(Image credit: 20th Century Studios) . 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. Image via 20th Century Studios. Thats the research we did and the legend of the story he thought he was in love with her and did not rape her. 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. From an absolute philosophical point of view, nobody but Jacques Le Gris and Marguerite and those who were in the room know the truth, Jager says. It was really trying to understand those types of dynamics and her place within the home and in society.. More, The interrogation of Nikolay Bukharin.More. One identifies the supposed felon as a condemned man about to be executed, the other as a sick man on his deathbed. 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. DIGITAL SPY, PART OF THE HEARST UK ENTERTAINMENT NETWORK. 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. 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. Marguerite and her husband appealed the decision. Of the judicial duels that actually took place, few ended in death. Over the next several months, famous lawyers were hired, witnesses were summoned, and testimony was gathered. The original fortifications at Carrouges were besieged and destroyed by English forces during the Hundred Years War. Eventually, you have the two men on the ground, fighting with hand weapons rather than lances.. But when he returned a few days later and heard his wifes story, he angrily brought charges against Le Gris in the court of Count Pierre of Alenon, overlord to both men. Even the characters haircuts which have been the butt of some online jokes match up with what we know about the period, according to Jager. 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. Unable to rise due to the weight of his body armor, Le Gris resisted Carrouges calls to confess, declaring, In the name of God, and on the peril and damnation of my soul, I am innocent of the crime. Enraged, Carrouges delivered the death blow, perhaps by stabbing Le Gris exposed neck or thighs. Over the next few years, Le Gris climbed further up the ranks, and was eventually initiated into King Charles VIs royal court. 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. Marguerites father, Robert de Thibouville, had once betrayed the king of France, and some may have wondered whether this traitors daughter was in fact telling the truth. However, by the time Marguerite's side plays out, there is no question about what happened. By taking away the witness and some challenging details, like Le Gris stuffing his hat into Marguerites mouth, the filmmakers were able to more fully explore the notion that Le Gris believed his actions were just. 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. Jean de Carrouges believed the land - the estate of Aunou-le-Faucon - was rightfully his due to the fact that Marguerite's father, Robert de Thibouville, promised to include it as part of de Carrouges' dowry. Marguerite de Carrouges (ne de Thibouville; 1362, Chteau de Fontaine-la-Soret (Eure) c. 1419) was a French noblewoman. In court, he also claimed to have seen Marguerite only twice in his entire life: during the Parlements official inquiry, and also not less than two years earlier at a social gathering at the home of a mutual friend, Jean Crespin, where Carrouges and Le Gris apparently put aside their recent quarrels and Carrouges ordered his wife to kiss Le Gris as a sign of renewed friendship. Le Gris and Carrouges were once very close. The real-life "Last Duel" between Le Gris and de Carrouges that inspired Ridley Scott's The Last Duel was a famous incident that captivated fourteenth-century France. 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 film does show that at the same time as Marguerite was pregnant, so was the queen. By the time the criminal trial was underway in the summer of that year, Marguerite was noticeably pregnant. Jean was an influential man in lower Normandy, being a vassal of the Count of Perche and a veteran soldier in his service. And in fact it was a code, a manner of behavior that denied womens basic humanity.. According to . de Carrouges, whose wife and son died of an unknown illness, eventually marries Marguerite, a wealthy but reputationally damaged young woman. More, To make a more perfect union, dont look to the Founding Fathers. 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. 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. Their future was assured. Diderots Encyclopdie and Voltaires Histoire du Parlement de Paris used the 1386 affair to denounce the supposed ignorance and cruelty of the Middle Ages. Knights were one step above squires, but men of both ranks often served as vassals to higher-ranking overlords. Her life was pretty bad being married to Jean de Carrouges and so when she was violated, she had nothing to lose, really. 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. