A French royal decree in the year 1306 allowed for trial by combat to determine, in a last-ditch effort, who was telling the truth in a dispute that couldn't be determined by other means. The law was only for the nobility, only applied to serious criminal cases, and was rarely invoked. But in 1386, a scandal rocked the entire country and led to France's last trial by combat, with several lives at stake.
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 château by a squire (the rank below knighthood) named Jacques Le Gris, aided by one of his closest companions, one Adam Louvel. Marguerite’s father, Robert de Thibouville, had once betrayed the king of France, and some may have wondered whether this “traitor’s daughter” was in fact telling the truth.
Marguerite’s husband, Sir Jean de Carrouges, a reputedly jealous and violent man—whose once close friendship with Le Gris had soured in recent years amid court rivalry and a protracted dispute over land—was traveling at the time of the alleged crime. But when he returned a few days later and heard his wife’s story, he angrily brought charges against Le Gris in the court of Count Pierre of Alençon, overlord to both men. Le Gris was the count’s favorite and his administrative right hand. A large and powerful man, Le Gris was well educated and very wealthy, though from an only recently ennobled family. He also had a reputation as a seducer—or worse. 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.”
You can see how politics, alliances, and bad blood can make a mess of a criminal accusation that came down to "he said, she said" anyway. Carrouges appealed to the king, which set in motion a prolonged investigation and eventually led to a duel in Paris in December. Carrouges and Le Gris battled to the death, with Marguerite's life also in the balance. Read the entire story of the trial by combat at Lapham's Quarterly. -via Strange Company