historyanalysisThe Public Domain Reviewc. 1400s · Germany
Medieval fight books show men and women dueling in pits, but historians doubt it ever really happened
Illustrated German fencing manuals from the 1400s show women and men fighting each other in judicial duels, the man often standing waist-deep in a pit while the woman swings a weighted veil or stone. Historians think these scenes were mostly not records of real trials. Trial by combat had been used in Frankish and medieval law for serious crimes, and in many cases substitutes such as champions fought for people who were old, ill, or female. By the time these images appeared, judicial combat was in steep decline, and the duels were more likely copied from older stories or lost manuscripts to make the manuals look comprehensive.
Trial by ordeal, including combat, was used in Frankish and later European law as a way to let God reveal the truth. Because the outcome was thought to be divine, the law allowed substitutes, so people who could not physically fight could send a champion instead. Fencing masters wrote manuals that combined practical technique with older legal and literary material, so an image in a manual may reflect a story or tradition rather than a daily court practice.
The images are often repeated online as evidence of a common medieval divorce-by-combat practice, but the claim lacks support in the sources. Careful reading of the manuscripts and legal codes shows how easily visual evidence gets over-read. The case is a useful lesson in separating what a medieval picture shows from what actually happened.
Medieval judicial combat declined across Europe from around the 1200s as rulings increasingly relied on evidence and testimony. Similar medieval illustrations of impossible or symbolic scenes, such as the proverbs and monstrous figures in other manuscripts, were often copies or inventions rather than records. Historians now treat such images as evidence of ideas and literary tradition as much as of practice.
background
Martial arts manuals are instructions, with or without illustrations, specifically designed to be learnt from a book. Many books detailing specific techniques of martial arts are often erroneously called manuals but were written as treatises.
Prose descriptions of martial arts techniques appear late within the history of literature, due to the inherent difficulties of describing a technique rather than just demonstrating it.
The earliest extant manuscript on armed combat (as opposed to unarmed wrestling) is Royal Armouries Ms. I.33 ("I.33"), written in Franconia around 1300.
Not within the scope of this article are books on military strategy such as Sun Tzu's The Art of War (before 100 BCE) or Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus' De Re Militari (4th century), or military technology, such as De rebus bellicis (4th to 5th century).
From Wikipedia: Martial arts manual (CC BY-SA 4.0) ↗.jpg)
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Image: The Public Domain Review
