what happened to marguerite de carrouges

the latter was accused by Carrouges wife of having made an attempt on her honor. But if Marguerites husband and champion lost, thus proving her accusation to be false, she too would be put to death. Given the counts strong relationship with Le Gris and combative past with Carrouges, he was quick to dismiss the claim, even arguing that Marguerite must have dreamed it. Undeterred, Carrouges raised an appeal with the king. On a freezing December day in 1386, at an old priory in Paris that today is a museum of science and technologya temple of human reasonan eager crowd of thousands gathered to watch two knights fight a duel to the death with lance and sword and dagger. She was the only daughter of Jeanne de Bois Hroult and the highly controversial Robert de Thibouville, a Norman lord who had twice sided against the French king in territorial conflicts. According to medical knowledge at . She was formerly known by her maiden name as Marguerite de Thibouville. Rape Crisis Scotlands helpline number is 08088 01 03 02. Tanzsportclub (TSC) Pocking e.V. It is incumbent on us to be good people, to overcome that and to see more broadly and with empathy, Affleck says. Read more: The 23 Most Anticipated Movies of Fall 2021. While historians unanimously agree on that last part, everything else is muddled with contradictory evidence. Your Privacy Rights The pair of men tied Marguerite down and physically beat her. You know whether my cause is just and true. She replied, My Lord, it is so, and you can fight with confidence, for the cause is just. And so Le Gris trial by combat began. Le Gris final moments appear to have been grisly even by the standards of the day: The monk of Saint-Denis, who served as Charles VIs official historian, reported that Carrouges killed his enemy with great difficulty because he was encased in armor. In accordance with tradition, authorities dragged Le Gris body to the gallows and hung him as a final insult to his sullied reputation. According to Eric Jager's book The Last Duel, the alleged rape of Jean de Carrouges' wife Marguerite happened on January 18, 1386. Marguerite de Carrouges (ne de Thibouville; 1362, Chteau de Fontaine-la-Soret (Eure) c. 1419) was a French noblewoman. If the case is not proven, then [the woman] doesnt just get to walk away, says Skoda. The Last Duel stars Jodie Comer, Matt Damon and Adam Driver as three people who changed the course of French history. Though its unanimously agreed that Carrouges was victorious over Le Gris in the duel, there are various accounts to what took place on Dec. 29, 1386. Warning, The Last Duel spoilers follow. [Jager] does a pretty meticulous description of it, but its a decidedly uncinematic duel, Damon notes. This biography of a French peer or noble is a stub. We earn a commission for products purchased through some links in this article. But the count, infuriated by the accusation against his favorite, declared at a legal hearing that Marguerite must have dreamed it and summarily dismissed the charges, ordering that no further questions ever be raised about it.. Attacks on me will do no harm, and silent contempt is the best answer to them. In reality, the duel would have been decided by two main factors: the weight of the fighters armor and how quickly these relatively old men grew tired. In all fairness, they were significantly tame compared to what actually happened. Holofcener adhered to historical fact in terms of how Marguerite spoke, what she did and how she behaved, but the rest is a dramatization. The newly-minted Count Pierre took an immediate liking to the charming Le Gris, which strained the latters friendship with Carrouges. Like, I couldnt have gotten there. On December 29, 1386, before a crowd presided over by French king Charles VI, Carrouges and Le Gris eyed each other warily. And her court testimony is reduced to nothing more than her husbands scriptas Famiglietti calls itfor destroying his hated rival. How power in America has turned the rule of law into a mere myth. In an entry on duels, the Grand dictionnaire universel (186677), overseen by respected editor Pierre Larousse, describes the 1386 affair as one of the most remarkable in history, claiming that the wide belief in its injustice helped to bring the custom of trial by combat to a speedy end. Things come to a head when de Carrouges goes to Paris and his mother in law takes most of (if not all) the servants from the house with her, leaving Marguerite alone. The Real Story Behind the Medieval Epic, 'The Last Duel' - The Vintage News I thought I was going to suffocate, and soon I couldnt fight them anymore. How Palm Springs ran out Black and Latino families to build a fantasy for rich, white people, Concertgoer lets out a loud full body orgasm while L.A. Phil plays Tchaikovskys 5th, 17 SoCal hiking trails that are blooming with wildflowers (but probably not for long! As noted in the 1850s by the Norman historian Alfred de Caix, one of the few to credit her story, Marguerites testimony is impressively circumstantial and detailed. Certain details in her account raise serious problems for the mistaken-identity theory. Warning: This post contains spoilers for The Last Duel. After dismounting, Carrouges and Le Gris fought on foot with swords, both very valiantly. But Le Gris managed to get within Carrouges defenses and wound him in the thigh. . (Jager offered feedback on the films script, suggesting historically accurate phrasing and