How Dueling Worked in Early-Modern Europe

Duels were not simply the swift swordplay we all know from swashbuckler novels such as Alexandre Dumas’ Three Musketeers. The image of duels, clearly, is highly romanticized. In reality, the practice of dueling varied heavily depending on time and location. Although duels had certain things in common over time, there were no two alike. People have written whole books on very limited aspects of this topic. Obviously, we can’t cover every detail of dueling, so we will make use of a technique known as ‘Ideal Type’. This term is most closely associated with the great German sociologist Max Weber. For Weber, looking for essential characteristics and elements of a given phenomenon was key to understanding social and cultural realities. However, the type does not correspond to all of the particular cases. In our case, this means that we will not focus on a few specific duels. Instead, we explain central aspects of an ‘idealized’ duel as it might have taken place between the 16th to 18th century by making reference to reoccurring elements and illustrating examples. Keep in mind, however, that duels changed both locally and over time. So digest the following information carefully and consult the bibliography for further references. Without any further ado, this is how modern historiography explains dueling.
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Bibliography:
Banks, Stephen, A Polite Exchange of Bullets: The Duel and the English Gentleman, 1750–1850, Woodbridge 2010.
Billacois, F. Le Duel dans la société francaise des XVIe-XVIIe siècles. Essai des psychosozilogie historique, Paris 1986.
Burkhart, Dagmar, Eine Geschichte der Ehre, Darmstadt 2006
Frevert, Ute, s.v. Duel, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_018476 (letzter Aufruf am 10.06.21).
Frevert, Ute, Ehrenmänner. Das Duell in der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft, München 1991.
Geifes, Stephan, Das Duell in Frankreich 1789- 1830 (Pariser Historische Studien 102), München 2013.
Hopton, Richard, Pistols at Dawn: A History of Duelling, Little 2011.
Kiernan, Victor G., The Duel in European History, Oxford 1988.
Lynn, John A., Giant of the Grand Siecle. The French Army 1610-1715, Cambridge 1997.
Prietzel, Malte, Kriegführung im Mittelalter. Handlungen, Erinnerungen, Bedeutungen (Krieg in der Geschichte Bd. 32), Paderborn 2006.

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