norman nobleman, Robert de Thibouville, who had disgraced his name by twice siding with the English against the French king. Despite this, for reasons not exactly known, Jean de Carrouges IV decided to marry her after the death of his first wife, Jeanne de Tilly. One chronicler described Marguerite as “’young, beautiful, good, sensible, and modest’—the last term implying that despite her beauty she was no flirt or coquette” (24).

It was Marguerite’s accusation of rape against Jacques Le Gris that triggers the main events of The Last Duel. Despite the personal risk to her honor and even life, Marguerite powerfully asserted and defended her claims against Le Gris. As Jager argues, many at the time and in the centuries to come “credited her story, the truth of which, however astounding, she repeatedly and unwaveringly maintained under oath at great risk to herself in the highest court of France” (197-198).

What happened to Marguerite after her husband’s death is unclear. Jager points out the evidence suggests that, despite being a widow with sons who were underage, she “clearly kept possession of her worldly estates, for in later years she bequeathed them to her son Robert” (197). The exact year of her death is unknown.

A Norman nobleman, Jean was, like his father Jean de Carrouges III, a warrior loyal to the French monarchy. His family had a legend that they were descended from Count Ralph, who had an affair with a sorceress. When Ralph’s jealous wife killed him, the sorceress cursed the family with a red mark on their faces for seven generations. The curse began with Ralph’s son, who was named Karle le Rouge, “Karl the Red,” because of the mark on his face, and this personal name eventually became the family name of “Carrouges” (11). In any case, the Carrouges could trace their ancestry back to Robert de Villers, who fought under King Philip II in the 1200s (11, 13).

Although he was a skilled soldier, Carrouges was much less successful at the court of his overlord, Count Pierre of Alençon. He had a:

contentious nature […and t]he combativeness that made him a fierce warrior and that may have saved his life many times on the battlefield was precisely his undoing in the court at Argentan, where tact and diplomacy advanced a man faster than sheer bravado or brute strength. (34-35)

For example, he disputed with his own lord and with Jacques Le Gris over ownership of an estate called Aunou-le-Faucon, which harmed his relationship with the two men and his prospects at court. Further, a failed military campaign in Scotland left Carrouges in debt and with poor health.

When his wife Marguerite accused Jacques Le Gris of sexually assaulting her, Carrouges apparently believed her from the beginning. Despite the severe risks to his life and his family’s honor, Carrouges demanded the truth of the accusation be settled with a judicial duel. In the end, he overcame and killed Jacques Le Gris in the duel. His victory was enough to turn his career and financial situation around. Eventually, Carrouges was slain or taken prisoner and killed at the Battle of Nicopolis, which was fought in a crusade against the Ottoman Empire in modern-day Bulgaria.

Le Gris was Carrouges’s one-time friend and later bitter rival. Le Gris came from a family that had only recently risen to the nobility. He was both a captain of the fortress of Exmes and a cleric in the minor orders, meaning he did not have to take a vow of celibacy and could still marry. A physically powerful man, he also had a reputation as a womanizer and was favored by his overlord, Count Pierre of Alençon. In Marguerite’s testimony, he sexually assaulted her with help from an accomplice, Adam Louvel.

To prove the charges against Le Gris, Carrouges appealed to the king and the Parlement of Paris for the right to prove Le Gris’s guilt through a judicial duel. Le Gris was killed in the duel, and afterwards his corpse was given the same treatment as a convicted criminal and hung in the gallows. However, some medieval chroniclers and modern historians have suggested Le Gris may have been the victim of mistaken identity or a malicious accusation. However, Jager strongly argues that there is no proof for this interpretation of the surviving historical evidence. 

In the political hierarchy of medieval France, Count Pierre was the overlord of both Jacques Le Gris and Jean de Carrouges as Count of Perche, a title he inherited from his brother Robert. (Historically, Count Pierre is better known by his other title, Count of Alençon). He disliked Carrouges, likely because Carrouges challenged him in two lawsuits: one over the estate of Aunou-le-Faucon and the other over the political office of captain of Bellême. At the same time, he favored Le Gris, which may have been a key reason why Carrouges was motivated to take Marguerite’s charges of rape against Le Gris directly to the king and to resort to the judicial duel.