other changes.) Sir Jacques le Gris (lit. And yet there can only be one truth. There were three chroniclers who gave detailed accounts of the sword phase of the fight, and they have slightly different accounts of how Carrouges managed to get Le Gris on the ground, Jager says. Le Gris and Jean had once been close friends, but their relationship turned to rivalry over a dispute regarding land Marguerites family owned. While it adheres closely to Jagers book, with the script using actual lines and passages from his writing, the filmmakers did make some alterations in order to better shine a light on the concepts of consent and perspective. Jean was an influential man in lower Normandy, being a vassal of the Count of Perche and a veteran soldier in his service. Eric Jagers 2004 book, The Last Duel: A True Story of Trial by Combat in Medieval France, is a case of truth being stranger than fiction. There is this paradox of the human experience where oftentimes different people come away from the same situation with different impressions of that. Note: The following article contains discussion of rape that some readers may find upsetting. Jean Juvnal des Ursins, who was not present at the event, wrote that right before Carrouges delivered his deathly blow, he demanded to hear the truth from Le Gris. Still, The Last Duel does stick closely to historical fact. As Jager explains, With a motive, revenge against the knight, and a means, the seduction of his wife, all [Le Gris] needed now was an opportunity.. Affleck, Damon, Holofcener, Comer and Jager talked us through what is and isnt accurate in The Last Duel and why the filmmakers made the narrative changes they did. What sets this version apart, besides its unusual length, is how quickly the judicial error on the battlefield is revealed by the sudden arrival of the truth. Rather than a belated discovery taking many yearsas in the chroniclesits just a matter of minutes from Le Gris death to the proof of his innocence. A similar report with a significant difference of detail appears in Jean Juvnal des Ursins Histoire de Charles VI, written no earlier than the 1420s and perhaps closer to 1430. The valuable estate of Aunou-le-Faucon, given to his rival Jacques Le Gris two years earlier, had been formerly owned by Carrouges' father-in-law, Robert de Thibouville, and had been bought by Count Pierre II of Alenon for 8,000 French livres in 1377. 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. DIGITAL SPY, PART OF THE HEARST UK ENTERTAINMENT NETWORK. DArgis account did not grapple with whether Marguerites testimony was valid, but instead chose to emphasize the duels injustice towards Le Gris and the futility of Le Gris prayers. According to Jager, Le Gris took an immediate liking to Marguerite when Carrouges introduced her to the court in 1384. [10]" Are we seeing how others experience things?. Yet the case does reveal the way in which scandal, as a cousin to the word slander (both derive from the Old French escandle), ultimately resides in the spoken or written word, whether in the gossip of neighbors or the hearsay of the chronicler. Ultimately, Carrouges victory was a result of Le Gris being literally unable to get up. And in fact it was a code, a manner of behavior that denied womens basic humanity.. A beautiful young noblewoman, dressed all in black and exposed to the crowds stares, anxiously awaited the outcome. Louvel then added a greeting from Jacques Le Gris, who he said greatly admired her and was eager to speak with her. Jager chronicled how the former friends relationship devolvedand the woman and rape allegation at the center of the conflictin the 2004 nonfiction book The Last Duel. Later encyclopedia entries echoed this view, seemingly solidifying the question of Le Gris innocence. Historical scandals, much like the contemporary ones filling our tabloids, news sites, and now-ubiquitous Facebook feeds, are built on a widely shared sense of certainty about what really happeneda feeling that often belies the elusive truth. News back then traveled, archival research has shown, at the rate of an average days journey by horseback: about thirty miles per day. But other than that, I made up a lot. [43] Jean and Marguerite de Carrouges then, with the crowd following in a great procession, rode from the abbey to the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris, to give thanks for the victory. In his own defense, Le Gris claimed that Nicole had found nothing amiss upon her return and didnt believe her daughter-in-laws later allegations. Matt Damon, Adam Driver and Jodie Comer star in Ridley Scotts return to historical epic form, written by Damon, Ben Affleck and Nicole Holofcener. He had been rewarded for his long military service in the Hundred Years' War . Marguerite, who had accused Le Gris of raping her, watched from the sidelines; clad entirely in black, she was keenly aware that her husbands defeat would be viewed as proof of perjury, vindicating her attacker and ensuring her execution by burning at the stake for the crime of bearing false witness. Comer brought that sense of history into her performance as well, recognizing what was and wasnt acceptable for women of the time. The challenge did not lead directly to a duel, however, but marked the start of a formal investigation by the Parlement, which would authorize a duel only if unable to reach a verdict on the basis of the available evidence. Carrouges wife, Marguerite (Jodie Comer). Far from echoing