The article offers a garbled, error-strewn version where, in 1385, Le Gris was accused of attacking the lady by night, with his face masked, as she awaited her husbands return from the Holy Land. Only in the final section of the film, when Marguerite is allowed to speak for herself, does the truth of the mens personalities emerge: Carrougesa jealous and contentious man, in Jagers wordsis mainly concerned with saving his own pride. We gave Ridley, This is what took place. Because it was such a famous event, there was a record. There [wasnt] going to be a settlement without one of them losing their reputation., After hearing both parties testimony, the Parlement of Paris agreed to authorize a duelFrances first trial by combat for a rape case in more than 30 years. After Marguerites rape, Carrouges petitions the French court to try Le Gris through judicial combat. After the fatal duel, the truth comes out: Sometime later, a criminal on the point of atoning for his other crimes confessed that he was guilty of the odious act of which Le Gris had been accused. Mother of Robert De Carrouges. As per the rules of the duel, whoever loses the battle would be proven guilty of his crimes. 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. ), Whether Carrouges and Le Gris actually ended their quarrel at this point is debatable. Le Coq seems to have had some doubts about his clients truthfulness, while admitting that this was the thorniest of he said, she said cases. With the understanding that your truth may not be somebody elses truth. Holofcener adhered to historical fact in terms of how Marguerite spoke, what she did and how she behaved, but the rest is a dramatization. Born in 1388, two years after the fatal duel, Juvnal, a bishop, wrote at an even greater remove in time and may have been influenced by Pintoins account. She gave birth to a son, Robert, shortly before Le Gris trial by combat. Saturday October 16 2021, 12.01am BST, The Times R idley Scott's spectacular new film begins with a Norman noblewoman, Marguerite de Carrouges, being robed in black, fettered to a scaffold in. Le Gris attorney, the highly respected Jean Le Coq, kept notes in Latin that still survive, allowing us a glimpse into attorney-client discussions. If you purchase an item through these links, we receive a commission. Matt Damon as Jean de Carrouges IV in The Last Duel. Forced into an upstairs bedroom, she tried to escape by running through a door at the other end of the room but was blocked from doing so by Le Gris. This happened, she said, in the morning hours at the modest chteau of her widowed mother-in-law, Nicole de Carrouges, on a remote Normandy estate known as Capomesnil, about twelve miles southwest of Lisieux. When would she choose to speak out in this way? 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. According to Jager, Le Gris took an immediate liking to Marguerite when Carrouges introduced her to the court in 1384. In the end the city expelled the contagion, and the body politic was cleansed. Yet Adam Louvel reportedly confessed to nothing, not even under torture. | Drivers final line, where, as Le Gris, he declares his innocence, is in the historic record. 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. Carrouges, without whom his wife could not even bring a case, resolutely rode off to Paris to appeal for justice to the king. Though Scotts film and its source text afford the fight the weighty title of the last duel, Le Gris trial by combat was far from the last duel to ever take place. The trial by combat would decide whether she had told the truthand thus whether she would live or die. | READ MORE. Only Le Gris alibi survives in the court records, but if Louvel had separate witnesses who placed him elsewhere at the time of the crime, their testimony would have exonerated Le Gris as well, just as Le Gris alibi would have helped exonerate Louvel. By unequivocally believing Marguerite, the screenwriters offer that same sense of empathy to all women who follow her. When Carrouges returned home three or four days after Marguerites rape, he found his wife sad and tearful, always unhappy in expression and demeanor, and not at all her usual self. She waited until the two were alone before revealing what had happened and urging her husband to seek vengeance against Le Gris. One ground for skepticism about these two reportsapart from their priestly sources, notoriously suspicious of womenis that each tells a substantially different story. In Jean's absence, Jacques broke into Jean's castle and raped Marguerite in 1386. Still, The Last Duel does stick closely to historical fact. Gangsters in a patrol wagon, New York, c. 1935. Marguerite de Carrouges, descended from an old and wealthy Norman family, had claimed that in January of that year she had been attacked and raped at her mother-in-law's chteau by a squire (the rank below knighthood) named Jacques Le Gris, aided by one of his closest companions, one Adam Louvel. Its a moment that underscores the timely nature of the films message: that we cannot be blind to the perspectives