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Bequest of Catharine Lorillard Wolfe, 1887. Marguerites story must have seemed at least plausible to the magistrates who ordered the duel, something the Parlement had not done for over thirty years in a rape case. One of the places Le Gris vindication emerged was in the Encyclopdie; this project, spearheaded by Denis Diderot and Jacques dAlembert, was one of the first modern encyclopedias and a text which articulated many of the Enlightenments most formative arguments. 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. She alleged that Louvel came to her door to ask for a favor, after which he made her uncomfortable by talking inappropriately about Le Gris, saying he was in love with her. 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. For Affleck and Damon, The Last Duel was an opportunity to not only depict a compelling historical event but to reflect on how traces of that system of patriarchy linger today. He had a witness. What happened to Marguerite de Carrouges after the duel? At the time, it was believed a woman could not conceive if she didn't enjoy sex, and therefore her pregnancy was counted against her it couldn't be rape if she was pregnant, because she must have enjoyed it. 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.. 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. Jean Froissart, writing after the duel, describes Marguerite praying as she watched the fight, adding, I do not know, for I never spoke with her, whether she had not often regretted having gone so far with the matter that she and her husband were in such grave danger., Elemas interpretation of the sources differs from Jagers comparatively colorful recounting. That was really sad. 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. In his book Tales of the Marriage Bed from Medieval France, R.C. A feature film based on The Last Duel is scheduled to be released in 2021. In particular, Marguerite testified that she saw both men in the light of day, that Louvel specifically mentioned Le Gris by name before the latter appeared shortly afterward, and that she spoke with both men at some length before they attacked her. 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! 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. 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. Carrouges, who was neglected by both the Count and Le Gris, grew increasingly jealous of his former comrade. According to Eric Jager's book The Last Duel, the alleged rape of Jean de Carrouges' wife Marguerite happened on January 18, 1386. Based on the 2004 book of the same name by literary historian Eric Jager, The Last Duel sheds light on the bout between Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver) and Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon), which was waged over accusations that Le Gris raped Carrouges wife, Marguerite (Jodie Comer), and resulted in Le Gris demise. And the lords of France delighted to see it, for they had come to watch the two men fight. Besides the resolution to a deadlocked legal case, the duel also provided eagerly anticipated blood sport for the nobility. Warning, The Last Duel spoilers follow. The contest between Carrouges and Le Gris would turn out to be the last judicial duel sanctioned by the Parlement of Paris. In particular, Carrouges loses his claims to a lucrative estate called Aunou-le-Faucon to Le Gris. At the heart of The Last Duel lies a historical mystery, still not definitively solved over 600 years later: was the noblewoman Marguerite de Carrouges raped by the squire Jacques Le Gris? Charges against Le Gris were brought to Count Pierres court some weeks after the attack, but as the accused was a favorite of the Count, Carrouges and Marguerite were certain that they wouldnt be given a fair trial, and refused to attend the hearing. The films shifting viewpoints underscore the thorny nature of truth in Marguerites case, which divided observers both at the time and in the centuries since. A century and more after the philosophes had popularized the theory, it solidified as hard fact in authoritative encyclopedias. In the six centuries after the quarrel ended, however, the moral that was to be derived from it changed considerably. These events have gotten a cinematic depiction in Ridleys Scotts new medieval epic, The Last Duel, written by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Nicole Holofcener and now playing in theaters nationwide. As she argues, Instead of a duel that was long and drawn out and involved many different weapons and a whole variety of exciting scenarios, it seems to have been a very short affair that shocked the audience., Two likely eyewitnessesthe author of the Chronicle of the Monk of Saint-Denis and Le Coqagree that Le Gris landed the first blow, piercing Carrouges thigh with his sword. When Marguerite accuses Le Gris of rape, Jean de Carrouges challenges him to a trial by combat. 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. At the bottom of the social ladder were warriors, priests and laborers, who had limited rights and political influence. Like today, sexual assault and rape often went unpunished and even unreported in the Middle Ages.