these Enlightenment-era assessments of Marguerites misguided intentions, the film adaptation of The Last Duel presents the noblewoman as its protagonist, the truth teller [whose account is] so much more resonant, strong and evident than her male counterparts, as Affleck tells GMA News. The J. PaulGettyMuseum, Los Angeles. The mortal combat, set for December 29, promised to be the seasons highlight in the capital, as thousands of Parisians flocked to see it, and the young king and his court took their places in colorful viewing stands set up alongside the field at the monastery of Saint-Martin-des-Champs. The Last Duel Ending Explained: Who Won The Duel, And What It Means For Though the real duel was between Le Gris and Jean, the film portrays the true conflict as Marguerite de Carrouges versus the political mores of her day, as she struggles to convince those around her, from the Church to her family to the French king to the common peasant, that what she says is true. 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. Magazines, Digital By now the case had become a cause clbre. It was the equivalent of a kind of forensics case., Damon adds, It was the case about one very evil man doing something everybody recognized was evil. Gross! Carrouges choice to pursue a duel also put Marguerite in danger. The earlier of the two is the Saint-Denis Chronicle, an official royal history by the monk Michel Pintoin probably written around 1400. She was a noblewoman originally from an . According to testimony later provided by Carrouges and Marguerite, she heard a knock . Is history repeating itself? The historical record tends to favor men, so not much is known about the real Marguerite beyond her familys legacy and her role leading up to the duel. The Last Duel Ending Explained: Who Wins? - Collider At this point Le Gris himself suddenly entered the chteaus hall (aulam, probably referring to the main chamber or great hall where guests were typically received). On the other, the punishment for false accusations was also death, via burning at the stake. A century and more after the philosophes had popularized the theory, it solidified as hard fact in authoritative encyclopedias. I dont want your money! Marguerite replied. Furthermore, neither report has ever been independently corroborated, although the existence of two such reports, despite their differing details, may have allowed each to vouch for the other in the minds of those eager to believe them. The Last Duel is told in three chapters, each of which was written by one of the writers, and told from the perspective of one of the main characters. The denouement, too, echoes the Grande dictionnaire: Not long after, a criminal arrested for some other offense confessed himself to be the author of the outrage. An elaborate example appeared in 1829, just a few years after Du Bois conjecture that the accused squire had been mistaken for a look-alike, in Lhistorial du jongleur, an anonymous collection of medieval tales. The knights victory saved both him and his wife, earning the formerly notorious couple wealth and prestige. After The Last Duel's real-life story, Marguerite went on to have two more children and settled in Normandy and Paris, enjoying the celebrity status that she and her . While the films version, which only involves Le Gris, is brutal to watch, the reality was far rougher, leaving Marguerite with tangible marks of the crime. The events leading to the duel were described at great length in Jean Froissart's Chronicles (a prose history of the Hundred Years' War written in the 14th century by Jean Froissart) though director Ridley Scott's screenplay was adapted from Eric Jager's The Last Duel book. Gossip is a sort of smoke that comes from the dirty tobacco pipes of those who diffuse it; it proves nothing but the bad taste of the smoker. Really embracing the kind of freedom that gave her. 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. Pointing out that womens voices are actually loud and clear, albeit filtered through the court system and notaries, in many medieval documents, the historian explains, Its a really nice way of sort of flipping our stereotypes of the Middle Ages. In the book, Le Gris does say he was in love with her, Holofcener says. 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. The original fortifications at Carrouges were besieged and destroyed by English forces during the Hundred Years War. He had gone to King Charles VI, seeking an appeal to the decision handed down by Count . Carrouges III was an influential man in lower Normandy, being a vassal of the Count of Perche and a veteran soldier in his service. Lady, on your evidence I am about to hazard my life in combat with Jacques Le Gris, Carrouges said to Marguerite in the moments leading up to the duel. In reality, instead of mourning, the King held a series of banquets and parties that culminated in the duel between Le Gris and de Carrouges. Meilan Solly is Smithsonian magazine's associate digital editor, history. The Last Duel: What Happened To Every Character In Real Life The face-off shown in Ridley Scotts The Last Duel may have been the final court-sanctioned judicial combat in France, but the conversation around the events that led to it is anything but finished. 