of others. Barred from bringing a case against Le Gris herself, Marguerite had to rely entirely on her husband to mount legal action. Ben Affleck co-wrote the script with Damon and. Marguerite also testified that Adam Louvel was the first to arrive at the chteau, and that he began his visit by urging her to ask her husband to extend the term of an outstanding loan for one hundred gold francs. We wanted to examine that. Despite the ladys many oaths, and those of the squire, he confided to his journal, No one really knew the truth of the matter.. (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. It is incumbent on us to be good people, to overcome that and to see more broadly and with empathy, Affleck says. I thought I was going to suffocate, and soon I couldnt fight them anymore. 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 event marked the first meeting between Carrouges wifedescribed by a contemporary chronicler as beautiful, good, sensible and modestand Le Gris. Even Le Gris believed she was victimized - just not by him. Louvel then added a greeting from Jacques Le Gris, who he said greatly admired her and was eager to speak with her. RMN-Grand Palais/Art Resource, NY. I think the film makes the right choice [in portraying her story]., Comer agrees. 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. Le Gris, a large and powerful man with a reputation as a womanizer, is too self-centered to acknowledge the unwanted nature of his advances and too self-assured to believe that, once the deed is done, Marguerite will follow through on her threat of seeking justice. Speak without regard for the consequences, and it is too late for silence when disaster strikes. Gross! The Last Duel is now available to watch in cinemas. Or did he trip? Many skepticsincluding chroniclers, historians, partisans, and even historical novelistshave cast doubt on the official verdict. 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. It states that Le Gris innocence was later recognized by all, for a man condemned to death by the law confessed to having committed the heinous crime. I would call that historically accurate, even though we dont have direct testimony that Marguerite did this or that at the time.. Rather than this idea of somebody, through the lens of their own experience and acculturation, not understanding their behavior. Soon after, de Carrouges went on a campaign to Scotland and though it was a military failure, he distinguished himself with his courage. Of the judicial duels that actually took place, few ended in death. . 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. The penalty for bearing false witness is that you are to be burned alive, an official tells Marguerite in the movies trailer. According to testimony later provided by Carrouges and Marguerite, she heard a knock on the door and opened it to find Louvel. The dominant belief that women had to enjoy sex in order to conceive further complicated matters, leaving those impregnated by their rapists on even shakier legal ground. And her court testimony is reduced to nothing more than her husbands scriptas Famiglietti calls itfor destroying his hated rival. Now, the story of the 1386 trial by combat is the subject of a blockbuster film of the same name. 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. The Last Duel stars Jodie Comer, Matt Damon and Adam Driver as three people who changed the course of French history. 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. When Marguerite adamantly refused his offer, saying she had no wish for his money, the violence escalated. The two men seized her by the arms and legs, she testified, and dragged her up a nearby stairway, while she struggled and shouted for help. And clearly it wasnt.. The knights victory saved both him and his wife, earning the formerly notorious couple wealth and prestige. 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. But that was from research as well. And two suspects are harder to convict than one, unless they can be turned against each other. Its strange that so many authorities seem to have been untroubled by the obvious factual errors in these reports, their mutual inconsistencies, or the lack of any corroborating evidence. She has to relive it over and over againand she gets it right.. Jean de Carrouges was born in Saint-Marguerite-de-Carrouges, Normandy, France in 1330, a vassal of the . Cookie Policy A Judicial Duel, byLieven van Lathem, 1464. Marguerite was born as Marguerite De Thibouville in Normandy in the year 1362. Smithsonian magazine participates in affiliate link advertising programs. Two aspiring knights stood side by side, one welcoming his first son and heir, the other acting as his godfathervirtually a family member, according to historian Eric Jager. A hush fell over the crowd, as they came to the solemn realization that a man had just died before their eyes. In his alibi, Le Gris himself cited the narrow window of time available for his alleged visit, strictly during daylight hours.
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