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 movie presents two versions of the rape in Le Gris' version her protests have an edge of teasing to them, and hark back to a previous scene in which he chased a woman around the table before having consensual sex (sort of, given the power dynamic at play and the complete lack of agency women have in their world). The book, exhaustively compiled from existing documents and records, recounts how Carrouges wife, Marguerite, accused Le Gris of rape, leading to the pair fighting to the death with Marguerites own life on the line if it was decided she had lied. [2][3], Shortly after his marriage, Carrouges revealed another motive for the union. For Carrouges and Le Gris, whose dispute had sparked widespread interest across France, settling the case would have been viewed as either an admission of guilt or [a] false accusation, says Elema. We begin with Jean de Carrouges, who after successful war campaigns for the king of France, finds himself falling out of favour with Count Pierre (Ben Affleck). She adds, If theres any gap between the act and making people aware [of it], that raises huge questions.. She refuses his advances, after which he rapes her. [10] King Charles VI, who was on campaign with his court in Flanders, ordered the duel to be postponed until 29 December as he did not want to miss what was rapidly becoming the event of the season. However, by the time Marguerite's side plays out, there is no question about what happened. From a practical perspective, pulling back on the brutality of the moment was also essential for simply getting the audience to sit through the scene. I know that was the same for everyone who was coming toward this project.. Why is Frank McCourt really pushing it? If youd rather experience the film first, please save this to read after watching. And clearly it wasnt.. By unequivocally believing Marguerite, the screenwriters offer that same sense of empathy to all women who follow her. At the time, Jager explains, trial by combat was believed to be the judgment of God, traditionally looked to heaven to assure a just and fair verdict.. Eric Jager is a professor of English at UCLA and the author of four books, including The Last Duel and Blood Royal. The Reprimand, by Jean-Georges Vibert, 1874. 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. Per historian Kathryn Gravdal, a register of crimes recorded in four French hamlets between 1314 and 1399 lists just 12 rape or attempted rape cases, as only virgins or high-status rape victimslike Margueriteactually had their day in court., Those who did report their rapes found the odds really stacked against them, with the onus on the survivor to make a big judicial issue of it as quickly as possible, says historian Hannah Skoda, author of the 2012 book Medieval Violence. 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. She has everything to lose. According to Enlightenment scholar and University of Florida assistant professor of history Anton Matytsin, the Enlightenment sought the end to judicial torture, the abolition of the death penalty, and the institution of proportional and humane punishments that would deter people from committing crimes this is the main context in which they would have seen a duel: a barbaric way to settle a legal matter. Cesare Beccaria, a leading Enlightenment thinker, outlined how judicial torture primarily benefitted not those who were innocent and had nothing to confess but those whose physical constitutions would allow them to withstand pain., The Enlightenments celebration of Marguerite de Carrouges accused rapist challenges our notions of how history develops. Image via 20th Century Studios. I came in after Matt and Ben decided to do it this way, but they wanted to make it a little more gray. But the overwhelming likelihood is that she was telling the truth. We gave this great filmmaker the opportunity to dramatize the essence of it and make it compelling to an audience, rather than do literally what happened.. Despite how much Marguerite de Carrouges' tale resonates today, we must keep in mind L.P. Hartley's words: "the past is a foreign country; they do things differently there." John-Paul Heil is a Ph.D candidate in early modern history at the University of Chicago and an adjunct professor of history and the liberal arts at Mount St. Mary . They were very religious. They pinned me down and stuffed a capucium [a hood] over my mouth to silence me. Over the next few years, Le Gris climbed further up the ranks, and was eventually initiated into King Charles VIs royal court. Marguerite tells her story, and she knows that she needs to be extremely consistent, despite this absolutely horrific trauma that shes just gone through, says Skoda. The Last Duel True Story: What Ridley Scott's Movie Is About - Screen Rant 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. Soon after, de Carrouges went on a campaign to Scotland and though it was a military failure, he distinguished himself with his courage. Jodie Comer as Marguerite de Carrouges in 'The Last Duel', Patrick Redmond 2021 20th Century Studios, Adam Driver as Jacques LeGris and Matt Damon as Jean de Carrouges in 'The Last Duel', Matt Damon as Jean de Carrouges and Adam Driver as Jacques LeGris in 'The Last Duel', What America's Richest Ski Town's Handling of COVID-19 Shows. Matt Damon as Jean de Carrouges and Jodie Comer as Marguerite de Carrouges in "The Last Duel." . Of course, as was likely true in real life as well, no one in the film seemed to care about Marguerite's fate; after all, a crime of rape against a wife was considered a crime against the husband, and a property crime at that since women were mere objects to be possessed. It's long and gory and ends with de Carrouges stabbing Le Gris through the mouth (in real life, it was the throat), proving Marguerite to have been telling the truth. Also, after the sudden deaths of his wife and only son and heir, Carrouges marries again to a younger woman, the heiress Marguerite de Thibouville. It was just the bare minimum description of who she was. According to . Attempting to win back the honor of his wife and family, Jean accused Le Gris of rape on Marguerites behalf to Pierre dAlenon but, whether because Le Gris was a favorite of Pierres or because Pierre had feuded with Jean on the land disputeor simply because he didnt believe Margueritethe count chalked Marguerites testimony up to a dream, a feminine flight of fancy. Marguerite testified repeatedly under oath that on a certain day in January 1386Thursday the eighteenthshe was attacked by the two men, Le Gris and Louvel. Cookie Policy And if the Parlement of Paris could not establish even the basic facts, theres little chance of our discovering hidden motives all of these centuries later. The Last Duel Ending Explained - Screen Rant Two separate alibis are harder to disprove than one. But whats so amazing about Nicole and what Nicole has brought to the piece is this sense of imagination. Marguerite de Carrouges Marguerite, who married Carrouges in 1381, was the only daughter of Robert de Thibouville, who had once committed an act of high treason. After many preliminary ceremonies decreed by tradition (an arms inspection, a series of solemn oaths, the requisite dubbing of Le Gris as a knight to make the combatants equal in rank, etc. What it doesn't detail is that while Marguerite gave birth to a healthy boy, the queen's son was sickly and died not long after he was born. Why The Last Duel's 3 Story Structure Felt Dangerous To Jodie Comer Enlightenment thinkers in the 18th century adopted this revision of Le Gris character to advance their own intellectual agendas. They truly believed God would make happen whatever was the fair thing to happen, so it would . Because rape was viewed less as an act of sexual violence than a property crime against the victims husband or guardian, rapists often avoided harsh penalties by paying a fine to the man in question. "the Gray") (c. 1330s - 29 December 1386) was a French squire and knight who gained fame and infamy, and was ultimately killed when he engaged in one of the last judicial duels permitted by the Parlement of Paris after he was accused of rape by Marguerite de Carrouges, the wife of his neighbour and rival, Sir Jean de Carrouges. When Matt and Ben Met Nicole: How They Came to Write 'The Last Duel The duel itself was very violent, as it was in the film. Carrouges was born in the late 1330s in the village of Sainte-Marguerite-de-Carrouges as the eldest son of the knight and minor noble, Sir Jean de Carrouges III, and his wife, Nicole de Buchard. Since Le Gris had briefly served as a church cleric in his youth, he could choose whether he wanted a state trial or church hearing. And for him to have to invoke that at the moment of his death and to protest his innocence [is interesting]. When youre doing scenes where you really want to fight back with Carrouges and tell him what it is you really think, you have to go, Hang on a minute, would she do this? Comer recalls. Even in Le Gris' version, though, Marguerite's attempts to get away seem less flirtatious and more earnest. de Carrouges, whose wife and son died of an unknown illness, eventually marries Marguerite, a wealthy but reputationally damaged young woman. Meanwhile, Le Gris continued to rise in Pierre's esteem. In his book Tales of the Marriage Bed from Medieval France, R.C. We gave Ridley, This is what took place. Because it was such a famous event, there was a record. The True Story Behind the Last Duel | by Nick Howard | The History As Damon tells the New York Times, this segment is kind of an original screenplay because that world of women had to be almost invented and imagined out of whole cloth., The gripping true story of the duel to end all duels in medieval France as a resolute knight defends his wifes honor against the man she accuses of a heinous crime. After a grueling battle . The view that Marguerite was lyinga conjecture unsupported by any evidence, apart from Le Gris dubious alibiholds either that she concocted the rape story herself, perhaps to cover an adultery, or that it was extorted from her by her opportunistic husband in order to avenge himself on his rival. Jean Le Coq, Le Gris lawyer, stated in his private notebook that Carrouges suffered the first wound, writing that Le Gris attacked his adversary very cruelly. This statement is also supported by Jean Froissart, a member of Count Pierre dAlenons court, and an unnamed monk who wrote Chronicle of the Monk of Saint-Denis. In the article on duels, lawyer Antoine-Gaspard Boucher dArgis described how under King Charles VI, [people] fought for so little, offering as an example the one he ordered in 1386 between Carrouges and Le Gris:. It was really trying to understand those types of dynamics and her place within the home and in society.. Much as Le Gris is said to have silenced Marguerite with his hood, a legion of clerics, historians, and partisans managed to muffle and stifle her story with vague rumors and inconsistent reports that have shrouded the matter almost to the present day.

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